About this episode
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Angels manager Joe Maddon’s befuddling bases-loaded intentional walk to Corey Seager , NPB phenom Roki Sasaki’s perfect followup to his perfect game, Hunter Greene and velo-induced fear for young starters, injury close calls for Byron Buxton and Mike Trout , the rise of non-fastballs leaguewide and what Andrew Heaney’ s sweeper-iffic success says about player development, more stringent pitch clocks reducing game times in the minors, unvaccinated players not making trips to Toronto, Ichiro Suzuki ’s speedy ceremonial first pitch, a feral-cat infestation in Oakland, rebounds in MLB’s average salary and per-game attendance, and a reduction in home-run rate and speculation about the behavior of the ball, plus followups about beef boys, replay review signals in Japan, a rules loophole exploited by Jackie Robinson and his contemporaries, and a way to calculate the most expected no-hitters subtracted. Audio intro : Ben Kweller, “ Make it Up ” Audio outro : Marshall Crenshaw, “ (We’re Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds ” Link to The Athletic on Maddon’s IBB Link to the AP on Maddon’s IBB Link to Nathan Fielder tweet Link to list of bases-loaded IBB Link to info on previous bases-loaded IBBs Link to 2015 Maddon zoo-animals story Link to images of Maddon’s zoo animals Link to Ben Clemens on Maddon’s IBB Link to Ben on Maddon’s IBB again Link to confused Trout clip Link to Slate story on Sasaki Link to Ben on Sasaki on Hang Up and Listen Link to Sponichi poll about Sasaki Link to story on Greene’s velo record Link to video of Buxton injury Link to video of Trout HBP Link to BIS MLB pitch types by year Link to Pitch Info MLB velocity by year Link to “sweeper” leaderboard Link to Jay Jaffe on Heaney Link to Fabian Ardaya on Heaney Link to Michael Ajeto on Heaney Link to Eno Sarris on the sweeper Link to Lindsey Adler on the whirly Link to before-and-after Heaney videos Link to Lucas Apostoleris tweet about sweepers Link to Baseball America on the new pitch clock Link to Joe Posnanski on the new pitch clock Link to Jeff Passan on the new pitch clock Link to Darwinzon Hernandez video Link to Ben and Rob on pitch-clock exposure Link to article about Oakland’s COVID outbreak Link to story about unvaccinated Red Sox Link to article about Story’s vaccination Link to Ichiro video (and inaccurate velo) Link to accurate Ichiro velo Link to Ben on Ichiro’s power Link to Oakland ballpark-cats story Link to MLB average salary news Link to yearly MLB attendance figures Link to “pent-up demand” EW episode Link to Rotowire story about power outage Link to Jim Albert on balls flying less far Link to Joe Sheehan on the new ball’s behavior Link to Derek Carty tweet about HR rates Link to tweet about humidor and HR rates Link to Jeremy Frank tweet Link to story about Angels remote broadcasts Link to “ground beef” tweet Link to NPB replay review signal video Link to EW Stanky draft episode Link to story about Robinson and rules Link to other story about Robinson and rules Link to Don Hoak Wiki Link to “Kris Bryant rule” story Link to data on new no-hitters stat Sponsor Us on Patreon Subscribe to Stathead (Code: WILD20) Facebook Group Effectively Wild Wiki Twitter Account iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source