Baseball Expats

Rolsey’s away so it’s just Eric and Spoon holding the fort.

We start with a Destiny Draft check-in and the brutal injury curse that’s hit the player pool again (Judge, Buxton, Varsho… it’s grim). We also shout out the new tools on baseballexpats.com — the live scoreboard and Rolsey’s searchable Destiny Draft points database.

From there Eric catches Spoon up after a week away, including the live chaos of Brewers vs A’s in Vegas turning into a full-blown run festival (14–14 in extras while we’re recording), plus early thoughts on how that park might play for totals.

Then we hit the big league headline conversation: Tarik Skubal rehab appearances and the early trade smoke around a back-to-back Cy Young guy, followed by a proper flowers moment for how hot the Phillies have been.

We wrap with Spoon’s midweek plays.

We’ll be back Friday with another Weekend Pickoff. Love you. Like and subscribe.

Round 2 is here for Destiny Draft. Follow along at baseballexpats.com on the Destiny Draft live scoreboardd.

Before we’re joined by our guest picker, The Canary, Rolsey climbs onto the soapbox to complain (lovingly) about not being able to watch enough Cardinals–Cubs after a ripping weekend of baseball. From there we touch on the injury toll piling up across MLB, but also the flip side: a few key names returning and instantly making the league more fun.

Then we meet The Canary, crack into the Round 2 draft, and build teams from the card-determined pool in classic snake draft chaos. It’s a fun one for a lot of reasons.

After the draft, Spoon finishes with a couple of picks for the Monday slate in the US.

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Note: Elly De La Cruz went onto the IL a few hours after recording, so Canary has swapped him for James Wood.

Rolsey, Eric and Spoon are back together to tee up the weekend, starting with the early rumblings of collective bargaining talks between MLB, the owners, and the MLBPA. From there we revisit a stat Eric brought up last year around how meaningful May 31 can be when it comes to who actually makes the playoffs, which teams tend to fade out and which ones push their way in.

Then Spoon closes the episode with his best picks for the weekend slate.

And a reminder: Destiny Draft Round 2 is coming up on Monday. Love you. Like and subscribe, and hit baseballexpats.com.

The boys are back and we start by recapping Destiny Draft. Congrats to Spoon, and we also talk about where the whole concept goes from here. If you want to follow along, head to BaseballExpats.com.au and click into Destiny Draft to find the live scoreboard and the new tools.

Then we get into the story of the day: the Astros throwing a combined no-hitter, featuring an outstanding debut from Alimber Santa, the 23-year-old out of the Dominican Republic who gave Houston two scoreless innings out of the pen as part of the no-no. That name alone sent us down a rabbit hole, which turns into no-hitter trivia, excellent baseball names, and yes… there may or may not be a pretzels reference in there. Shout out Icebox.

From there we talk about how good Cristopher Sánchez has been, check in on a few current streaks around the league, and then take a look at what the Cy Young markets are doing right now. We also hit the AL Rookie of the Year market because the the boys don’t totally agree on what the market should look like at the moment, which makes for a fun little argument.

We take a quick break, then Spoon closes us out with his best tip.

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The boys are back, it's frteezing in Adelaide, and Spoon might genuinely be the only person on earth who owns an Arizona Diamondbacks sweatshirt. The good news is it’s working: Spoon’s D-backs are absolutely flying in Destiny Draft.

We kick off with a quick Destiny Draft update and a couple of new toys on baseballexpats.com:

• the live scoreboard: https://www.baseballexpats.com/blog/destiny-draft-2026-live-scoreboard
• the new Destiny Draft points database (search any player and see their points under our scoring system): https://www.baseballexpats.com/blog/destiny-draft-player-database

Also: there’s a new rip next Monday, so if you want to be the listener picker for next week (or any round this season), hit us up through baseballexpats.com.

Then we get into the curious case of Mike Trout, who is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best modern player to never win a playoff game. Rolsey dives into just how absurd the numbers are, and it’s somehow even worse than you remember.

After that it’s time for the third and final Alphabet Theme Team. This week is J through P, and we get agonisingly close to taking down our Q through Z monster. Do we do it? You’ll have to listen.

Eric leaves early as per usual, and Spoon finishes the episode with his best picks for the midweek MLB slate.

