Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Willians Astudillo’s final winter league stats, the retirement of Ricky Romero, the upside of a slow market, and the anticlimax of a big free-agent signing, then (11:25) bring on Baseball Prospectus director of editorial content Patrick Dubuque to talk about why we know how much players make, how knowing players’ financial information but not owners’ affects the way we talk about baseball, whether opportunity cost still matters, whether casual fans will ever sympathize with players over owners, how to analyze transactions without fixating on salary, talking about money vs. talking about games, finishing Baseball Prospectus 2019, how the Annual has evolved over time, why we still want the paperbound Annual in the digital age, and more.

Audio intro: Prince, "Money Don’t Matter 2 Night"
Audio interstitial: Built to Spill, "Pat"
Audio outro: Sonic Youth, "That’s All I Know (Right Now)"

Link to Patrick’s article
Link to preorder Baseball Prospectus 2019
Link to preorder The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Yankees signing Adam Ottavino and the Angels signing Cody Allen, super-pens vs. improvised pens, and Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Trout, then (15:19) bring on Baseball Prospectus writer Sung Min Kim to talk about how the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has increased its popularity among young people and women, why its in-game experience is so scintillating, how it differs in style and quality from MLB, following two brands of baseball in dramatically different time zones, Korean nicknames for MLB players, players who might make the leap from KBO to MLB, and more.

Audio intro: Dave Rawlings Machine, "Bells of Harlem"
Audio interstitial: Atlas Sound, "Mona Lisa"
Audio outro: The Inbreds, "Oliver"

Link to Sung Min’s KBO primer
Link to Sung Min’s article on KBO’s popularity
Link to preorder The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Ben and Travis Sawchik finishing their new book, The MVP Machine, Willians Astudillo‘s MVP voting results, the Kyler Murray baseball/football decision and why it’s unusual for players in his situation to have leverage, Manny Machado rumors, and Yasmani Grandal‘s comments about the contract he didn’t sign, then answer listener emails about why baseball players don’t hold out and Rickey Henderson’s base-stealing today, plus Stat Blasts about the biggest gaps between best and second-best years and the giant New York Yankees.

Audio intro: The Decemberists, "Midlist Author"
Audio outro: Cake, "Open Book"

Link to preorder The MVP Machine
Link to Astudillo results
Link to Jeff’s Garcia post
Link to hitter height data
Link to Grant’s Little League WAR article
Link to article about baseball terms in Spanish

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Willians Astudillo being plunked in reprisal for his home-run pimp, the surprisingly small contract of Yasmani Grandal and the state of the Brewers and the NL Central, Jed Lowrie and the Mets’ positional logjam, DJ LeMahieu joining the Yankees and the ramifications for Manny Machado, the latest in teams trying to lure Machado by recruiting Machado mentors, the Dodgers signing Russell Martin, the latest on A’s first-rounder Kyler Murray, and a real-life analogue to a listener hypothetical about running the bases clockwise. Then (26:47) they bring on FanGraphs founder and overlord David Appelman to discuss his history at AOL and the site’s origin story, how he could have ended up building a database for a team, his philosophy of acquiring and providing data, gambling and baseball, balancing the site’s stats and writing, the secret to making a stats site work well, losing writers to teams, whether he wants the site to be acquired, the state of public baseball analysis, what’s on the horizon for FanGraphs, the future of sports media, and more.

Audio intro: Bob Dylan, "Lord Protect My Child"
Audio interstitial: Arkells, "Oh! The Boss is Coming"
Audio outro: Paul Simon, "When Numbers Get Serious"

Link to Astudillo buzzing and beaning
Link to weird Willians hit
Link to Jeff’s Grandal post
Link to Jeff’s Nelson post
Link to Murray interview episode

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Willians Astudillo going viral yet again, his iconic winter-league home-run pose and the state of celebration in baseball, the improbable personality of an improbable player, Astudillo’s future in Minnesota, and the Mariners bringing back Dustin Ackley. Then (23:59) they talk to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Systems Engineer (and baseball nerd) Shannon Towey about her past work at CERN, her present work on multiple Mars missions at JPL, her scientific interest in baseball, baseball fandom at JPL, her thoughts on the state of the Mets, Baseball Twitter vs. Space Twitter, misconceptions about science, her top Solar System destinations, and more, plus a postscript about the Brewers’ surprising signing of Yasmani Grandal.

