Effectively Wild Episode 1584: The Immaculate Golden SombreroBen Lindberghon August 28, 2020 at 4:53 pm

Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about how Albert Pujols has remained an RBI man without being a good hitter and the historic slimness of Cleveland rookie pitcher Triston McKenzie, then answer a listener email about whether all innings would be better with the extra-innings automatic-runner rule, followed by Stat Blasts about what would happen if all GMs traded as much as the most frequent trader, the record for the most identical final scores on the same day, and hitters who’ve struck out four times on 12 pitches in the same game, plus another listener email about how much shorter the average game has been this season because of seven-inning games and fewer extra innings, and closing banter about the bottom of the ninth’s history.

Audio intro: The Kinks, “Living on a Thin Line“
Audio outro: The Baseball Project, “Golden Sombrero”

Link to 2017 Pujols article
Link to sheet of lowest and highest BMIs
Link to scouts on McKenzie
Link to video of McKenzie’s debut
Link to story about McKenzie’s debut
Link to Lucas on McKenzie’s stuff
Link to Travis Sawchik on Cleveland’s pitcher development
Link to Tyler Stafford’s Stat Blast Song cover
Link to spreadsheet of days with most identical scores
Link to most common baseball scores
Link to three-pitch strikeouts spreadsheet
Link to Grant Brisbee on Lawrie’s sombrero
Link to Will Leitch on Lawrie’s sombrero
Link to A Game of Inches
Link to episode with discussion about Trout not flying
Link to Baseball-Reference Game Changer