The SIS Baseball Podcast

We kick off the baseball season, with Mark Simon talking about all things robo-ump. First, Jayson Stark joins us to explain the "buffer zone" and the imperfections of the new system. He wrote an article about this last month and we're now seeing what he wrote about play out in front of us. Then we're joined by Maxfield Lane and Owen Riley of Oyster Analytics. They're former college baseball players with a statistical expertise who have mapped out when it's best to challenge and when it's best...

On this episode we deviate a little bit from our usual format. This is our 6th straight year doing an episode with Black History Month connections. We feel it's important to be socially conscious and inclusive, especially with everything happening in the world. This year we did that by speaking with two people whose job is sharing the legacy of baseball legends. Samantha Gibson, director of education at The Jackie Robinson Museum talked to Mark Simon about the museum's mission and the m...

On our final episode of 2025 we're joined by Minnesota Twins pro personnel analyst Nihar Maskara (an SIS alumnus) to talk about what working in baseball analytics is like when working for an MLB team. Nihar recounted his time as a student at Wake Forest volunteering for the baseball team's analytics department. He shared what goes into his work with the Twins and the things he learned by asking questions. He explained how the sport is evolving, what jobs he'd like to explore in the future, an...

On this episode, Mark Simon announces the winners of The 2025 Fielding Bible Awards, including a new award for Defensive Team of the Year. Mark is joined by three of the Fielding Bible winners: Nico Hoerner of the Cubs (2:15), Ernie Clement of the Blue Jays (17:45), and Patrick Bailey of the Giants (26:45). Thanks as always for listening. Please check out the new-and-improved FieldingBible.com website, follow us on Bluesky at @sportsinfosolutions.com, and read our work at SportsInfoSolution...

On this week's episode, Mark Simon is joined by Angels center fielder Bryce Teodosio, one of the top defensive players in baseball since his recall from the minors about 6 weeks ago. Bryce talked about his aggressive approach and how he makes plays like a home run robbery against Andy Pages. He also explained the way pre-game prep helps him get ready for making improbable catches. At episode's end, Mark takes a look at the top contenders for this year's Fielding Bible Awards. Thanks as always...

On this episode Mark Simon talked with Marlins shortstop Otto López, one of our Defensive Player of the Month selections about his midseason position switch, the challenges of playing shortstop, and why playing badminton as a kid was helpful to him. If you would like to read a written transcript of Otto's interview, head here. Then Mark is joined by his SIS colleague Bailey Knight for a discussion of how they watch baseball and what they think about when they watch baseball at different level...

You can find a transcript of the episode here On this episode, our Mark Simon talks to Astros rookie right fielder Cam Smith, who ranks among the leaders in Defensive Runs Saved despite never having played the position before this season. Cam talked about his welcome to the big leagues' moments and explained how teammate Jake Meyers and the Astros outfield coaches have helped in his acclimation to a new position. Then, we switched topics. Mark went to the SABR convention and shared some of th...

On this episode, Mark Simon was joined by both a current major leaguer and a former major leaguer. Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo stopped by to talk shop with regards to why he's a shortstop and how he plays his position. He shared with us his approach in the field and how he uses his instincts. Former MLB and NPB relief pitcher Jay Jackson also joined us to share lessons learned from his MLB career that he's turned into a self-published book about positivity. He also spoke to us ab...

On this episode, we cover how playing volleyball helped a future minor league Gold Glover, got an explanation on how defensive positioning models are developed and talked about what stats belong on a baseball scoreboard. Joining Mark Simon, our first guest was Marlins prospect Joe Mack, who won a Gold Glove as a catcher last season. Joe talked about how he developed at the position and what he's working on now. Then Katie Krall, baseball analyst for Marquee Sports Network and former researc...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by national baseball writer Hannah Keyser and SIS operations analyst Brandon Tew. Hannah, who formerly wrote for Yahoo Sports, introduced us to her thrice-weekly baseball newsletter, The Bandwagon, which she co-authors with Zach Crizer. She shared what early-season baseball happenings surprised her and 'confirmed her priors.' Then she played along and guessed at the members of 'The All-Scrapes Team' (or 'The All-Ouch Team') - players who have dove f...

For our 5th annual episode with a connection to Black History Month, Mark Simon is joined by Missouri head baseball coach Kerrick Jackson, and Adam Giardino and Grayson Singleton of the Black Play-By-Play Broadcaster & Scholarship Fund. Kerrick is the first Black head baseball coach in SEC history. He shared the story of his career path and influences, explained how data and analytics have become a big part of his job, and explained why his school is participating in this weekend's Andre ...

We close out 2024 by asking two people what they'll remember. First we ask recently-retired (and new father) Kevin Kiermaier about the defensive plays he'll most remember from his career. He's the overall leader in Defensive Runs Saved by a center fielder. We also talked to Kevin about what it was like to play for the Dodgers and got a specific example on how their advance scouting paid off. Then we talked to baseball writer Sam Miller about the most memorable things from the 2024 season (s...