Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Astros’ almost insulting infield alignment against Albert Pujols and minor league hit-by-pitch machine Nick Sinay, then welcome on MIT draftee/new Mariners front-office addition David Hesslink and, later in the episode, YouTube baseball-highlight creator Andrew Vargha, proprietor of the newly anointed official baseball YouTube account of Effectively Wild.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter (one last time) about Cleveland’s winning streak, Lenny Harris and an Ichiro record, Jeff’s successful search for the fly-ball revolution, and the increasing difficulty of scouting position players, then draft the World Series contenders that would be the best (and worst) stories.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Indians (again), the AL Cy Young race, Jacoby Ellsbury’s new record, the 2018 MLB schedule (and the possibility of a pitch clock), and Shohei Otani’s impending availability. Then they answer listener emails about Mookie Betts, what constitutes the “heart of the order,” ERA hypotheticals, the hot corner, sign-stealing vs. pitch-tipping, and more.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan revisit their banter about ups and downs and Joe Mauer, then talk about (and talk about talking about) baseball’s long-lasting streaks, their takeaways from the Indians’ and Dodgers’ recent results, who’s actually on the White Sox, which playoff teams are likely to ride their bullpens hardest this October, the pitching potential of Astros third baseman J.D. Davis, and more.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the end of their Hurricane Harvey relief raffle, the Indians’ and Diamondbacks’ winning streaks (and the Dodgers’ losing streak), an ambitious Hector Sanchez framing attempt, the dominance of softball star Monica Abbott, Giants’ fans perceptions of Brandon Belt, and why the prevailing tone of analytical baseball writing seems to be more positive than it once was.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Willson Contreras’ Twitter behavior and the Yankees-Red Sox sign-stealing scandal, then answer listener emails about “up the line” vs. “down the line,” how rebuilding works, whether teams can count on the current home-run rate continuing, Deion Sanders’ career taking place today, the heat of the hot corner, the Hall of Fame candidacies of Joe Mauer and Justin Verlander, OBP vs. out rate, banning in-season trades, and more.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about their Hurricane Harvey relief raffle’s status, hot and cold teams, Trevor Bauer’s run-in with Avisail Garcia, and evolving pitch-selection in the major leagues, then talk to EW listener Max Schleicher about his fan-sentiment-based study on the best and worst big-league ballparks (and big-league-ballpark amenities).

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the strong response to their raffle for Hurricane Harvey relief, the Justin Verlander trade, a new NCAA softball rule, and the Padres relative to the NL’s other worst teams, then bring on FanGraphs writer Eno Sarris and former Red Sox outfielder (and owner of one major league hit) Alex Hassan to discuss whether an average non-athlete could get a hit in an MLB season.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about their raffle for Hurricane Harvey relief, the Justin Upton trade, walk-off hit by pitches, the brief baseball career of Olympic javelin thrower Jan Zelezny, Rich Hill and pitcher bunting, the Pirates placing Juan Nicasio on outright waivers, and infield dirt, then talk to musician and artist Will Johnson about how he started doing his popular portraits of baseball players, why baseball lends itself to art, and the Mookie Wilson work that he’s auctioning off for the Houston Food Bank.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the AL wild card race, whether the Dodgers are doing anything wrong by using the 10-day DL liberally, then answer listener emails about packaging Pujols with Trout, Gio Gonzalez’s league-leading (but also not league-leading) WAR, the pitfalls of Statcast for pitchers, Steven Souza and home-run imbalance by handedness, an especially silly save, how many major leaguers are being missed, baseball’s hidden superheroes, and more.

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