Effectively Wild Episode 1208: The Acuña Cometh
Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Ronald Acuña’s debut and the Braves’ pivot to position players, the history of Peter Bourjos losing his job, Eric Lauer’s less heralded/distinguished debut, Kazuhisa Makita, the Angels maxing out their mound visits, and the state of Shohei Ohtani hype, follow up on outfield bobbling and baserunner blocking, and then answer listener emails about teams forfeiting, when homers caught up to triples for good, the Aroldis Chapman-Gleyber Torres trade, the value of long plate appearances, adding an extra plate umpire, a consistently inconsistent umpire, bad pitchers with good K:BB ratios, a visiting-team hypothetical, and the deceptive Rockies offense, plus Stat Blasts on two-strike hitting, foul outs, and performance vs. relievers.
Audio intro: Joe Walsh, "Welcome to the Club"
Audio outro: Everclear, "One Hit Wonder"
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MLB will not be able to resolve its umpire problem until these guys are given proper eye examinations. The technology exists for determining whether a person actually follows the ball into the strike zone or not or see on-base plays in real-time for that matter. Why people believe that umpires SEE the ball BETTER than professional athletes has always been a mind-puzzler to me. Batters are considered successful when they hit the ball safely 30% of the time. What’s is the baseline for umpires?