Hello, this is the new and (hopefully) improved PRODcast – an easy-to-digest nugget of baseball and music that should pass through your system without causing bloating, headaches and/or abdominal discomfort. It’s like the All-Bran of podcasts. PLEASE HAVE SOME.
Musical Guest: WHITE DENIM. Buy it here.
Email from an Internet Superhero: @OmarUnited
Baseball Things
BASEBALL IS BACK! (Have you heard of it?)
Our picks to win each division + wild card teams
Things we’re excited about/not excited about seeing this season …
A full season of Correa, Bryant, Buxton,
The Mets rotation
If Jered Weaver can crack 80MPH
More Mike Trout, gimme all of the Mike Trout
Hot dog Twitter, Wrestling twitter, Twitter in general
MLB.tv and MLB Network ads
This season’s installation of Unwritten Rules enforcement
This is it! The last show of 2015. Thanks for hanging out with us this season. Y'all made it fun. And weird.
(0:00-3:21) The Open
(3:21-7:30) The Musical Guest: LOMA PRIETA. Buy “Self-Portrait” here.
(8:03-25:27) Emails from the Internet’s True Heroes
(26:07-1:03:44) The Human Guest: Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star talks Gordo, Locain, Yost, and indie rock (?)
(1:04:17-1:19:49) Some baseball things that happened today. WHO CARES?
(1:20:30-1:27:25) The final Old School Player of the Week of 2015 is…
KEN REITZ
Ken Reitz, who was nicknamed “Zamboni” because he scooped up grounders on Busch Stadium’s artificial turf, spent 11 years in the bigs (he gets a MLB pension!) as a third baseman with the Cards (twice), Cubes, Giants and Pirates. In those 11 years, while playing a position dominated by quality offensive player, he hit .260, with an abysmal .290 OBP, and .359 slugging. (That’s a .649 OPS if you’re keeping score at home and aren’t good at maths.) Reitz won a gold glove in 1975, and was an All-Star in 1980 despite posting a -0.7 bWAR that year. WAR was not a friend of Ken’s, as he finished his career with whopping -3.2 wins above replacement.
A #FUNFACT from Wikipedia: Reitz was not known for his base running speed. This is reflected in one dubious Major League record. Reitz holds the record for most career plate appearances (5079) among non-catchers who finished their careers with fewer walks than times he grounded into a double play.
That explains that anemic OBP, I suppose.
Reitz belongs in the DADHAT Hall of Fame, despite evading everyone’s DADHAT radar up to this point. His mustache is pure 70s porn, and his hairdo is best described as a man sitting in a barber’s chair holding a picture of a mushroom and telling his barber, “Make me look like that.”
PRODcast 119′s Old School Player of the Week: Jerry Reed
Not to be confused with the country singer and actor of the same name.
80 Creepstache, 70 Deathgaze, 60 Merm/Mullet, 60 DADHAT (during the Phillies years, it looks like he kept his hat in the trunk of his car or stuffed between the cushions on his sofa)
If you stare into Jerry Reed’s dead eyes for long enough you will begin to feel your soul crater. Early in his career, he had a strong “Creepy Uncle” vibe, but developed a strong 80s cop/extra on the show “CHiPs” look towards the end of it.
Reed pitched in parts of nine seasons with the Phillies, Indians, Mariners and Red Sox from 1981 to 1990, appeared in 238 games (all but 12 in relief), and posted a 20-19 record with a 3.94 ERA, 4.15 FIP and a 1.354 WHIP and 18 saves.
Via Diamond Mines scouting report from 1988, he was described as a journeyman pitcher with mostly average stuff: 5 FB, 5 SL, 5 CH, 4 control. The perfect replacement-level arm.
(29:35-52:00) The Baseballs: Playoffs, Personnel Changes, and Other Sundries
The play-in games
Sean Rodriguez hates Gatorade
Matt Williams and Co. got shitcanned, but LOLyd McCLOLndon hasn’t been shitcanned … yet
New GMs in the AL West: Dipoto, Eppler, and Forst
Dogders-Mess; Crads-Cubes
(53:00-1:0:00) Old School Player of the Week: JERRY REED
Not to be confused with the country singer and actor of the same name.
80 Creepstache, 70 Deathgaze, 60 Merm/Mullet, 60 DADHAT (during the Phillies years, it looks like he kept his hat in the trunk of his car or stuffed between the cushions on his sofa)
If you stare into Jerry Reed’s dead eyes for long enough you will begin to feel your soul crater. Early in his career, he had a strong “Creepy Uncle” vibe, but developed a strong 80s cop/extra on the show “CHiPs” look towards the end of it.
Reed pitched in parts of nine seasons with the Phillies, Indians, Mariners and Red Sox from 1981 to 1990, appeared in 238 games (all but 12 in relief), and posted a 20-19 record with a 3.94 ERA, 4.15 FIP and a 1.354 WHIP and 18 saves.
Via Diamond Mines scouting report from 1988, he was described as a journeyman pitcher with mostly average stuff: 5 FB, 5 SL, 5 CH, 4 control. The perfect replacement-level arm.
Welcome to the almost-all-email edition. If this show sucks, you have only yourselves to blame!
We’ll probably take a hiatus after this one, as real life is inflicting itself upon us. We hope to be back soon!
(0:00-3:15) The open
(3:58-7:10) The musical guest: TEMPLES. Buy “Sun Structures” here.
(7:10-27:20) Email segment 1
(28:05-57:36) Emails segment 2
(58:10-1:07:47) The baseball things:
Blue Jay never gon’ lose again
DiPoto to Red Sawx
Iwakuma no-no
(1:08:24-1:21:10) Musical advice
Jordan asks how we listen to new albums
Tony asks about buying used gear and our feelings about the current state of the Barves
(1:21:10-1:27:20) And the Old School Player of the Week is: AL COWENS
Al Cowens grades out as follows: DADHAT, 70 AFRO, 60 DADLAP, 70 DADGLASSES
Born in Compton, he could pass for Humpty Hump from Digital Underground in a baseball uniform. He looks confused as hell in most photos which is probably due in large part to this …
Cowens was drafted in the 75th round of the 1969 MLB draft, but managed to play 13 seasons in the bigs with the Royals, Angels, Tigers and Mariners as a right fielder. He peaked with the Royals in 1977 at age 25, posting an .885 OPS, w/ 23 HR & 112 RBI, a bWAR of 5.3, a second place finish in the AL MVP voting and a Gold Glove. He never sniffed that kind of production again and died of a heart attack at age 50. Baseball and life are weird things.
via Wikipedia:
A notable feud started between Cowens and Texas Rangers reliever Ed Farmer early in the 1979 season. In the May 8 game at Arlington Stadium, a Farmer pitch thrown in the top of the 5th inning fractured Cowens’ jaw and broke several teeth;[1] Cowens would miss 21 games. Farmer also hit Cowens’ teammate Frank White in the same game and broke his wrist[2] and caused him to miss 33 contests. The following year, in a game between the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on June 20‚ 1980‚ Cowens (now a Detroit Tiger) hit an infield grounder against Farmer (pitching for the White Sox). While Farmer watched his infielder make the play, Cowens ran to mound and tackled the pitcher from behind, instead of running to first base; getting in several punches before the benches cleared and the two were separated.[2] Cowens was suspended for 7 games and a warrant was issued for his arrest in Illinois‚ forcing him to skip the remainder of the series. Later Farmer agreed to drop the charges in exchange for a handshake‚ and the 2 players brought out the lineup cards before the game on September 1. However, future appearances for Cowens in Chicago were greeted with a “Coward Cowens” banner.
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