Effectively Wild Episode 1953: The Weakest Links Left

January 9, 2023

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a Roger Angell-identified way in which baseball is different from other sports, discuss the Mariners signing AJ Pollock and the Phillies trading for Gregory Soto, and respond to the Dodgers cutting ties with Trevor Bauer, MLB reinstating former Braves GM John Coppolella, and KBO ace An Woo-jin not being rostered on South Korea’s WBC squad, plus musings on the competitive advantage of preventing leaks and a Past Blast from 1953. Then (42:42) they talk to FanGraphs senior writer and ZiPS creator Dan Szymborski about the weakest projected positions on contending teams, along with detours into Shohei Ohtani’s WAR projection, whether salaries for starting pitchers have declined along with innings totals, the linear relationship between dollars and WAR, the deflation of center-field offense, the pace of free-agent signings, whether AI will be the downfall of humanity, and more, followed by a postscript with a few notes and updates.

Audio intro: Trampled By Turtles, “A Lifetime to Find”
Audio interstitial: Margo Price, “That’s How Rumors Get Started”
Audio outro: Jason Isbell, “If it Takes a Lifetime”

Link to Angell’s “On the Ball”
Link to MLBTR on Pollock
Link to Longenhagen on Soto
Link to Sands photo
Link to Dipoto on M’s spending
Link to Rosenthal on Bauer
Link to Nightengale on Bauer
Link to MLBTR on Coppolella
Link to An Woo-Jin article
Link to more on An Woo-Jin
Link to more on KBO bullying
Link to An Woo-Jin scouting report
Link to article on volleyball bullying
Link to Nightengale on the Braves
Link to 1953 story source
Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website
Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter
Link to article on Rose’s bet
Link to zombie runner coinage
Link to Ben C. on FA movement
Link to Ben’s FA retrospective
Link to Dan’s ZiPS pieces
Link to FG depth charts
Link to best remaining FA
Link to Dodgers payroll post
Link to Rob on pitchers/payroll
Link to Dan on paying for wins
Link to Rob on CF offense
Link to Posnanski on chess bots
Link to Dan’s Gronk tweets
Link to Dan’s weapons tweet
Link to chatbots EW episode
Link to MLBTR on Hendriks
Link to MLB.com on Hendriks
Link to All-CarShield team
Link to EW on CarShield sponsors
Link to Andújar trade request
Link to tennis baseball video
Link to Colbert/Musial story