Effectively Wild Episode 2504: I Choo-Choo-Choose You

by
July 13, 2026

EWFI

MLB Draft 2026

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and FanGraphs lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen banter about Zack Wheeler declining MLB’s last-minute All-Star invitation, JJ Wetherholt’s long-term contract extension, and how the Futures Game and amateur draft fell flat as spectator events, then discuss the top tier of draft picks, some surprising picks and revamped approaches by teams under new management, why better data hasn’t made teams much better at drafting, why no team has tried blowing by its bonus allotment, and more, plus closing banter about Bryce Harper’s explanation of his video message for a sports-betting addict.

Audio intro: Nate Emerson, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: PJ Harding, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to The Simpsons clip
Link to Wheeler article
Link to MLBTR on Wetherholt
Link to Wetherholt’s draft outfit
Link to Baumann on the spectator experience
Link to Cooper on the spectator experience
Link to Manfred mispronunciation article
Link to celebrity golf tournament
Link to Futures Game FAQ
Link to draft viewing FAQ
Link to Brendan on the Futures Game
Link to Eric’s draft preview
Link to The Board
Link to Baumann on big draftees
Link to MLB draft tracker
Link to FG Day 1 draft recap
Link to The Athletic on Schaffner
Link to Crotchfelt vs. Titsworth post
Link to Angels picks
Link to Ball’s draft study
Link to Seidler on blowing up the draft
Link to Ball on blowing up the draft
Link to NBA revenue info
Link to Madisynn from She-Hulk
Link to Clemens on prospect valuation 1
Link to Clemens on prospect valuation 2
Link to camel case wiki
Link to Harper’s Instagram post
Link to EW guest appearances
Link to Dodgers extra-inning game

 Sponsor Us on Patreon
 Give a Gift Subscription
 Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com
 Effectively Wild Subreddit
 Effectively Wild Wiki
 Apple Podcasts Feed 
 Spotify Feed
 YouTube Playlist
 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.




 

Comments are closed.