Show notes
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a “Dear Abby” baseball column, Andrew McCutchen’s return to Pittsburgh, Nelson Cruz signing with San Diego, the Dodgers reacquiring Miguel Rojas, catcher deking and the ball-strike challenge system, and inaccurate outfield-fence distances, follow up on Toronto chicken tenders (and how a new Canadian law could affect the Blue Jays), the tendency for fans to view baseball from the batter’s perspective, and a few more ways in which baseball is unusual among sports, followed (57:04) by a Stat Blast update on Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and prolific putout tandems, a new Stat Blast about J.J. Hardy, Scott Rolen, and players who only ever played one defensive position, and a Past Blast from 1955. Then (1:21:28) they talk to Mike Petriello of MLB.com about the effects he thinks MLB’s new positioning restrictions will have, how to determine whether the shift ban “worked,” how he thinks teams will play defense, whether hitters should adjust their approaches, which individual hitters and teams could be helped or hindered, and his thoughts on the other new rules changes. Audio intro: The Smithereens, “Dear Abby”Audio interstitial: Smith Westerns, “Only One”Audio outro: Lyres, “Swing Shift”Link to “Dear Abby” columnLink to FG post on CruzLink to LASIK studyLink to FG post on RojasLink to FG post on FujinamiLink to “gamer babe” discussionLink to The Classical on “gamer babe”Link to “gamer babe” name changeLink to “gamer babe” Giants postLink to Cutch hype videoLink to Cutch offers reportLink to Defector on “furries” tweetsLink to Anthrocon siteLink to Céspedes BBQ tweetLink to LASIK studyLink to Hannah Keyser on ABSLink to ESPN ABS reportLink to Tango on dekingLink to laser measurements storyLink to Miggy reactionLink to Woodberry laser tweetsLink to Comerica flies montageLink to Tango on Comerica barrelsLink to Tango HR estimateLink to FG post on Tigers hittersLink to ballpark homogenizationLink to Belt on chicken tendersLink to Toronto Ritz menuLink to “Avocado Factor”Link to Sportsnet articleLink to baseball idioms wikiLink to idioms classificationLink to preorder Russell’s bookLink to Episode 1616 Stat BlastLink to Episode 1616 putout duosLink to Posnanski on HardyLink to one-position-player dataLink to Ryan Nelson’s TwitterLink to Kenny Jackelen’s TwitterLink to FG post on AndrusLink to 2002 Rollins game storyLink to Rollins in 2017 STLink to Snoopy’s Joe CoolLink to 1955 story sourceLink to SABR on Zimmer’s beaningLink to info on Peltzman EffectLink to Craig Wright on first helmetsLink to Wright on modern helmetsLink to Jacob Pomrenke’s websiteLink to Jacob Pomrenke on TwitterLink to Mike on SeagerLink to SIS on SeagerLink to helped-hitters articleLink to not-helped-hitters articleLink to free agents and the shiftLink to “pie slice” ruleLink to Gleeman on KeplerLink to lowest-BABIP playersLink to SNY on McNeilLink to FG post on righty shiftsLink to Tango on spray angleLink to Tango on layered hit prob.Link to Ballpark Dimensions Sponsor Us on Patreon Facebook Group Twitter Account EW Subreddit Effectively Wild Wiki iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.comvar SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {});Source