Episode Details

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about homerless White Sox second basemen, the recent history of teams with homerless positions, and the upsides and downsides of the trend toward focusing on present-season performance in All-Star selections, then (37:11) answer emails about an award for utility players, a player’s debut age matching his debut number, whether an infielder could rob a home run, whether fatigue would make a four-player batting order of stars worse than a regular, nine-player lineup, whether championships reside with a city or a franchise, whether umpires could wear shorts, the definition of a “clean inning,” what it means for a throw/tag to be “not in time,” and the requirements for breaking out of a slump, plus closing banter (1:33:23) about Paul Skenes as an All-Star starter.

Audio intro: Alex Ferrin, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: The Shirey Brothers, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to 2B HR leaderboard
Link to White Sox 2B
Link to 2B projections
Link to White Sox 2B tweet
Link to Neil Paine’s Substack
Link to Neil graphic
Link to ASG roster rules story
Link to WAR and ASG story
Link to 1989 Canseco/Schmidt story
Link to Reddit post
Link to Pujols/Miggy ASG
Link to Castro selection story
Link to Castro record tweet
Link to debut age/number sheet
Link to Kenny Jackelen’s Twitter