Audio intro: The Jayhawks, "Big Star"
Audio interstitial: Robyn Hitchcock, "NASA Clapping"
Audio outro: Guster, "Rocketship"

Link to Astudillo homer
Link to Jeff’s post on Astudillo
Link to volcanologist interview episode
Link to Jeff’s post on Citi Field
Link to Shannon’s pitcher-classification post
Link to Mars 2020 mission site
Link to Mars Helicopter

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Oliver Drake‘s new (and also old) team, the Mets, Brodie Van Wagenen, and Keon Broxton, the Yankees signing Zach Britton, how data and technology have helped some free agents and hurt others, the state of free-agent spending and baseball’s economic past, present, and future, Scott Boras’s latest linguistic crime, the White Sox acquiring the friends and family of Manny Machado, Jonny Gomes getting hired as an unlikely coach, and Willians Astudillo’s winter league playoff performance, then answer listener emails about choosing which way to run the bases, televising winter leagues, scoring on defense, and the worst things for players to be the best at, plus a Stat Blast about the least and most consistent team winning percentages.

Audio intro: Nat King Cole, "Thou Swell"
Audio outro: Neil Young, "Sample and Hold"

Link to Drake interview
Link to Jeff’s post on Britton
Link to dolphin story
Link to Sam on Harrison’s pickle powers
Link to Ben’s article on the FA market

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about New York Met Rymer Liriano and the minor league free agent draft, David Robertson signing with the Phillies, Robertson’s underrated record, and a Sabermetrics Mount Rushmore, then (14:43) talk to Retrosheet founder and president Dave Smith about how he started Retrosheet, the organization’s mission to collect a record of every major-league game ever played, its most valuable and most unlikely play-by-play sources, how games get entered into the database, the unreliability of players’ recollections, Dave’s Vin Scully/Sandy Koufax story, how Retrosheet is continuing to unearth missing games, how it deduces games when complete records aren’t available, whether it will ever complete its task, why baseball stats and history are so fascinating, and more.

Audio intro: Whitney, "Dave’s Song"
Audio interstitial: Gillian Welch, "Everything is Free"
Audio outro: The Who, "Daily Records"

Link to EW minor league draft results
Link to Jeff’s Robertson post
Link to Ben’s Sherri Nichols story
Link to David Neft interview
Link to Retrosheet’s most wanted games
Link to Tewksbury interview
Link to Secret Santa montage

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Yankees signing Troy Tulowitzki, Whit Merrifield’s vaguely worded optimism about the Royals, and the necessity of unrealistic expectations, then answer listener emails about holiday sports conversations (featuring Ben’s mom’s hot take about Mariano Rivera and the truth about Rivera versus Edgar Martinez), players who are literally in the Hall of Fame, why many fans side with owners over players in economic matters, the worst baseball card poses, fans managing games, playoff teams drafting players from non-playoff teams, and imposing time limits on games, plus Stat Blasts about Willians Astudillo, John Jaso and the best players never to qualify for the batting title, and alphabetical batting orders.

Audio intro: The Delgados, "Accused of Stealing"
Audio outro: Elliott Smith, "Alphabet Town"

Link to Pecota baseball card
Link to Grandstand Managers Night recap
Link to Schaumburg Flyers fan voting story
Link to alphabetical lineup game
Link to post about winter league playoff format
Link to Pelota Binaria

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Mariners signing Yusei Kikuchi, Willians Astudillo’s last 10 days, and Oliver Drake’s latest designation for assignment, and then grade the Hall of Fame’s many choices of in-game artifacts from the 2018 season. After that (44:41), they bring on Kyodo News writer Jim Allen to talk about Kikuchi’s origin story, recent performance, balky shoulder, and comparable pitchers, plus the use of stats and technology in Japanese baseball, how the posting system has (and hasn’t) changed NPB, how Shohei Ohtani’s rookie MLB season was perceived in Japan, the greatness of potential future major leaguer Yuki Yanagita, and more.

Audio intro: Superchunk, "Drool Collection"
Audio interstitial: Legion of Mary, "Every Word You Say"
Audio outro: The Undertones, "Save Me"

Link to Drake interview episode
Link to list of Hall of Fame artifacts
Link to Jeff’s Kikuchi post
Link to Jim’s Kikuchi primer
Link to Jim’s story on Kikuchi’s use of technology
Link to Jim’s story on Kikuchi’s evolving approach
Link to Jim’s podcast

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Ben Lindbergh, Jeff Sullivan, and ESPN’s Sam Miller review the top candidates for the most enduring baseball memory of 2018, then conduct the sixth annual Effectively Wild Minor League Free Agent Draft, selecting 11 minor league free agents each and competing to see whose roster will accumulate the most combined MLB playing time in 2019 (followed by a Nelson Cruz signing addendum).

Audio intro: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, "Here We Go Again"
Audio outro: Teal Wicks, "I Know He’s Out There"

Link to Sam’s article about 2018 memories
Link to video of Bregman play
Link to MiLB FA list
Link to Moreland video
Link to EW competitions and drafts sheet

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