Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the 30th anniversary of the 1994 strike and how nice it is not to have the season end in August, the unusual extension of Victor Robles , Tanner Rainey , Patrick Corbin , and the remnants of the 2019 Nationals, Will Wagner and whether the debuts of sons of big leaguers make us feel old partly because big leaguers have kids earlier than average, how MLB cou...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the appeal of deflected balls caught on the fly, the lack of variety in MLB.TV highlights, Aaron Judge ’s bases-empty intentional walks, the Braves falling out of playoff position (for now), and the surprising team with a trio of young, above-average, qualified hitters. Then (40:44) they rank the types of baseball versatility and Stat Blast (56:18) a...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the White Sox and the etiquette and timing of firing the manager of one of the worst teams of all time, Logan O’Hoppe and performance anxiety, Brusdar Graterol and the most demoralizing kind of injury, the return of Anthony Gose , next season’s scheduled game at Bristol Motor Speedway, other unorthodox potential locations for MLB games, and why...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Jesús Sánchez and the (perhaps) surprising longest-homer hitters of the Statcast era, the hot hitting of Victor Robles , Vladimir Guerrero Jr. , and Tyler Fitzgerald , the competitive race for the (nonexistent) utility player of the year award, what lessons should be learned from the 2024 Padres’ clutchness correction, whether the Guardians have a cl...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mike Trout ’s latest season-ending injury, the Orioles’ latest top-prospect promotion, and a tweak to the postseason schedule, and answer listener emails (24:20) about ex-player umpires, eavesdropping on pitchers’ thoughts between pitches, whether and how they’d reintroduce baseball to a world without it, awarding belts or trophies...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the end of a historic Clayton Kershaw streak, pitcher errors and unearned runs, the lack of top prospects traded at the deadline, the short-handed Marlins vs. the stripped-down Rays, the latest sign of the White Sox apocalypse, the resurgent Blake Snell , Brett Phillips the full-time pitcher, and whether the percentage of pulled homers is increasing. Then...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley recap the 2024 MLB trade deadline, discussing their big-picture takeaways, breaking down individual deals they found impressive, surprising, or perplexing, and examining the actions of the teams that drove the deadline by adding or subtracting, and the inaction of teams that didn’t do much. Audio intro : Benny and a Million Shetland Ponies, “ Effective...

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and Ben Clemens break down the Randy Arozarena , A.J. Puk , James Paxton , and Austin Hays trades (plus real-time reactions to the Yimi García and Zach Eflin deals), Stat Blast (29:21) about the most WAR ever dealt at a trade deadline, banter (54:45) about Garrett Crochet ’s extension desire and the MVP cases of Francisco Lindor and Bobby Witt Jr. (and Witt’s...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mason Miller’ s hand fracture, the extremely slow pitches of Ildemaro Vargas , a Dylan Cease no-hitter, the punchless Mariners, the impending return of Rich Hill , what the teams with the toughest decisions at the trade deadline should do, updates on Clayton Kershaw (good!) and Mike Trout (not good!), Christian Yelich’ s back, the ageless Carlo...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the likenesses, word counts, and stat citations on Hall of Fame plaques, what would happen if all past stats disappeared, the impending returns of Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw (and the recent return of J.T. Realmuto ), the end of James Paxton’ s time with the Dodgers, Jo Adell’ s breakout fakeout and Jarren Duran ’s belated breakout, Fr...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the BBWAA’s new sports gambling regulations, then (11:22) discuss the stories they’re most interested in following for the rest of the MLB season (plus, the implications of a bearded Aaron Judge ). Audio intro : Cory Brent, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio outro : Alex Ferrin, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Link to...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the highlights of the All-Star Game, a hypothetical Evan Longoria unretirement scenario, the newly announced 2025 regular-season schedule (featuring Tokyo contests and a “Rivalry Weekend”), a baseball movie-mention conspiracy theory, players possessed by Gameday 3D, the timing of Martín Maldonado ’s DFA, and the potential effect of moving...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Home Run Derby, the Futures Game and skills competition, Globe Life Field, All-Star uniforms, and more reflections from All-Star Week, then (34:18) discuss a challenge-system-driven change to broadcast K-zone displays, Chris Sale’ s aversion to pitch-calling, quantifying game-calling, David Fletcher ’s latest knuckleballing, using a positio...

