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Mark and Andy are joined by special guest Kirk McKnight, author of The Voices of Baseball: The Game's Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America's Pastime to talk about the newest edition of the book, as well as the usual assortment of baseball statistics, odds, and ends. McKnight brings to the episode a wealth of knowledge about MLB's teams, players…
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Mark and Andy determine once and for all who the first family of baseball is, the Boones or the Bells. Taking into account multiple pieces of data, both stats-based and otherwise, the competition between these uncannily-matched combatants comes down to the wire and a surprising finish gives a slight edge to the gang you might not expect. Your hosts…
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The 2001 Mariners won as many regular season games as any team in baseball history, but fell short of playoff success. How did a team without Griffey, A-Rod, and Big Unit reach such heights? Mark and Andy are back to do a statistical deep dive into the winningest regular season team in history, position by position and player by player, and leave n…
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Mark and Andy are back for another episode of your favorite advanced stats baseball podcast. This time they are highlighting forgotten stars of the 1980s. While it may seem that the 1980s were just a few short years ago and thus none of the stars was forgotten, your hosts attempt to find some names that may be underappreciated or that produced some…
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Mark and Andy are back for another installment of their baseball stats exploration. Andy explores the list of the 70 20-20 seasons in baseball history. No, not home runs and stolen bases, but 20 batting runs and 20 fielding runs. Mark takes a look at noteworthy accomplishments in the first 162 games of players' careers. Who had the most hits? The m…
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Mark and Andy are back with their latest statistical explorations into baseball's history. This time, Mark looks at some of the most extreme--and worst--100 RBI seasons ever put together. Let's just say Tony Armas figures prominently. Andy takes on the scorching hot topic of pitchers hitting, both the best and worst of all-time. Randy Johnson falls…
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Mark and Andy are joined by Adam Darowski of Baseball Reference to talk about some advanced hitting stats that were recently added to players' pages, rBat+ and rOBA, as well as many other baseball-related topics, including his Hall of Stats site. Learn how these new stats are calculated, how they came to be on the page, and where the all-time great…
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Mark and Andy pare down their normal gargantuan episodes into one that can be digested in a shorter amount of time. The topics this time are "manager stats"--really an investigation into a team's actual performance vs. their record based on their total WAR--and game scores, the Bill James stat used to evaluate starting pitching performances. Both t…
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Mark and Andy are joined on this episode by baseball stats guru Jim Passon. The hosts and their guest take turns highlighting some of the less-remembered stars of the 1960s. As over 50 years have passed since the primes of their careers, players like Floyd Robinson, Don Mincher, and Jim Maloney are not household names. They all had their moments of…
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Mark and Andy are joined by Mark and Jeff from the Two Strike Noise podcast to create a foursome of podcasticness never seen before. The topic? The 1990 baseball season, a subject so nice they had to record it twice. While the National League portion of the season is discussed here, the AL happenings will be discussed on a subsequent episode of Two…
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The 2020 calendar year and season can finally be properly wrapped up, as Mark and Andy are back for their fourth installment of the BBBA Awards. This time, along with giving their takes on the existing inferior awards (MVP, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young), your hosts attempt to rename those awards to give it a more BBBA flavor. And as always, they gi…
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The year was 1987. Mark and Andy were 10 years old and baseballs were flying out of ballparks. Your hosts take a look back at that wondrous time in their youth and try to gain a better understanding of who really were the kings of the diamond that season. Each team gets discussed in some detail, as each host takes a league and looks at the standing…
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Mark and Andy do another in-depth examination of two players, this time the similarly-skilled Rickey Henderson and Tim "Rock" Raines. While Mark takes on Rickey in all his glory, Andy handles the under-appreciated star Raines. Although the players' careers spanned the same time period and their skills mirrored each other, Rickey was in a league of …
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Mark and Andy tackle a new kind of topic for the 65th installment of the podcast. This time, they're looking for stars from the 1970s who have been forgotten or overlooked. Although some of the players mentioned are not all-time greats, several others deserve serious Hall of Fame consideration. Just as the hosts did, hopefully you too will gain a n…
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Mark and Andy resume their exploration of Statcast measurements by focusing on fielding. Although the data is not readily available for most of it, arm strength, distance covered, and pop time form the foundation for what will come when they look at fielding metrics. The lack of data allow Mark and Andy to discuss some other baseball topics, includ…
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In the latest in their Second Look series, Mark and Andy dive into the careers of Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn to try to better understand the two players who became synonymous with batting titles in the '80s and '90s. Both were hailed as excellent players during their time, so what can we learn? Advanced stats shed some light on just how excellent th…
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Mark and Andy are back for another installment in their exploration of Statcast measurements. This time, they focus on the pitching side of things. We always hear about velocity and spin rate, but do we really understand what makes a pitcher effective? Your hosts attempt to sort through all the numbers and determine what it all means. What they fin…
