Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast · Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley

Effectively Wild Episode 2463: Filled to the Brim

·1 hr 48 min·5 clips

Connor Griffin receives a nine-year, $140 million Pirates extension before turning 20.

1. Effectively Wild Episode 2463, titled "Filled to the Brim," covers a Jorge Soler mound charge, Connor Griffin's Pirates extension, and baseball's ABS strike-zone changes. 2. Ben Lindberg of The Ringer and Meg Rowley of FanGraphs host the episode and analyze current baseball events through rules, statistics, and roster-building consequences. 3. The episode asks whether mound charges, early-career contracts, and automated strike-zone challenges expose exploitable weaknesses in baseball strategy and administration. 4. John Boyce's database identifies Soler's incident with Reynaldo Lopez as the first major-league mound charge in four years. 5. Soler and Lopez each received seven-game suspensions, while Lopez's appeal reduced his penalty to five games. 6. Lindberg and Rowley consider whether a batter could charge an opposing ace in a must-win game and provoke an ejection. 7. Soler had faced Lopez 26 times, going 14-for-23 with five home runs and a 2.045 OPS before the mound incident. 8. Connor Griffin signed a nine-year, $140 million Pittsburgh Pirates extension with MVP escalators worth up to another $10 million. 9. Griffin's contract includes a $12 million signing bonus and reaches free agency after his age-28 season. 10. Ken Rosenthal's reporting raised questions about whether the timing of Griffin's agreement affected the Prospect Promotion Incentive. 11. The hosts describe Griffin's situation as unusual because he had only 22 major-league plate appearances while becoming the clubhouse's highest-paid player. 12. Pittsburgh's confidence in Griffin carries greater payroll risk because a $140 million contract going badly would significantly affect the franchise's future payroll. 13. The Pirates had the sixth-most starting-pitcher WAR at the time discussed, while their bullpen had performed poorly and their position players were middle of the pack. 14. Dan Szymborski's ZiPS projection suggested eight years and $142 million, making the extra free-agent year in Griffin's deal especially valuable. 15. Jose Altuve had a 204 WRC+ in 13 games and had issued four ABS challenges, winning three. 16. Only 4.9 percent of Altuve's taken pitches outside the rulebook zone had been called strikes, the lowest such rate of his career in the cited sample. 17. Lindberg and Rowley use Soler's brawl, Griffin's contract, and Altuve's strike-zone data in a conversational two-host format. 18. The episode combines statistical explanation with jokes about "pulling aggro," roly-poly bugs, player height, and the practical consequences of baseball rules. 19. Baseball fans interested in contracts, umpires, and strategy. 20. Listeners uninterested in detailed baseball rules or statistics.

As heard by us

A mound charge opener and a strike-zone deep dive make for smart, dry baseball radio.

Episode 2463 opens with a mound charge and then settles into a careful look at challenge systems, called strikes, and the strike zone. The hosts treat the flare-up and the rule talk with the same dry, practical tone, and Aaron Judge, Jose Altuve, and Nick Madrigal come up along…

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Why you'd press play

For the baseball listener who likes rules, edges, and a rare mound charge that actually mattered.

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