Effectively Wild Episode 2268: The 2025 Minor League Free Agent Draft
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2025
⏱️ 109 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and Ben Clemens banter about the Giants signing Justin Verlander, a plateau in leaguewide slider usage, and why spending on free agents has exceeded expectations so far. Then (20:55) they continue a cherished podcast tradition by conducting the 12th annual Effectively Wild Minor League Free Agent Draft, in which they select 10 minor league free agents each and compete to see whose roster will accumulate the most combined MLB playing time in 2025.
Audio intro: Austin Klewan, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Daniel Leckie, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Link to Baumann on Verlander
Link to Dubuque on Verlander
Link to Verlander pitch values
Link to Verlander max speeds
Link to Verlander stuff ratings
Link to Ben L. on Kershaw
Link to Ben C. on sliders
Link to Ben C. on spending
Link to FG SP projections
Link to last year’s draft
Link to FA draft wiki
Link to competitions sheet
Link to historical picks sheet
Link to BA list
Link to Neosho alumni
Link to Neosho wiki
Link to EW gift subscriptions
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and Welcome to Episode 82668 of Effectively Wild, |
| 0:22.9 | a Fangraphs baseball podcast brought to you by our Patreon supporters. |
| 0:25.8 | I'm Meg Riley of Fangraphs and I am joined by Ben Lindberg of the ringer. |
| 0:29.0 | Ben, how are you? |
| 0:30.2 | Screaming, crying, throwing up, etc. |
| 0:33.0 | We are also joined by Ben Clemens of Fangraphs. |
| 0:36.1 | Ben, how are you? |
| 0:39.6 | I'm doing well. Okay, good. |
| 0:47.5 | Here we are to do the minor league free agent draft. It's that time a little later than lately, but early enough, plenty of time. 12th annual effectively one of of minor league for age and draft. |
| 0:54.8 | Yeah. |
| 0:56.2 | When we find a tradition, we just run it into the ground. |
| 0:59.9 | We will just do it for the rest of time. |
| 1:02.7 | An enthusiastic endorsement of a beloved exercise. |
| 1:07.4 | No, I always look forward to it. |
| 1:09.4 | Always slightly dread it. |
| 1:13.0 | Just high stakes, lots of pressure. |
| 1:17.7 | Everyone knows how this goes. Stakes so high. Yeah. So high. |
| 1:24.1 | Bragging rights are the stakes, but those are really the most consequential stakes other than maybe money, I guess. |
| 1:28.9 | But we're not doing money. No, no money. No, we're not that kind of people. We're just doing it to prove that we are the best at assessing minor league free agents |
| 1:34.1 | and or a little lucky. |
| 1:36.3 | So we will get to that in just a moment. |
| 1:39.9 | Just wanted to ask you two about a major league free agent who has signed since we last |
... |
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