Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Mariners clinching the AL West, the benefits and drawbacks of MVP debates, the power of great players to enhance a season for spectators, the Cardinals’ and Giants’ reciprocal eliminations, the near-extinction of the 200-inning pitcher, the Nationals’ new head of baseball ops, and how predictive a track record of adept drafting is. Then (53:15) they answer listener emails about whether a player could/should ever challenge a ball/strike call that went their way, whether increased pitcher injuries have contributed to the lack of great teams, sticky-stuff inspections on broadcasts, how many pitches it takes to evaluate a pitcher, whether/why baseball managers incur fans’ wrath more than other sports’ coaches, whether teams are turning fewer double plays than they used to, and Trey Yesavage’s many 2025 teammates, plus (1:40:47) a postscript.

Audio outro: Beatwriter, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to 2015 MLB promo

Link to Ben on Judge vs. Ohtani

Link to Giants elimination story

Link to Cardinals elimination story

Link to pitcher IP leaderboard

Link to preseason pitcher IP projections

Link to Passan on Toboni

Link to MLBTR on Toboni

Link to WaPo on the Nats

Link to Ben on pitcher injury rates

Link to Ben on pitcher workloads

Link to Rodón quote

Link to MLB GIDP%

Link to Jays tweet

Link to quote-tweet

Link to Kenny Jackelen

Link to 2025 teammate leaders

Link to single-season teammate leaders

Link to listener emails database

Link to BP on Blalock

Link to Blalock leaderboard

Link to highest ML ERA (min. 55 IP)

Link to highest ML ERA (min. 100 IP)

Link to FG wOBA values

Link to BP location research

Link to FG playoff odds

Link to Darowski update

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