About this episode
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about whether the Red Sox pulling a pitcher in the middle of a plate appearance was an instance of “Strategy,” share a Stat Blast about whether the platoon advantage is more pronounced early or late in plate appearances, and discuss a pitch-framing flare-up between Tyler Flowers and Willson Contreras , then answer listener emails about how different baseball could be and still be baseball, whether moving the mound back would lead to many more hit batters, whether teams should be buying low on fly-ball pitchers and the future of MLB’s home-run rate, and whether the Astros or another team with a reputation for building better players could deke their rivals by expressing interest in trading for players they don’t actually want. Audio intro : Golden Earring, " Desperately Trying to be Different " Audio outro : Death Cab for Cutie, " No Room in Frame " Link to Flowers vs. Contreras beef background Link to video of Flowers-Contreras encounter Link to Ben on Flowers Link to Cooper on moving the mound back Link to Rob on moving the mound back Link to info on Ohtani’s throwing session Link to order The MVP Machine iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Sponsor Us on Patreon Facebook Group Effectively Wild Wiki Twitter Account Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source