2014 CFBBQ Season Previews: San Diego Padres

Apr19 by Jordan Shusterman

Click here for all previous previews.

Padre Eyes

Off-season Haiku:

They made some odd trades

and gambled on Josh Johnson.

Joaquin Benoit! Yay!

Best Names in the Farm System:

RHP Kevin Quackenbush
RHP Adys Portillo
SS Bridger Hunt
RHP Walker Weickel
1B Diego Goris
OF Mallex Smith
2B River Stevens
DH Malquiel Brito
LHP Payton Baskette
RHP Jace Chancellor
SS Franchy Cordero
RHP Starling Ynfante
LHP Deninson Martinez
RHP Mayky Perez
RHP Jaimito Lebron
SS Westhers Magdaleno
SS Ruddy Giron
OF Dayon Olmo
SS Daniel Bravo
1B Derwin Pomare
2B Elys Ugueto
OF Yorky Diaz
2B Jalen Goree
OF Franmil Reyes

FIVE BOLD PREDICTIONS:

The Padres move the fences in again. The fences will be roughly 50 feet behind the infield dirt. Petco will be a pitcher’s park no more. Alexi Amarista will hit 93 home runs.
San Diego will trade top prospect Cameron Maybin to the Detroit Tigers for Miguel Cabrera.
Chris Denorfia will hit a walk-off single in the 12th inning of every single Sunday home game of the season.
Tommy John will have Josh Johnson surgery.
Kyle Blanks will get recalled from Triple-A El Paso. Blanks, Xavier Nady, and Yonder Alonso will form the least intimidating first base platoon in baseball. They will be known as Kyle XY.

Chris Resop: The Most Interesting Reliever In the World

Apr14 by Jordan Shusterman

UPDATE: Chris Resop is a real estate agent now. We interviewed him for Barbecast 50!

Chris Resop is a 31-year-old right-handed reliever. Since 2005, he’s pitched for the Marlins, Angels, Braves, Pirates, and A’s. He has a 4.62 ERA in 243.1 career innings. His career bWAR is 0.2. Chris Resop is unremarkable.

Or is he?

As some of you may know, I am quite fond of ridiculously lopsided batter-pitcher match-ups. The match-up that everyone’s been freaking out about lately is Paul Goldschmidt vs. Tim Lincecum, and rightfully so. It’s completely ridiculous. Anyway, I was recently checking out Starlin Castro’s most lopsided match-ups. Sure enough, there was Resop. Castro is 6-8 with three home runs, zero walks, zero strikeouts, and one hit-by-pitch against Mr. Resop. Interesting! Sorta. Using our buddy Daren Willman‘s amazing Media tab on Chris Resop’s player page over on baseballsavant.com, I went back and found video of the three dingers he gave up to Starlin.

Wait. What? I went looking for these videos in search of a pattern; maybe a pattern of pitch location, or pitch type. What I found was something far more fascinating. I have documented before how spectacular pitchers’ reactions are to giving up home runs, especially when the home run hitter is Barry Bonds. These three simple screenshots led me to the obvious question that thousands before me have surely asked: does Chris Resop grab his crotch after every home run he allows?

I returned to Chris Resop’s baseballsavant page in search of answers. The Media tab on baseballsavant player pages provides video of every play the player was involved in, as tagged by MLB Advanced Media. I decided to watch every home run that Chris Resop has ever allowed (or at least, the ones provided by MLB) and see what I found. The results:

Continue reading →

Episode 28: KELLY VS. AVRIL

Feb28 by Jordan Shusterman

Because one huge post and constant tweets weren’t enough, we’ve got an entire episode devoted to the most important rivalry in CFBBQ history. To help moderate our debate and provide a remarkably neutral perspective on the issue, we invited Bill Hanstock of SB Nation and Progressive Boink fame. He shared his personal experiences with both, his favorite Kelly/Avril songs, and explains how he deals with the whole Nickelback thing. We took a break from Kelly/Avril content to do our weekly b-ref battle in which I used a name that I’ve used before but I didn’t realize I did. I’m sorry :( Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry was the lowpoint in the show for me, as Lana thoroughly embarrassed me with her enthusiastic failure to understand why I love Avril so much. Props to Logdog. We concluded with a summary of our feelings and why Kelly/Avril is so important to the BBQ in the first place. Our Kelly/Avril e-mails were also wonderful, and we appreciate those that contributed their equally passionate opinions. Thanks for listening <3

iTunes link (rate and review us! seriously!): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cespedes-family-barbecue-cespedes/id683535357

Link to all previous podcasts: https://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/the-barbecast-cfb-podcast/

Tweeterz: https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CespedesFamilyBBQ

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Episode 27: He’s Just Not Bright

Feb22 by Jordan Shusterman

Welcome to Barbecast 27, the Mike Trout Is the Greatest Player of All Time and Wears No. 27 edition. Our special guest this week is the Mariners beat writer for the Seattle Times, Ryan Divish. We talked to Ryan about Robinson Cano ACTUALLY BEING ON THE MARINERS, how unbelievably slow Jesus Montero is, Felix’s neck tattoo, Dustin Ackley’s off-season hobbies, Geoff Baker’s piece on the Mariners dysfunction, AND MORE. Our b-ref battle was a good one; it featured one of the more spectacularly contradicting names we’ve ever heard. Our e-mail segment was 94% Disney Princess talk. Tales from Logdog was definitely not nearly as good the second time around (oh yeah, Jake deleted a lot so we had to re-record some), so we apologize for that. And finally, Jake’s Varsity Baseball Update is the most eventful one we’ve had in months. Thanks for listening <3

