Effectively Wild Episode 2184: The Biggest First-Half Surprises

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a player/league/umpire spat over on-screen strike-zone plots, whether “K-Zone” and its ilk have had a harmful effect on the game, where they stand on a hitter vs. pitcher dispute about the mid-game use of advanced pitching machines, the promotion of Nationals top prospect James Wood (and the future of Orioles top prospect Jackson Holliday ), and Byron Buxton ’s recent success. Then (59:08) they identify and discuss the teams, hitters, and pitchers that have most surpassed or fallen short of their preseason projections halfway through the regular season. Audio intro : Dave Armstrong and Mike Murray, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio outro : Nate Emerson, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Link to Drellich on zone plots Link to Reddit thread on plots Link to BP piece on plots Link to ESPN on pitching machines Link to Ben on pitching machines Link to Ben on moving the mound Link to Ben on roster limits Link to MLBTR on Wood Link to Nationals depth chart Link to FG’s The Board Link to MLB Pipeline top 100 Link to AAA wRC+ leaders Link to Holliday’s game logs Link to O’s prospect list Link to Orioles depth chart Link to Buxton’s sprint speeds Link to sprint speed leaderboard Link to team projections sheets Link to hitter projections sheets Link to pitcher projections sheets Link to preseason team projections Link to preseason hitter projections Link to preseason pitcher projections Link to MLBTR on Phils injuries Link to Sam on Duran Link to Laurila on Hauck Link to Sox pitching piece 1 Link to Sox pitching piece 2 Link to Sox pitching piece 3 Link to Sox pitching piece 4 Link to team DRS leaderboard Link to Paine on the Cubs Link to McKenzie feature Link to Peña interview clip Link to Ben on in-game interviews Link to ballpark meetup forms Link to meetup organizer form 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