Effectively Wild Episode 1274: Meet the New Manager, Different From the Old Manager

September 25, 2018

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Willians Astudillo, Jeff McNeil, and Juan Graterol, Shaq Thompson and the highest minor-league strikeout rates, the last week of the season, the lowest ERAs of the second half, Bryan Mitchell, and why voting for pitcher awards may be getting even more complicated, then (20:14) bring on The Athletic’s Levi Weaver to talk about the Rangers’ reasons for firing Jeff Banister, what his dismissal says about managerial styles, the value of managers, and the future of managing, the mystery of Manager of the Year Award voting, the power of Jon Daniels, covering Bartolo Colon and Adrian Beltre in what could be their final seasons, the resurgences of Joey Gallo and Jurickson Profar, the streakiness of Rougned Odor, how the “opener” spread to Texas, Jeff Baker’s thumb, Brady Feigl and Brady Feigl, writing for The Athletic, and whether covering bad baseball leads to better baseball writing.