Ben Lindbergh and Ben Clemens of FanGraphs banter about the latest positional drama regarding Rafael Devers, then discuss whether and why pitchers leaguewide are Yu Darvish-ing and Tyler Holton-ing—that is, throwing more pitch types, and varying their pitch types more based on batter handedness—before answering listener emails about home strike zones and combining bad teams to make a good team. Then (44:42) Ben continues the “baseball jobs” series by bringing on Adam Auer, major league dietician for the Brewers and former minor and major league strength and conditioning coach, to talk about how teams are improving player performance through nutrition, exercise, and recovery, followed (1:41:49) by Emory Brinkman, senior editor for Stats Perform, who discusses generating viral fun facts, parsing statistical qualifiers, and data-wrangling.

Audio interstitial 1: Benny and a Million Shetland Ponies, “Effectively Wild Theme (Pedantic)”

Audio interstitial 2: Philip Tapley and Michael Stokes, “Effectively Wild Theme”

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

Link to WhatIfSports offer page

Link to MLBTR on Devers

Link to Ben on adaptation score

Link to adaptation score sequel

Link to BP on Holton

Link to BP on Brown

Link to Ben L. on Rays changeups

Link to 2008 SP pitch usage

Link to 2024 SP pitch usage

Link to Ben on the Orioyals

Link to Adam on LinkedIn

Link to MLB dietician origins

Link to Adam’s hiring

Link to Minasian comments

Link to Emory on LinkedIn

Link to Stats Perform

Link to Schneemann fact

Link to Alonso fact

Link to Carpenter fact

Link to Ohtani fact

Link to unremarkable day fact

Link to shutouts fact

Link to Ohtani fact 2

Link to BWJ fact

Link to Young graphic

Link to @OptaJoe

Link to deGrom post

Link to Pirates statement

Link to Freeland comments

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