Show notes
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley begin with a little loose talk about Kiké Hernández’s revelation that he sharted during the 2020 NLDS, and pin down the precise instant of the accident with audio evidence. Then (23:59) they banter about whether it’s oxymoronic for MLB to have multiple “co-exclusive” official betting partners, MLB hiring local media execs to prepare for an RSN collapse (30:27), how the Blue Jays could make use of ex-Astros GM James Click (33:37), MLB lobbying state governments for exceptions to minimum-wage laws (39:51), a wave of injuries in spring training (44:30), and an umpire-less inning (48:06). After that (51:06), they answer listener emails about whether a Triple-A team in midseason form could defeat a pre-spring-training average MLB team or team of MLB all-stars, forgetting player handedness, the fluky debut of Livan Soto, whether Barry Bonds could still hit home runs, triple-digit uniform numbers, changing one’s mind about boycotting MLB, “hitter” vs. “position player,” the effects of starting separate unions for pitchers and hitters, and what a “partial shift” means in 2023, plus a Past Blast from 1975 (1:43:31) and a follow-up on the Past Blast from 1974 (1:46:37), featuring Gregg Trueman, son of sabermetric pioneer Richard E. (Dick) Trueman.Audio intro: Billy Bragg, “Accident Waiting to Happen”Audio outro: Monsters of Folk, “Ahead of the Curve”Link to Red Sox Twitter videoLink to the instant of the shartLink to 2020 NLDS G1 at B-RefLink to Meg on BradleyLink to new “co-exclusive” press releaseLink to 2021 “co-exclusive” press releaseLink to MLB’s local media hiringsLink to Drellich on MLB and RSNsLink to article on Click’s hiringLink to article on Click and CraneLink to Ben on front-office secrecyLink to Seeking Rents on MLB lobbyingLink to Drellich on MLB lobbyingLink to EW on possible book bansLink to Lux injury videoLink to thread on umpire-less baseballLink to Handley’s framingLink to MLB on the umpire-less inningLink to ESPN on the umpire-less inningLink to EW on unnecessary 9th inningsLink to EW listener emails databaseLink to Soto/Bouchard leaderboardLink to Voros’s LawLink to Soto’s record on StatheadLink to article about Bonds’s cyclingLink to Bonds on StravaLink to 75-year-old Appling’s HRLink to Adler on uniform numbersLink to Neshek on SABRCastLink to 2020 Keyser columnLink to revised MLBPA logoLink to MLB on “strategic” shiftsLink to 1975 Past Blast sourceLink to high school expanded DHLink to “Ohtani rule”Link to David Lewis’s TwitterLink to David Lewis’s SubstackLink to 1974 Past BlastLink to Trueman’s 1974 articleLink to Trueman’s 1959 articleLink to Pete Palmer wikiLink to Earnshaw Cook wikiLink to The Numbers GameLink to 1964 SI articleLink to SABR’s Mills dataLink to Palmer on Player Win AveragesLink to Dick Trueman archive 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.comvar SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {});Source