Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about how runs, hits, and errors became baseball’s standard scoreboard stats and the piecemeal way in which baseball evolves, then reminisce about and reevaluate the 2015 experiment that led to their 2016 book about running the independent league Sonoma Stompers, The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team.

Audio intro: Wishbone Ash, "Errors of My Way"
Audio outro: Splinter, "After Five Years"

Link to Sam on Runs/Hits/Errors
Link to article about modern box scores
Link to first 2016 book companion podcast
Link to second 2016 book companion podcast
Link to third 2016 book companion podcast
Link to The Only Rule website
Link to order The Only Rule Is It Has to Work
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about new options for supporting FanGraphs and a potential plan to play the 2020 season with a radically realigned league structure, then talk to FanGraphs writer and ZiPS projection system proprietor Dan Szymborski about how a shortened or canceled season would affect projections for 2021, whether players would exceed or fall short of their projections after a long layoff, how a canceled season could impair player development, how returns from injuries, strength of schedule, and fewer games could help or hurt certain teams in 2020, tactics and roster strategies that could be beneficial in a shortened season, whether Statcast has improved projections, doing away with divisions, the appeal of streaming/esports in the absence of traditional sports, the MLB The Show players tournament, and how projecting baseball is different from projecting pandemics.

Audio intro: The Mountain Goats, "This Year"
Audio outro: The Strokes, "Ode to the Mets"

Link to FanGraphs financial update
Link to FanGraphs membership page
Link to FanGraphs gift membership page
Link to FanGraphs donation page
Link to realignment report
Link to Rob Arthur on uncertainty
Like to Matt Trueblood on shortened-season tactics
Link to Dan on playoff odds changes
Link to Dan on healing teams
Link to Dan on embracing weirdness
Link to Ben on esports
Link to Hannah on simulated seasons
Link to MLB The Show league
Link to Mets broadcasters calling MLB The Show
Link to FiveThirtyEight on modeling COVID-19
Link to Dan’s COVID-19 Twitter thread
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about a possible banter shortage, a mysterious sack of flour from 1971, the kinds of baseball stories being published in the absence of baseball, the greatness (and eye-popping pitcher usage) of the 2001 World Series, the October travails of Charlie Leibrandt, and how MLB should approach planning for the start of the season, then answer listener emails about how to reward true talent in a shortened season, whether the Mendoza Line needs a new name, whether the White Sox are the most cursed team, and whether rules changes should be agreed to far in advance, plus a Stat Blast about the most lopsided WAR league leaders, a team of unlikely MVP vote-getters, and the odd diet of Ski Melillo.

Audio intro: I Was a King, "Bubble"
Audio outro: Pulp, "Help the Aged"

Link to Pedro’s sack of flour story
Link to Sam on the most meme-worthy moments
Link to Zach Kram on the Arizona plan
Link to Ben Clemens on the Arizona plan
Link to Stat Blast song covers thread
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller split up to talk to the authors of two new baseball books. First, Sam speaks to Sports Stories newsletter author Eric Nusbaum about Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between. Then (33:18) Ben brings on Wall Street Journal national baseball writer Jared Diamond to discuss Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Home Run Revolution, plus a postscript covering the release of the expanded, paperback edition of The MVP Machine, a Stat Blast addendum about the longest Opening Day starting streaks, and the career of the late, great Hall of Famer and Tigers legend Al Kaline.

Audio intro: Bill Withers, "Lonely Town, Lonely Street"
Audio interstitial: Fountains of Wayne, "Laser Show"
Audio outro: John Prine, "Hello in There"

Link to Stealing Home
Link to Eric’s Sports Stories newsletter
Link to Swing Kings
Link to Jared on machine-made baseballs
Link to Ben Clemens on strikeouts and offense
Link to list of longest Opening Day starting streaks
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the response to FanGraphs’ request for financial support, discuss the latest news about minor league pay, Tommy John surgeries, college eligibility, the possibility of baseball coming back, Astros suspensions, and the suspiciously lively ball, and unveil a Stat Blast song cover and a Stat Blast about the longest team streaks of starting different players at a particular position on Opening Day. Then (45:34) they bring on Texas Rangers major league strength and conditioning coach Jose Vazquez to explain how teams are trying to keep players in shape from afar while the season is on hold, how technology is aiding that effort and changing training, how players are maintaining their strength, the risk of injury if/when the season starts, how to discourage players from hiding injuries, bearing responsibility for injuries, and working with independent facilities.

Audio intro: The Minders, "Give Me Strength"
Audio interstitial: Neil Young, "Give Me Strength"
Audio outro: The Go-Betweens, "All About Strength"

Link to article about Choo donation
Link to Emma on Tommy John surgery ethics
Link to report about Astros suspensions
Link to report about postseason baseballs
Link to Ben on the postseason baseball
Link to Stat Blast song cover
Link to Stat Blast song covers thread
Link to Opening Day start streak data
Link to Reds pitching WAR leaders
Link to article about 2014 Rangers injuries
Link to 2014 team injury data
Link to TeamBuildr
Link to Gallo video
Link to article about Yankees pitcher training
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller talk to Brad Balukjian, author of brand-new baseball book The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, about the long road (figuratively and literally) that led to the book, how he decided to try to track down the players from an old pack of baseball cards, his favorite encounter with one of the pack’s former major leaguers, and what he learned about life from his journey, then try to predict which active major leaguers are most likely to end up in various post-playing professions. Lastly (49:06), Ben talks to Rob Taylor, senior acquisitions editor at the University of Nebraska Press (which published The Wax Pack), about how UNP became a baseball publishing powerhouse, the economics of baseball books, and how to get a baseball book deal.

