In a grab-bag episode, Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the low league BABIP early in the season, the most interesting standings developments so far (with emphases on the Dodgers, Padres, Braves, and AL Central), Atlanta re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-acquiring Jesse Chavez, early attendance issues for the A’s, (team-friendly?) extensions for Jackson Merrill, Kristian Campbell, and Ketel Marte, Dennis Santana’s sartorial innovation, the end of Comerica Park’s dirt strip, players being told not to tap their helmets, a mid-plate-appearance pitching change, a 12-6 slider, the Dodgers’ new, Ohtani-related celebration, ESPN’s annual executives/scouts survey, being “on gear” in climbing, and Carshield baseball ads.

Audio intro: Andy Ellison, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Gabriel-Ernest, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to early season BABIPs
Link to Ben on 2020 BABIP
Link to Ben on lower league BABIPs
Link to playoff odds changes
Link to Baumann on the Braves
Link to Chavez transactions page
Link to Hill Stat Blast
Link to Chavez Stat Blast
Link to Clemens on Mookie
Link to 2002 NL East
Link to Castillo fun fact
Link to FG on Merrill
Link to Union-Tribune on Merrill
Link to FG on Campbell
Link to Campbell on “friends”
Link to FG on Marte
Link to The Bandwagon on Marte
Link to MLBTR on Marte
Link to A’s attendance article
Link to ESPN survey
Link to Goold tweet
Link to EW on “strategy” in 2024
Link to Ben on “strategy”
Link to Harper quote
Link to EW on The Pitt
Link to new 12-6 slider
Link to Santana clip
Link to Comerica change
Link to Ben on pickoff moves
Link to ballpark homogenization
Link to Ohtani celly 1
Link to Ohtani celly 2
Link to Freeman injury info
Link to Vlad report
Link to Shapiro quote
Link to Curb clip
Link to Ghiroli article
Link to Carshield EW episode
Link to FTC press release
Link to FTC complaint

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about several oddities of the early season, including pitcher Ryne Nelson’s single and a drone encounter with an A’s bat boy, then discuss Jurickson Profar’s PED suspension, Garrett Crochet’s extension, and Jonathan Lucroy‘s reaction to Roki Sasaki’s apparent post-start tears, before bantering about whether full ABS would encourage even harder throwing, Lance Lynn’s retirement, a wild college throw, and more, plus a postscript.

Audio intro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Justin Peters, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Jay on the White Sox
Link to Nelson hit
Link to more on Nelson
Link to Pirates Elias tweet
Link to B-Ref Brewers post
Link to The Athletic on Profar
Link to Orr on Profar
Link to Ben on natty or not
Link to Baumann on the Braves
Link to MLBTR on Crochet 1
Link to MLBTR on Crochet 2
Link to MLBTR on Campbell
Link to Sheehan on Crochet
Link to Dan S. on Crochet
Link to MLB.com on Crochet
Link to drone story
Link to Sasaki clip
Link to L.AT. on Sasaki
Link to Lucroy tweet 1
Link to Lucroy tweet 2
Link to more Lucroy tweets
Link to Wolfe quotes
Link to r/tragedeigh
Link to McAfee story
Link to ABS story 1
Link to ABS story 2
Link to Lynn podcast
Link to RF throw
Link to MLBTR on Vlad
Link to Shapiro story
Link to MLBTR on Pfaadt

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley have an in-depth discussion on all aspects of the sport’s topic du jour: torpedo/bowling-pin/juggling-pin(?) bats. They also banter (59:58) about the abysmal beginning of Rafael Devers’s season, Aaron Judge’s interviews, MLB’s attempt to make up for its MLB.TV outage, the vibes at Blue Jays games, Willson Contreras eating bat tape, Jack Leiter taking a ball to the beans, the invasion of Chases, and Sutter Health Park, plus (1:37:22) several follow-ups.

