Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a J.P. France postgame quote and ballplayer clichés, the death of first overall pick Mike Ivie, and how Masataka Yoshida’s debut season stacks up to the MLB rookie years of other ex-NPB stars, answer emails (36:57) about Mike Trout’s and Shohei Ohtani’s futures, a Trout/Hunter Renfroe trade deadline scheme (with a bonus Meg movie pitch), undoing pre-pitch-clock time-saving measures, and batters catching pitches to knock pitchers out of games, plus Stat Blasts (1:19:13) about robot umps in Triple-A, the most top 100 prospects to debut for one team in a season (or a two-season span), and Immaculate Grid efficiency, followed by a Future Blast (1:47:08) from 2037.

Audio outro: The Gagnés, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to France quote

Link to Ivie obit

Link to other Ivie obit

Link to Louise Levy obit

Link to NYT on Levy

Link to Ivie wiki

Link to 1980 Ivie article

Link to Athletic mental health article

Link to more on mental health

Link to Laurila on Yoshida

Link to ex-NPB rookie batting leaders

Link to Renfroe/Renfrow article

Link to Seinfeld clip

Link to Realmuto catch

Link to EW emails database

Link to ABS splits

Link to ABS AP article

Link to ABS Athletic article

Link to Manfred on ABS

Link to pitcher thread on ABS

Link to one-season prospect debuts

Link to two-season prospect debuts

Link to Immaculate Grid

Link to Chris’s Immaculate Grid sheet

Link to travelling salesman problem

Link to Rick Wilber’s website

Link to Sasaki story

Link to Maggi EW episode

Link to MLBTR on Maggi

Link to SAG-AFTRA podcast info

Link to TV ratings info

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