Effectively Wild Episode 1953: The Weakest Links Left

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a Roger Angell-identified way in which baseball is different from other sports, discuss the Mariners signing AJ Pollock and the Phillies trading for Gregory Soto , and respond to the Dodgers cutting ties with Trevor Bauer , MLB reinstating former Braves GM John Coppolella, and KBO ace An Woo-jin not being rostered on South Korea’s WBC squad, plus musings on the competitive advantage of preventing leaks and a Past Blast from 1953. Then (42:42) they talk to FanGraphs senior writer and ZiPS creator Dan Szymborski about the weakest projected positions on contending teams, along with detours into Shohei Ohtani ’s WAR projection, whether salaries for starting pitchers have declined along with innings totals, the linear relationship between dollars and WAR, the deflation of center-field offense, the pace of free-agent signings, whether AI will be the downfall of humanity, and more, followed by a postscript with a few notes and updates. Audio intro : Trampled By Turtles, “ A Lifetime to Find ” Audio interstitial : Margo Price, “ That’s How Rumors Get Started ” Audio outro : Jason Isbell, “ If it Takes a Lifetime ” Link to Angell’s “On the Ball” Link to MLBTR on Pollock Link to Longenhagen on Soto Link to Sands photo Link to Dipoto on M’s spending Link to Rosenthal on Bauer Link to Nightengale on Bauer Link to MLBTR on Coppolella Link to An Woo-Jin article Link to more on An Woo-Jin Link to more on KBO bullying Link to An Woo-Jin scouting report Link to article on volleyball bullying Link to Nightengale on the Braves Link to 1953 story source Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter Link to article on Rose’s bet Link to zombie runner coinage Link to Ben C. on FA movement Link to Ben’s FA retrospective Link to Dan’s ZiPS pieces Link to FG depth charts Link to best remaining FA Link to Dodgers payroll post Link to Rob on pitchers/payroll Link to Dan on paying for wins Link to Rob on CF offense Link to Posnanski on chess bots Link to Dan’s Gronk tweets Link to Dan’s weapons tweet Link to chatbots EW episode Link to MLBTR on Hendriks Link to MLB.com on Hendriks Link to All-CarShield team Link to EW on CarShield sponsors Link to Andújar trade request Link to tennis baseball video Link to Colbert/Musial story Sponsor Us on Patreon Facebook Group Twitter Account EW Subreddit Effectively Wild Wiki iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source