About this episode
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about an NPB matchup between Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki , those aces’ current talent levels and MLB futures, how velocity has climbed in NPB compared to MLB, and how stealing bases seems to be the one thing Shohei Ohtani (and, for that matter, Mike Trout ) can’t do. Then (18:52) they follow up on earlier conversations about Cast Away , playing baseball on top of a tall building, and a pitcher who throws an unhittable pitch, discuss partial runs (26:53), a strange MLB survey question (37:10), whether Rob Manfred is suddenly based (44:34), Jim Bowden’s pro-ownership stance (55:17), and why teams aren’t stealing third base more often (1:06:45), followed by Stat Blasts (1:12:43) about the most first major league hits in one game, teams with the most players who had career years, the biggest years for prominent retirements at each position, and mascot clothing, plus a reaction to an assault on Rockies mascot Dinger (1:42:04), a Past Blast (1:48:04) from 1994, concerns about ESPN micing up Martín Maldonado during a game (1:50:28), and a few follow-ups (1:54:47). Audio intro : Ian H., “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio outro : Kelley Stoltz, “ Memory Collector ” Link to Yamamoto/Sasaki story Link to Yamamoto/Sasaki lines Link to Yamamoto/Sasaki highlights Link to DeltaGraphs NPB data Link to 0 SB players Link to Sam Blum on Angels steals Link to Sam Miller on Trout steals Link to Ohtani “by the way” line Link to Burj al-Arab tennis Link to Tom Cruise climbing scene Link to MLB survey screenshot Link to Manfred on blackouts Link to Bowden on opt-outs Link to 2023 basestealing stats Link to Petriello on basestealing Link to Rob Mains on going for 3rd Link to Topps NOW cards Link to info on Julien debut Link to 1938 Feller game Link to 1938 debuts game Link to 1947 debuts game Link to first-hits data Link to best-seasons data Link to best-seasons summary Link to player-retirements data Link to mascots survey Link to Dinger attack video Link to article on wanted man Link to Charmin’ bear ad Link to Ben’s bidet article Link to Abbott Elementary reference Link to Ryan Nelson’s Twitter Link to EW emails database Link to Maldonado news Link to Ben on in-game interviews Link to Manoah video Link to Cortes/Trevino video Link to 1994 Past Blast source Link to David Lewis’s Twitter Link to David Lewis’s Substack Link to Dinger arrest news Link to Dinger summons 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