Audio intro: Philip Tapley and Michael Stokes, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Cory Brent, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Ben on the bats
Link to many bat-related links
Link to official bat change
Link to Judge quotes
Link to Waldman clip
Link to Contreras clip
Link to Contreras story
Link to Leiter clip
Link to r/tragedeigh
Link to listener emails database

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley react to assorted frustrations and delights of Opening Day, then (42:07) conduct the fifth annual Team Fun Draft, in which they draft all 30 teams in order of how fun they expect them to be to follow in 2025.

Audio intro: Jonathan Crymes 2, “Effectively Wild Theme 2”
Audio outro: El Warren, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to story on mlb.tv outage
Link to Guardians offer
Link to FG staff predictions post
Link to FG staff bold predictions
Link to Meg’s PPR summary
Link to Ringer entrance survey
Link to Contreras post
Link to Bibee on Chipotle
Link to Torkelson article
Link to Shohei HR reactions
Link to Rosen on ballparks

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Ben Lindbergh and FanGraphs writer Dan Szymborski banter about how much spring training stats matter, which players improved their projections the most this spring, whether prospects really have a harder time making the transition to MLB from Triple-A today, their spring training award winners, the five-ish biggest questions/storylines for each of them this MLB season, and a smattering of “bold predictions” from EW listeners. Then (1:23:29) Ben brings back the “Baseball Jobs” series by interviewing Josh Kantor, longtime Fenway Park organist, to talk about how he got his gig, his side projects, the ins and outs of his in-game responsibilities, the upcoming season, and much more, followed by a brief keyboard performance.

Audio intro: The Gagnés, “Effectively Wild Theme 2”
Audio interstitial: Josh Kantor and Nancy Faust, “Sweet Caroline”
Audio outro: Liz Panella, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to 2015 spring study
Link to Hoyer quote
Link to Ben’s new prospects article
Link to Ben’s old prospects article
Link to spring champions
Link to ST team wins
Link to FG ST leaderboards
Link to five Clemens questions
Link to listener bold predictions
Link to EW predictions ballot
Link to previous Baseball Jobs pod
Link to Josh Kantor wiki
Link to Baseball Project pod
Link to Baseball Project song
Link to Kaminski pod

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mookie Betts’s unwanted weight loss, new Statcast data on batter positioning, and whether hitters should generally move back in the box, then recap Cal Raleigh’s extension and a smattering of other buzzer-beating transactions before discussing (35:46) some of their favorite moves of the offseason. Then (1:10:31) they talk to FanGraphs writer Davy Andrews about his origin story as a writer, his greatest hits so far, and the “We Tried Tracker,” his effort to compile all the times a team reportedly tried (but failed) to acquire a player.

Audio intro: Beatwriter, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio interstitial: Davy Andrews, “Edouard Julien, Are You Gonna Rule Again?”
Audio outro: Ted O., “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Ohtani article
Link to Dodgers article 1
Link to Mookie article 2
Link to Mookie article 3
Link to Petriello article 1
Link to Petriello article 2
Link to Adler article
Link to Ben on moving the mound
Link to MLBTR on Raleigh
Link to Raleigh dumper thread
Link to notable transactions
Link to Ben’s Grantland article
Link to TFPIOT Tumblr
Link to Tracker wiki
Link to Too Far From Town posts
Link to Target Field post
Link to cleat cleaners post 1
Link to cleat cleaners post 2
Link to Davy’s FG archive
Link to Seinfeld clip
Link to We Tried Tracker
Link to WTT posts
Link to predictions vote

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Meg’s positional power rankings progress and discuss why MLB is “evaluating” its Diversity Pipeline Program, then for the first time in a while answer listener emails (15:35) about how baseball would be different if swinging hard caused more serious injuries, a high-elevation league/division, inter-game penalties for frivolous end-of-game challenges, whether the challenge system will make umpires tone down their punchout calls, whether player-initiated challenges should be included in WAR calculations, split-squad games in the regular season, and limits on the number of NPB players per MLB roster, plus a real-time reaction (1:14:03) to the Chesapeake Oyster Catchers logo.

