Effectively Wild Episode 2485: Let’s Enhance?
5/30/202635 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon.
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Enhanced Games and whether they would watch a baseball league where PEDS were explicitly permitted, Abner Uribe’s crotch-chop suspension, and (34:40) the most disappointing and surprising (in a positive way) teams of 2026, then (55:37) answer emails about raising a girl who likes baseball, how a salary cap would affect prices for fans, home runs on the first pitch of the game, the Hall of Fame prospects of Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, and Aroldis Chapman, the most players appearing in a game against their former team, and how to evaluate whether a team’s player development was responsible for a player’s success or failure.
Audio intro: The Shirey Brothers, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Link to “Let’s enhance” meme
Link to “Let’s enhance” montage
Link to Enhanced Games wiki
Link to Defector on the Enhanced Games
Link to The Conversation on the Enhanced Games
Link to NPR on the Enhanced Games
Link to nostalgia study
Link to Ben on the PED era
Link to McGwire Simpsons clip
Link to dinger distribution article 1
Link to dinger distribution article 2
Link to dinger distribution article 3
Link to Hill homer
Link to Uribe post
Link to MLB.com on Uribe
Link to AP on Uribe
Link to MLBTR on Uribe
Link to Uribe/Marmol video
Link to D-Generation X wiki
Link to DX chop compilation
Link to player names on Uribe
Link to playoff odds changes
Link to team wRC+
Link to SI on Rays hitting
Link to Posnanski on Rays hitting
Link to Garp quote
Link to Owen Meany quote
Link to Tatis HR website
Link to MLBTR on Pérez injury
Link to dynamic vs. static stretching
Link to Goodnight Baseball
Link to @dril tweet
Link to BP on payrolls and prices 1
Link to BP on payrolls and prices 1
Link to BP on payrolls and prices 3
Link to first-pitch homers
Link to Sam on first-pitch homers 1
Link to Sam on first-pitch homers 2
Link to Sam on first-pitch homers 3
Link to RP JAWS
Link to player development study 1
Link to player development study 2
Link to players vs. former teams data
Link to listener emails database
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 0· Soundbite0:01
It's effectively wild, and it's wildly effective at putting baseball in the perfect perspective. Impressively smart and impeccably styled, it's the wildly effective, effectively wild. Spin rate, long changeup, bat dip and war. You might hear something you've never heard before Hello, and welcome to episode 2485 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from FanGraphs, presented by our Patreon supporters.
Ben Lindbergh· Host0:37
I am Ben Lindberg of The Ringer, joined by Meg Rowley of FanGraphs. Hello, Meg.
Meg Rowley· Host0:41
Hello.
Ben Lindbergh· Host0:42
I suspect I know the answer to this, but did you follow the Enhanced Games at all?
Meg Rowley· Host0:49
No.
Ben Lindbergh· Host0:49
[laughs] Have you heard of the Enhanced Games?
Meg Rowley· Host0:52
I've seen mention made of it- Yeah ... on, uh, social media.
Ben Lindbergh· Host0:58
Yeah.
Meg Rowley· Host0:59
These are, are sporting events between people on steroids?
Ben Lindbergh· Host1:05
That's right, or mostly, yes. If they called it the On Gear Games, you would have known, and you would have watched maybe. Probably not, but this was an event that was held this week in Las Vegas for the first time, the inaugural Enhanced Games, and given how it went, perhaps the final Enhanced Games too, but- [laughs] [laughs] I was gonna say, there's an optimism to that designation, isn't there? Yeah, I'm sorta surprised