Podcast Audio Episodes

Send us a text It was great to receive so many responses to our podcast Episode 434 from last week on Total Bases Per Plate Appearance. We wanted to go further with it and apparently listeners want that too. So we've created another new stat - Bases created per plate appearance. This stat includes BB, IBB, HBP and net Stolen Bases for each player and each team. This season's Atlanta Braves reign supreme with this stat as well as the more productive hitting team in MLB history! We're still tweak...

Send us a text And suddenly the 2023 season is all over. Pitch clocks, larger bases, limits to shifting the infield all proved to be welcome and significant changes in MLB. The 2023 Braves have reason to claim they are the greatest hitting team of all time. The Marlins & D'Backs are back in the playoffs and somehow the Astros managed to win the AL West after all. The Wild Card Series being Tuesday and will end no later than Thursday with the NL and AL Division Series both starting on Saturday. ...

Send us a text We love that Hank Aaron has the most Total Bases in baseball history. In fact the list of players for all-time Total Bases is filled with Hall of Famers and would-be HOFers. Mark recently wrote an article on Total Bases per Plate Appearance - sort of a new way to look at a player's offensive contribution. It can be accessed here: https://open.substack.com/pub/almostcooperstown/p/if-war-is-hell-could-there-be-one?r=6m2o9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web. We take it further by dis...

Send us a text This week was very full. The Rays and St. Pete have come to a deal for a brand-new domed but artificial turf stadium in a private/public partnership for reportedly $1.3B . Great news for the city and the team. Blue Jays Yusei Kikuchi said he became injured due to not getting the11 hours of sleep as he normally does every night. Sandy Alancantra is out for the season - a big blow to Miami's playoff run and hopes. Listen to us discuss all that happened last week and what will be h...

Send us a text Why don't players bunt? Is it a lost art in baseball? Was baseball better when there were 8 teams in each league and only one league champion that would represent the league in the World Series? We debate and contemplate whether today's baseball is the best it's ever been. The athleticism of modern players is at the highest level ever and we question if players are pulling off more extraordinary catches and plays than ever before. We’ll consider whether free agency has changed th...

Send us a text Mike Rizzo is back in for the Nationals, and Chaim Bloom is out for the Red Sox. Cole Ragans fell down for and on the Royals, and a knuckleballer finally reappeared and got a win in MLB. Have you ever pondered the paradox of the LA Angels - a team struggling despite housing the sport's finest player for nearly a decade? We unpack this baseball enigma and explore the Hall of Fame candidacy of Zach Greinke. We also weigh in on Ohtani's potential return (NOT) to the Angels and the p...

Send us a text The Marlins won 47% of their games and 2 WS when they were the Florida Marlins. Once they changed their name to the Miami Marlins they win at a 43% pace and have only made the playoffs once in the pandemic season of 2020. This week we dive into the Marlins who are fighting for a playoff spot this season. They are the fastest expansion team to win a World Series doing that in their 5th season. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Plea...

Send us a text Since the division races and wild card chases have not changed all that much from last week this week we talk about the also-rans. The teams that are waiting for next year or even the years after that. We also talk about the rookies and there are some really good ones. The George Kirby story is more interesting than you might think. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you...

Send us a text Babe Ruth & Barry Bonds. They are two of the greatest hitters who ever played and that cannot be argued. Who was better? That depends on your point of view so we decided to argue - Mark mostly for Ruth, Gordon mostly for Bonds. The more we talked about their statistics the more impressive they became! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode...

Send us a text What was the signature moment of the past week in #MLB? Was it Alex Cobb's near no-hitter? Bryce Harper's 300th HR? Ronald Acuna's 121.2 MPH home run - the hardest hit ball in 5 years? We talked about all of those and the state of the races in all the divisions in our weekly TWIB update! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop u...

Send us a text Thankfully bloodying a fellow MLB player is no longer something of which to be proud. That was the case in the earlier days of baseball. Baseball is still played hard and sometimes it still can get dirty but on the field dirty play happens much less frequently. With the advent of the Universal DH, pitchers no longer have to worry about batting against an opposing pitcher right after that pitcher knocked down an opposing player earlier in the game. Doesn't that create dangerous po...

Send us a text Which was the bigger story this week - Shohei Ohtani's UCL injury ending his pitching for 2023 and into 2024, or Stephen Strasburg's retirement? Strasburg's story is one of what could have been. Ohtani is THE story of this season and what will happen given that he is due for a new MLB contract. The races have settled in and while a lot can happen in the next 30+ games the playoff picture is rounding into focus. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooper...

