Ben Lindbergh, Craig Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus, and Joe Sheehan of The Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter break down teams’ last-minute Christmas shopping—including the White Sox signing Munetaka Murakami, the Padres signing Michael King and Sung Mun Song, the Orioles trading for Shane Baz, the Red Sox trading for Willson Contreras, a three-team trade involving the Pirates, Rays, and Astros, Jeff McNeil and Matt Strahm swaps, and the Yankees’ hibernation—plus banter about the quasi-retirement of Craig’s nemesis, Joe Kelly, the future of NPB, a report about Emmanuel Clase’s mid-game phone use, and supporting independent media. Then (1:11:40) they conduct an in-depth debate about the respective merits of human umpiring, the challenge system, and full ABS.

Audio outro: Tom Rhoads, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Kelly’s podcast

Link to Dubuque on the challenge system

Link to Craig on the challenge system

Link to Joe on the challenge system

Link to previous podcast discussion

Link to Seitz decision wiki

Link to Joe on the Seitz decision

Link to over/under draft results

Link to Baumann on Murakami

Link to Rosenblum on Murakami

Link to Longenhagen on Murakami

Link to Craig on Murakami

Link to Sarris on Murakami

Link to Ben on Murakami in 2022

Link to Sato story

Link to FG post on King

Link to FG post on Song

Link to FG post on Baz

Link to Craig on Baz

Link to team SP projections

Link to Joe on three-team trade

Link to FG post on three-team trade

Link to FG post on Contreras

Link to FG post on Strahm

Link to Strahm’s beer stance

Link to Bowlan info

Link to FG post on McNeil

Link to Lindor/McNeil drama

Link to Clase report

Link to Dylan phone ban

Link to Molina framing montage

Link to framing technique evolution

Link to Molina on EW

Link to Craig on the K-Zone

Link to Tango on challenge tactics

Link to Five and Dive

Link to subscribe to BP

Link to subscribe to Joe

Link to MLBTR on O’Hearn

Link to Posnanski MVP post

Link to A’s ballpark update

Link to Rian Johnson post

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