Ben Lindbergh Meg Rowley Podcasts

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and top-tier Patreon supporter Kevin Peskuric banter about and quantify the difference in the receptions to an MLB tweet about Shohei Ohtani’s cat and a Yankees tweet about Henry Kissinger. Then (18:48) they talk about Kevin’s background as a baseball fan and Effectively Wild listener, answer listener emails (32:13) about…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about listeners’ end-of-year podcast stats, the reported “progress” in Padres-Yankees trade talks concerning Juan Soto, some recent Reds and Mets moves, a possible extension for Brewers prospect Jackson Chourio and the track record of extensions signed before a player’s MLB debut, and several end-of-season MLB aw…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Eugenio Suárez trade and the Mariners’ payroll, the Cardinals signing Sonny Gray, the Tigers signing Kenta Maeda, the Dodgers re-signing Jason Heyward, and whether an outfielder can be said to “pick it.” Then (50:07) they follow up on listener responses to their latest email episode, focusing on suggest…

Ben Lindbergh talks to Portia, proprietor of super-popular Shohei Ohtani fan account @shoheisaveus, about her Ohtani superfan origin story, life as a self-described “Shobae,” Ohtani’s popularity compared to other athletes and celebrities, following Ohtani from 15 time zones away, stanning a private person, the many mysteries of Ohtani, where the Sh…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the proper pluralization of “POBO,” then (7:12) answer listener emails about baseball with a five-second pitch clock, how long fans will continue to boo pickoff attempts, what it would take for a team to pay a particular fan to attend (or not attend) its games, Freddie Freeman’s base stealing, bringing turn…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Phillies re-signing Aaron Nola, the Braves signing Reynaldo López, trading for Aaron Bummer, and rearranging their roster, the Cardinals signing Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, the Padres hiring Mike Shildt, Shohei Ohtani swearing teams to secrecy about his free-agent visits, and NHK’s Ohtani documentaries.…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the possible significance of this year’s unanimous award votes, the public unveiling of Shohei Ohtani’s dog, what they learned (and didn’t learn) from the new ESPN documentary Shohei Ohtani: Beyond the Dream (21:42), and where they’d prefer for Ohtani to sign (1:01:16). Then (1:10:42) they conduct the ninth…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss MLB owners unanimously approving the Athletics’ move to Las Vegas, new time-saving measures slated for 2024, the respective salaries of David Stearns and Craig Counsell, and private flights as a potential perk to entice MLB free agents, then examine an upstart Dubai-based baseball league called Baseball United (…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a low-suspense awards week, the vastly varying paths to being a major league manager, the latest sign of the Angels player-development apocalypse, Brian Cashman on Giancarlo Stanton, the death of Padres owner Peter Seidler, Michael Jordan’s baseball career on For All Mankind, how much holding runners matter…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about norovirus derailing the GM meetings, leftover Boras quotes, and the baseball players deemed sexiest by People magazine, Stat Blast (18:47) about a possible bunting comeback and whether age is correlated with pitch-clock violations, and then (43:39) talk to FanGraphs writer Ben Clemens about the free-agent m…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Meg’s experience covering the GM meetings and broadcasting an AFL game, with an emphasis on Brian Cashman’s testy exchanges with reporters, Meg’s interaction with Jerry Dipoto, and Scott Boras’s wordplay, plus listener emails (1:01:04) about “electing” free agency, whether the pitch clock has lowered the av…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether whether they’d watch the winning team celebrate if they lost the World Series, then (17:09) discuss a trio of managerial moves (the Cubs poaching Craig Counsell from the Brewers, the Guardians hiring Stephen Vogt, and the Mets hiring Carlos Mendoza), the Marlins hiring the Rays’ GM, and […]…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the difficulty of watching Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the Japan Series, the last time an MLB pitcher threw as many as 138 pitches in a game, their hopes for Joey Votto’s next act, and the Brewers trading Mark Canha to the Tigers, then (32:13) answer listener emails about Silver […]…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about which MLB franchise will win its first championship next, the postseason “second-chance issue,” Clayton Kershaw’s shoulder surgery and other Dodgers decisions, a change in Astros primary catchers, the Braves re-signing Joe Jiménez, and Nelson Cruz’s career and retirement, then (1:05:20) discuss the stories …

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Meg’s experience covering the World Series in Arizona, then discuss the most interesting aspects of the series, what (if anything) teams could learn from the Rangers’ success, the futures of the Rangers and Diamondbacks, the entertainment value of the 2023 playoffs, and much more. Audio intro: Alex Ferrin, …

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about saying the wrong episode number in the intro to Episode 2077 and the definition of a title drought, then answer listener emails (18:45) about whether it would make sense to choose a bye in the playoffs if your opponent got to draft a player from the team it […]…

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the end of the NLCS, discuss the discourse surrounding the improbability of and fallout from the Diamondbacks-Rangers World Series matchup, banter about the Brewers always losing in the playoffs to eventual pennant winners, preview the World Series, postulate a conspiracy surrounding this postseason’s lack …