Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley recap news and transactions from over the holidays, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s thoughts on San Francisco and Yu Darvish’s thoughts on the Dodgers signing his WBC teammates, the Mariners signing Mitch Garver, the Reds signing Frankie Montas, a smattering of Blue Jays and White Sox signings, the Estevan Florial trade, and […]

Ben Lindbergh is joined by Hannah Keyser and Zach Crizer, formerly of Yahoo Sports and the Bandwagon podcast, to discuss at least one listener-nominated, previously overlooked topic from 2023 about each MLB team. Audio intro: Beatwriter, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme” Link to The Bandwagon Link to Hannah’s Yahoo archive Link to […]

With this year’s MLB free agent market enlivened by international players, Ben Lindbergh talks to three guests about three baseball-rich countries. First, Jeeho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency joins to discuss the response in South Korea to Jung Hoo Lee 이정후’s signing, Shin-Soo Choo 추신수’s forthcoming retirement, the legendary career of Choi Dong-won, and […]

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and FanGraphs’ Ben Clemens continue a cherished podcast tradition by conducting the 11th annual Effectively Wild Minor League Free Agent Draft, in which they select 10 minor league free agents each and compete to see whose roster will accumulate the most combined MLB playing time in 2024. Audio intro: Alex Ferrin, “Effectively […]

Ben Lindbergh and Baseball Prospectus editor-in-chief Craig Goldstein discuss all the fallout from the Dodgers’ record-breaking signing of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, including how it affects fan perceptions of the Dodgers, whether it’s good for MLB to have a heel, whether there’s a more virtuous way to win, the terms of the contract and their expectations for […]

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether MLB should implement an NHL-esque holiday transaction freeze, then (5:53) answer listener emails about Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, and tampering, abandoning the Angels, what to do after visiting every MLB and MiLB ballpark, when the last-place finishers of 2023 will be 90-win true-talent teams, “prep” […]

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, FanGraphs’ Michael Baumann and Ben Clemens, and Chris Hanel play a quick round of “College Baseball Player or U.S. Space Shuttle Astronaut,” banter about the Braves’ series of recent, red-paper-clip-style trades (5:21) and the Diamondbacks re-signing Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (14:13), and then revisit, dissect, and score their bold preseason predictions from […]

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Shohei Ohtani’s introductory press conference and getting closure on contract/canine questions, the audience verdict on how to handle Ohtani in the free-agent-contract over/under draft (20:22), the Dodgers-Rays Tyler Glasnow trade (32:09), the latest Royals signings (Michael Wacha, Hunter Renfroe), the Tigers adding Jack Flaherty, and the AL Central, […]

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley call for a listener referendum on how to treat Shohei Ohtani’s unprecedented contract in the EW free-agent-contract over/under draft, then (20:43) banter about the Royals’ recent pitching additions and a wizardly Will Smith. After that (33:32), they talk to FanGraphs lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen about the players from Asian […]

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the implications of Shohei Ohtani’s unprecedentedly deferred contract structure, whether the Ohtani signing and Juan Soto trade portend MLB imbalance driven by the bursting cable bundle (21:42), whether the Dodgers will ever be bad again (28:06), media hang-wringing over Friday’s false reports (35:58), and the Tyler O’Neill trade […]