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We start with Cal Raleigh hitting the IL, which Spoon called, in the most baseball way possible: after showering with his full uniform on, getting a base hit, and then somehow still ending up shelved.

Then we hit the strangest storyline in the league: Shohei Ohtani has been wildly disappointing at the plate… yet he’s still sitting right near the top of MVP betting because he’s been able to “cover” a cold bat with Cy Young-level pitching. We talk how that’s even possible, and then zoom out into where the Cy Young market sits right now.

From there, Rolsey goes full quiz mode and tests the boys on a few different topics, including how each of our favourite teams would score under Destiny Draft rules, plus the current best and worst Destiny Draft scorers in baseball. We also hear from Grom for a quick check-in on how he’s feeling about his Destiny Draft team.

Reminder: you can follow the live Destiny Draft scoreboard at baseballexpats.com by clicking Destiny Draft on the homepage.

We wrap with Spoon’s picks for the weekend slate.

Have a great weekend. Like and subscribe. Love you.

We start with a quick Destiny Draft recap. It was a bit of a ho-hum start to the window, but the live scoreboard is up and running on baseballexpats.com — follow along here: https://www.baseballexpats.com/blog/destiny-draft-2026-live-scoreboard

Then the episode turns into an impromptu “theme team” that isn’t a theme team at all: an All-Disappointment Team. We run through the guys who’ve underwhelmed so far this season, try to build a lineup out of collective frustration, and eventually land on the team we think has been the most disappointing to this point.

Rolsey also briefly checks out to investigate whether Heamasi Makasini has re-signed with the West Tigers, which is a bizarre detour even by our standards.

We finish on a positive note with Spoon’s tips for the Wednesday slate in Australia — including the New York Mets getting one final chance before they’re officially dead to him.

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Destiny Draft is back for 2026. If you weren’t with us last year, Spoon recaps the rules up top: it’s a short-window fantasy draft where a pack of baseball cards determines the player pool, and then the boys run a snake draft to build their teams for the next two weeks.

The one big change this year: we’ve added a guest picker. For Round 1, Grom joins the table and jumps into the chaos for this two-week window.

Everything is explained in the episode, including how we score it and how the leaderboard works.

Live scoreboard: https://www.baseballexpats.com/blog/destiny-draft-2026-live-scoreboard

Like and subscribe, and follow along at baseballexpats.com.

It’s a special Weekend Pickoff because it’s Spoon’s 30th birthday, so the boys have a proper laugh before he heads into a big birthday bash. We swap a few of our most memorable birthdays (some good, some… regrettable), then check in on last week’s bad juju and whether it’s finally starting to turn.

From there we get into Chandler Simpson, one of the most unique talents in baseball right now, and what you even do with a player like that if he keeps performing, plus how his career could realistically unfold.

We tease some content coming next week, then Spoon drops his best two tips for birthday weekend.

Happy birthday, Spoon. Like and subscribe, and hit baseballexpats.com. Love you.

The full crew is back together. Eric gives us a quick rundown of what it was like having his dad in town for a couple of weeks, then we get straight into it.

First, we address the elephant in the room: Rolsey and Spoon have been carrying some serious bad juju lately. It feels like everyone we’ve talked up has immediately met their demise. Eric tries to weaponise the curse because he’d love nothing more than to see the Rays fall apart as a Blue Jays fan, but Rolsey and Spoon aren’t convinced it’ll work this time. We also talk early AL East vibes, including being very happy to take the field against the Yankees in the race… even if it’s still early.

Then we deep dive the Cardinals’ start to the season and the bigger question: if they’re winning in the middle of a “rebuild,” are they actually buyers at the deadline? Especially with Chaim Bloom saying they’ll stay the course no matter what.

After that, it’s time for Part 2 of our three-part Alphabet Theme Team series. We’re trying to build a roster from Q through Z (and yes, Ryan Zeferjahn and Ángel Zerpa might make an appearance) and see if we can beat the 97-win monster we built with A through I. It’s a fun one. Stay locked in.

It’s a longer episode, but we think it’s worth it. And Spoon finishes with tips, he went 2-for-2 on Friday’s Weekend Pickoff, so you may want to keep listening.

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