We talk about the Great Home Run Surge of 2019, the Rabbit Ball, Slippier in the Air Ball, the call up of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alex Rodriguez on YouTube.

Links:

• Moonshot: The Baseball Is Juiced (Again) by Robert Arthur
• Moonshot: Exit Velocity Is Higher Than Ever by Robert Arthur
• Moonshot: The Rabbit Ball is Flying in Triple-A Too by Robert Arthur
• The Call-Up: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. by Jarrett Seidler and Kevin Jebens
• Circle Change: Who’s Hitting the Extra Dingers? by Zach Crizer
• Kendall's writing for the Prospectus Notebook
• ARod on YouTube

We talked with Jared Diamond about recent MLB rules changes. Specifically related to one of our favorite subjects, two-way players. We address how teams will have to designate players as, pitchers, hitters, or two-way and what effect those rules will have on the game. We also get a peak into Jared's upcoming book.

Harry and Kendall also dig into some of the upcoming changes that MLB will be testing out in the Atlantic League.

We chatted with the creators and maintainers of four major projection systems, ZiPS (Dan Szymborski), Steamer (Jared Cross), THE BAT (Derek Carty) and Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA (Harry Pavlidis) about how their systems are created, how the past is used to project future performance and how projecting young players without much track record can be tricky.

Music is "Open Your Face" by Parker Projection.

Deep dive into DRC+ and PECOTA with Jonathan Judge and Rob McQuown of Baseball Prospectus.

• Stats Chat
• DRC Updates and Improvements
• DRC+ and Observables
• All DRC+ coverage
• Projected Standings based on PECOTA
• How to watch Serie del Caribe 2019

Shohei Ohtani revisited, baseball Hall of Fame bar lowering and how it affects who gets in, lining up optimal player development and what happens when you launch a new statistic.

Available at Baseball Prospectus

Harry and Kendall talk about the quantifying The Opener phenomenon, Bill James' comments about replacing players, trying to figure out if regular baseball fans could visibly tell the difference between top MLB talent and replacement level talent. Then cap it off with a discussion about the changes at Baseball Prospectus.

In the playoffs (and always) pitching and catching are important

• Donate to the Lupus Foundation

Required Reading

• The unlucky legacy of the 2018 Houston Astros by Sam Miller
• Joel Sherman writes about the plight of catchers

We talk about how you build a baseball team for the playoffs and the future. It’s good to talk about baseball. Enjoy the playoffs.

Harry and Kendall talk about the Women's Baseball World Cup, then look at how the number of 🔥high velocity🔥pitchers has increased over the last 10 years. They wrap up with a discussion of how bullpen usage affects lineups and how it might affect your daily fantasy league.

• Stolen Bases book by Jennifer Ring, Ph.D.
• Women's Baseball World Cup website
• Women's Baseball World Cup YouTube Channel
• Kalamazoo Yankees vs Colorado Silver Bullets
• Bullpen (Mis)management Tool

We visit with Jason Benetti, television play by play announcer for the Chicago White Sox. We talk with him about his start in the business, taking over for a broadcasting legend, how he integrates Steve Stone's first hand knowledge, with the plethora of statistical data he has access to.

We also touch on the All Star Game and how catchers are evaluated for the Hall of Fame.

Talking about the materials that make up a baseball with Dr. Meredith Wills. We also revisit two-way players, dig into defensive metrics and why they're difficult, and are reminded that everything old is new again.

• How one tiny change to the baseball may have led to both the home run surge and the rise in pitcher blisters
• Angels Live: What to make of ‘Seam Study’