Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss MLB’s clearing of Shohei Ohtani and banning of five other players for betting on baseball (including Tucupita Marcano’s permaban), touching on MLB’s culpability (or lack thereof), gambling ads, the future, and more. Then (39:32) they banter about the latest instance of Tommy Pham going aggro, which demotion is more surprising, Spencer Torkelson’s or Edouard Julien’s, leaguewide parity and a purported lack of good teams, a Garrett Crochet trade rumor, a memorable Brewers-Phillies game, a skills competition at the Futures Game, the Rangers’ resistance to Pride Night (1:16:18), a suggested Kyle Tucker nickname, a Reed Garrett update, a decrease in position-player pitching, why mid-PA pitching changes haven’t caught on, and SABR’s new determination about which Negro Leagues were major-league quality.

Audio outro: Davy Andrews, “Edouard Julien, Are You Gonna Rule Again?”

Link to MLBTR on Ohtani

Link to MLB bans press release

Link to Marcano MaML

Link to Baumann on the ban

Link to 2015 Cosart story

Link to naming rights story

Link to regulation article 1

Link to regulation article 2

Link to regulation article 3

Link to regulation article 4

Link to regulation article 5

Link to Weaver on Pham

Link to latest Pham play

Link to Statcast on the send

Link to 2022 Pham play

Link to Pham-Pederson dispute

Link to Pham wiki

Link to Pham tweet

Link to Pham on the Mets

Link to Pham in AZ info 1

Link to Pham in AZ info 2

Link to Dan S. on Tork/Julien

Link to preseason Julien post

Link to preseason projections

Link to MLBTR on Suwinski

Link to Sam tweet

Link to Sheehan on the ALC

Link to end of Pac-12 baseball

Link to indy Oregon team

Link to Ben on team mediocrity

Link to EW on team mediocrity

Link to Ben on Morgan quotes

Link to FJM

Link to Crochet rumor

Link to Hoskins/Dahl game

Link to skills comp info

Link to KBO bunt derby clip

Link to Levi on the website slogan

Link to Levi on Pride Night

Link to Ghiroli on Pride Night

Link to AP on Pride Night

Link to LAT on Pride Night

Link to Rob Mains on PPP

Link to article on Tucker

Link to Clemens on mid-PA changes

Link to Ben L. on mid-PA changes

Link to SABR on the Negro Leagues

Link to Lester/Thorn on EW

Link to ballpark meetup forms

Link to meetup organizer form

 Sponsor Us on Patreon

 Effectively Wild Wiki

 Get Our Merch!

 Email Us: [email protected]