Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller follow up on (o)possums playing dead, discuss the Nationals signing Stephen Strasburg to a record contract for a pitcher and the implications for the Nationals, Scott Boras, Anthony Rendon, and Gerrit Cole, banter about the possibility of Shohei Ohtani hitting on the days he pitches, the elections of Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons to the Hall of Fame, MLB moving the amateur draft site to Omaha, and the end of marijuana testing for minor leaguers, then review the first 14 of Bill James’s 30 recent suggestions for counteracting baseball’s slowing pace of play and rising strikeout and home run rates.

Audio intro: Grateful Dead, "St. Stephen"
Audio outro: The Apples in Stereo, "Stephen Stephen"

Link to opossum post
Link to Ben on the Strasburg signing
Link to Jeff on Bruce Chen
Link to Bill James Handbook 2020
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about covering transactions past and present, the latest eye-catching comments by Scott Boras, the Tommy Pham trade and Blake Snell’s candid real-time reaction to it, and what the busy signing season so far augurs for the future of free agency and labor relations, then answer listener emails about players with more times caught stealing than strikeouts and team TV networks airing classic losses, with additional discussion of the weird and wonderful Nick Madrigal, the forecast for a fun White Sox team in 2020, an increasingly intriguing crop of two-way players, and the evolving look of baseball broadcasts.

Audio intro: The Move, "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited"
Audio outro: XTC, "Harvest Festival"

Link to Boras story
Link to Boras Corporation website
Link to Snell story
Link to Ben Clemens on the Pham trade
Link to Ben on free agency
Link to Jen Ramos fundraiser
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller discuss a crowdsourced effort to help baseball writer Jen Ramos, then banter about hot stove terminology and why free-agent activity seems to be picking up, analyzing the implications of a busy non-tender deadline day and the expectations-exceeding signings of Drew Pomeranz, Mike Moustakas, Cole Hamels, Zack Wheeler, José Abreu, and others, as well as changes in how teams evaluate players and the benefits of playing possum. Then they answer listener emails about an ownership spending conspiracy and how good Mike Trout would be if baseball were the world’s only sport, plus a Stat Blast about the Mets’ extreme 9th-inning woes and an observation about Dylan Bundy and Jurickson Profar.

Audio intro: The Hold Steady, "The Stove & the Toaster"
Audio outro: The Mountain Goats, "Whole Wide World"

Link to Jen Ramos fundraiser
Link to Ben Clemens on Wheeler
Link to Dan Szymborski on the Wheeler signing
Link to Craig Edwards on the Moustakas signing
Link to Ginny Searle on the Moustakas signing and the free-agent market
Link to Edwards on non-tender takeaways
Link to Edwards on the state of team payrolls
Link to Tyler Kepner on free agency
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter anew about José Abreu’s perplexing RBI total, then predict and discuss the answers in the sequel to “the Crasnicks,” a survey of front-office executives on hot-button offseason questions conducted by ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. Along the way, they touch on the four-player Padres-Brewers trade involving Luis Urías and Trent Grisham, the Orioles placing Jonathan Villar on outright waivers, the definition of a “splash,” and more, plus post-discussion banter on the baseball as an object to hold in one’s hand and Ichiro Suzuki as a post-retirement two-way player, and a remembrance of the late Seymour Siwoff.

Audio intro: Courtney Barnett, "Anonymous Club"
Audio outro: Sleater-Kinney, "Anonymous"

Link to Rogers survey
Link to last Crasnick hot stove survey
Link to Sam’s first analysis of Crasnick survey responses
Link to Sam’s second analysis of Crasnick survey responses
Link to FanGraphs breakdown of Padres-Brewers trade
Link to Ichiro story
Link to The Numbers Game
Link to Siwoff obituary
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the artifacts from the 2019 season that will be preserved by the Hall of Fame, and then (32:25) Ben talks to FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe about the 2020 Hall of Fame induction cycle, including the shrinking of the ballot backlog, first-timers Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu, whether Jeter will be elected unanimously, Larry Walker’s chances in his last year of eligibility, which other holdovers on the ballot may benefit from the weak crop of debuts, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, relievers vs. position players, the most compelling candidates on the Modern Baseball ballot, Marvin Miller, the Harold Baines effect, catcher framing and the Hall of Fame, and Paul Konerko and reputation vs. WAR.

