Barbecast 36! Our special guest this week is a new minor league friend of ours. His name is Spencer Trygg and he is a right-handed pitcher in the depths of the Los Angeles Angels minor league system. We talked to Spencer about playing in the Pioneer League, the quirks of D3 baseball, and the even more ridiculous quirks of playing indy ball. We also talked about what it was like for him growing up a Giants fan and then signing with the Angels, and to what extent he's had to throw away his childhood fandom. Our b-ref battle this week was great, and includes possibly one of the ten best names we've ever found. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry began with some discussion of Tommy John surgery but quickly morphed into an in-depth discussion on PIZZA. Our e-mails were solid, with some questions about the Reds, comparing baseball to doom metal, another masterpiece from Napoleon Bookbindery, and a somber goodbye to Jose Fernandez from the one and only OBP. Jake's Varsity Baseball Update is over, and the Barbecuers update is here, plus some talk about our trip to Hagerstown. Thanks for listening <3

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Welcome to Barbecast 35! It has been over two weeks since our last full Barbecast but Finals Week is over and the summer has just begun, so here ya go. Our special guest this week is Zachary Levine, writer at Baseball Prospectus and former Astros beat writer for the Houston Chronicle. We talked to Zachary about the Astros' incredible ability to suck, and what it was it like covering a team that was SO BAD LIKE WOW SO BAD. We also talked about other non-Astros stuff, don't worry. As usual, we recorded our B-Ref segment before everything else, and in this case, it was in the MORNING. So we were tired. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry covered the first round of the NFL DRAFT YEAH FOOTBALL YEAH. We talked about Johnny Football and Lana's favorite moments of the draft. Jake's Varsity Baseball Update is...not a very good update. You'll hear more this week. Our e-mails were great, including a wonderful Mother's Day e-mail from OBP himself. Thanks for listening <3

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Welcome to Barbecast 34.5! This isn't really a Barbecast. It's an interview. Jake and I are both very busy with final papers, exams, and other fun academic stuff, so we can't give you a full barbecast this week. What we do have is a spectacular interview with former major league pitcher Brian Bannister. We talked to Brian for over an hour about a plethora of baseball-related things, including...

• His rookie year
• Being on the same team as Pedro Martinez
• Playing towards the end of the PED era
• Why Barry Bonds was the best
• Who Brian owned in the big leagues and who owned him
• Brian's disastrously hilarious experience against Team Cuba
• His unique retirement story
• His current favorite teams

...and more. It was great, and we really appreciate Brian taking the time to chat with us. You can and should follow him on Twitter @RealBanny.

We honestly don't know when the next full Barbecast will be, but we hope this is enough in the meantime. Thanks for listening <3

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Welcome to Barbecast 34! We took a week off, but we're back with big one. Our guest this week is Bill Baer of Crashburn Alley, Hardball Talk, and Being-A-Cool-Person-On-Twitter fame. We talked to Bill about the state of his beloved Phillies, Ben Revere not hitting any dingers, Barry Bonds doing Barry Bonds things, and his HOT TAKE on the recent bombardment of hatred pointed at Rays reliever Josh Lueke. Bill was great. We like Bill! Our next special guest is the OFFICIAL MINOR LEAGUER OF CESPEDES FAMILY BARBECUE, Indians right-hander Kieran Lovegrove. We talked to Kieran about life in extended spring training, his Rick Ankiel-like struggles, and what he thinks he would hit in the big leagues RIGHT NOW. Kieran is the best. In addition to our weekly b-ref battle of ridiculous names, we played a little guessing game where I had to guess the 15 active players with at least 300 career home runs. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry covered one of the more interesting hashtags we've seen on Twitter in a while. Oh, and people sent some pretty awesome e-mails. Because we love the whole world, our musical guest this week is a collection of national anthems. Thanks for listening <3

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Welcome to Episode 33 of the undisputed home run king of all podcasts. This episode is a bit shorter than usual, but that's okay. We're all busy people. Our special guest this week is far and away the youngest gust we've ever had. His name is David Shemie and he is already cooler than Chris Cotillo. Shemie is a 13-year-old Montreal native who attended the two exhibition games at Olympic Stadium during Spring Training. We talked to him about that, as well as what it's like being the smartest 13-year-old baseball fan in his entire city (probably). Instead of doing a full e-mail segment, we talked about the tallest and heaviest players at every position and debated which team was better, Team Fat or Team Tall. Our b-ref battle was top-notch, as we both came very prepared for the first time in a while. In the spirit of Passover, Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry covered what foods Lana has given up during her brief time here on Earth. Jake's Varsity Baseball Update had very little to do with baseball and much more to do with RALLY CHEESE #RallyCheese. Thanks for listening <3 

Our musical guest is apparently a random selection of Jake's music. 

