Almost Cooperstown

Mark has been a SABR member for 4 years but has never attended the annual convention. This year it was in Minneapolis in early August and the Twin Cities proved to be a great location for a content-rich three days of baseball talk and presentations. 

HOFers Rod Carew and Tony Oliva were on a hitter's panel together and HOFers Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat on another along with former Twin's pitchers LaTroy Hawkins and Glen Perkins. Some of the sessions were ultra-nerdy but not too and the presenters were engaging and a good listen. Gordon asks Mark about his SABR 52 experience. 

Here's the link to the SABR presentations: https://sabr.org/convention/sabr52-presentations

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!
 

Episode #250! 

#Phillies, #Brewers, #Dodgers, #Orioles, #Yankees, #Guardians all are within a game of one another for the best record in #baseball!  Juan Soto hit 2HRs Sunday to lead the Bombers over the fading #Rangers who lost Max Scherzer for the year to a bad shoulder. BTW Jacob DeGrom still has not pitched in 2024. It's getting to why bother time. 

Giancarlo Stanton is 78 HRs from 500. Will that get him into the HOF? We talk about that as well as the amazing Aaron Judge and the somehow underrated #astros Yordan Alvarez. 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

The #Mariners won 116 games in 2001 but could not win a playoff series. The 1906 #Cubs also won 116 games and did win the World Series. It's happened other times as well. But most of the time if a team can win 108 games or more they do go on to win the World Series. 

Which of those teams do we think is the best of them best? 1998 Yankees? 1961 @Yankees? 1986 @Mets? 1975 @Reds? 1927 Yankees? 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

@yankees Aaron Judge was walked to lead off the bottom of the 2nd inning. Apparently the Blue Jays felt he was in scoring position (thanks  @threeinningfan !), Jackson Holliday returned to replace the injured Jordan Westburg for the Orioles and he returned with bang in the form of a grand slam!  #phillies are leaking oil but Zach Wheeler righted the ship on Sunday. 

Shohei Othani of the #dodgers joined the 30/30 club and has a shot to be the 1st member of the 50/50 club!  Blake Snell finally pitched a complete game and it was a no-hitter!

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

We thought we could do all 30 teams in 30 minutes but it took longer despite how fast we talked.  Most teams were in the middle but there were winners and there were losers and we called them out. 

No top 100 prospects were traded. No big names were traded. The whole thing was a big dud!  But that did not stop us. 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

Players have been traded but we didn't really talk about that. Dylan Cease pitched a no-hitter for the #Padres & is on an amazing run. #Mets Kodai Senga pitched so well in his return from a shoulder injury. He then went down for the season with a calf inju/ry. So Mets. 

Some teams have been positioning themselves by removing salaries so they can perhaps acquire an expensive player. But will there be the BIG deal that so many baseball fans want to hear about? 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

Manager Jim Leyland, along with all-time greats Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, and Joe Mauer all were officially inducted into Cooperstown this past Sunday. All 4 made heartfelt and good speeches. It's always great to see the amount of HOFers that show up on a hot July afternoon to sit outside in a jacket and tie to show their respect for the newest inductees. 

Helton and Mauer played their entire careers for one team only - the Rockies and Twins respectively. Beltre came up at 19 with the Dodgers but saw great years in Seattle and Texas with a quick one year stop in Boston.  Beltre resides in the same stratosphere with Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson as overall great 3rd basemen. 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

At least we got to see Paul Skenes pitch to Aaron Judge. It lasted all of one pitch however. The All-Star Game lost its juice years ago. Mark suggested counting All-Star stats in career totals. For whatever that would be worth. To add to that there are no longer Thursday games post All-Star break so four full days without real baseball that counts is awful! 

What's remaining in the 2024 season is essentially a pandemic-legnth season around 60 games. Too many to determine a team's fate, too few not to pay attention. 

The MLB trading deadline is July 30th and the next 10 days may shake up the baseball world - at least a bit.  But the action may not occur until right at the deadline as too many teams have a chance. Particularly in the National League where only 2 teams (Marlins and Rockies) are truly out of the running. 

MLB also dropped the 2025 schedule which includes a season-starting series between the Dodgers and Cubs in Japan. Shohei Othani vs. Shota Imanaga is a pretty juicy prospect! 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

Best manager of the first 100 games? MVP candidates? Who might be traded? Will the Orioles hold on?: How about the @clevelandguardians?  Are the  @brewers for real? Who might win the triple crown? There are several good choices. Who are the best rookies and there are a bunch of them! 

We talk about the teams that might be sellers and buyers. And that what's left after the All-star break is not as much of a season than it used to be? 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!

MLB's annual trade show and conference for players has started. It's only for the best players as the non-All-Stars are home with their families. For four days!  The break for players is welcomed. Fans may feel differently. 

There are 36 first-time All-Stars. That's amazing! The Phillies have 8 All-Stars. @Pirates Paul Skenes is starting the All-Star game for the National League and that's right. Elly de la Cruz will play in the All-Star game due to the injury to Mookie Betts. Rafael Devers is passing on the All-Star game but he did not pass up to hit a big home run on Sunday to help the Red Sox to a 5-4 win. 

We will do our midseason report on Thursday. 

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music! 

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at [email protected].  You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends!