Effectively Wild Episode 2324: Hustle Hassle
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2025
⏱️ 110 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Elly De La Cruz’s unspectacular start to the season, the firing of Brandon Hyde and what it would take for them to blame a manager for a team’s disappointing season, the hubbub about Juan Soto’s hustle, MLB’s announcement about Rivalry Weekend’s success, Kyle Schwarber and the lineage of non-Hall-of-Fame hitters who’ve appeared to have a chance at “magic number” milestones, MLB’s attempt to define the swing, the overwhelming array of Statcast stats, the latest call for Shohei Ohtani to specialize, and more.
Audio intro: Gabriel-Ernest, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Jonathan Crymes 2, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Link to FG on the O’s
Link to FG playoff odds
Link to BaseRuns standings
Link to Girardi firing article
Link to ESPN on Valentine
Link to FG on the Twins
Link to Soto flight confusion
Link to Ben on Jeter vs. Cano
Link to Soto in-game interview info
Link to Ben on in-game interviews
Link to Soto plays
Link to Mendoza quote
Link to MLB press release
Link to Vedder Cup story
Link to Schwarber HR stat
Link to Stathead query
Link to most HR since 2022
Link to swings article 1
Link to swings article 2
Link to new Savant leaderboard
Link to article on new metrics
Link to FG on Royals pitching
Link to Ohtani strikeout
Link to Pereda ball
Link to Ohtani article
Link to Sam on Ohtani
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and Welcome to |
| 0:13.2 | Hello and welcome to episode 23, 24 of Effectively Wild, a fancrafts baseball podcast brought |
| 0:24.9 | you by our Patreon supporters. |
| 0:26.6 | I'm Meg Rowley of Fangraphs. |
| 0:28.4 | I'm going to say I'm a rally of Patreon. |
| 0:31.1 | No, that's not where I work. |
| 0:33.0 | I work in fan graphs. |
| 0:34.1 | Me, Meg. |
| 0:35.2 | You're Ben Lindberg of the Ringer. |
| 0:37.0 | That's where you work. That's right. You're Ben Lindberg of the Ringer. That's where you work. And you're |
| 0:39.2 | joining me on this year pod. How are you, bud? I have words there in my mouth. Yeah, most of that was |
| 0:44.7 | entirely accurate. You are funded in part by Patreon. So there was an element of truth even to that. |
| 0:51.3 | Yeah, I guess. I'm doing well. And I was just reflecting on someone we haven't talked about. |
| 0:57.8 | Got a bunch of banter to get to today, and we will talk about some players. |
| 1:01.5 | But every now and then, I like to step back and say, gosh, we haven't talked about that guy for a while. |
| 1:07.1 | Yeah. |
| 1:07.3 | And that realization occurred to me, in this this case with Ellie de la Cruz. |
| 1:12.5 | We just haven't really talked about Ellie this season. |
| 1:15.3 | He may have come up in passing once or twice, but I sort of expected independent of our long-running bit about not talking about the Reds. |
| 1:23.7 | I thought he was going to force our hands this season as he did last season. |
| 1:27.8 | I thought Ellie would be inescapable that we'd just be talking about Ellie all the time, |
| 1:32.2 | that as great as he was last year, there might be an additional leap that he might make. |
... |
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