Effectively Wild Episode 1261: How Luck is Bailing Out Baseball

Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the returns of Mike Trout and Willians Astudillo, Astudillo’s new hobby, Jose Ramirez‘s power/speed combo, the NL Rookie of the Year race between Ronald Acuna, Juan Soto, Harrison Bader, and Brian Anderson, the decreasing incidence of stolen bases and sacrifice bunts, the Angels’ active offseason in retrospect, the Angels’ lack of playoff appearances with Trout vs. the Mariners’ lack of playoff appearances with Felix Hernandez, David Wright’s painful latest comeback attempt, and a Rich Hill (AKA Dick Mountain) anniversary, in addition to a deeper discussion about the role of randomness in baseball, what the standings “should” look like, and how luck, timing, and clutch hits are saving the season from the boring stretch run that some fans feared before the season.

Audio intro: The Byrds, "Welcome Back Home"
Audio outro: Dandy Livingstone, "There is a Mountain"

Link to picture of Astudillo drawing his bow
Link to Ben’s preseason piece about hope and faith
Link to Jeff’s post about the Dodgers and Mariners
Link to Marc Carig’s David Wright rehab article

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