Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter euphorically about the unbelievable ending of the World Baseball Classic, from Japan’s semifinal game against Mexico, to the climactic showdown between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout in the USA-Japan final, to what made the whole WBC such a success. Then (52:02) they close the book on meeting major leaguers from 2022 by talking to James Bailey , author of Major League Debuts: 2023 Edition , about his new series of annual books about every player who makes the ma...
Mar 23, 2023•1 hr 41 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Team USA’s WBC quarterfinal and semifinal victories and Jose Altuve ’s injury, then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the New York Yankees (28:17) with Brendan Kuty of The Athletic , and the Washington Nationals (1:06:41) with Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post , plus a Past Blast from 1983 (1:47:29), trivia answers (1:52:16), and an initial reaction to a stone-cold classic Japan-Mexico WBC semifinal (1:53:33). 2023 EW Season Pr...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 59 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the WBC’s TV ratings in Japan and (8:56) possible consequences of MLB’s RSN shake-up, then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the New York Mets (21:08) with Deesha Thosar of Fox Sports, and the Oakland Athletics (1:00:11) with Matt Kawahara of The SF Chronicle , plus a Past Blast from 1982 (1:39:53) and trivia answers (1:52:11). 2023 EW Season Preview Series AL BAL CHW ATH BOS CLE HOU NYY DET LAA TBR KCR SEA TOR MIN TEX NL ATL CHC AR...
Mar 18, 2023•1 hr 57 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Edwin Díaz ’s season-ending injury at the WBC and the anti-WBC sentiment it engendered, then (20:39) bring on top-tier Patreon supporter Michael Eisen to discuss his history with Effectively Wild and baseball and how his scientific research is analogous to baseball research, before answering listener emails (31:29) about the best way to use an ambidextrous pitcher, reenacting a specific baseball game, what it would be like if baseball players were worse ...
Mar 17, 2023•1 hr 56 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about recent WBC highlights, whether the WBC should be held more often (7:44), extensions for Corbin Carroll and Keibert Ruiz (19:50), MLB preparing to take over streaming for some teams amid the Diamond Sports bankruptcy (21:22), Trevor Bauer departing for Japan (31:17), and an Effectively Wild theme song contest (35:43), then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the Tampa Bay Rays (42:57) with Adam Berry of MLB.com, and the Detroit Tigers ...
Mar 15, 2023•2 hr 5 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the exciting beginning of the WBC, early indications in spring training that MLB’s rules changes are having the intended effects, and a classic unprecedented occurrence in a baseball game, then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the Houston Astros (17:49) with Chandler Rome of The Houston Chronicle , and the Pittsburgh Pirates (59:39) with Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , plus a Past Blast from 1979 (1:30:38), preview tr...
Mar 10, 2023•1 hr 44 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley welcome back former co-host Sam Miller to banter about his return to public baseball writing, his current relationship with baseball, and his new Substack, Pebble Hunting . Then (17:10) Ben, Meg, and Sam talk about a 1913 article about unprecedented events at the ballpark, the cliché about seeing something new at every game, the supreme examples of that phenomenon from any point in baseball history, games they attended, and games they paid attention to, and examples ...
Mar 09, 2023•2 hr 1 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about catcher Grayson Greiner’ s height, Shohei Ohtani ’s titanic homers, tight t-shirt, and pepper-grinding in WBC exhibitions, and a few preview-related trivia questions, then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the Toronto Blue Jays (15:02) with Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic , and the Kansas City Royals (55:25) with Anne Rogers of MLB.com, plus a Past Blast from 1977 (1:23:45) and trivia answers (1:32:46). 2023 EW Season Preview Series...
Mar 07, 2023•1 hr 41 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Kenta Maeda pitching well despite PitchCom giving away his signs, spring training injuries (5:26), the upsides and downsides of pitchers beginning to call their own pitches with PitchCom (9:03), and the reasons why hitters collectively seem to swing more often than they should (20:18). Then they continue (and pass the halfway point of) their 2023 season preview series by discussing the Los Angeles Dodgers (40:01) with Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic , and ...
Mar 04, 2023•2 hr 20 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley begin with a little loose talk about Kiké Hernández ’s revelation that he sharted during the 2020 NLDS, and pin down the precise instant of the accident with audio evidence. Then (23:59) they banter about whether it’s oxymoronic for MLB to have multiple “co-exclusive” official betting partners, MLB hiring local media execs to prepare for an RSN collapse (30:27), how the Blue Jays could make use of ex-Astros GM James Click (33:37), MLB lobbying state governments for e...
