Effectively Wild Episode 2479: Batters Up!
5/15/202634 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon.
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether Ben cursed Shohei Ohtani’s bat by predicting that Ohtani would win the Cy Young award but not the MVP award, whether Bobby Witt Jr. could win his first MVP award this season, the defensive transformation of Luis Arraez, and more, then (33:16) further interrogate what homoerotic celebrations say about baseball culture, discuss the latest ABS challenge mishaps, answer listener emails (54:30) about an ABS double-or-nothing idea, trading challenges for runs, purchasing challenges midgame, an upside of umpire rotation, boosting offense with double-barreled batters, and a baseball equivalent to the Kelce brothers, plus Stat Blasts (1:28:21) about players with the most inning-ending at-bats in a game, swing rates in debut plate appearances, grand-slam merchants, teams with many MVP vote-getters, and picked-off pinch runners.
Audio intro: The Gagnés, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Dave Armstrong and Mike Murray, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Link to preseason predictions episode
Link to Ohtani slump story 1
Link to Ohtani slump story 2
Link to Ohtani slump story 3
Link to Ohtani slump story 4
Link to Ohtani slump story 5
Link to FG WAR leaders
Link to B-Ref WAR leaders
Link to FG post on Arraez
Link to MLB.com on Arraez
Link to FRV leaders
Link to Outsports post 1
Link to Outsports post 2
Link to Outsports post 3
Link to homosociality wiki
Link to Ross memoir
Link to Valentine/Baty incident
Link to Torres challenge denials
Link to Heim play
Link to Ben on accidental challenges
Link to Jake on accidental challenges
Link to Gausman quote
Link to batter challenge leaders
Link to Rumsfeld quote wiki
Link to catcher challenge leaders
Link to team challenge leaders
Link to Clemens on FA $/WAR
Link to Ortiz ump injury
Link to double-barreled BP article 1
Link to double-barreled BP article 2
Link to HUAL segment
Link to ex-athlete pods article 1
Link to ex-athlete pods article 2
Link to Tkachuks pod
Link to Harrisburg vs. Erie game
Link to 1977 Jays-Yanks game
Link to five-inning-ending players
Link to 2003 NL MVP voting
Link to teams with 8+ MVP vote-getters
Link to SABR on WAR and awards
Link to Baumann on WAR and awards
Link to Sam on downballot MVP votes
Link to debut-PA swing rates data
Link to innings 1-3 swing rate
Link to innings 4+ swing rate
Link to grand slams data
Link to listener emails database
Link to highest PR pickoff rates data
Link to Haggerty pickoff game
Link to SABR on PR specialists
Link to Wright on PR specialists 1
Link to Wright on PR specialists 2
Link to Langs Bell fun fact
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[singing] Ohtani, the stat blast, the b-boys are schwet. There's a very pedant, it's super new fet. Je pense que c'est effectively cool. Je pense que c'est effectively wild. Effectively sauvage. Effectively sauvage.
Ben Lindbergh· Host0:29
Hello, and welcome to episode 2479 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from FanGraphs, presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer, joined by Meg Rowley of FanGraphs. Hello, Meg.
Meg Rowley· Host0:46
Oh, hello.
Ben Lindbergh· Host0:47
Well, today we bring a bounty of banter, emails, stat blasts, but first we must discuss a curse- Oh ... because I fear that I have broken Shohei Ohtani, or at least have broken the bat of Shohei Ohtani- [laughs] ... because his arm seems to be just doing dandy. But he's not hitting like his usual self.
Meg Rowley· Host1:09
Mm-hmm.
Ben Lindbergh· Host1:10
And he's not even hitting as much as his usual self, which is because he isn't hitting like himself, he's being given more days off to rest- Uh-huh ... to regroup. And I, of course, made the bold preseason prediction that Shohei Ohtani would win the Cy Young Award, but not the MVP award.