Episode 1029: Clayton Kershaw’s Knuckleball

## Summary

*Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan answer listener emails about one-pitch innings, trampoline stats, winning in spring training, David Price and pitcher pace, a baseball scene in Chicago Justice, automatic homer hitting, putting hitters away with two strikes, underrated first basemen, banning player mannerisms, signing with an anonymous team, intentionally walking Mike Trout, and a Clayton Kershaw knuckleball.*

## Topics

* A player who only hits home runs
* Pace of play and intentional walks
* Baseball in *Chicago Justice*
* Pitching in counts with two strikes
* Does WAR underrate first basemen?
* Banning player mannerisms
* Signing with an anonymous team
* Intentionally walking Mike Trout in spring training
* Clayton Kershaw knuckleball hypothetical

## Banter

* Episode 1026 follow-up: In 1995 Jeff Nelson came into a game and on his first pitch induced a triple play.
* Listener Solomon sent in several pieces of data about annual number of trampoline injuries and compared to basebally injury data. From 2000-09 there were 24 fatalities from trampoline accidents.
* Episode 1026 follow-up: A listener suggested that in order to win spring training an owner could trade for players after the end of the previous season and then try to trade them again before the following season starts.

## Email Questions

* Alex: "Imagine if a regular person was suddenly able to hit a home run off any pitch. How many home runs would it take before they would be given a MLB at-bat?"
* Dan (Kitchener, ON): "If David Price were to miss all of 2017 would the time saved by replacing him with a pitcher with average pitching pace save more time than the new intentional walk rule?"
* Jeremy wrote in with a question about a clip (which Ben plays) discussing baseball in the new TV show Chicago Justice.
* Michael: "I have been recently wondering if DHs and first basemen are underrated by WAR. We know the precise value of batting, but fielding is a relatively theoretical exercise and positional adjustment is even more so yet WAR as a metric weighs these variables equally."
* Chris: "What would happen if players were banned from doing all of their little favorite OCD ticks/timing mechanisms?"
* Sean: "Would you sign an anonymous team contract? Let's pretend you are a free agent and your agent calls to tell you there's a team offering double but they won't reveal your identity until after you sign?"
* Aiden: "What if every team decided to intentionally walk Mike Trout for all of his spring training plate appearances? How much does this affect Trout's performance in the regular season?"
* Andrew: [If Clayton Kershaw had an 80-grade knuckleball] "How often do you decide to deploy this weapon? If he does throw it, how much better does it make him on a WAR level?"

## Stat Blast

* Jeff uses data from Baseball Savant to look up data about two-strike rate (number of pitches thrown with two strikes).
* Trevor May threw 37.2% of his pitches in counts with two strikes.
* 34.6% of Andrew Miller's pitches thrown in two strike counts resulted in a strikeout.

## Notes

* Ben thinks it would take about one month for a regular person who only hit home runs to get a MLB at-bat.
* In 2016 David Price was 2.9 seconds slower per pitch than the league average.
* After watching part of an episode Ben describes *Chicago Justice* as "like *The Good Wife*, but worse".

## Links

* Effectively Wild Episode 1029: Clayton Kershaw's Knuckleball
* Video of Jeff Nelson inducing a triple play