Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Manny Machado trade precedents, the Astros’ weird walk-off, the A’s as wild-card contenders, Trevor Bauer and an Indians bullpen miscommunication, the Rays’ proposed stadium design, a Mike Trout shirt, and more, then answer listener emails about players and self-preservation, midseason free agents, Mike Trout hobbies besides weather, constructing a star on the scouting scale, the likeliest best active players, baseball with multiple mound distances, tennis players as pitchers, and committing to the Waxahachie Swap, plus a Stat Blast about the shortest All-Star careers.

Audio intro: Alex Turner, "Glass in the Park"
Audio outro: Liam Gallagher, "Wall of Glass"

Link to Jeff’s post on Machado precedents
Link to Astros walk-off
Link to Mike Trout shirt
Link to Rays ballpark design
Link to 2009 Trout article

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about an old “Umpire Day,” the Mariners’ run-differential defiance, and the Royals’ extreme struggles and possibly unprecedented amateur signing, then discuss how to define an All-Star, the All-Star Game’s fading significance, the All-Star selection process, and the perennial conversation surrounding “snubs,” as well as the trade deadline in the era of multiple wild cards and stratified teams, what this deadline might look like, the Orioles and the Manny Machado sweepstakes, the role of money in trades, the significance of sports awards, bouldering blisters, and more.

Audio intro: The Apples in Stereo, "7 Stars"
Audio outro: David Duchovny, "Stars"

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the third-place Nationals and Wade LeBlanc’s extension, then answer listener emails about trading Bryce Harper, signing Bryce Harper, throwing super-slow pitches, a DH as the best player ever, hitting flares on purpose, losing games to set up a specific playoff matchup, John Olerud and the Hall of Fame, when to tell fans to “make some noise,” the players with the most RBI against one team, forcing opponents to play out of position, an MLB re-entry rule, drafting based on publicly available info, the worst playoff teams and best non-playoff teams, a mysterious masked player, and more, plus a real-time reaction to the Nats’ incredible comeback and Stat Blasts about the best hitters after 0-2, the Rockies being better on the road, and the low leaguewide home-field advantage.

Audio intro: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Makin’ Some Noise"
Audio outro: Buzzcocks, "Noise Annoys"

Link to Travis’s post about the Nationals
Link to info on the batted-ball “donut hole”
Link playoff teams with worst winning percentages
Link to non-playoff teams with best winning percentages

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Rays using backup catcher Jesus Sucre as a pitcher to protect a lead, the return of Shohei Ohtani, Javier Baez’s exciting and silly steal of home, and what life would be like with deferred payments. Then (29:58) they bring on Phillies international scouting director Sal Agostinelli to discuss his Willians Astudillo-esque career, discovering, signing, and developing Astudillo, the July 2 signing period, scouting teenaged players, amateur scouting vs. international scouting, the importance of makeup, how to judge international-scouting success, signing players despite being saddled with a small bonus pool, the difficulty of focusing on baseball in Venezuela, expanding into new international markets, and more.

Audio intro: Talib Kweli (Feat. Nigel Hall), "Mr. International"
Audio interstitial: Nat King Cole, "Calico Sal"
Audio outro: Stackridge, "The Road to Venezuela"

Link to Jeff’s post about position-player pitchers
Link to list of deferred payments
Link to Javier Baez’s steal of home
Link to Philadelphia Inquirer feature on Sal Agostinelli
Link to 2018 team WAR from international amateur signees
Link to feature on Phillies’ international scouting
Link to Sal’s baseball-training site

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the joyous big-league debut and amazing minor-league history of Effectively Wild favorite and new Twins utility man Willians Astudillo, an awful Royals month, Jacob deGrom, a bobbled Raimel Tapia catch and tag-up confusion, Jon Gray‘s perplexing demotion, Marlins who may be traded, a Vince Velasquez highlight, Michael Lorenzen‘s hitting and Matt Davidson’s pitching, a Ryne Stanek fun fact, and a historic, almost-unprecedented putout by the Pirates and Joe Musgrove. Then (50:54) they talk to mutual childhood favorite (and Hall of Famer) Randy Johnson about how he harnessed his stuff, making mechanical tweaks, the fellow legends he came up with in Seattle, his incredible Houston half-season, his surgical history, starter workloads, whether he could have continued pitching as a reliever, facing Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, and Rickey Henderson, being snakebit in October, and more (plus a remembrance of Small World Sports).

Audio intro: The Beach Boys, "Here Today"
Audio interstitial: Big Thief, "Randy"
Audio outro: Dolly Parton, "Randy"

Link to Ben’s Astudillo article
Link to Tapia tag-up play
Link to Ben’s Jon Gray article
Link to Ben’s Smith and Lorenzen interviews
Link to Velasquez play
Link to Pirates putout
Link to Jeff’s post about the peaks of Pedro and Randy
Link to Small World Sports article

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Jose Alvarado, Shohei Ohtani‘s power and possible return as a hitter, Shane Bieber‘s velocity, the minor-league breakouts of Chris Paddack and Colin Poche, FanGraphs readers vs. average fans, Brandon Nimmo‘s latest HBP antics, the Mets’ recent struggles and Mets-fan fatalism, the recoveries of the Reds and Wilmer Font, what teams would trade to enter the awful AL Central, Edwin Jackson‘s journey, the decline of the 2018 free-agent class, and more, then answer listener emails about Jonathan Holder, the thresholds for “qualifying” performance, Peter Moylan‘s age and indecisive 2017, Randy Cesar’s record-setting hitting streak and the Astros’ player development, pitcher hitting vs. hitter pitching, a pitcher who can’t remember his previous pitch, Mike Trout with an early bedtime, listening to games without commentary, and “climbing” into the batter’s box, plus Stat Blasts about Waxahachie Swaps and the best single (and rookie) seasons by career sub-replacement players.

