Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley follow up on previous banter about the best title for a president of both baseball and business operations, then deliver fresh banter about how Derrek Lee’s 2005 RBI total was a sign of its time, where the Rays will play in 2025 and beyond, the Marlins’ new manager, and a slew of modest Angels signings. Then (48:02) they’re joined by UPenn professor and post-doctoral researcher, respectively, Douglas Jerolmack and Shravan Pradeep, to discuss their recent research about how the sport’s storied Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud works, its special qualities, whether it could or should be synthesized, and more.

Audio outro: Tom Rhoads, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Falvey news

Link to worst leadoff tOPS+

Link to 2005 Cubs batting order splits

Link to Dril tweet

Link to MLBTR on the Rays in 2025

Link to more on 2025 Rays

Link to Rays in 2028

Link to MLBTR on McCullough

Link to Ben C. on d’Arnaud

Link to guests’ research paper

Link to Doug’s UPenn page

Link to Shravan’s UPenn page

Link to Shravan’s website

Link to UPenn research summary

Link to NYT research summary

Link to PopSci research summary

Link to NBC news research summary

Link to rubbing mud wiki

Link to GLP-1 origins

Link to rubbing mud video

Link to mud maker story 1

Link to mud maker story 2

Link to sticky synthesis story

Link to Ben on sticky stuff 1

Link to Ben on sticky stuff 2

Link to schedule makers news

Link to schedule makers video

 Sponsor Us on Patreon

 Email Us: [email protected]

 Effectively Wild Wiki

 Get Our Merch!