Audio intro: The Baseball Project, "The Baseball Card Song"
Audio interstitial: Ezra Furman, "Good Book"
Audio outro: Moe, "Nebraska"

Link to The Wax Pack website
Link to The Wax Pack book listing
Link to Pandemic Baseball Book Club
Link to Vogelbach article
Link to Suter video
Link to Suter post
Link to Brewers Dumb and Dumber parody
Link to UNP baseball book sale page
Link to UNP history page
Link to UNP proposal format
Link to NYT article about UNP
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller, and Meg Rowley begin by discussing the financial impact that the pandemic and the postponement of the baseball season have had on FanGraphs and requesting reader/listener assistance. Then Ben and Sam review some of the worst mistakes managers made in World Series games of the 1980s and mull over why managerial mistakes are so frustrating, how teams’ tactical decisions have improved over time, and how much managers of earlier eras cost their teams.

Audio intro: Gillian Welch, "Hard Times"
Audio outro: The Tragically Hip, "Membership"

Link to FanGraphs announcement
Link to FanGraphs membership page
Link to Ringer article about FanGraphs
Link to post on socially distanced baseball
Link to Ben on bad dugout decisions
Link to Ben on second-guessing managers
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the benefits, uncertainties, and downsides of the deal between MLB and the MLBPA to sort out salary and service time in the event of a shortened or canceled season, whether and how a social distancing-approved version of baseball could be played while maintaining a six-foot minimum distance between players and other personnel, how a shortened season would affect the Dodgers’ return in the Mookie Betts trade, a commercial in which Johnny Bench holds seven hamburgers, and baseball jerseys being turned into gowns and masks, then (50:39) talk to FanGraphs lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen about the new labor agreement’s implications for domestic and international amateur players, minor leaguers, the draft, player development, and scouting, as well as his upcoming book (plus a postscript on the late Jim Wynn).

Audio intro: Sloan, "Essential Services"
Audio interstitial: Blur, "No Distance Left to Run"
Audio outro: Nada Surf, "Amateur"

Link to Rosenthal and Drellich on the MLB-MLBPA deal
Link to Jay Jaffe on the MLB-MLBPA deal
Link to Eric on the MLB-MLBPA deal
Link to Bench commercial
Link to other Bench commercials
Link to article about Fanatics masks and gowns
Link to Eric on data and player development
Link to B-Ref draft
Link to order Future Value
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about which types of old games they would want to rewatch, Noah Syndergaard’s Tommy John surgery, and how short is too short for a regular season, then answer listener emails about whether the 2020 title will be tainted by a shortened season, whether MLB should skip the regular season and go straight to the playoffs or replace the standard playoff format with an extended tournament or bracket, whether great players should be allowed to pick a team for their farewell season, and whether MLB should try seven-inning games this season, plus a Stat Blast (with a special song) about the worst player to play in both his teens and his 40s and whether young playing time or old playing time is a better predictor of a Hall of Fame induction (and a postscript about Mike Trout’s golfing).

Audio intro: Dan Bern, "Opening Day"
Audio outro: Brittany Howard, "Short and Sweet"

Link to info on Opening Day re-airings
Link to Syndergaard injury post
Link to story on Syndergaard wanting to throw harder
Link to second story on Syndergaard wanting to throw harder
Link to story on Syndergaard’s surgery
Link to Sam on every team making the playoffs
Link to EW episode about every team making the playoffs
Link to Jayson Stark on short-season experiments
Link to article on seven-inning games
Link to Stat Blast covers competition
Link to video of Trout’s drive
Link to video of Trout’s chip shot
Link to 2013 article on Trout’s golfing
Link to 2017 article on Trout’s golfing
Link to article on Trout’s hole-in-one
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller revisit Sam’s tradition of viewing the beloved and despised 1989 film Field of Dreams on the eve of Opening Day (or in this case, what would have been Opening Day) and examine how their perceptions of the movie have evolved, what makes Field of Dreams the most divisive baseball movie, the many aspects of the movie that make little sense, and its redeeming qualities.

Audio intro: James Horner, "The Place Where Dreams Come True"
Audio outro: James Horner, "End Credits"

Link to Ebert’s Field of Dreams review
Link to Goldman on Field of Dreams
Link to Calcaterra on Field of Dreams
Link to Posnanski on Field of Dreams
Link to Offerman on Field of Dreams
Link to research on the legend of Shoeless Joe
Link to research on Jackson’s attempted reinstatement
Link to research on Black Sox batting
Link to research on Weaver’s case
Link to Emma Span article
Link to order The MVP Machine

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