Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the temperature in Phoenix, writers taking photos of bases, and Meg taking photos of the writers, then discuss Meg’s takeaways from MLB’s presentation to media members about this season’s new rules, MLB.TV adding minor league games, the Padres signing Michael Wacha (and changing their revenue-sharing classification), and early pitcher injuries, followed by (29:32) a Stat Blast about how much major league talent comes from a typical farm system. After that (46:44), they talk to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich about his new book about the Astros, the sign-stealing scandal, and modern front-office culture, Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, plus Past Blasts from 1969 (1:34:25) and a few follow-ups.

Audio interstitial: The Rolling Stones, “Winning Ugly”

Audio outro: Dag, “The Bigger Picture”

Link to Levi’s tweet about deGrom

Link to Levi on the Arizona weather

Link to Defector on base photos

Link to Nightengale’s first photo

Link to Meg’s photos

Link to Reddit post of Meg’s photo

Link to Meg’s clock buzzer photo

Link to AP story on new rules

Link to Bleed Cubbie Blue on new rules

Link to Noah Woodward on pickoffs

Link to Russell on throwing over

Link to Russell on the pitch clock

Link to Jeff Passan on balks

Link to Zach Buchanan on balks

Link to Sam Miller on balks

Link to Jon Bois on balks

Link to new MLB.TV features

Link to Manfred on blackouts

Link to MLBTR on Wacha

Link to story on Padres revenue

Link to MLBTR on Strasburg

Link to MLBTR on Montas

Link to Ben on spring pitching injuries

Link to retired-numbers Stat Blast

Link to retired-numbers spreadsheet

Link to Johnson’s comment on Ichiro

Link to Ryan Nelson’s Twitter

Link to Ryan on future All-Stars

Link to future All-Stars spreadsheet

Link to data on future major leaguers

Link to Bill James study

Link to KG on managing expectations

Link to Winning Fixes Everything

Link to Winning Fixes Everything excerpt

Link to Winning Fixes Everything on Cora

Link to Evan on the Astros in 2014

Link to Rob Arthur on the banging scheme

Link to Bagwell comments

Link to Passan on Click and Crane

Link to Fresh Air on Jack Welch

Link to Bando NYT obit

Link to Bando SABR bio

Link to Craig Wright on Bando

Link to Jay Jaffe on Bando

Link to 3B JAWS leaders

Link to TSN on Bando

Link to TSN on Bando, continued

Link to TSN on DiMaggio

Link to “baseball is dying” article

Link to Bryan Curtis on dying baseball

Link to Emma B. on dying baseball

Link to David Lewis’s Twitter

Link to David Lewis’s Substack

Link to Jaffe on PPP rules

Link to EW wiki on Jaso

Link to NYT on Jaso

Link to SABR on the high five

Link to ESPN on the high five

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