Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the return of Richard Lovelady, the MLB season debut of knuckleballer Matt Waldron, the superlative Zack Wheeler, how other knuckleballers in baseball are faring, Rich Hill’s wait for a call-up, Shohei Ohtani vs. Vinnie Pasquantino, Jacob Misiorowski and the leaguewide rise in pitcher extension, James Wood’s four intentional walks in one game (and the Angels’ outlier IBB total), MLB’s strikeout plateau (or reversal), Luis Arraez’s pursuit of contact history, historic events involving Wilyer Abreu, Trevor Rogers, and Jack Leiter, a serial fan interferer, the biggest team attendance climbs and declines, and how MLB’s minor league parks have played.

Audio outro: Justin Peters, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to MLBTR on Lovelady

Link to uniforms changes

Link to best pitchers in June

Link to Posnanski on Wheeler

Link to AARP patch

Link to Pasquantino tweet

Link to extension leaderboard

Link to leaguewide extension

Link to leaguewide four-seam extension

Link to leaguewide four-seam velo

Link to velo leaders

Link to perceived velo leaders

Link to extension mailbag

Link to Ben on pitching distance

Link to Whitley on Wood

Link to Andrews on Wood

Link to four-IBB club

Link to 2025 team IBB

Link to IBB difference spreadsheet

Link to Bonds/Rays IBB post

Link to Rays IBB

Link to 2025 K%+ keaders

Link to all-time K%+ spreadsheet

Link to Dan S. on Arraez

Link to Rob on strikeouts

Link to MLB K rate by year

Link to non-pitcher K rate by year

Link to Abreu fun fact

Link to Rogers/Leiter fun fact

Link to Arizona fan story

Link to Arizona fan story 2

Link to Arizona fan tweet

Link to Hang Up episode

Link to attendance changes

Link to park factors

Link to Severino story 1

Link to Severino story 2

Link to Manfred quotes

Link to leaguewide TTO%

Link to player TTO%

Link to Marte update

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