Send us a text Are players less weird today than they used to be? Surely today's players with their understanding of social media are more sensitive to public opinion. We already had episode 106 'Baseball Oddballs' https://www.buzzsprout.com/1066072/4412837 in which we talked about Bill 'Spaceman' Lee and Bill Veeck to name a couple. No midgets in this episode but there are some very colorful characters! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please...

Send us a text We often discuss historical aspects of baseball and we love doing that, but we're fans and we watch what's going on in baseball at the moment. So this week we're starting a weekly Monday wrap-up show on what happened in MLB last week. We will try to keep it to 15 minutes and of course we will drop our regular episodes on Thursday as always. We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening!...

Send us a text Kind of a loaded question isn't it? In this episode we start with a short run through what's interesting in MLB this past week. Then we discuss the history of baseball commissioners before current commissioner Rob Manfred. Manfred truly raises the ire of so many baseball fans. Is he the same, better, or worse than his predecessors? We talk about all 10 commissioners in MLB history and there have been some doozies! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Coop...

Send us a text Entering the AL East in 1977 the Blue Jays did not always play inside. Like most expansion teams they started slowly but won a World Series (actually 2 back to back) 16 years after their founding. The Jays have had some HOFers and also some bizarre incidents in their history. A fun team to root for and talk about! We've added a YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion f...

Send us a text The trading deadline has passed and for some teams making bold moves has brought their fans hope for the rest of the season and the playoffs. We talk about baseball mascots - the history, the oddity, and a few bizarre events involving well-known mascots. But we had to let our Mets angst out too and we recorded this the day before the end of the trading deadline so the sell-off of the Mets was not yet even complete. Now all Mets fans have is the future and Mr. and Mrs. Met. We've...

Send us a text We admit that we're already addicted to the Immaculate Grid MLB. Now there's NFL, NBA and soon NHL! It's hard and that's the cool thing! We had a great time talking again with Sean Forman founder of Baseball Reference and Sports Reference who joined the podcast to talk about the acquisition of Immaculate Grid, how fast it came about and the opportunities for future development. To do it off the top of your head is the coolest thing but Sean said it's ok if you think of the player...

Send us a text When your team is having a less than great season you start thinking about fall and winter sports earlier than when your team is doing well. With the Mets moribund season coming up on 2/3 thru, we're already looking ahead to what we will watch other than baseball while the regular season runs its course. Football training camps open this week, it seems hockey players are already sharpening their skates for a season that begins 2 1/2 weeks after the end of summer. Which of the 4 m...

Send us a text We're joined by HOF expert & baseball historian David Metter - @CooperstownDave if you follow him as we do. One can gain entrance to the Hall of Fame by combining different aspects of their baseball contribution. For some it could be as a player and manager (Lou Piniella and Davey Johnson and eventually Dusty Baker). For others like baseball executives and even umpires their contributions to the game are hall-worthy. There are only 10 umpires in the HOF and 22 managers. Does Tomm...

Send us a text In a season full of changes there also have been a bunch of surprises. Like the Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Not to mention the Mets, Padres, and Cardinals. The Braves continue to dominate and the Rays just find new ways to win. We were wrong and it's Jon Gray not Sonny Gray is pitching for the Texas Rangers this season. Gray areas always screw things up. We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out a few kinks so bear with us. Here is the...

Send us a text Met fans like us are still smarting from the 2015 loss in the World Series to those overachieving Royals. Entering the AL as one of 2 expansion teams in the league in 1969 (the Seattle Pilots now Milwaukee Brewers was the other), the Royals got good fast with a winning record only 4 years after their birth and reaching the AL playoffs multiple times in their first 10 years. Winning the 1985 World Series was also a glorious time for the Royals. But they've been bad more than they'...

Send us a text We recorded on Father's Day weekend & hope all the Dads had a great day! It's interesting that MLB player father's almost always outperform their MLB player sons. Except for Barry Bonds & Roberto Alomar at least! It must be both amazing and challenging to grow up the son of a MLBer. You get advantages but also compared each and every day! We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working out a few kinks so bear with us. Here is the link to the Almost Cooperstown channel. Pleas...

Send us a text The 1st MLB All-Star game was played 90 years ago in 1933. As it is today the American League played the National League. The players really wanted to win the game since they were paid more if they did win and league supremacy was much more important than it is today. Even if the MLB ASG is the best of the 4 major U.S. sports, could it be made better by making a few changes? 90 years is a long time to do anything the same way! We've added a YouTube Channel and are still working o...