Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s big bonus, Edmundo Sosa’s beginner’s home run robbery, how much of a difference depth makes, and the relative levels of alarm about the shoulder injuries of Reynaldo López, Victor Robles, and Blake Snell. Then (49:14) they talk to MLB.com’s Michael Clair about what it was like to attend the amateur baseball event of the year: the Division III showdown between Yeshiva and Lehman, who entered their Wednesday doubleheader on the two longest active losing streaks in college baseball.

Audio intro: Dave Armstrong and Mike Murray, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio interstitial: Guy Russo, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Moon Hound, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Rosenthal on Vlad
Link to Sosa play
Link to Clemens on depth
Link to Clemens on depth on EW
Link to MLBTR on López
Link to team SP projections
Link to MLBTR on Snell
Link to MLBTR on Robles
Link to Petriello on Robles
Link to Robles batting change
Link to Michael on the game
Link to original Reddit post
Link to postgame Reddit post
Link to Caltech story
Link to Yeshiva team stats
Link to Yeshiva vs. Lehman stats
Link to Game 2 video
Link to Ben on Salina
Link to Michael’s manuscript
Link to Michael on the Czech team

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about umpires’ surprising preference for full ABS, Rob Manfred’s take on torpedo bats, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s $500 million extension, players’ frugal behaviors, precedents for Dennis Santana’s short pants, the Giants’ new City Connect jerseys, and (1:14:31) the Dodgers’ White House trip.

Audio intro: Benny and a Million Shetland Ponies, “Effectively Wild Theme (Pedantic)”
Audio outro: Grant Brisbee, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Manfred interview
Link to Baumann on Vlad
Link to MLBTR on Vlad
Link to post-Vlad FA class
Link to Rogers spending info
Link to cheap players article
Link to Ben on paywalls
Link to Hannah on Skenes
Link to cut Skenes quote
Link to Pence on pants
Link to Pence pants video
Link to Pence pants comments
Link to Odor pants video
Link to Rangers pants video
Link to Rangers pants blog
Link to more pants photos
Link to Giants jerseys
Link to Roberts on White House
Link to Mookie on White House
Link to White House visit

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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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