Ben Lindbergh talks to Sam Miller of Pebble Hunting about the increase in IL stints at the All-Star break and Sam’s obsession with the evolving strategy of first-and-third situations. Then (41:29) Ben talks to Iowa state representative and Sioux City Explorers pitcher J.D. Scholten about his incredible baseball comeback at age 44, his baseball background, balancing baseball and politics, and...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about homerless White Sox second basemen, the recent history of teams with homerless positions, and the upsides and downsides of the trend toward focusing on present-season performance in All-Star selections, then (37:11) answer emails about an award for utility players, a player’s debut age matching his debut number, whether an infielder could rob a home...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Ben’s daughter coining a baseball term, how the on-screen strike-zone plot (slightly) delays the rest of the broadcast, Jose Miranda and the surprising 12-consecutive-hits club, David Robertson ’s elite relief career, whether Shohei Ohtani should stop pitching, an attempt to quantify players’ smiles, how this season stacks up in terms of...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a genuine, no-foolin’ instance of “Strategy” (aka a mid-PA pitching change), Christian Walker ’s affinity for Dodger Stadium, a Triple-A Waxahachie Swap, the Nationals optioning EW legend Joey Meneses , the Marlins DFA’ing Tim Anderson , and the latest Royce Lewis injury, plus follow-ups about bullpen-cart-driver tipping and f...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Phillies reliever José Ruiz threatening Ryan Webb’ s career record for games finished without a save, Aaron Judge ’s Hall of Fame case, the Mariners having a .540 winning percentage, just as Jerry Dipoto foretold (sort of), Dallas Keuchel being back in the big leagues, the White Sox, weirdly, dictating the trade deadline, and the collective per...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the one (and only one) case where the zombie runner was warranted, why pitchers throw strikes to Aaron Judge (10:00), and MLB’s new Home Run Derby rules (21:11), then answer listener emails about how different baseball would be if runners didn’t have to tag up (34:49), the best arguments for full ABS over the challenge system (49:56), and what...

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 ), an...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Nolan Schanuel’ s aversion to day games, the Astros reaching .500 and coming for the Mariners, Houston’s weekend opponent (the Mets) making it back to .500 and nearing a playoff spot, the success (and good fortune) of Reynaldo López , the bad fortune of Adam Duvall , and how “expected” stats have changed perceptions of performance,...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Edwin Díaz’ s sticky-stuff suspension, a new name for the internal brace alternative to Tommy John surgery, Blake Snell’ s latest setback, the success and extension of Cristopher Sánchez (and the Phillies’ excellence), Shota Imanaga’ s regression and Meg’s preseason prediction about Imanaga vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto , Kyle Finneg...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the highlights of the MLB at Rickwood Field game and broadcast, Mike Trout’ s unsurprisingly slow return from knee surgery, Matt Waldron’ s sustained success, the incredible Royce Lewis , the challenge system’s continued ascendance over full ABS, Barry Bonds as a baseball ambassador, Elly De La Cruz ’s stolen-base slump, the Yankees...

Ben Lindbergh, Rany Jazayerli , and Neil Paine discuss the death of Willie Mays , Mays as the last legendary link to an earlier era, the statistical cases for Mays as the greatest all-around player and greatest player, period in major league history, and (36:45) baseball’s new greatest living player, plus (46:02) banter about Kansas courting the Royals with public funding and (50:38) the com...

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether Nike’s City Connect uniforms have run their course, the Dodgers’ double whammy of injuries to Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (and Kyle Bradish going back on the IL), the approaching returns of Gerrit Cole , Max Scherzer , and Clayton Kershaw , Carlos Correa’ s hot streak, Elly De La Cruz and the excitement of scoring unexpect...