Tom Verducci on the Curveball Comeback (Ep. 77)

The Ringer's Ben Lindbergh and Michael Baumann start off with a quick edition of "College Baseball Player or Fictional Racing Driver" (02:30). Then they bring on Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and Fox Sports/MLB Network analyst Tom Verducci to discuss his new SI cover story about the high-tech ways in which teams are evaluating breaking balls (04:30), why the curveball is becoming more common and disrupting traditional pitch-usage patterns (06:00), how an emphasis on spin rate could affect the pitcher-batter balance (18:00), and how Verducci reports on trends that teams could consider competitive advantages (28:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices