Effectively Wild Episode 1516: The Odds of an Odd Season

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller follow up on a previous discussion of advance scouting’s contribution to Kirk Gibson’s legendary 1988 home run and banter about the strangeness of not having a date for Opening Day, then answer listener emails about how to get into baseball for the first time, how a shortened season could affect future perceptions of players’ careers, whether a shortened season would create more uncertainty in the standings (and whom it would help), whether baseball would be better if the top of the order led off every inning, and the Angels’ ownage of Yusei Kikuchi, plus a Stat Blast about the history of same-named teammates.

Audio intro: Field Music, "Shorter Shorter"
Audio outro: Elliott Smith, "A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to Be Free"

Link to Leonard Koppett book
Link to Craig Edwards on a shortened 2019 season
Link to Dan Szymborski on shortened-season playoff odds
Link to Ben on pitcher hitting
Link to order The MVP Machine

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TurkeesElevenMember since 2020
5 years ago

To the listener asking how to get into baseball – I got into it at age 37 when I joined a fantasy baseball league. Getting a magazine guide to fantasy will give you a good idea of the best players at each position, the new players, and in some cases bits about each team. You do learn something about stats too just from reading something like that in the bathroom etc.