Mar 03, 2023•2 hr 9 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Manny Machado ’s extension, whether the Padres have spending constraints, and what the team’s future might look like, then (18:51) discuss their impressions of the pitch clock in spring training so far and offer a brief update on their podcast editor search (30:42). After that, they continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the St. Louis Cardinals (33:55) with Katie Woo of The Athletic , and the Arizona Diamondbacks (1:09:31) with Nick Piec...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 56 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley announce that they’re hiring a new podcast editor and solicit applications for the position, then (9:40) banter about another zombie-runner-related update to dictionary.com, MLB’s latest crackdown on sticky stuff, displaying the pitch clock on broadcast score bugs, Albert Pujols’ s 10-year personal services contract with the Angels, and Rays pitcher Ryan Thompson ’s comments about the arbitration process. After that, they continue their 2023 season preview series by ...
Feb 25, 2023•2 hr 17 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Prospect Week at FanGraphs, a misleading email, and Ben’s daughter’s cold, then discuss Alex Rodriguez as a budding book author, social-media maven, and flawed (anti)hero (9:19), non-revelatory news about Shohei Ohtani ’s future (24:07), a secret Mets spring training drill (32:07), and Ben’s reviews of two baseball books that were recently under consideration to be banned in Duval County, Florida (46:07). After that (1:10:59), they bring on FanGraphs lea...
Feb 23, 2023•2 hr 10 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the USA World Baseball Classic roster’s so-so starting pitching, the difficulty of recruiting top pitchers for the tournament, and Japan’s staff, Meg’s college baseball weekend and Juan Soto sighting, Orioles owner John Angelos’s latest comments, and MLB’s new Economic Reform Committee, plus a Stat Blast (31:56) about the greatest players who were never the best player on their team and an observation about the spread of projected win totals in the AL an...
Feb 20, 2023•2 hr 13 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the release of FanGraphs’ playoff odds and the biggest differences between the FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus playoff and World Series odds, then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the Seattle Mariners (18:28) with Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times and the Chicago White Sox (1:03:48) with The Athletic ’s James Fegan , plus a Past Blast (1:49:08) from 1970 and a postscript. 2023 EW Season Preview Series AL BAL CHW ATH BOS CLE HOU NY...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 58 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the temperature in Phoenix, writers taking photos of bases, and Meg taking photos of the writers, then discuss Meg’s takeaways from MLB’s presentation to media members about this season’s new rules, MLB.TV adding minor league games, the Padres signing Michael Wacha (and changing their revenue-sharing classification), and early pitcher injuries, followed by (29:32) a Stat Blast about how much major league talent comes from a typical farm system. After tha...
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr 46 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley lament the newly codified permanence of the zombie runner, rededicate themselves to “ghost runner” reeducation, and banter about a new position-player-pitching limitation, Andrew Chafin’ s surprisingly modest contract, Derek Jeter joining Fox Sports, baseball’s leading newsbreakers vs. the leading newsbreakers in other sports, baseball officiating vs. football officiating, the schedule for Triple-A robo umps, and a 1937 proposal for baseball photo finishes. Then they...
Feb 14, 2023•2 hr 9 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Yu Darvish’ s extension, then continue their 2023 season preview series by discussing the Los Angeles Angels (10:11) with The Athletic’ s Sam Blum and the Boston Red Sox (59:32) with The Boston Globe ’s Alex Speier , plus a Past Blast (1:47:29) from 1967, an impromptu chat between Ben and former MLB umpire Joe West about whether/why West edited his own Wikipedia page (1:50:12), and a few follow-ups (2:11:42). 2023 EW Season Preview Series AL BAL CHW ATH ...
Feb 10, 2023•2 hr 17 min
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and Effectively Wild listener/Patreon supporter Alana Crockett banter about Alana’s baseball background, pitcher representation in the MLB and MLBPA logos, and former umpire Joe West allegedly editing his own Wikipedia page, then (26:44) answer listener emails about a “cheap team tax” in trades, a pitching coach superpower, trading for the Rays’ front office, batters tossing the ball to themselves, a reboot of The Baseball Bunch , batters predicting pitch types, and ca...
Feb 09, 2023•2 hr
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley introduce the 11th annual Effectively Wild season preview series, then kick things off by previewing the 2023 San Francisco Giants (13:03) with The Athletic’ s Grant Brisbee and the 2023 Minnesota Twins (55:48) with The Athletic ’s Aaron Gleeman , plus a Past Blast (1:33:43) from 1965. 2023 EW Season Preview Series AL BAL CHW ATH BOS CLE HOU NYY DET LAA TBR KCR SEA TOR MIN TEX NL ATL CHC ARI MIA CIN COL NYM MIL LAD PHI PIT SDP WSN STL SFG Audio intro : The Bevis Fron...