Audio intro: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, "Keepsake"
Audio interstitial: The Only Ones, "The Immortal Story"
Audio outro: Rudi Richardson, "Fool’s Hall of Fame"

Link to list of 2019 World Series artifacts
Link to list of 2018 artifacts
Link to image of Kendrick’s Game 7 home run ball
Link to Hall of Fame ballot tracker
Link to intro to Jay’s 2020 ballot breakdowns
Link to intro to Jay’s Modern Baseball ballot breakdowns
Link to Jay on Walker
Link to Matt Trueblood on Walker’s context as a candidate
Link to Trueblood on Walker’s other home park
Link to Trueblood on Walker’s unfortunate timing
Link to Jay on Miller
Link to Ben on catcher framing and the Hall of Fame
Link to Ben on the ever-changing nature of WAR
Link to Zach Kram on recent voting trends
Link to Passan on Bonds and Clemens
Link to Ben on Baines
Link to story on the music lost in the 2008 Universal Studios fire
Link to order The Cooperstown Casebook
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about Charlie Finley’s dual “innovations,” Harvey and Little Blowhard, then answer listener emails about Chris Davis and why some veteran players may be unwilling to change, whether Gerrit Cole could regress away from Houston, the purpose of punishing the Astros for sign-stealing and how many years of draft picks a team would give up in exchange for a championship, and whether baseball players will ever take in-season vacations, plus Stat Blasts about players with more hit by pitches than walks and the Mariners’ record lack of intentional walks drawn.

Audio intro: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Blow Hard"
Audio outro: The Microphones, "I Want Wind to Blow"

Link to SI article on Charlie Finley
Link to article about Finley’s orange baseballs
Link to image of Finley’s K.C. Pennant Porch
Link to early 2019 article about Davis
Link to late 2019 article about Davis
Link to 2018 article about Trumbo
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about what the Padres’ 2017 Rule 5 trio is up to now, the Mariners’ aggressive Evan White extension, how teams would distribute their spending if every player (amateur or pro) were a free agent but spending were capped at a percentage of MLB revenue, the just-announced All-MLB Team, the White Sox signing Yasmani Grandal, whether the early action on the free-agent market has been at all surprising or encouraging, and the results of Sam’s surveys about a “Baseball Genie” who grants fans of each team’s wishes, with a catch.

Audio intro: The Jayhawks, "You Look So Young"
Audio outro: The Claypool Lennon Delirium, "Cricket and the Genie (Movement I, The Delirium)"

Link to Ben on the Padres’ Rule 5 experiment in 2017
Link to Sam on the Padres’ Rule 5 experiment in 2017
Link to Sam in 2013 on the future of extensions
Link to Kiley on the White extension
Link to Passan’s All-MLB Team
Link to All-MLB Team voting
Link to Ben on the historically slow November 2017
Link to Sam on Grandal in 2016
Link to Sam on the MLB genie
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley host a FanGraphs Live! event and EW taping at Subculture in Manhattan, featuring three panels comprising seven guests: “Major League Update” (current events and New York baseball) with FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe and The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler and Mark Carig; “Baseball By the Numbers” (sabermetrics and Statcast) with FanGraphs’ Craig Edwards and MLB.com’s Mike Petriello (45:54); and “UMP: The Untitled McDongenhagen Panel” (scouting and player evaluation) with FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen (1:27:18), including questions from the audience after each discussion.

Audio intro: The Who, "Join Together"
Audio outro: Slade, "See Us Here"

Link to FanGraphs event listing
Link to preorder Future Value (coupon code FV20)
Link to EW Secret Santa sign-up
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller talk to Paul Dickson, author of The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign-Stealing Have Influenced the Course of Our National Pastime, about, well, what the book’s subtitle says, including the origins of sign-sending, the earliest allegations of sign-stealing, historical precedents for the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme, the effects of sign-stealing, why so many players say they prefer not to know which pitch is coming, the frequent disagreements surrounding which types of sign-stealing are acceptable, the reluctance of the league to get involved in stopping or punishing sign-stealing, the future of policing sign-stealing, and more.

Audio intro: Damon Albarn, "The History of a Cheating Heart"
Audio outro: Brittany Howard, "History Repeats"

Link to Paul’s book about sign-stealing
Link to list of all of Paul’s books
Link to EW Secret Santa sign-up
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about “sinister right-handers” and scientific songs, then discuss the latest revelations about the Astros sign-stealing saga before reviewing the overlooked accomplishments of some of 2019’s league leaders and discussing the role of bold ink in the era of sabermetric saturation.

Audio intro: Liam Gallagher, "Bold"
Audio outro: Sloan, "Follow the Leader"

Link to image of Astros tunnel
Link to The Athletic report about email to Astros scouts
Link to ESPN report about email to Astros scouts
Link to article about MLB video monitors
Link to EW Secret Santa sign-up
Link to order The MVP Machine

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