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While they are not an original National League team the Philadelphia Phillies have been in the league since 1883 only 7 years after the birth of the NL. They've won 2 WS in 141 years but 2 WS in the past 43 years so it doesn't seem as bad as it was before 1980.  We deep dive into the history of the team, its best players at every position, best managers and also some of the more frustrating moments for the franchise. Like this past season when they really had a great chance to win it all!

Correction: The Phillies beat the Royals in 1980 to win their 1st WS.  

Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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The Texas Rangers born as the 2nd Washington Senators have finally won a World Series!  A dispatching of the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks in 5 games was for any fans anti-climactic after two very exciting LCS clashes.  Unsung heroes abounded for Texas but not for Arizona even though the D'Backs outhit the Rangers.  We talk about the games, the managers and the brilliance of Corey Seager. 

Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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Dusty Baker retired. He's now a pretty sure bet to be elected to the HOF as a manager or a Rule B candidate.  It also happened last week that Craig Breslow became President of Baseball Operations of the Red Sox.  We talked about that as well as Bob Melvin going from the Padres to the Giants - after they signed Farhan Zaidi to a long term deal as GM.

Oh and also we talked about the 1st two games of the 2023 World Series!  Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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Before the season did you pick the Rangers to play the D'Backs in the World Series this year?  We didn't. But then NOBODY else did either!  Both teams vanquished their LCS foes in 7 games and finally we had some exciting playoff baseball!  We recap the LCS and all the weird stuff that happened and preview what should be an awesome World Series! 

Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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Game 6 of the ALCS will be played after this episode was recorded and Game 6 of the NLCS will happen tonight - Monday night. Finally the LCS had some real live excitement and drama!  We talk about that and we talk about the Marlins power play that caused excellent GM Kim Ng to get off the boat. 

The Contemporary Era Committee has met and nominated 8 candidates to be voted upon in December. We don't yet know the names of the 16 voters. The candidates need 75% of the votes - 12 out of 16 to be elected.  Lou Pinella is a leading candidate as are Davey Johnson and Jim Leyland.  And then there are 2 umpires nominated (cue head scratch).

Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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The 5 teams having the best regular season records in MLB this season - Braves, Dodgers, Orioles, Brewers, and Twins are all out of the playoffs and went 1-13 in the games that they played.  Is the playoff system instituted in 2022 a failure?  Some think so and we talk about that and how we feel about the current playoff structure and what might be done in the future before and after baseball expands to 32 teams.

Gordon throws out the idea of a double elimination tournament. Which sounds crazy. At first.  Also this year's playoff games overall have been kind of boring and there's not much that can be done about that. 

Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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We thought the amazing double play turned in by Atlanta's Michael Harris to Austin Riley to Matt Olson would propel the Braves into the NLCS.  Nick Castellanos had other ideas.  That combined with great pitching from Wheeler, Nola and the Phillies bullpen put them back into the NLCS vs. the equally surprising D'Backs.

The Astros keep marching on and the Rangers can flat out bludgeon teams and pitch better than people think. We recap the Division Series and note that the big 4 NL MVP candidates bombed out in the playoffs - Betts, Freeman, Acuna, and Olson were a combined 6-43.  We preview and pick our winners that we think will be in this year's World Series.  All in just over 20 minutes!

Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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MLB won't do its 2023 MVP, Cy Young, ROY and other awards until after the World Series. So we decided that since the awards are for the regular season only we'd release our picks now.  After all we should not be swayed by great playoff performances as we think voters are when they finally are asked to vote!

Listen or watch as  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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

 

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The Wild Card Series were mostly a snore-fest unless your team was the winner. All the series were wrapped up in 2 games. Tampa Bay Rays didn't need to travel after they lost 2 straight at home in front of meager playoff crowds. The Jays could not pitch well enough to overcome a good hitting team in the Texas Rangers who've continued mashing winning the 1st two games of the Division Series in Baltimore. 

The Phillies dispatched the Marlins like a big brother dismisses his younger sibling. And the Brewers once they learned Brandon Woodruff was injured and would not pitch against the D'Backs, folded like a cheap suitcase.  The D'backs continued their surprising run routing Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers in Game 1.  The Astros were just waiting for the playoffs where Jose Altuve hit the 1st pitch of the game for a home run. Yordan Alvarez hit not one but two home runs. Seems like old times. We recap the manager and GM changes two as the playoffs are in full swing!

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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

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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 tweaking and fine tuning as there's an issue with Grounding into Double Plays as a negative stat since that stat was not calculated until 1933 in the NL and 1939 in the AL so players like Babe Ruth and teams before that time benefit unfairly.  We put a link to our Google sheet with tabs for BC/PA by team all-time, Players all-time and teams in the just completed 2023 season. 

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 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.  If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gf0EqDbWD5WP0eRa70fzS4veNq9d6ux6Rsq7e80Yheo/edit#gid=0

www.almostcooperstown.com