August 13, 2021

FanGraphs Audio: Ryan Fitzgerald Has a Goal

1 hour 4 minutes

Episode 935

This week on the podcast, we welcome a rising prospect with a story to tell before having an extended chat about the current baseball landscape.

To kick things off, David Laurila is joined by Ryan Fitzgerald, an infielder in the Red Sox organization. Fitzgerald shares his story of going from being undrafted to playing in the independent leagues to getting all the way to Triple-A. Now, he is on the precipice of attaining his dream of becoming a major leaguer. The pair discuss using technology to improve swing mechanics, intentionally hitting for power, and just how meaningful errors are as a defensive metric. Fitzgerald also shares what it was like to play behind Chris Sale and who is the best defender he’s played with this year. [2:40]

After that, Eric Longenhagen and Ben Clemens chat about their recent travels. Eric just returned from the Area Code Games in San Diego, where he got to see some great players from the 2022 draft, and he has a lot to share about the event and how it works. Meanwhile, Ben has been musing about teams that aren’t serious playoff contenders but still have questions to answer regarding the future. What will Cleveland do with their 40-man crunch? Can Abraham Toro play second base for the Mariners? And what are the Cardinals going to do next year? [19:59]

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Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hour 4 minute play time.)

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