You know him, you love him. It's FanGraphs writer Michael Baumann's fifth time appearing to assess the state of labor in baseball, which this year features a macro-analysis of the minor league CBA, a final consensus on whether deferred money in player contracts matters all that much, and predictions over whether streaming's collapse will have adverse effects on labor in the future.

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Songs featured in this episode:

Desaparecidos— “Mall of America” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

New year, same Tipping Pitches. Alex and Bobby ring in 2024 by running through some REAL baseball news (the contents of Jeff Passan’s Twitter account) over the last few weeks, including a pair of moves from the Red Sox, even more rule changes, and Harrison Bader (that’s right). They also make some New Year’s resolutions, field some listener questions, and start planning out Alex Rodriguez’s presidential campaign. 

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Songs featured in this episode:

Indigo Moiré — “Whole, Again” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Unlocked from the Patreon feed, Alex and Bobby give you a podcasters' commentary of the seminal coming-of-age baseball flick The Sandlot. Come for the Green Onions lore, stay for the Stevie barks, maybe leave for when they eat s'mores.

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Songs featured in this episode:

Counting Crows — "Big Yellow Taxi" • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Bobby and Alex banter about colds and cold opens before delving into the disastrous discourse that is Shohei Ohtani's whopping $680 million of salary deferral and what it means for the Dodgers competitive balance tax bill. To close, they tell you everything you could possibly ever want to know about the Mariners and ROOT Sports and why you might actually not need to know any of it.

Links:

Shohei Ohtani Contract Explainer

Mariners to take full control of ROOT Sports NW

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Songs featured in this episode:

Oso Oso — "reindeer games" • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Alex and Bobby discuss Shohei Ohtani’s free agency and the resulting media frenzy, Juan Soto’s heel turn, and a prospective Orioles sale, then bring on Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman of Céspedes Family BBQ for a game of Overrated/Underrated that includes MLB.tv, Jumbotrons, ballpark flyovers, Jackie Robinson, and more. 

Links:

John Angelos says the Orioles aren’t for sale 

The doomed search for a perfect Statcast data interpretation 

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Tipping Pitches merchandise

Songs featured in this episode:

Spiritual Cramp — "Talkin' On The Internet" • Taylor Swift — "Mastermind" • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Bobby and Alex open with a dramatic reading of the New York Yankees statement on the death of Henry Kissinger and try to parse why the hell a baseball team would feel the need to release it. Then, they speed round (lol) some news items from the last couple weeks, including Ohtani and Soto rumors, Steve Cohen’s casino, and more. Finally, they open the mailbag to allow a bevy of listeners to yell at them about running, matchmake for Taylor Swift, share managerial interview tactics, and make sense of the Jackson Chourio extension.

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Songs featured in this episode:

No Thank You — “Saturn Return” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Bobby and Alex are joined by Christine Goodwyne and Andy Anaya of Pool Kids to recount the band's hilarious connection to Pete Alonso, give an update the Pete/Pool Kids saga, talk about their last year of touring, writing new music, creative influences, meeting Hayley Williams, and more.

Links:

Pool Kids' website

Pool Kids Pete Alonso tweet

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Songs featured in this episode:

Pool Kids — "Couch” • My Chemical Romance — "Hang 'Em High" • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Bobby and Alex give some quick reactions to the owners’ unanimous vote to relocate the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas, then bring on recently-retired reliever Trevor May to talk about his second career as a content creator, how his rant against A’s owner John Fisher went viral, what Fisher’s motivations for selling the team might be, the end-of-season gift the notoriously penny-pinching A’s owner got all the players, Beats by Rob, what he puts on when he has the aux cord in the clubhouse, and more.

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⁠Follow Trevor May on Twitter ⁠

⁠Q&A with Dave Kaval ⁠

⁠Q&A with Alex Rodriguez ⁠

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Songs featured in this episode:

Kississippi — "Around Your Room” • Antarctigo Vespucci — "Freakin' U Out'" • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Reprising their roles as the arbiters of all things Dumb in the baseball world, Stephen, Lauren, and Jane from Batting Around join Alex and Bobby to do their incredibly on-brand yearly drafting duties.

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Songs featured in this episode:

Smut — "After Silver Leaves” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”

Bobby and Alex come together to recap a dominant Texas Rangers run that ultimately ended in a somewhat pedestrian World Series. Then, they expand the scope of the conversation to include some retrospective thoughts on the 2023 season at large, including how pitcher usage is affecting our relationship to watching the sport, what we learned about what "all in" means for teams, and more. Also, Alex shares a very important memory about fonts.

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⁠Join the Tipping Pitches Patreon⁠ 

⁠Tipping Pitches merchandise ⁠

Songs featured in this episode:

Into It. Over It — “August, GA” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”