Effectively Wild Episode 1291: Power Ball to the People

Ben Lindbergh, Jeff Sullivan, and ESPN’s Sam Miller recap the results of their 2018 minor league free agent draft and the surprising season of Wade LeBlanc, banter about Willians Astudillo and Delmon Young, discuss the defining memory of the 2018 season (and other seasons), and react to Clayton Kershaw’s contract extension. Then (28:54) they bring on Rob Neyer, author of the new book Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game, to discuss how he picked a game and topics to write about, whether baseball is changing in worrisome ways, knowing when and how to cite stats and talk to players, an unintended consequence of a powerful MLB Players Association, the pace of baseball’s evolution, Rob Manfred’s performance so far, and much more. Audio intro: The Whigs, "Say Hello" Audio interstitial: Rockpile, "When I Write the Book" Audio outro: Joanna Newsom, "The Book of Right-On" Link to minor league FA draft episode Link to EW competitions/draft spreadsheet Link to Sam’s article on each season’s defining memory Link to Sam’s article on 2017’s defining memory Link to Sam’s Delmon transaction tree article Link to Jeff’s Kershaw contract post  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: [email protected] var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source