The Houston Astros were the subject of a season preview discussion on the February 6, 2026, episode of the FanGraphs Baseball podcast, “Effectively Wild,” alongside a preview of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley hosted the episode, which featured an interview with Chandler Rome of The Athletic regarding the Astros.
The podcast covered a range of topics prior to the team previews, including MLB player chatbots, an Addison Barger giveaway, Tarik Skubal’s arbitration win, and the Detroit Tigers’ signing of Framber Valdez. The discussion of Skubal’s arbitration case referenced reporting from Jeff Passan and Emily Baumann. A recent wave of layoffs at MLB.com and coverage of media issues at The Washington Post were as well briefly addressed, citing reporting from Rosenthal and others.
The Astros preview, beginning at the 36:29 mark of the episode, focused on the team’s outlook for the 2026 season. Rome provided insights into the Astros’ roster and potential performance. Listeners were directed to FanGraphs for team depth charts and season projections. The podcast also referenced a tracker of the Astros’ offseason moves.
The episode then shifted to a preview of the Arizona Diamondbacks with Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic, starting at 1:25:35. A postscript followed the team previews at 1:54:53.
The podcast is available on the FanGraphs website and YouTube, with over 16,000 subscribers to the FanGraphs channel as of February 6, 2026.
