meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

Effectively Wild Episode 1376: Root, Root, Root for the Run Differential

Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley

Sports, Baseball

4.72.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2019

⏱️ 70 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

EWFI
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about Chris Sale’s seven-inning, 17-strikeout game and the Marlins’ ineptitude, then answer listener emails about differences in home-run distance, rooting for run differential, reimagining errors (and quality starts), whether catchers would still squat after robot umpires were implemented, when relief innings will surpass starter innings, no-hitters as team accomplishments, and the most runs scored in a game by one player who accounted for all of his team’s runs, plus a Stat Blast about hustle doubles.

Audio intro: Elton John, "Between Seventeen and Twenty"
Audio outro: Chip Taylor, "Michael’s Song"

Link to Craig’s post on Sale
Link to David Kagan’s site
Link to Pederson homer
Link to Acuña homer
Link to tall-catchers episode
Link to Ben on the opener and the 1993 A’s
Link to Sam on walk-off triples
Link to Mike’s tribute post
Link to Mike’s memorial page
Link to preorder 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

Source

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm here tonight, I'm ready when I'm bad, I'm here when I'm jealous, yellow when I'm sad, I guess I can't I have a ever-retting, so much has come between us when I was 20.

0:17.0

Hello and welcome to episode 1376 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from 10 Graphs presented by our Patreon supporters.

0:30.0

I am Ben Lindbergh of the Ringer, joined by Sam Miller of ESPN, Hello Sam.

0:35.0

And hello, I Chris Sale had 17 strikeouts through 7 innings and in records did you get your hopes up?

0:41.0

Now to me the process of writing about 21k outings has really helped me to root more efficiently I think because it focused my attention and I think it was the play index that we did probably in the episode 900 or so.

0:56.0

That really did the key thing is of course pitches you don't have 27 outs to work with necessarily and you don't need 27 outs necessarily but you do have something like 120 pitches with maybe a little bit of margin on either side and so you basically need to be pitching at 6 pitches per strikeout to have a reasonable chance and sale had 8 strikeouts through 3 innings with 47 pitches which is on pace.

1:25.0

And I was sitting in a piano lesson waiting room and couldn't tweet out an alert at that point but a few minutes later he had like a 7-pitched bat against Charlie Blackmon who I think grounded out after foul tipping a pitch into and out of a mitt.

1:42.0

And at that point then it became sort of a strain and then the next batter I think had like a 5 or 6-pitched bat and didn't strike out and that was pretty much it.

1:51.0

I quit watching I mean I didn't quit watching but I quit considering it a chase it was no longer a chase in my opinion.

1:58.0

So they took him out after 108 pitches and 7 innings and then the bullpen blew the game they went to extra innings so perhaps they regretted it but perhaps not because their priority is keeping Chris sale healthy and it looks like Chris sale is good and it looks like the red socks are good and all of the early season worries about both of those things not being true have eased up somewhat Chris sales less.

2:20.0

Couple starts have had pretty extraordinary strike out and walk yeah totals yeah so I know his velocity is not all the way back but he's making it work he I mean theoretically he could have struck out the next four batters on 12 pitches and done it but I mean that's very unlikely and he uh he.

2:39.0

Strange to say of a guy who had 17 strikeouts in no walks but he wasn't even leading at the time right and so made sense in the moment to pull them after 108 pitches 20 was was was a reasonable thing if you thought 20 is worth chasing then maybe you keep him in for 122 pitches because there's a decent chance he'd do that but I don't think 20 is worth chasing I'm not impressed by 20 I only want 21 so I thought everybody behaved you know more or less appropriately here.

3:09.0

Alright you have any bentor I just want to correct something my process of determining whether Dylan flora had been good was somewhat misinformed Dylan flora did not bat twice against John Ryan Murphy this year he batted last year against Eric crats so he was in that article but he was not the pitcher that I had been thinking of I believe Brock Stewart was that pitcher and Brock Stewart was not on our our list.

3:39.0

Because he has only played three games for the Dodgers in which he gave up eight runs and so just just to clarify that I think I think in every single one of my processes I said at least one untruth which is kind of what's going to happen when you're trying to remember what a middle reliever did in the fourth game of the season yeah to try to do something that you don't actually know about a pitcher who you know almost nothing about but mostly true stuff and Dylan flora I think the process of the game is not going to be a good one.

4:08.0

I think the process more or less was still accurate anyway Dylan flora yeah so I brought this up on the ringer and we'll be show yesterday but I have to bring it up again I talked to Michael Bellman about how bad the Marlins have been they've been really historically terrible this far and I focused specifically on their offense which has been horrendous and then after we did that segment the Marlins went out and got shut out by the rays so now the numbers are even worse than they were when I talked about it yesterday.

4:38.0

The Marlins as a team are 10 and 30 that is of course a 250 winning percentage which puts them on pace for 41 wins if you round up and according to their run differential where if you round up from 40.25 40.5 right would be yeah would they would win half of two games yeah that's right so yeah so that that gets into the metaphysical question of whether point five should round up around down yes I'm not sure but they're running out of the game.

5:08.0

One differential is that of a nine and 31 team which is that's a 225 winning percentage that would be a 36 win team and that does round down so they've been really bad and that's not surprising because they're the Marlins and they're playing in a good division where the other teams are all competitive and are beating up on the Marlins all year but their starting rotation is actually pretty credible they're pretty good they've got Pablo Lopez and they've got hope

5:38.0

Jose Rania and they've got other guys I'm forgetting right now calms with is maybe the best of the bunch he's been pretty good this year but beyond that it's a sorry group and the bullpen has been a disaster but the offense right now the Marlins as a team are hitting 21821307 they have 24 home runs which is by far the fewest in the league and that gives them a 64 WRC plus which to put that into perspective the

6:07.9

all-time worst team WRC plus in a full season in baseball's modern era back to 1901 is the 1920 post fire sale athletics who had a 67 WRC plus so right now the Marlins through a quarter of the season or so have had what would be the worst offense ever in a full season of course it is easy to be terrible or great over a quarter of a season or easier if you look at the top of that all-time leaderboard the 2019

6:37.9

Astros with a 135 WRC plus would be the best offense ever which is not that inconceivable given that the 2017 World Series winning Astros had I think the fourth best offense of all time by that measure I think the best other than the

6:54.2

Ruth Garrig Yankees so the Astros are good the Marlins are incredibly inept and I don't know if it's going to get much better from here their best hitter I think by far so far

7:06.1

really only above average hitter is Neil Walker and it just falls off from there can we can we talk about their second best hitter because they have who is that well they have 22 players have added at least once 22 okay five of those are pictures so but I'm going to include them because

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.