Tater Tots

This week, we debut our world-shaking new segment “add a few inches to your vertical.” Please do not stop clicking next until we tell you to. Thanks.

Today’s Tater Tot: Steve Pearce

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Our theme music is Littlest League Possible by Guided By Voices.

Our artwork is by Shelby Criswell

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Twitter: twitter.com/tatertotspod

Come on and slam! And welcome to the yams!* The slam dunk contest has come and gone, which can mean only one thing: spring training is right around the corner. Tim pledges to train to slam dunk a basketball by 2021, an endeavor in which he is certain to be successful. Other than that, we have an action-packed episode of Tater Tots for you this week! The Mets go out of their way to belittle the labor of their minor leaguers, Mookie Betts is at long last a Dodger, Rob Manfred, desperate for any distraction from the disastrous Astros' press conference and its resultant fallout, announces the possibility of playoff expansion, and the Red Sox hire a white man to be their interim manager. Later in the episode, we reckon with the sordid past, injury history, and overall streaky play of one Matt Kemp. Join us!

You can read up on Jerry Colangelo's son Bryan's exploits on Twitter here!

* - The yam is closely related to the potato, from which the tater tot is derived; we all agree that this is an appropriate pun.

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Our theme song is "The Littlest League Possible" by Guided By Voices, and our artwork is by Shelby Criswell.

When you Google “bird puns” the first thing that comes up is a meme of a toucan that says “toucan play at that game.” One thing that “toucan” play at is hosting an episode of Tater Tots. The two people in question are me and Tim and the episode of Tater Tots is dedicated to erstwhile Yankees first base-person Greg Bird. You see, his name is bird.

On this episode of the podcast we discuss the Mookie Betts trade that did then didn’t then did then didn’t go through. (After we ended the recording it went through again.) We also briefly touch on the morality of gambling, the efficacy of extra bones, the miraculous ostrich pillow, and hairless cats.

Today’s Tater Tot: Greg Bird

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Donate to Baseball For All

Our theme music is Littlest League Possible by Guided By Voices.

Our artwork is by Shelby Criswell

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook: facebook.com/tatertotspod

Twitter: twitter.com/tatertotspod

*Monday Night Football voice* Are you ready for a podcast! Since we recorded this episode on the morning of the S*p*r B*wl, we decided to convert to a football podcast. Fortunately, the scheduled Tater Tot of the week, the Toronto Blue Jays' young centerfielder Anthony Alford, has a football background so the transition was easy for us. You'll get predictions for the Big Game, which have since been proven largely incorrect. (Tim picked the Chiefs, but his prediction of a Scorigami sadly missed the mark.) We also discuss the differences between the MLB on FOX theme and the NFL on FOX theme (there are very few), and our favorite Superb Owl watch party snacks. Shortly after that, we run out of steam and return to baseball talk. The Astros have signed a new manager, the Macavity of the baseball world, Dusty Baker, and Tim makes his first foray into Wikipedia editing.

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Our theme music is "The Littlest League Possible" by Guided By Voices and our artwork is by Shelby Criswell.

Whether you call it Spit-take Season or Sad Season, there’s no question you are reading the episode description for season 2 episode 11 of Tater Tots.

On this one, we discuss further fallout from the Astros cheating—the LA City Council’s attempt to retroactively change the results of the world series, and the Met’s replacement for the erstwhile manger Carlos Beltran. We also go deep on some two-way players. We consider three separate tater tots, all with the potential to make a big impact as a two-way player.

Please give me your word for the opposite of nostalgia. Send me an email with your word and I’ll try to use it in a sentence on our next episode.

Our tots this week are last year's two-way players: Jared Walsh, Brendan McKay, and Michael Lorenzen

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Donate to Baseball For All

Our theme music is Littlest League Possible by Guided By Voices.

