FanGraphs Audio: Jayson Stark and Tyler Kepner on Covering Baseball

March 19, 2021

Episode 914

On this week’s episode, we welcome a pair of renowned writers to discuss the baseball landscape before digging into the latest projection highlights.

To begin the program, David Laurila is joined by Jayson Stark of The Athletic and the Starkville podcast and Tyler Kepner of The New York Times. The trio talk about how covering the sport has changed both in the face of the pandemic and naturally over the years, and how baseball writers have needed to adapt to their audiences. They also discuss the underrated Trea Turner, the legacies of Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols, the promise of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto, and some of their other favorite players in the game right now. Finally, Jayson offers some trivia and a few stories of strange spring training injuries. [2:16]
In the second half, Dan Szymborski and Tony Wolfe discuss Dan’s preseason breakout and bust candidates. Is Dan tempting fate, and Yankees Twitter, by predicting Gary Sánchez to have a good year? Dan also has questions about Charlie Blackmon’s low exit velocity as well as the potential of beard physics. And is calling for a Vladimiro Guerrero Jr. breakout a cowardly move at this point? [38:55]

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Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hour 20 minutes play time.)