Effectively Wild Episode 1738: Molina and the Mound

Ben Lindbergh follows up on a Stat Blast that generated a lot of listener emails, then (13:04) talks to former major leaguer and current Angels catching coach José Molina about his unparalleled receiving skills, fooling umpires, the importance of framing compared to throwing, blocking, and game-calling, whether stealing strikes can be taught, aspects of catcher defense that still aren’t being measured, robot umps and electronic pitch-calling, Shohei Ohtani, the quarter-century reign of the Molina brothers, Yadier Molina’s Hall of Fame case, and more. After that (44:19), Ben talks to R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports about the lead-up to and aftermath of the Atlantic League’s midseason move of the mound to 61 feet, 6 inches, touching on the early offensive effects, how pitchers and hitters have compensated, why pitchers nearly revolted, the need for a Lab League, the prospects of moving the mound back in affiliated ball, and the debate about who gets to decide how the sport will evolve (plus a postscript about robot-ump perceptions and a long Padres-Dodgers game).

Audio intro: Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Molina"
Audio interstitial: Phish, "Mound"
Audio outro: Del Amitri, "In the Frame"

Link to framing runs leaderboard
Link to Molina’s advanced catching stats
Link to Molina tweet about framing
Link to Max Marchi on Molina in 2012
Link to Ben on Molina in 2012
Link to Ben on Molina in 2013
Link to Ben on Molina framing Brett Lawrie
Link to Ben on framing at Grantland
Link to Ben on Molina framing GIFs
Link to Ben on the Yankees and framing
Link to Ben on the evolution of framing
Link to Ben on framing and the Hall
Link to Ben on Yadi’s hidden value
Link to post about Yadi’s extension
Link to Foolish Baseball on Yadi
Link to EW episode about game-calling
Link to Bengie Molina’s book
Link to R.J.’s Atlantic League article
Link to Rob Arthur’s Atlantic League article
Link to Jayson Stark’s Atlantic League article
Link to Ben on moving the mound back
Link to ASMI study on moving the mound back
Link to 2021 Atlantic League footage
Link to 2019 Atlantic League EW episode
Link to Pinstriped Prospects on the robo zone
Link to the New Yorker on robot umps
Link to thread on the Atlantic League zone
Link to thread on the Low-A Southeast zone
Link to Haniger interview
Link to study on robot-ump perceptions

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