About this episode
Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Willians Astudillo going viral yet again, his iconic winter-league home-run pose and the state of celebration in baseball, the improbable personality of an improbable player, Astudillo’s future in Minnesota, and the Mariners bringing back Dustin Ackley . Then (23:59) they talk to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Systems Engineer (and baseball nerd) Shannon Towey about her past work at CERN, her present work on multiple Mars missions at JPL, her scientific interest in baseball, baseball fandom at JPL, her thoughts on the state of the Mets, Baseball Twitter vs. Space Twitter, misconceptions about science, her top Solar System destinations, and more, plus a postscript about the Brewers’ surprising signing of Yasmani Grandal . Audio intro : The Jayhawks, " Big Star " Audio interstitial : Robyn Hitchcock, " NASA Clapping " Audio outro : Guster, " Rocketship " Link to Astudillo homer Link to Jeff’s post on Astudillo Link to volcanologist interview episode Link to Jeff’s post on Citi Field Link to Shannon’s pitcher-classification post Link to Mars 2020 mission site Link to Mars Helicopter iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Sponsor Us on Patreon Facebook Group Effectively Wild Wiki Twitter Account Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source