Effectively Wild Episode 2480: The Most Embarrassing Baseball Play
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 106 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether the Phillies’ surge would have happened the same way if Rob Thomson hadn’t been fired, discuss streaks that were snapped for the Mets and Rico Garcia, delight and dismay in John Kruk repeating a podcast talking point, try to determine the most embarrassing failure a player can suffer on the field, bemoan a missed opportunity for an ambidextrous pitching appearance, mark the promotion of Mariners prospect Colt Emerson, and then discuss which of this season’s most over- or underperforming teams will regress.
Audio intro: Alex Ferrin, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: The Spaghettis, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Link to team records since 4/28
Link to team run differentials since 4/28
Link to team records since 4/26
Link to Dan S. on managerial firings
Link to Neil P. on managerial firings
Link to Mets comeback game story
Link to past Mets streak discussion
Link to Holmes injury story
Link to Davis call story
Link to Garcia hit
Link to .000 BABIP streaks
Link to mound-charge strategy discussion
Link to Kruk clip 1
Link to Kruk clip 2
Link to Phillies vs. Pirates game
Link to Adolis arms
Link to Reds walk streak
Link to Cortes pitching play log
Link to Cortes profile
Link to 2025 Cortes switch-throwing game
Link to Venditte glove article
Link to Cortes pitching tweet
Link to FG post on Emerson
Link to MLBTR on Emerson
Link to Crawford fielding stats
Link to preseason playoff odds
Link to BaseRuns standings
Link to team performance vs. projections
Link to Sheehan on the Rays
Link to Sheehan on the Cardinals
Link to Ben on playoff velo
Link to updated PR pickoff data
Link to team positioning runs
Link to MLB.com Walls article
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Upstairs' Antentry, they've both been a lot to mean. |
| 0:05.0 | That's why I love baseball. |
| 0:07.0 | Special dances, preview series, pitching, and pure poetry. |
| 0:11.0 | That's why I love baseball. |
| 0:14.0 | Effectively wild. |
| 0:20.0 | Effectively wild. Hello and Hello and |
| 0:31.8 | Hello and welcome to episode 2480 of Effectively Wild |
| 0:34.6 | A Fangraphs Baseball podcast brought you by our Patreon supporters |
| 0:37.4 | I'm Meg Rally of Fangraps and I am joineds baseball podcast brought you by our Patreon supporters. |
| 0:41.6 | I'm Meg Raleigh of Fangraphs and I am joined by Ben Lundberg of the ringer. Ben, how are you? |
| 0:46.2 | Doing well, but not nearly as well as the Philadelphia Phillies. |
| 0:55.8 | Now, I know we've had this kind of conversation before, quite possibly when the Phillies replaced Joe Girardi with Rob Thompson and their fortunes changed. |
| 1:01.0 | But these Phillies are 15 and 4 since firing Rob Thompson. |
| 1:03.8 | That's the best record in baseball over that span. |
| 1:09.9 | And it's not a bunch of fluky one-run wins or extra inning wins. |
| 1:13.6 | They have the second best run differential over that period, too, trailing only the brewers. So, what are we to make of this? As rational, |
| 1:21.5 | sabermetrically minded observers, must we simply say regression and small sample? they were bound to do better anyway or must we bow |
| 1:33.0 | before mattingly magic i mean look i don't i don't feel the need to denigrate don maddenly |
| 1:41.5 | i'm not here to blow up his spot i'm not here to give him a hard time. |
| 1:46.5 | But I feel like it's a good baseball team that wasn't playing particularly well. |
| 1:51.1 | Seems like they were sort of due to play better. |
| 1:53.9 | And they had some guys who were hurt and got healthy again. |
... |
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