Effectively Wild Episode 1448: The 21-Soto Salute

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss the latest on the Astros and the benefits and limitations of front-office diversity, Rob Manfred’s new comments about the baseball, Kris Bryant ’s grievance against the Cubs, umpire Rob Drake’s apology for a bad tweet, and Yu Darvish’ s good tweets, then answer listener emails about Juan Soto’ s age and clubhouse drinking, the Nationals’ clubhouse chemistry, whether teams should stagger their starters to avoid opponents’ aces, whether stealing third is easier than stealing second, whether baseball should have a playoff losers bracket, and whether pitchers can use the variation between baseballs to their advantage. Audio intro : Thrush Hermit, " This Week " Audio outro : Modern Baseball, " Play Ball! " Link to Manfred’s comments about the ball Link to article about Bryant’s grievance Link to article about Rob Drake’s tweets Link to Rob Drake’s apology Link to Boswell article about the Nats’ chemistry Link to Svrluga article about the Nats’ chemistry Link to article about the Astros’ chemistry Link to Ben on forecasting chemistry Link to Emma on MLB’s issues Link to video of Soto’s sparkling grape juice Link to story on Harper’s apple cider Link to Rob’s new research about the ball Link to story on Darvish/Verlander tweets Link to Ben Clemens on staggering starters Link to Dan Lependorf on staggering starters Link to Dan Meyer on staggering starters Link to Roger Cheng on staggering starters Link to order The MVP Machine 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