Effectively Wild Episode 1955: Upshift, Downshift

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a “Dear Abby” baseball column, Andrew McCutchen ’s return to Pittsburgh, Nelson Cruz signing with San Diego, the Dodgers reacquiring Miguel Rojas , catcher deking and the ball-strike challenge system, and inaccurate outfield-fence distances, follow up on Toronto chicken tenders (and how a new Canadian law could affect the Blue Jays), the tendency for fans to view baseball from the batter’s perspective, and a few more ways in which baseball is unusual among sports, followed (57:04) by a Stat Blast update on Brandon Crawford , Brandon Belt , and prolific putout tandems, a new Stat Blast about J.J. Hardy , Scott Rolen , and players who only ever played one defensive position, and a Past Blast from 1955. Then (1:21:28) they talk to Mike Petriello of MLB.com about the effects he thinks MLB’s new positioning restrictions will have, how to determine whether the shift ban “worked,” how he thinks teams will play defense, whether hitters should adjust their approaches, which individual hitters and teams could be helped or hindered, and his thoughts on the other new rules changes. Audio intro : The Smithereens, “ Dear Abby ” Audio interstitial : Smith Westerns, “ Only One ” Audio outro : Lyres, “ Swing Shift ” Link to “Dear Abby” column Link to FG post on Cruz Link to LASIK study Link to FG post on Rojas Link to FG post on Fujinami Link to “gamer babe” discussion Link to The Classical on “gamer babe” Link to “gamer babe” name change Link to “gamer babe” Giants post Link to Cutch hype video Link to Cutch offers report Link to Defector on “furries” tweets Link to Anthrocon site Link to Céspedes BBQ tweet Link to LASIK study Link to Hannah Keyser on ABS Link to ESPN ABS report Link to Tango on deking Link to laser measurements story Link to Miggy reaction Link to Woodberry laser tweets Link to Comerica flies montage Link to Tango on Comerica barrels Link to Tango HR estimate Link to FG post on Tigers hitters Link to ballpark homogenization Link to Belt on chicken tenders Link to Toronto Ritz menu Link to “Avocado Factor” Link to Sportsnet article Link to baseball idioms wiki Link to idioms classification Link to preorder Russell’s book Link to Episode 1616 Stat Blast Link to Episode 1616 putout duos Link to Posnanski on Hardy Link to one-position-player data Link to Ryan Nelson’s Twitter Link to Kenny Jackelen’s Twitter Link to FG post on Andrus Link to 2002 Rollins game story Link to Rollins in 2017 ST Link to Snoopy’s Joe Cool Link to 1955 story source Link to SABR on Zimmer’s beaning Link to info on Peltzman Effect Link to Craig Wright on first helmets Link to Wright on modern helmets Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter Link to Mike on Seager Link to SIS on Seager Link to helped-hitters article Link to not-helped-hitters article Link to free agents and the shift Link to “pie slice” rule Link to Gleeman on Kepler Link to lowest-BABIP players Link to SNY on McNeil Link to FG post on righty shifts Link to Tango on spray angle Link to Tango on layered hit prob. Link to Ballpark Dimensions 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