About this episode
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a bargaining meeting between MLB and the MLBPA that reportedly produced little progress toward a deal, the odds of a punctual start to the season, the retirement of Jon Lester and their lasting fascination with his pickoff-throw yips, a familiarity penalty for relievers who face the same team multiple times within a postseason series, what the mysteriously rapid decline of Jimmie Foxx says about the value of injury information that we generally lack, and the Atlantic League mound reverting to 60 feet, six inches, then answer listener emails about an NFL tie scenario and the zombie runner, active players as GMs, how long the podcast (and MLB) could survive a lockout, why the best catchers’ career WARs aren’t higher, whether player-managers could ever make a comeback, Shohei Ohtani ’s satisfaction with the state of the sport, and changing the dimensions of a ballpark (like Camden Yards) to favor a certain group of players. Audio intro : PUP, “ Familiar Patterns ” Audio outro : The Posies, “ Throwaway ” Link to CBA proposal details Link to Jeff Sullivan on Lester Link to August Fagerstrom on Lester Link to Ben on Lester Link to Lester’s bounce pass Link to old Lester episodes Link to old news Facebook group thread Link to postseason reliever research Link to regular-season reliever research Link to Ben on postseason SP familiarity Link to Pages from Baseball’s Past Link to Craig Wright’s first Foxx story Link to Craig’s second Foxx story Link to study on injuries and exit velo Link to Atlantic League press release Link to story on the almost-tie scenario Link to Barnwell on the almost-tie Link to Rob Mahoney on the Lakers Link to article about LeBron as GM Link to Jeff on a baseball LeBron Link to oral history of Verlander trade Link to Emma on the Players’ League Link catcher JAWS page Link to Ben on catcher career standards Link to Ohtani profile Link to Ohtani photo thread Link to Ohtani “10 Essentials” video Link to story on Orioles fence move Link to analysis of Orioles fence move Link to Statcast park factors Link to story on Veeck moving fences Link to story on White Sox field move Link to story on home run robberies Link to story on ballpark homogenization Link to “burn the boats” story 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