Effectively Wild Episode 1793: Measuring the Unmeasurable

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Fanatics purchasing Topps and MLB Network reportedly parting ways with Ken Rosenthal because of his criticism of Rob Manfred. Then (27:36) they kick off a series of episodes about measuring difficult-to-quantify aspects of the sport by talking to Cameron Grove about translating his study of astrophysics into baseball research, assessing pitchers’ stuff, the cause of the time through the order penalty, pitcher deception, catcher game-calling, tracking and analyzing pitchers’ motions from video, proprietary data he wishes he had, the behavior of the ball, and his baseball ambitions. Finally (1:12:00), they bring on Eric Chalek to explain how he developed Major League Equivalencies (MLEs) for Negro Leaguers and other pre-integration Black baseball players, how his MLEs help put those players’ careers in context, the challenge of assessing league quality, Josh Gibson’s and Satchel Paige’s MLEs, Cooperstown implications, and missing data. Audio intro: Robert Plant, “Network News” Audio interstitial 1: Jimi Hendrix, “Astro Man” Audio interstitial 2: The New Pornographers, “Loose Translation” Audio outro: The Delgados, “Ballad of Accounting” Link to WSJ report on Fanatics/Topps Link to EW episode about Fanatics/Topps Link to report about Rosenthal and Manfred Link to 2020 Rosenthal column Link to Rosenthal tweet Link to Cameron’s website Link to DESI’s Wikipedia page Link to Cameron’s pitch quality app Link to Cameron’s TTOP tweet Link to Cameron’s other TTOP tweet Link to previous familiarity/fatigue research Link to Cameron on pitcher workloads Link to Ben on playoff familiarity Link to Cameron on over/underperformers Link to Cameron’s motion data Link to Ben on pitching deception Link to Cameron on game-calling Link to Cameron on game-calling leaders Link to Cameron on the ball’s behavior Link to Alan Nathan on fly ball variation Link to Cameron on umpiring difficulty Link to Adam Darowski EW interview episode Link to Adam’s interview with Eric Link to 42 for 21 EW interview episode Link to Eric’s 42 for 21 ballot Link to Adam on post-integration stars Link to Hall of Stats MLEs announcement Link to Eric’s website Link to Eric’s MLE method for hitters Link to Eric’s MLE methods for pitchers  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