Welcome back to our special two-part series here on the Athletic Podcast Network.

I am Mike Smeltz.

In episode one, we looked at how the fan experience will change in the near future, how going to the games, watching the games, and taking a piece of the games home are shifting in the digital age.

Today, we're looking at what is evolving from the player team and league perspective.

Now, baseball is a sport that straddles both the cutting edge of innovation and a dedication to its roots.

One element of the game that has spanned the decades is players and teams' dedication to cheating.

It's a big salvo in the war over the stealing signs.

You know, everyone's always trying to steal each other signs.

They still are.

That is, you know, Saris, baseball writer at The Athletic,

who often writes about the confluence of analytics and gameplay in the sport.

Saris is talking about a new piece of equipment in baseball called pitchcom.

That, yes, is an advancement in the game

but looks like something from 30 years ago. So this year they've introduced pitchcom device

and it just looks like an old school, I don't know, almost like a pager or something with

the big fat buttons on it. It's got these big

fat buttons on it. It's on the wrist of the catcher. And they can press a couple buttons.

And then it just basically, I think it's Bluetooth technology and it goes to the hat of the pitcher

and it'll actually say slider. And the funny thing about it is you can record

whoever, whatever voice you want, because they wanted to be able to make it

Spanish, you know, they wanted to be able to make it any language.

They wanted to make it the pitching coach or the manager or, you know,

...