Episode Details

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a “Dear Abby” baseball column, Andrew McCutchen’s return to Pittsburgh, Nelson Cruz signing with San Diego, the Dodgers reacquiring Miguel Rojas, catcher deking and the ball-strike challenge system, and inaccurate outfield-fence distances, follow up on Toronto chicken tenders (and how a new Canadian law could affect the Blue Jays), the tendency for fans to view baseball from the batter’s perspective, and a few more ways in which baseball is unusual among sports, followed (57:04) by a Stat Blast update on Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and prolific putout tandems, a new Stat Blast about J.J. Hardy, Scott Rolen, and players who only ever played one defensive position, and a Past Blast from 1955. Then (1:21:28) they talk to Mike Petriello of MLB.com about the effects he thinks MLB’s new positioning restrictions will have, how to determine whether the shift ban “worked,” how he thinks teams will play defense, whether hitters should adjust their approaches, which individual hitters and teams could be helped or hindered, and his thoughts on the other new rules changes.

Audio intro: The Smithereens, “Dear Abby”
Audio interstitial: Smith Westerns, “Only One”
Audio outro: Lyres, “Swing Shift”

Link to “Dear Abby” column
Link to FG post on Cruz
Link to LASIK study
Link to FG post on Rojas
Link to FG post on Fujinami
Link to “gamer babe” discussion
Link to The Classical on “gamer babe”
Link to “gamer babe” Giants post
Link to Cutch hype video
Link to Cutch offers report
Link to Defector on “furries” tweets
Link to Anthrocon site
Link to Céspedes BBQ tweet
Link to LASIK study
Link to Hannah Keyser on ABS
Link to ESPN ABS report
Link to Tango on deking
Link to laser measurements story
Link to Miggy reaction
Link to Woodberry laser tweets
Link to Comerica flies montage
Link to Tango on Comerica barrels
Link to Tango HR estimate
Link to FG post on Tigers hitters
Link to ballpark homogenization
Link to Belt on chicken tenders
Link to Toronto Ritz menu
Link to “Avocado Factor”
Link to Sportsnet article
Link to baseball idioms wiki
Link to idioms classification
Link to preorder Russell’s book
Link to Episode 1616 Stat Blast
Link to Episode 1616 putout duos
Link to Posnanski on Hardy
Link to one-position-player data
Link to Ryan Nelson’s Twitter
Link to Kenny Jackelen’s Twitter
Link to FG post on Andrus
Link to 2002 Rolli