Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the early start to the 2026 regular season and MLB’s schedule in a warming world, tossing snacks after tossing a bat, this year’s potential trio of 50-homer hitters (including a Cal Raleigh update), the virtues of players who have high floors (with check-ins on Bobby Witt Jr. and Trea Turner), the (dubious?) merits of the BBWAA’s new reliever of the year award, Tyler Phillips’s anti-hitter mentality, new large relievers Zach Maxwell and Drew Sommers, Brady Singer in Cincinnati, Juan Soto’s basestealing, Zack Wheeler’s prognosis, the latest on Shane Bieber and Kyle Tucker, and Samuel Basallo’s extension, plus responses about other sports’ significant sounds.

Audio outro: Andy Ellison, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to schedule announcement

Link to Contreras ejection video

Link to Contreras ejection quotes

Link to suspension news

Link to pre-September HR stat

Link to 50-homer-seasons query

Link to FG WAR leaderboard

Link to Seinfeld scene

Link to Zoolander clips

Link to Sheehan on Witt

Link to Stark on the reliever award

Link to setup man award

Link to Phillips interview

Link to Maxwell intro tweet

Link to Sommers intro tweet

Link to Maxwell story 1

Link to Maxwell story 2

Link to Kirk steal story

Link to Vogelbach promo

Link to TOS types

Link to Curb scene

Link to Wheeler diagnosis

Link to FG on Basallo

Link to Rubenstein on extensions

Link to Kiley on Basallo

Link to table tennis spin

Link to table tennis stomps

Link to catcher stomps

Link to Spieth shot

Link to Tiger shot

Link to quotes about drives

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