Effectively Wild Episode 1648: Squeeze Play

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and FanGraphs author Ben Clemens break down the Marcus Semien, Andrelton Simmons, and Tommy La Stella signings, the Steven Matz trade, and Masahiro Tanaka’s decision to return to NPB’s Rakuten Eagles (with digressions about Japan’s tradition of awarding the uniform number 18 to aces and the greatness of Hiroki Kuroda) before explaining what the internet-driven inflation of GameStop stock has to do with the Mets, why Billy Beane isn’t leaving the A’s after all, and why teams are so intent on treating the competitive balance tax threshold as a salary cap. Then (57:32) they’re joined by Dr. Barton Smith, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Utah State University, to discuss how the Hawk-Eye component of MLB’s Statcast system is enabling new breakthroughs in pitch design, the concepts of seam-shifted wake and spin mirroring, which pitchers and teams are on the cutting edge, why some earlier analysts were wrong about pitching, whether hitters can counter the latest advances, what we still don’t understand about pitching, the increasing complexity of player evaluation, and how this all relates to foreign substances and the baseball’s surface. Audio intro: The Shazam, "Squeeze the Day" Audio interstitial: Buzzcocks, "Wake Up Call" Audio outro: Heatmiser, "Wake" Link to Ben Clemens on the Semien signing Link to Dan Szymborski on the Simmons signing Link to Tony Wolfe on the La Stella signing Link to Tony on the Matz trade Link to Brendan Gawlowski on the Tanaka signing Link to Jim Allen on the Tanaka signing Link to Rob Arthur on MLB FA going to Japan Link to Slate’s GameStop stock explainer Link to report about Steve Cohen’s losses Link to report about Beane’s bid Link to report about Oakland’s offer to Semien Link to Andy McCullough on the CBT Link to Marc Normandin on the CBT Link to Hawk-Eye introduction Link to Ben’s primer on the seam-shifted revolution Link to Alan Nathan on late break Link to Nathan on active spin Link to Barton’s seam-shifted wake explainer Link to Barton’s video about seam-shifted wake Link to BP article on seam-shifted wake Link to Driveline study on seam-shifted wake Link to Tom Tango on seam-shifted wake Link to Eno Sarris on seam-shifted wake Link to Eno on spin mirroring Link to Michael Augustine on spin mirroring Link to Mike Petriello on spin direction Link to Tango on spin direction Link to Tango on gyro spin Link to report about defamation lawsuit  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