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Barbecast 32 is here! Our special guest this week is Daren Willman. You probably/hopefully know him as @darenw on the Tweeterz, but what you should know him as the genius behind baseballsavant.com and mlbfarm.com, your two new favorite time-wasters. We talked to Daren about how HE DOES THIS FOR FUN and what the new fun stuff released by MLB Advanced Media could mean for his sites. Seriously though, Daren is awesome and this interview should make that very apparent. Our b-ref battle was the reason for this episode's title, as Jake and I happened to choose the exact same player for only the third time in the segment's history. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry included all three of us being completely incompetent and we apologize for that. Our e-mails were stellar, and our two favorites came through BIG TIME with some incredibly insightful messages. Our musical guest is the theme song from Jimmy Neutron. Don't question it. Thanks for listening <3

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Hello and welcome to BARBECAST 31 featuring 3.1 special guests. This is definitely a much better show than last week because Jake is actually awake for 90% of it! And yes, it's also a long one. Our THREE special guests this week, in order, are...

Dan Amodio, Baseball Operations and Facility Devlopment Manager at THE AUSTRALIAN BASEBALL LEAGUE. We talked to him about what it was like having Major League Baseball down under. He was in a coffee shop. We apologize for the background noise. 

Matt Ball, former Barbecast guest and right-handed pitching prospect for the Chicago White Sox. Matt gave some insight on what minor league camp in Arizona is like, talks about his year ahead, and shares a SPECTACULAR Alexei Ramirez story.

Matt Clark, former Barbecast guest, and first base prospect for the New York Mess. We talked to him about being in MAJOR LEAGUE SPRING TRAINING. Particularly, on the same team as Bartolo Colon. Matt is funny and we like Matt. Both Matts. Maybe even all Matts. Even Matt Stairs.

LANA BERRY. Just a plain ol' Tales from Logdog for the 20 something-th week in a row. Yeah. We talked about all the Rangers dying and who the hell Nick Martinez is. 

Our b-ref battle was solid, and our e-mail segment was brief but entertaining. Jake's Varsity Baseball Update was sobering to say the least. Barbecast 31! Thanks for listening <3

And yeah, our "musical guest" is beer commercials. Mostly just the same one over and over. 

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E-mail: cespedesfb@gmail.com

Barbecast 30 has finally arrived. It's been two weeks since our last podcast, and one week since we recorded our interview with special guest, National Baseball Writer for Sporting News,  Jesse Spector. Nevertheless, this mess of an episode is here for you to hopefully enjoy. Please excuse Jake's immense #slack and #sickness; as far as Lana and I know, he wasn't on anything, but rather very tired and somewhat ill. Anyway, we talked to Jesse about his spring training adventures and he shared his one personal experience with Barry Bonds. I came well prepared for the b-ref battle this week, but we both had some gems. Tales from Logdog with Lana, was actually one of our best Logdog segments in a while. We talked about how #Nelly1057 impacted us on all levels. If you don't know what #Nelly1057 was, you will definitely know by the end of this episode. Our e-mail segment was decent; we got lucky and received a last minute e-mail from OBP and Napoleon was wonderful as always. Thanks for listening <3

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One week after Kelly Vs. Avril, we're back with a slightly more baseball-oriented podcast. Our special guest this week is...well it's a lot of people. We held our inaugural CFB fantasy baseball draft with some of our bestest friends including Carlos Rodon, Craig Goldstein, Chris Crawford, and my little brother David AKA Little Poop. We recorded during the whole thing and we've cautiously edited it down to 30 minutes of ridiculousness. It might be the funniest thing we've ever had on the podcast and we hope you enjoy it. Our b-ref battle featured the first appearance of Jake's girlfriend, so that was exciting. She provided a plus-plus amount of polite laughter at our bad jokes. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry covered Lana's experience with the Oscars and her WILD AND CRAZY SPRING BREAKS from her reckless youth. Our e-mail segment was missing a certain someone, but we managed. Our musical guest is all the best Backyard Baseball music. Thanks for listening <3

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Because one huge post and constant tweets weren't enough, we've got an entire episode devoted to the most important rivalry in CFBBQ history. To help moderate our debate and provide a remarkably neutral perspective on the issue, we invited Bill Hanstock of SB Nation and Progressive Boink fame. He shared his personal experiences with both, his favorite Kelly/Avril songs, and explains how he deals with the whole Nickelback thing. We took a break from Kelly/Avril content to do our weekly b-ref battle in which I used a name that I've used before but I didn't realize I did. I'm sorry :( Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry was the lowpoint in the show for me, as Lana thoroughly embarrassed me with her enthusiastic failure to understand why I love Avril so much. Props to Logdog. We concluded with a summary of our feelings and why Kelly/Avril is so important to the BBQ in the first place. Our Kelly/Avril e-mails were also wonderful, and we appreciate those that contributed their equally passionate opinions. Thanks for listening <3

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