The Barbecast

It happened. After weeks of anticipation and mental preparation, Barbecast 25 is here. This is the big one. AND THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST PART. We spent an hour talking to the best worst college baseball pitcher since Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Rodon. Carlos is a left-handed pitcher for NC State and you might have heard of him at some point. So that was a thing that happened. Next, Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus joined us to talk about the new Baseball Prospectus 2014, as well as participate in our heated Baseball-Reference Battle. Oh, and before all that, we had about a dozen of our best e-mails yet. Little Poop included. Yeah, it’s close to three hours, but this is only part one...

Direct download: podcast-25.mp3
Category:Cespedes Family Barbecast -- posted at: 4:39pm EDT

Hey! Welcome to Part 2! We talked to the ORIGINAL GUEST OF THE BARBECAST, Craig Goldstein. It was a disaster. Then, we talked to the official minor leaguer of CFB, Kieran Lovegrove, about his off-season habits. And finally, Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry was spent reflecting on the ridiculous number of Barbecasts we've made her do. It got pretty emotional. IT'S BARBECAST 25; the most absurd podcast we’ve ever produced. Thanks for listening <3

Direct download: pod-25-part-2.mp3
Category:Cespedes Family Barbecast -- posted at: 4:38pm EDT

Episode 24 is here and is significantly less exciting than any episode of "24″. Our special guest this week is Doug "The Thug" Thorburn, pitching guru and Ubaldo Jimenez hater. Doug writes for Baseball Prospectus about pitching mechanics and he is the best of the best of the best at it. We talked to him for about an hour about his favorite and least favorite deliveries in baseball, as well as some ridiculous analysis on Jake’s pitching mechanics. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry was actually pretty decent; we talked about Richard Sherman and why more athletes should take credit for their awesomeness. We had a particularly impressive crop of e-mails this week that covered Barry Bonds as a fetus, walk-up music, Eric Sogard, and Big Poop with another legendary piece of poetry. Our musical guest is DJ YRS JERZY for reasons that we cannot possibly explain. Next week is going to be CRAZY. Thanks for listening <3

Direct download: pod-24.mp3
Category:Cespedes Family Barbecast -- posted at: 12:30pm EDT

We've only been back in school for two days but Episode 23 simply couldn't wait. Our very very very special guest this week is Fred Claire, former General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. We talked to him about his extensive career in the Dodgers organization, spanning from his beat writer days to his 1988 World Series Championship. We discussed some of his biggest transactions and how they look in retrospect (including trading away Pedro Martinez). Claire also talked about how international scouting has changed, the progression of advanced statistics, and of course, we asked him about Puig and Kershaw...and Vin Scully. Our SECOND special guest is professional baseball player Matt Ball, a right-handed pitcher in the Chicago White Sox organization. He was also born in 1995. We talked to Matt about the process of being drafted in 2013 as well as what it's like playing in the rookie-level Appalachian League. And yeah, we talked to Lana Berry again. We asked her a bunch of rapid fire questions and briefly discussed how she's coping with this dreadfully boring time of the baseball offseason. Our B-ref showdown/throwdown/skirmish was solid, and our e-mails included another ALL TIME GREAT from OBP. Our musical guest is THE SPACE JAM. Thanks for listening <3

Direct download: pod-23.mp3
Category:Cespedes Family Barbecast -- posted at: 9:24am EDT

Episode 22 of this ridiculous podcast has arrived. Our special guest this week is prospect enthusiast and plus-plus human being Chris Crawford of ESPN and MLBDraftInsider. We talked to Chris for close to an hour about the upcoming college baseball season, who to watch for the 2014 Draft, and his time as an employee at BestBuy. And yeah, we talked about our crappy baseball throwing best friend, Carlos Rodon. He sucks. Our baseball-reference name skirmish/showdown was a good one #Toots. After being the guest on this week's PRODcast (click here to listen), we recorded a quick segment with the Productive Outs dudes showcasing Riley's ability to come up with unbelievably insane fake minor leaguer names. He's a talented individual. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry was another sub-par segment of messiness. Oh, and our musical guest this week is the Powerpuff Girls theme music. Thanks for listening <3

Direct download: pod-22.mp3
Category:Cespedes Family Barbecast -- posted at: 12:53pm EDT

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