Effectively Wild Episode 1408: The Best Players of the Decade
Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller, and Meg Rowley banter about “minimum innings,” striking out the side, and an anecdote about Barry Larkin bunting, then spend the rest of the episode answering a listener request to name the five best hitters and five best pitchers of the decade—but to make matters more interesting, they do so without looking at WAR and then compare their picks to the stats at the end.
Audio intro: Hot Snakes, "This Mystic Decade"
Audio outro: The Muppets, "Mah Na Mah Na"
Link to Larkin bunting story
Link to spring training Greinke story
Link to Joe Posnanski’s Greinke story
Link to Jeff’s Greinke tweet
Link to Jay on Greinke’s HOF trajectory
Link to Ben’s Beltré story
Link to 2010-19 B-Ref batting WAR leaderboard
Link to 2010-19 FanGraphs batting WAR leaderboard
Link to 2010-19 B-Ref pitching WAR leaderboard
Link to 2010-19 FanGraphs pitching WAR leaderboard
Link to order The MVP Machine
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First comment is a technicality, but with the new(er) Intentional Walk rules not requiring a pitch, wouldn’t the minimum inning be 2 IBBs with a triple play turned? I’d be curious how probable this is and if we will ever see it happen.
Never, I’d guess. How often do you see a lead off IBB?
I think two pitches is unlikely enough but could happen with “normal” baseball play: double, IBB then pick off, double play or triple play.
Granted, I doubt this would happen more often than once a century, if that.
I completely agree, but the technicality means it’s possible, and if baseball has taught me anything it’s that you can never count out those possible oddities.