Effectively Wild Episode 2293: Impossible Sliders and Extremely Slow Curves

by
March 8, 2025

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a baseball flub in medical procedural The Pitt, Lawrence Butler’s extension, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s lofty contract target, how the ball moves differently in the Cactus League, and the value of variety in pitch selection, followed by Stat Blasts (49:20) about the WAR values of letters in player names, the best one-and-done pitcher/batter seasons in each franchise’s history, and the longest-tenured groups of players on pennant winners. Then (1:08:20) they talk to Carson Lund, director and co-writer of newly debuted baseball movie Eephus, about his celebrated contribution to the beleaguered genre.

Audio intro: Moon Hound, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: The Gagnes, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to slider explainer
Link to The Pitt episode
Link to Inglourious Basterds scene
Link to Bluesky post
Link to Passan tweet about Butler
Link to MLBTR on Butler
Link to Vlad contract info
Link to Ortiz comments
Link to Baumann on Vlad
Link to Dan S. on Vlad
Link to Trueblood on Vlad
Link to Rosen on movement
Link to Rosen on variety
Link to Down on the Farm study
Link to Oyster Analytics
Link to Stat Blast 1 spreadsheet
Link to Cocaína García wiki
Link to Stat Blast 2 request
Link to Stat Blast 2 spreadsheet
Link to Stat Blast 3 request
Link to Stat Blast 3 spreadsheet
Link to Carson’s IMDb
Link to Eephus website
Link to Eephus trailer
Link to Eephus Rotten Tomatoes
Link to Eephus AP review
Link to list of baseball movies
Link to Filmmaker Magazine
Link to Jacques Barzun quote
Link to Barzun essay
Link to Soldiers Field game
Link to Soldiers Field photos
Link to EW gift subscriptions

 Sponsor Us on Patreon
 Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com
 EW Subreddit
 Effectively Wild Wiki
 iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)
 Spotify Feed
 Facebook Group
 Bluesky Account
 Twitter Account
 Get Our Merch!

Podcast (effectively-wild): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.




 

3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
ackbar7Member since 2020
8 months ago

Those COL players listed in the Stat Blast 2 spreadsheet didn’t play for the Colorado Rockies but for 2 different American Association Columbus teams (Solons and Buckeyes) in the 1880s

1
Ben LindberghFanGraphs Staff
8 months ago
Reply to  ackbar7

Fixed

1
reyrhMember since 2020
8 months ago
Reply to  ackbar7

Mike Hegan also didn’t play for the Seattle Mariners, he was a one year wonder Seattle Pilot!

0