Our artwork is by Shelby Criswell

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook: facebook.com/tatertotspod

Twitter: twitter.com/tatertotspod

A belated happy Old Rock Day to all of our listeners! I got a haircut shortly before recording this episode and it still needs to grow in a little bit so if the energy feels a little off, just know that that's why. This week, the Astros' cheating scandal grew to such a size that it swallowed up the Mets, too. Extended family members of baseball's inner circle got involved, too - some for better, but mostly for worse. Plus our Tot of the Week is Abraham Almonte, who struggled against alcoholism before finding God and his place in the Majors.

Almonte's dinger

A profile of Almonte, detailing his conversion experience.

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Our theme music is "The Littlest League Possible" by Guided By Voices and our artwork is by Shelby Criswell.

Tim told me to “get out of town,” but I didn’t realize he meant it as in “wow.” Long story short, I spent the last 3 weeks in a tent on the lawn out front of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Paxton, Nebraska. Needless to say, I had limited access to the microphones and other equipment that allows me to put out the podcast on a weekly basis so that explains the hiatus.

This week we discuss the details of the Boston Red Sox video room cheating scandal, Scott Boras’ colorful description of the upcoming decade, the fate of Nick Martini, and also how come the Long Beach State baseball team calls themself the Dirtbags.

Our Tot this week is Troy “Tulo” Tulowitzki.

Links:

Donate to Baseball For All

Our theme music is Littlest League Possible by Guided By Voices.

Our artwork is by Shelby Criswell

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook: facebook.com/tatertotspod

Twitter: twitter.com/tatertotspod

This week on Tater Tots, we're breaking down the sun, its powerful rays, and their strange effect on Madison Bumgarner. We wonder about how to stop the rise of the machines, the White Sox's chances in 2020 with the signing of Dallas Keuchel and about whether Scott Boras is a billionaire yet. We discover that there is still a baseball team in Miami and that there is still life in Erik Kratz's baseball-playing lungs.

Our Tot of the Week is the White Sox's own Nicky Delmonico, who overcame an Adderall addiction to become a fan favorite on Chicago's South Side. Adderall is a tricky subject in the discourse surrounding PEDs and we tried our best to navigate it. 

Delmonico's 3-run walk-off dinger (and the CHW rally that preceded it)

Lars Anderson's article about Adderall in MLB

Our theme song is "The Littlest League Possible" by Guided By Voices

Artwork by Shelby Criswell

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FOLLOW us on Twitter

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"Fair is foul and foul is fair”—The witches from Macbeth, who were the first MLB play-by-play commentators

The Winter of Our Discontent: the disheartening news that Madison Bumgarner is set to join the loathsome Diamondbacks in Phoenix is perhaps tempered slightly by the knowledge that he will play alongside this week’s Tater Tot Tim Locastro.

Hopefully this episode finally answers the question “2B or not 2B.” The answer, as we see it, is “not 2B,” because a home run is much better :)

Links:

Donate to Baseball For All

Our theme music is Littlest League Possible by Guided By Voices.

Our artwork is by Shelby Criswell

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook: facebook.com/tatertotspod

Twitter: twitter.com/tatertotspod

This episode contains discussion of domestic violence.

As the MLB Winter Meetings kick off in sunny San Diego, Tater Tots podcast kicks off in Brooklyn New York, for a rare in-person recording.

Unlike the Winter Meetings, there will be no trades made or big free agents signed during this episode. But, like the Winter Meetings, this podcast features a fair bit of inane conversation between white men, much of it about baseball.

We consider the issue of bipartisanship—whether there’s hay to be made of Kevin McCarthy and Bernie Sanders singing the same baseball-letter, along with a vulgar word* uttered by Rays pitcher Blake Snell upon learning of a trade involving his teammate. Tim loses his whole mind thinking about statistics, and we celebrate the major and minor signings from the hot stove.

Finally, we discuss the case of Odubel Herrera, and the role of domestic violence in major league baseball.

Links:

Donate to Baseball For All

Donate to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Our theme music is Littlest League Possible by Guided By Voices.

Our artwork is by Shelby Criswell

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook: facebook.com/tatertotspod

Twitter: twitter.com/tatertotspod

*The word is “slapdick”