Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about classifying throws by infielders that are actually made in the outfield, imagine a multi-sport two-way Shohei Ohtani, and belatedly acknowledge Scott Cooper’s singular cycle, discuss Kyle Schwarber’s possible sub-replacement-level 40-homer season, break down the NL MVP race featuring Ronald Acuña Jr., Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, pat Kyle Barraclough on the back for wearing one, note that regression has come for Mickey Moniak, and offer another hosana to Julio Rodríguez. Then they follow up on the previous episode’s mystery about why wild pitches and passed balls have declined, first (1:06:51) by interviewing Yankees quality control and catching coach Tanner Swanson about improvements in catching technique and the evolution of catcher defense, and then (1:37:13) by presenting additional data and theorizing, followed by (1:47:29) a Future Blast from 2052.

Audio outro: Dave Armstrong and Mike Murray, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Elly’s 99.8 mph throw

Link to Elly’s 99.7 mph throw

Link to Elly’s 97.9 mph throw

Link to infield-throws leaderboard

Link to infield-throwers leaderboard

Link to Winn’s 100.5 mph throw

Link to Winn’s 99.9 mph throw

Link to arm strength leaderboard

Link to Haberstroh on two-sport players

Link to post on Cooper’s cycle

Link to Cooper’s cycle game

Link to Cooper’s cycle video

Link to Schwarber tweet

Link to sub-replacement sluggers

Link to Eli Ben-Porat on batting average

Link to Tom Tango on batting average

Link to Tango on batting average again

Link to Ben Clemens on batting average

Link to FG WAR leaders

Link to B-Ref WAR leaders

Link to Mike Petriello on MVP Mookie

Link to SB leaderboard

Link to FG post on Freeman’s baserunning

Link to story on fans and Acuña

Link to video of fans and Acuña

Link to Moniak slump stretch

Link to Posnanski on the Stargell Award

Link to MVPs w/multiple teams

Link to Mearns on Barraclough

Link to Stathead on Barraclough

Link to EW Stat Blast about WP/PB

Link to team catcher defense

Link to story on Swanson and Garver

Link to story about catching’s future

Link to Swanson MVP Machine reference

Link to story on Swanson and the Yankees

Link to Ben on Flowers

Link to Franke/Rogers catcher slides

Link to Kai Franke on Twitter

Link to Jack Rogers on Twitter

Link to team CI leaderboard

Link to EW on the CI surge

Link to Tango on interference and framing

Link to WP/PB totals

Link to Cooper on one-knee catching

Link to Cooper on one-knee catching 2

Link to Cooper on one-knee catching 3

Link to Rick Wilber’s website

Link to Future Blast wiki

Link to Tango on errors/hits

Link to Cooper on errors/hits

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