Effectively Wild Episode 1617: Did Sabermetrics Break Baseball?
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2020
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley reflect on the fact that it took a former player to hire Kim Ng as MLB’s first woman general manager, follow up on the unwritten rules controversy surrounding Kyuji Fujikawa’s final out, and evaluate two recent statements by Scott Boras, then (24:07) bring on Baseball Prospectus’s Patrick Dubuque and FanGraphs’ Dan Szymborski to discuss whether baseball is “solved,” how sabermetrics has benefited and broken baseball both economically and tactically, and whether its effects were foreseeable, and preview how the shortened season has altered 2021 ZiPS projections and the 2021 Baseball Prospectus annual.
Audio intro: Lone Justice, "Soap, Soup and Salvation"
Audio interstitial: Field Music, "Choosing Numbers"
Audio outro: Neil Young, "Too Far Gone"
Link to Joe Sheehan on Kim Ng
Link to article about Fujikawa
Link to Fujikawa’s tweet
Link to source of first Boras quote
Link to source of second Boras quote
Link to Patrick on baseball being solved
Link to Patrick on transactions
Link to Ben on the Overwatch meta
Link to Ben on the Overwatch meta again
Link to Dan’s 2021 ZiPS primer
Link to preorder Baseball Prospectus 2021
Link to Meg on Hang Up and Listen
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So Super Silevation, Tire Heart Second Jubilation |
| 0:08.5 | Restoration, I could rescue patients |
| 0:12.6 | So Super Silevation, Tire Heart Second Jubilation |
| 0:25.1 | Restoration, I could rescue patients |
| 0:29.1 | So Super Silevation |
| 0:34.2 | Hello and welcome to episode 1617 of Effectively Wild |
| 0:38.9 | a baseball podcast from Bancras presented by our Patreon supporters |
| 0:43.2 | and a member of the ringer joined by Meg Rally of Bancras O'Mate |
| 0:47.7 | Hello |
| 0:48.5 | How are you doing? |
| 0:49.3 | I'm doing alright, how are you? |
| 0:51.3 | Not bad |
| 0:52.1 | So we are devoting most of this episode to a discussion with our pals Patrick Dubuka baseball perspectives |
| 0:59.4 | and Dan Zimborski of Fancras |
| 1:01.4 | about the effect of Saber metrics |
| 1:04.4 | both on the economics of the game and on the meta game |
| 1:08.9 | and how the game looks on the field |
| 1:11.3 | we're just going to get into all of that because Patrick wrote about it last week |
| 1:15.3 | and the idea that maybe the game has been solved |
| 1:18.4 | that maybe in some ways Saber metrics has had a harmful effect |
| 1:22.4 | there's a lot of self-examination that goes on I think |
| 1:25.8 | about whether early Saber metrics should have considered some of the effects that it might have down the road |
... |
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