Audio intro: The Blank Tapes, "Feels Like Summer"
Audio outro: Florence + The Machine, "June"

Link to Jeff’s post about the Rays’ Waxahachie Swap
Link to story about Ohtani’s BP power
Link to Jeff’s post about Colin Poche
Link to Jeff’s post about predicting second-half records
Link to Ben’s post about the AL Central
Link to Jeff Passan’s 2015 article about the 2018 FA class
Link to 2015 episode about the 2018 FA class
Link to Ben’s article about the 2018 FA class

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Jeff’s lost and found voice, then bring on MLB on TBS and SNY analyst Ron Darling (5:33) to discuss preparing to call games, talking stats on TV, local broadcasting vs. national broadcasting, the beloved Mets broadcasting team, building booth rapport, positivity and negativity on TV, dealing with broadcasting criticism, calling AL games vs. calling NL games, 1980s baseball vs. modern baseball, facing Barry Bonds and Tim Raines, and pitcher hitting. Then they talk to EW listener, MIT PhD grad, and incoming Rays R&D analyst Michael McClellan (36:50) about getting a front-office job, the overlap between atmospheric science and baseball science, the physics of baseball, baseball construction and home runs, visiting all 30 ballparks, and more.

Audio intro: Matthew Sweet, "Your Sweet Voice"
Audio interstitial: Wilco, "My Darling"
Audio interstitial 2: Crowded House, "Weather With You"
Audio outro: Elvis Costello, "There’s a Story in Your Voice"

Link to Michael’s writing at Banished to the Pen
Link to Michael’s writing at FanGraphs

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Ben Lindbergh and The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler discuss Lindsey’s transition from blogging to beat writing, how to talk to players and become comfortable in the clubhouse, the contrasts between the Yankees and Mets (and Aaron Boone and Mickey Callaway), writing about teams vs. writing about baseball’s big picture, the beat-writing fraternity, being a beat writer on Twitter, and more. Then (32:01) they bring on former MLB Director of Business Public Relations Jeff Heckelman to explain why MLB players struggle to become superstars, the sport’s structural disadvantages from a publicity perspective, whether MLB is doing a bad job of marketing the sport, what makes people become baseball fans, why baseball players are so straitlaced on the field and on social media, MLB’s crackdowns on video-sharing, the demise of the MLB Fan Cave, how the league could improve its marketing message, and more.

Audio intro: Ringo Starr, "Give Me Back the Beat"
Audio interstitial: Pete Townshend, "Popular"
Audio outro: Elvis Costello, "The Beat"

Link to Lindsey’s writing at The Athletic
Link to Bryan Curtis’s article about baseball dying
Link to Jeff’s Twitter thread

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Coors Field, Domingo German, the amazing Max Scherzer, Tyler Chatwood, Kole Calhoun‘s comeback, the writing process, Marcell Ozuna‘s catch attempt, Ichiro and the Home Run Derby, and the AL playoff picture, then bring on 31-year-old MLB-player-turned-FanGraphs-writer Nate Freiman (20:22) to talk about his recent embrace of advanced stats, coding, and blogging, his record-setting college career, his short-lived attempt at being a two-way player, how being 6-foot-8 affects hitting (and catching), getting picked in the Rule 5 draft, being a platoon player, why pinch-hitting is hard, pressure and clutchness, clubhouse chemistry, the WBC, the 2014 AL wild card game and Jon Lester’s pickoff yips, playoff shares, coordinating pickoff attempts, hitting stats vs. pitching stats, playing in indy ball and Mexico, deciding to stop playing, interacting with the media, golfing vs. hitting, and more.

Audio intro: The Jayhawks, "Comeback Kids"
Audio interstitial: XTC, "Ten Feet Tall"
Audio outro: The Baseball Project, "Twilight of My Career"

Link to Jeff’s Domingo German post
Link to J.P. Hoornstra’s Kole Calhoun article
Link to Marcell Ozuna play
Link to Meg Rowley’s AL playoff picture article
Link to Jeff Passan’s report on the Mexican League
Link to Nate’s xWOBA post
Link to Nate’s bullpens post
Link to Ben’s Mexico City altitude post
Link to Nate’s WBC post

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Steven Brault‘s national-anthem performance, Brandon Morrow‘s ignoble injury, the Kelvin Herrera trade, banana ambivalence, a suspicious baby-powder puff, Vinny Castilla‘s bat-boning, an interleague-play update, Jose Urena‘s control, the New Orleans Baby Cakes and minor-league team names, the senseless Giants-Marlins beanball war, the debut of Jonathan Loaisiga, and a sound-of-strikes study, then answer listener emails about hoax broadcasts, Jon Gray’s confusing stats, public pitcher MRIs, whether American teams license their names to Asian teams, managers whose ages are higher than their teams’ win totals, linking DHs to starting pitchers, the most games played in a single season, pitchers who don’t know which batters they’re facing, trading draft picks for Mike Trout, baseball mulligans, and the ideal baseball era, plus Stat Blasts about Rich Sauveur and the longest rookie eligibility periods and the most beneficial batter strikeouts ever.

Audio intro: Sparks, "Angst in My Pants"
Audio outro: Elton John, "White Lady White Powder"

Link to Steven Brault’s national-anthem performance
Link to Meg Rowley’s Lind article
Link to Maldonado’s HBP puff
Link to Jeff’s interleague-play post
Link to Vinny Castilla’s bat boning

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