Effectively Wild Episode 1238: Absolute Unit

Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the joyous big-league debut and amazing minor-league history of Effectively Wild favorite and new Twins utility man Willians Astudillo, an awful Royals month, Jacob deGrom, a bobbled Raimel Tapia catch and tag-up confusion, Jon Gray‘s perplexing demotion, Marlins who may be traded, a Vince Velasquez highlight, Michael Lorenzen‘s hitting and Matt Davidson’s pitching, a Ryne Stanek fun fact, and a historic, almost-unprecedented putout by the Pirates and Joe Musgrove. Then (50:54) they talk to mutual childhood favorite (and Hall of Famer) Randy Johnson about how he harnessed his stuff, making mechanical tweaks, the fellow legends he came up with in Seattle, his incredible Houston half-season, his surgical history, starter workloads, whether he could have continued pitching as a reliever, facing Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, and Rickey Henderson, being snakebit in October, and more (plus a remembrance of Small World Sports).

Audio intro: The Beach Boys, "Here Today"
Audio interstitial: Big Thief, "Randy"
Audio outro: Dolly Parton, "Randy"

Link to Ben’s Astudillo article
Link to Tapia tag-up play
Link to Ben’s Jon Gray article
Link to Ben’s Smith and Lorenzen interviews
Link to Velasquez play
Link to Pirates putout
Link to Jeff’s post about the peaks of Pedro and Randy
Link to Small World Sports article

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