Feb 07, 2023•1 hr 45 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about pre-Opening Day milestones and the upcoming EW season preview series, then (7:59) draft and discuss their favorite offseason transactions (and non-transactions), followed by a Past Blast from 1964 (1:16:19) and a Stat Blast addendum (1:21:18) about Pinky Higgins , Roxie Lawson , and hits-related records. Audio intro : Marshall Crenshaw, “ You’re My Favorite Waste of Time ” Audio outro : Ward White, “ 1964 ” Link to Red Sox Truck Day Link to Guardians Tru...
Feb 03, 2023•1 hr 31 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley issue a sexiness-comment correction and banter about Jazz Chisholm Jr.’ s MLB: The Show cover-model credentials, the 2023 Opening Day schedule, more ways in which baseball is and isn’t different from other sports (14:35), Chad Green ’s convoluted contract (31:35), and their appreciation of Zack Greinke . Then (43:49) Ben chats with former All-Star Shawn Green about his cameo in 2003 sci-fi film The Core and his dominant stats against fellow The Core cameo-maker Mike ...
Feb 02, 2023•1 hr 47 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about players being in the sexiest shape of their lives, Rockies owner Dick Monfort’s comments about the Padres’ spending, and how Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy might affect the future of baseball broadcasting, then (28:09) discuss more ways in which baseball stands out from other sports. After that (35:35), they answer listener emails about misspelled Cy Young awards, why timeouts are called timeouts, “offensive environment” vs. “scoring environment” and ...
Jan 31, 2023•2 hr 15 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Orioles owner John Angelos reneging on his offer to show reporters the team’s financial information, the O’s acquiring Cole Irvin , the Astros hiring the Braves’ Dana Brown as their new GM, and the Twins trading for Michael A. Taylor to be Byron Buxton ’s backup, plus more ways in which baseball is different from other sports (27:12), a mini Stat Blast about Jeff Kent’s ability to turn the double play (46:32), and a Past Blast from 1961 (55:58). Then (1:...
Jan 28, 2023•1 hr 46 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Scott Rolen ’s election to the Hall of Fame, Billy Wagner , Andy Pettitte , and relievers vs. starters as Cooperstown candidates, the Adalberto Mondesi trade (and a wager about Mondesi and Shohei Ohtani ), and (32:40) more ways in which baseball stands out from other sports. Then (45:00) they talk to FanGraphs senior writer (and The Cooperstown Casebook author) Jay Jaffe about Rolen’s trajectory, the rest of the voting results, the typical ballot in 2023...
Jan 26, 2023•1 hr 43 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the yips, more ways in which baseball is different from other sports, big leaguers playing against kids, and Rogers Centre’s new dimensions, plus a Past Blast (36:49) from 1959. Then (41:54) they talk to Sam Blum and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic and Pedro Moura of Fox Sports about how the Angels have neglected their Spanish-language broadcasts, the legacy of newly retired, legendary Dodgers broadcaster Jaime Jarrín, the difference in the ways in which M...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 30 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about 53-year-old Dae-Sung Koo 구대성 pitching in Australia, provide a final(?) update on Brandon Belt ’s beloved Toronto chicken tenders, discuss the invisible strike zone as a feature that sets baseball apart from other sports (along with listener responses to other differentiating factors), bemoan the results of a Reddit poll about what to call the extra-inning runner, and marvel at investigations into the effect of the orientation of the baseball on its path ...
Jan 21, 2023•1 hr 59 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about passing the halfway point of the offseason, another way in which baseball is unusual among team sports, a few minor transactions, and (11:15) recent PR missteps by the Reds and Orioles owners’ respective sons. Then (39:16) they talk to writer Dan Moore about his reporting on public stadium subsidies, the financial cost of keeping teams in a city and the intangible cost of letting them leave, the architectural and economic legacies of Oriole Park at Camde...
Jan 19, 2023•1 hr 37 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about players snacking on the field and a baseball equivalent of the EGOT before (23:01) Ben brings on Ron Shelton, the Oscar-nominated writer and director of Bull Durham and the author of The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham , to reminisce about Shelton’s minor league career, how conditions in the minors have evolved, the future big leaguers he played with, why Crash Davis didn’t stick in the majors, sports-movie verisimilitude, how he wrote Anni...
Jan 18, 2023•2 hr 1 min
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a “Dear Abby” baseball column, Andrew McCutchen ’s return to Pittsburgh, Nelson Cruz signing with San Diego, the Dodgers reacquiring Miguel Rojas , catcher deking and the ball-strike challenge system, and inaccurate outfield-fence distances, follow up on Toronto chicken tenders (and how a new Canadian law could affect the Blue Jays), the tendency for fans to view baseball from the batter’s perspective, and a few more ways in which baseball is unusual amo...
Jan 14, 2023•2 hr 2 min
