Effectively Wild Episode 1918: Call Off the Search for the Secret Sauce
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley review the results of the 2022 minor league free agent draft, discuss Gold Glove finalists and a study about the lack of special ways to win in the postseason, recap the first few Championship Series games (and banter about José Alvarado and same-named athletes in multiple sports), and answer listener emails about the name of the Division Series, on-screen strike zone graphics, and spotting higher-seeded teams a game before the start of a postseason series, plus a Past Blast from 1918, concluding banter about Shohei Ohtani’s comments about the Angels’ season and José Ramírez’s post-postseason surgery, and a postscript.
Audio intro: Nada Surf, “What is Your Secret”
Audio outro: Andrew Weiss and Friends, “Everybody Loves a Comeback”
Link to 2022 draft results
Link to Raymond’s EW wiki post
Link to Gold Glove finalists
Link to FiveThirtyEight on Gold Gloves
Link to 2021 story on Soto’s defense
Link to Dan S.’s playoffs study
Link to Russell’s playoffs study
Link to Russell on playoff homer-hitting
Link to Rosenthal on the playoff format
Link to ZiPS playoff odds
Link to study on playoff randomness
Link to FG post on NLCS G1
Link to FG post on NLCS G2
Link to MLB.com on Snell
Link to MLB.com on Padres’ rally
Link to MLB.com on Alvarado
Link to FG post on ALCS G1
Link to MLB.com on ALCS G1
Link to BP ALCS game preview
Link to Reddit on the best-of-9 WS
Link to ALCS G1 ump scorecard
Link to Division Series wiki
Link to BP K-Zone plea
Link to FG post on KBO playoffs
Link to EW emails database
Link to 1918 story source
Link to 1918 Ruth box score
Link to MLB.com on Ruth’s lost homer
Link to Reddit on Ruth’s homers
Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website
Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter
Link to Ruth homers book
Link to Ohtani Angels story
Link to Ohtani WBC story
Link to Ramírez surgery news
Link to Japan athletes poll
Link to U.S. athletes poll
Link to Patreon/Discord instructions
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Just listening to this now. The thing about how many games teams need to win in each round of the playoffs is an extended bit, right? Like in the Poscast when Joe and Mike mention, “You know I wrote a book, right?” And the other invariably responds, “No, why didn’t you say anything?” Even though they have both mentioned their books a thousand times. Anyway, if it a bit, it’s become tiresome. And if it’s not, then, wow, you either have really, really, really, stupid listeners, or you think you do.