Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss the late John Sterling, fan affection for local broadcasters, and whether any broadcast institutions don’t inspire such attachment, then banter about Anthony Volpe’s demotion, Tarik Skubal’s elbow injury, the Mets’ decision to stand by Carlos Mendoza, dramatically different results in back-to-back Reds-Pirates games, Riley O’Brien’s success, Nick Kurtz, Roy Cullenbine, and prolific walk-drawers with unimpressive power, whether framing and challenging skills are correlated for catchers, and a Baseball Savant-based guessing game, plus follow-ups on Mexico City’s elevation and Dalton Rushing.

Audio outro: Harold Walker, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Brussels sprouts EW episode

Link to Sterling obit

Link to previous Sterling discussion

Link to Sterling on FanGraphs

Link to 2011 Sterling profile

Link to Sterling wiki

Link to Kay wiki

Link to Kay on Sterling

Link to Kay diet piece 1

Link to Kay diet piece 2

Link to Kay diet piece 3

Link to Baumann on Volpe

Link to Clemens on Skubal

Link to Passan post

Link to Tatiana Trumpet story

Link to MLB.com on Skubal

Link to CBS Sports on Skubal

Link to Dan S. on managerial firings

Link to Ball on managerial firings

Link to Stearns on Mendoza

Link to Mendoza’s reaction

Link to seven consecutive walks

Link to worst hitters 2023-26

Link to RP WAR leaders

Link to Clemens on O’Brien

Link to Johnny interview

Link to Johnny and Riley

Link to Mexico City sinking story

Link to status quo bias wiki

Link to 2025 run differentials

Link to 2026 run differentials

Link to Cashman comments

Link to Ben on team turnover

Link to Kurtz streak story 1

Link to Kurtz streak story 2

Link to Cullenbine post 1

Link to Cullenbine post 2

Link to Ben on pre-WAR valuations

Link to Roy Thomas SABR bio

Link to foul-strike rule

Link to Max Bishop SABR bio

Link to Eddie Yost SABR bio

Link to Eddie Joost SABR bio

Link to career + stats

Link to team framing leaderboard

Link to catcher challenges leaderboard

Link to batter challenges leaderboard

Link to Tango’s Soto/Bailey tweet

Link to framing/challenging correlations

Link to Ruiz on framing/challenging

Link to Millas on framing/challenging

Link to Petriello on 2025 challenges

Link to player survey on challenges

Link to Rushing on Lee 1

Link to Rushing on Lee 2

Link to Rushing’s timeout call

Link to Rushing’s challenge

Link to Tango on the challenge

Link to Savantle

Link to other Savant guessing games

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