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Hang Up and Listen is brought to you by Audible. Get a 30-day free trial by signing up at audiblepodcast.com/hangup. Our pick of the week is Fifty Years of Great Writing: 50^th Anniversary 1954-2004 by The Editors of Sports Illustrated.

Hang Up and Listen is pleased to present a new weekly segment featuring Alex Belth, the proprietor of Deadspin’s sports journalism archive The Stacks. This week’s featured story is “The Hit King,” Scott Raab’s 1997 GQ piece on Pete Rose. You can follow Alex on Twitter and email him.

In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, John Koblin, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss the Patriots’ experimental format for broadcasting the NFL preseason and whether it could work for regular-season games. They also examine the dwindling correlation between team payrolls and wins in Major League Baseball. Finally, they talk about ESPN’s reaction to Fox Sports 1 and if the Worldwide Leader is getting smarter. 

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:

• The Patriots are changing the format of their preseason television broadcasts to “a talk-radio-type program.”
• Everything you need to know about Greg Buttle.
• Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes that the NFL is still considering an 18-game regular season.
• Last year, John Koblin explained “How Fred Gaudelli Turned NBC’s Sunday Night Football Into the No. 1 Show On TV.”
• On the Baseball Prospectus podcast Effectively Wild, Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller asked, “Are wealthy teams winning?”
• In May, Miller wrote about high-spending major-league teams and the “resource curse” for ESPN the Magazine.
• The 2013 payroll of every MLB team.
• In 2012, Dave Studeman of the Hardball Times looked at the connection between payrolls and wins from the 1970s to today.
• FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus both compared 2012 payrolls and success on the field.
• The Chicago Cubs built a baseball complex in the Dominican Republic.
• The Los Angeles Angles renewed Mike Trout’s contract for $510,000 earlier this year.
• FoxSportsLive tweeted a warning that “You officially have ONE WEEK to enjoy whatever else might be on television.” Bill Simmons responded, “Settle down.”
• Bloomberg Businessweek on Fox Sports 1’s push to bring “jockularity” to sports television.
• Marc Tracy of the New Republic writes that ESPN hired Nate Silver and Keith Olbermann in response to Fox Sports 1.
• Simmons hosted Silver and Malcolm Gladwell on his podcast; Koblin summarizes the conversation for Deadspin.
• Brian Stelter interviewed ESPN President John Skipper on CNN’s Reliable Sources.
• Paul Krugman considered the implications of Nate Silver leaving the New York Times.
• Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has lamented ESPN’s treatment of its show Outside the Lines.

Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Rasmussens:

Mike’s Rasmussen: Kyle Porter of CBSSports.com has posted predictions for almost every PGA tournament this year. The average finish of his predicted winners is 28th place.

John’s Rasmussen: Fox Sports will broadcast golf’s U.S. Open for 12 years beginning in 2015. How will Fox take to the sedate sport of golf?

Josh’s Rasmussen: Alabama strength coach Scott Cochran takes you on a tour of the "biggest, baddest weight room in the country!”

Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Our intern is Michael Gerber.

You can email us at hangup@slate.com.