Effectively Wild Episode 2553: One Ring to Rule Them All

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley welcome two old friends back to the show to discuss their teams’ recent Fall Classic matchup: former Effectively Wild co-host/FanGraphs writer (and current Rays Senior Analyst, Baseball Process & Strategy) Jeff Sullivan, and former FanGraphs writer (and current Brewers Senior Director—Player Information and Personnel) August Fagerstrom, the latter of whom just became the first FanGraphs alum to earn a World Series ring, at the former’s expense. They talk about playoff anxiety, the feeling of winning (and losing) the World Series, scouting each others’ teams and the similarities between the Brewers and Rays, tailoring team tactics to personnel vs. the other way around, how responsible they feel for their clubs’ successes, the differences between internal and external projections, ABS strategy, front-office turnover and continuity, internal team podcasts, and more.

Audio intro: Beatwriter, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Tom Rhoads, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Jeff’s FG author archive
Link to August’s FG author archive
Link to Episode 901
Link to EW guests sheet
Link to Vogelbach’s song
Link to Ben on Brewers/Rays similarities
Link to Ball on the Brewers/Rays
Link to MLBTR on Castro
Link to MLB.com on Roffe
Link to Kleine report
Link to Brewers index cards
Link to Dave/Jeff/Williamson story