Audio intro: Alex Ferrin, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Ian Phillips, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Meg’s PPR intro
Link to Athletic report
Link to Calcaterra report
Link to travel ban news
Link to 2019 Cuba deal news
Link to Russell on power hitting
Link to Ben on Mexico City
Link to Oyster Catchers logo
Link to logo response story
Link to Pickles mascot story
Link to GJ Chubs episode
Link to EW emails database
Link to predictions vote

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Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and FanGraphs authors Michael Baumann and Ben Clemens play “College Baseball Player or Musician Who’s Performing at Sea.Hear.Now 2025” (4:53), and then explain the third annual preseason predictions game (11:53) and make 10 bold predictions apiece (18:57) about baseball in 2025, to be voted on by listeners.

Audio intro: The Gagnés, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to vote
Link to music festival
Link to Ben on festival posters
Link to previous scores
Link to 2024 predictions
Link to 2023 predictions
Link to FG playoff odds
Link to Ohtani max velo
Link to .500 teams data
Link to Waldron article
Link to Lewis article
Link to knuckleball qualifiers
Link to Ben on knuckleballs
Link to Other Ben on sliders
Link to slider rates
Link to highest bullpen WPAs
Link to Rob on stolen bases
Link to Corbin signing article
Link to Dan S. booms/busts
Link to 3B sends data
Link to Savant 3B sends
Link to Patrick on 3B sends
Link to Russell on 3B sends
Link to Oyster Analytics on 3B sends
Link to 2024 attendance
Link to Ben on risk aversion
Link to vote

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the opening series of the regular season in Japan, then (10:55) discuss the removal (and eventual restoration) of a page about Jackie Robinson on the Department of Defense website, before (39:53) bantering further about breakouts, how player heights dropped (or didn’t!) after players were measured more accurately this spring, Joey Gallo’s attempted conversion to pitching, and an abandoned Marlins player-development idea. Then (1:27:38) they talk to Pirates pitching phenom Paul Skenes about being a cover model for MLB The Show 25, his stoic exterior, starters as stars, an auction for his debut baseball card, his hobbies, his expanding pitch mix, and max-effort pitching.

Audio intro: The Shirey Brothers, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Daniel Leckie, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Randy Johnson on EW
Link to Ohtani homer
Link to ratings info
Link to Davy gamer 1
Link to Davy gamer 2
Link to post about Jackie page
Link to article about Jackie page
Link to archived 404 page
Link to restored page
Link to NPR on Rogers page
Link to first statement to Passan
Link to second statement to Passan
Link to segregation ban story
Link to MLB D&I page
Link to old MLB D&I page
Link to post about change
Link to CBB breakouts tweet
Link to height changes sheet
Link to pitcher-measuring info
Link to Gallo tweet
Link to Ben on Gallo in 2014
Link to TTO% leaderboard
Link to Marlins ad
Link to Stock tweet
Link to Herald on Marlins
Link to Athletic on Marlins
Link to The Show gameplay trailer
Link to The Show launch trailer
Link to Livvy’s nonchalant quote
Link to Skenes composure quote
Link to Skenes Opening Day reveal
Link to Skenes dexterity quote
Link to new pitches story
Link to Skenes auction
Link to Skenes on workload
Link to deGrom story
Link to EW gift subscriptions

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about completing the season preview series, then preview the 2025 New York Yankees (7:48) with Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News, and the 2025 Chicago White Sox (1:04:41) with Sox Machine’s James Fegan.

Audio intro: Xavier LeBlanc, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio interstitial: Liz Panella, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Cory Brent, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to offseason spending
Link to FG payrolls page
Link to Yankees depth chart
Link to Yankees offseason tracker
Link to BaseRuns standings
Link to Gary’s author archive
Link to White Sox depth chart
Link to White Sox offseason tracker
Link to 2024 CWS WAR leaders
Link to Grifol eclipse story
Link to James’s author archive
Link to EW gift subscriptions

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