Effectively Wild Episode 1222: Testing the Balls and Beating the Bookies
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2018
⏱️ 98 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary

Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Red Sox designating Hanley Ramirez for assignment, what Mookie Betts and Barry Bonds have in common, Shohei Ohtani‘s “workload management,” Bartolo Colon’s 45th birthday, a John Jaso appearance at the Trop, a listener’s real-world use of tOPS+, and two more examples of players intentionally performing typically detrimental activities. Then Ben briefly brings on FanGraphs’ Meg Rowley (16:05) to discuss the latest Jerry Dipoto and Wilmer Font trades, work-related nightmares, and business words. After that, Ben talks to writer Rob Arthur (28:20) about the questions raised and the questions answered by MLB’s report on the ball being behind the game’s rising home-run rate, and Ben and Jeff get the skinny from sabermetrician Mitchel Lichtman (1:00:49) about his decades-long history of betting on baseball, how he built a model that beat the sportsbooks and made millions, and how and why his advantage evaporated.
Audio intro: The Rural Alberta Advantage, "45/33"
Audio interstitial 1: The Minus 5, "Smoke on, Jerry"
Audio interstitial 2: Dr. Dog, "The Truth"
Audio interstitial 3: Earlimart, "Burning the Cow"
Audio outro: Drive-By Truckers, "Checkout Time in Vegas"
Link to Jeff’s Mookie Betts post
Link to John Jaso sighting
Link to intentional HBP video
Link to Rob’s article about MLB’s report
Link to MLB executive report
Link to full MLB report
Link to Bloomberg Bill Benter story
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Night, got you in the night |
| 0:08.5 | We don't have to die |
| 0:12.5 | If the light is getting close |
| 0:17.5 | Then your body is getting no |
| 0:20.5 | With mine, without forces in the bright |
| 0:27.0 | Jesus don't you shine |
| 0:31.0 | Jesus don't you shine |
| 0:38.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 1222 |
| 0:42.0 | That's 1222 of Effectively Wild, a fan grabs baseball podcast brought to you by our patreon supporters |
| 0:47.0 | I'm Jeff Sullivan of fan grabs |
| 0:49.0 | And is always by Ben Lindberghs of the ringer. Hello Ben. Hello. How are you? I'm excited for this episode |
| 0:54.0 | Great. I know that usually when we have a guest and then the guest asks |
| 0:57.0 | How are you? You answer for both of us and you say we do it well |
| 1:00.0 | And I never give you permission to do that, but I guess you can hear by consider this |
| 1:05.0 | Permission for the future in this episode we'll be talking to Rob Arthur about the baseball and the |
| 1:11.0 | The commission that studied any changes in the baseball commission by majorly baseball |
| 1:16.0 | Keep saying commission and baseball as I introduce this segment later on we'll be talking to Mitchell Lickman about |
| 1:21.0 | Baseball and gambling so touching on some recent news, but we also have a little bit of what is to us breaking news and what is to you the listener |
| 1:28.0 | Old hat |
| 1:29.0 | Handley Ramirez has been designated for assignment by the Red Sox to make room for Dustin Padreia |
| 1:34.0 | Handley Ramirez between |
| 1:35.0 | 2014 and 2015 was signed by the Red Sox for four years and 88 million I believe it was published |
... |
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