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Mark and Andy are joined by special guest Brad Balukjian, the author of the exceptional new book The Wax Pack. Mr. Balukjian gives some insight into how the book came about and what makes it so special. The hosts help him break down the players featured in the book, both personally and statistically. While Mr. Balukjian is able to show a side of th…
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Mark and Andy are back to where it all started, introducing advanced stats one episode at a time. This time though, there's a little twist in that the "stats" are really just measurements, and instead of one, they talk about four or five different ones. The topic this time around is Statcast stats, and to start their investigation, your hosts are l…
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The careers of Don Mattingly and Kirby Puckett, although divergent in many ways--big-market vs. small-market, first baseman vs. center fielder, Hall of Famer vs. Just Really Good--also overlap considerably. The single-franchise heroes essentially played during the same seasons and have remarkably similar statistical profiles. Each one was regarded …
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The 2019 calendar year and season can finally be properly wrapped up, as Mark and Andy are back for their third installment of the BBBA Awards. Along with giving their takes on the existing inferior awards (MVP, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young), your hosts give their own recognition to players for accomplishments both good and bad. Among awards that r…
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Mark and Andy are back to revamp the stats on the backs of baseball cards. Although they didn't completely do away with traditional stats, there are plenty of more advanced stats that deserve a place among the 14 or so columns shown on the cardboard for both hitters and pitchers. They didn't quite reach consensus yet, but started the conversation a…
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Mark and Andy are back with your favorite advanced baseball stats podcast after a brief hiatus. The topic this time is Phillies catchers. Your hosts investigate the men who have played the position over the years through the lens of advanced stats. The names range from Darren Daulton to Andy Seminick to more recent luminaries like J. T. Realmuto an…
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In the final installment of their summer programming, Mark and Andy break down the Mount Rushmores for all five teams in the current National League East. Controversy ensues as the hosts debate, along with listeners and Twitter followers, the legitimacy of candidates and even of the existence of certain teams. Both podcasters have emotional ties to…
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Mark and Andy bring you the fifth out of six episodes in their Mount Rushmores series, in which they determine the faces for the teams of the National League West. This may have been the most difficult division to date, as each team presented decisions that could have gone any of several different ways. Ultimately though, there can be only four. As…
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Mark and Andy continue their "summer programming" with the next in their series of MLB divisions' Mount Rushmores. This time it's the NL Central, as the 5 current occupants of the division take their turns under the microscope. Twitter followers and podcast listeners chime in with their opinions, comical or serious as they may be, and your hosts so…
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Mark and Andy wrap up the Mount Rushmores of the American League by naming a top 4 for each team in the American League Central. This episode, just as the previous two, is spiced up with listener submissions and voting. While the listeners' lists are often comical or based on factors other than greatness, the hosts mostly base their lists on the br…
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Mark and Andy are joined by the voice of Wax Ecstatic, Matt Sammon, to tackle the daunting task of coming up with a Mount Rushmore for every current American League East team. Matt lends his expertise as a former Rays employee and Blue Jays fan and general baseball guy and Mark and Andy lend their usual takes incorporating stats and stories. The ho…
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The debates about who are the ultimate representatives for the Major League Baseball franchises is sure to be lively and bring up differences in opinions and criteria. Mark and Andy give their takes on who should be carved on the mountainside, taking into account many factors, including of course advanced metrics. This first episode in the series l…
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The great Grant McAuley joins Mark and Andy to discuss the spotty history of Braves second basemen. Stories abound for this collection of names, but choosing the best players to man the position in history proved challenging. Most players--from Lemke to Giles to Hornsby--only played the position for a few seasons at most. Did Glenn Hubbard's 1984 F…
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Todd Helton dominates the Rockies first basemen leaderboards like no other, and although there are only 75 players to have ever manned the position, there are plenty of interesting names, stats, and stories to go around. Mark and Andy go down the path of exploring all the ins and outs of Rockies first sackers, but get sidetracked along the way for …
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Your hosts thought it would be hard to make an episode about only one position for one team. Then they did it. Now, they attempt to fill an entire episode about only two players--Andre Dawson and Steve Garvey. Not only did Mark and Andy do it, but they made their longest episode to date. Be prepared to know more about these two players than you eve…
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If you're going to commit to doing an episode about every position for every team, that means you're going to have to do a Marlins leftfielders episode. You might be surprised by how many stars have played the position in the franchise's short history, however. While there are plenty of Chris Coghlans and Bryan Petersons, there's also Miggy, Ichiro…
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The Pittsburgh Pirates have been around forever, and their long history affords Mark and Andy the opportunity to dig in deep to the history of their catchers. While a large chunk of time is devoted to more recent names like Jason Kendall, Manny Sanguillen, and Tony Pena, the Doggie Millers and Bill Salkelds get their due as well. Your hosts look at…
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Mark and Andy attempt to rethink the Cy Young Award winners in the 1990s, but find that, because of a handful of dominant starters, most choices were easy. Even looking at the candidates through the lens of advance stats instead of just wins and ERA, there's a lot of Maddux, Clemens, Johnson, and Martinez. That doesn't stop the hosts from making a …
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Mark and Andy are back with another installment in the every-team-every-position-series, this time with their first Blue Jays episode and their first episode focusing on relief pitchers. You may think they'd be hard pressed to do a whole episode solely on Blue Jays relievers, but you probably had forgotten the contributions of Mark Eichhorn, Roy Le…
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Mark and Andy return with another episode of your favorite baseball stats podcast, this time centering around the players who have manned the "position" of designated hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers. Only having a full-time designated hitter for 25 seasons allows the hosts to really zero in on a large majority of the significant names, so you'll h…
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Mark and Andy are back with what may be their best episode yet--a sprawling, genre-defying, magnum opus of an ode to St. Louis Cardinals starting pitchers. While obvious names like Bob Gibson and Adam Wainwright get their due, the hosts make sure to include more obscure names like John Fulgham, Silver King, and Memo Luna. Through a close inspection…
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Mark and Andy get back into the team/position episodes for an exploration of all things Rangers leftfielders. Although Harold Baines was a leftfielder and played for the Rangers, he never played leftfield for the Rangers. That didn't stop the hosts from spending a good bit of time debating his Hall of Fame election. Most of the time was spent analy…
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The 2018 season can finally be properly wrapped up, as Mark and Andy are back for their second installment of the BBBA Awards. Along with giving their takes on the existing awards (MVP, Rookie of the Year, Gold Gloves), your hosts give their own recognition to players for accomplishments both good and bad. Among awards that return this year are The…
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Your favorite baseball podcast hosts return with another installment in their team/position series, this time exploring every nook and cranny of Pirates first basemen. Find out who the statistical leaders are, who Mark and Andy rank as their top 5 all-time, and some fun and interesting side nuggets along the way. While Stargell and Bream figure pro…
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George Davis, Art Fletcher, Dick Bartell...the names of legendary Giants shortstops just roll off the tongue. Although the tops of the leaderboards of players to man the oxymoronically-named position don't necessarily include household names, there are plenty of other interesting names--Willie Mays, Darrell Evans, and Yale Murphy to name a few--to …
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The dice have spoken and the first random selection of a team and position is...Rays leftfielders! Mark and Andy dive into the brief history of players who have manned the position for Tampa Bay, from the Devil Ray days to the more successful and god-fearing Rays era. Through the lens of advanced stats, the hosts attempt to sort out who besides Car…
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Mark and Andy are joined by baseball savant Chris Kamka in the next installment in their series of "every team, every position" episodes. Their guest shines light on the history of White Sox catchers in ways previously thought impossible. Every nook and cranny of the South Siders' backstops backstories is explored, both through the lens of advanced…
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As they did with MVP voting, Mark and Andy revisit the Cy Young voting of the 1980s through the lens of advanced stats to see if the right guys won. In an era in which voting was dominated by wins and saves, the hosts find plenty of room for improvement in the process and shed some light on some stars whose careers have been relatively overlooked b…
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Mark and Andy are joined by special guest Mark Simon of Baseball Info Solutions to talk about the complete history of Mets third basemen. The trio delve into not only the greatest, but also the obscure and forgotten, players to man the hot corner in eventful 56-year history of the other New York baseball franchise. While you may know Wright, HoJo, …
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Braves reporter Grant McAuley joins Mark and Andy for this deep dive into the storied history of Braves catchers. The result is the most informative episode of BBBA to date, a perfect balance of stories about people and statistical analysis. The familiar segments are here--Top Fives, Best Names, Best Baseball Cards, Leaderboards--all enhanced with …
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The inclusion in and exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame is a continuous source of debate for certain players. Like all things baseball, experts have tried to quantify players' worthiness (and likeliness) of being in the Hall with different statistics. Your hosts Mark and Andy--joined for the first time by a guest, one P. K. Steinberg--break d…
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Mark and Andy once again explore the MVP voting for a whole decade, in this case the 1990s. Using stats that didn't exist during the era, your hosts decide if the choices that voters made were the correct ones, if some changes need to be made, and if some unnatural substances helped any candidates along the way. Be prepared to be furious that your …
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It's been a while, but Mark and Andy are back to where it all started--breaking down advanced baseball statistics in an effort to understand them better. This episode, it is wRC+, a hitting statistic that has become more and more commonly used. Your hosts break down how it is calculated, who has the greatest career and single-season marks, and who …
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