Musical guest: http://sandrider.bandcamp.com/

iTunes link (rate and review us! seriously!): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cespedes-family-barbecue-cespedes/id683535357

Link to all previous podcasts: https://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/the-barbecast-cfb-podcast/

Tweeterz: https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CespedesFamilyBBQ

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Fixing the Baseball Hall of Fame

Feb16 by Jordan Shusterman

Since the vote was revealed last month, constant discussions and arguments over who should and shouldn’t have been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame have occurred. A large portion of our internet compadres believe this year’s class of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas was far too small. Clearly, many other deserving candidates belong in the Hall. People are starting to worry if some of these superstars are ever going to make it into the Hall of Fame. We decided to speed things up.

What follows is somewhat inspired by an old Jeff Sullivan tweet.

Barry Bonds could always just visit the Hall of Fame and stand in it and tell people about himself and never leave

— Jeff Sullivan (@LookoutLanding) November 28, 2012

(Note: former podcast guest Scott Weber now runs Lookout Landing, so it looks like he wrote the tweet. But he didn’t. He’s not that funny.)

What a brilliant idea. Barry Bonds should probably just go to the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, he’s too busy biking and holding adorable dogs. Luckily, we can just put him, along with the large group of other deserving candidates, into the Hall of Fame.

Let’s fix this mess.

Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, and Barry Bonds finally made it to the Hall of Fame. Piazza looks exhausted.

Tim Raines stands confidently inside the Hall of Fame. Slammin’ Sammy is jumping for joy because he’s finally in the Hall of Fame.

A young Barry Bonds casually leans against a pillar inside the Hall of Fame. An even younger Sammy Sosa and Piazza pretend they’re still in the big leagues. Jeff Bagwell is relaxing on a bench in the Hall of Fame. Edgar Martinez has fallen and he can’t get up…but at least he’s in the Hall of Fame.

Continue reading →

Episode 26: God, Family, and Ginger Tea

Feb14 by Jordan Shusterman

We’re back! After some time to recover from the insanity of Barbecast 25, we’re here with another obnoxiously long podcast. Our special guest this week is Eno Sarris, finally. Eno writes for all the baseball websites and loves beer. So we talked about beer. And baseball. He also talked about Darwin Barney calling him a nerd. We were also lucky to talk to Matt Clark, another PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER who spent 2013 in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons. We discussed Matt’s career to this point and heard some stories about his time in the minor leagues. Matt is particularly unique in that HE HAS MET LANA BERRY IN REAL LIFE. And of course, Tales from Logdog’s triumphant return was as crazy as ever, and managed to include two more special guests. Then, we talked to Siri. Yeah, that Siri. Our baseball-reference battle was another fun one, and we received another extremely strong crop of e-mails that we greatly appreciate. You guys are funnier than we are. Also, I AM SO SORRY ABOUT THE MUSIC. Thanks for listening <3

iTunes link (rate and review us! seriously!): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cespedes-family-barbecue-cespedes/id683535357

Link to all previous podcasts: https://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/the-barbecast-cfb-podcast/

Tweeterz: https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CespedesFamilyBBQ

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Pitchers React to Barry Bonds

Feb6 by Jordan Shusterman

So you might not have heard, but I’m a big fan of Barry Bonds. Last month, I wrote about my 25 favorite Barry Bonds facts for Michael Clair’s blogathon. This time, I did very little writing at all.

Something fun to watch on home run replays is the victimized pitcher’s immediate reaction. I quickly found that pitchers who gave up monstrous home runs to Barry Bonds had a fascinatingly wide range of reactions.

MLB.com recently added video of every single home run that Barry Bonds hit into McCovey Cove, as well as all of his milestone home runs. Naturally, I went back and watched all of them once or a thousand times, and I observed the humans around Barry Bonds the instant he hit the dinger.

These are their stories (in a series of blurry screenshots).

***

Continue reading →

Episode 25 (Part 1): The Barry Bonds Big Head Bonanza Barbecast (featuring Carlos Rodon)

Jan29 by Jordan Shusterman

It happened. After weeks of anticipation and mental preparation, Barbecast 25 is here. This is the big one. AND THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST PART. We spent an hour talking to the ~~best~~ worst college baseball pitcher since Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Rodon. Carlos is a left-handed pitcher for NC State and you might have heard of him at some point. So that was a thing that happened. Next, Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus joined us to talk about the new Baseball Prospectus 2014, as well as participate in our heated Baseball-Reference Battle. Oh, and before all that, we had about a dozen of our best e-mails yet. Little Poop included. Yeah, it’s close to three hours, but this is only part one. CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO.

E-mail us suggestions for Carlos Rodon’s walk-up music: cespedesfb@gmail.com

Buy the Baseball Prospectus Annual: http://www.amazon.com/Baseball-Prospectus-2014/dp/1118459237

iTunes link (rate and review us! seriously!): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cespedes-family-barbecue-cespedes/id683535357

Link to all previous podcasts: https://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/the-barbecast-cfb-podcast/

Tweeterz: https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CespedesFamilyBBQ

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Episode 25 (Part 2): The Barry Bonds Big Head Bonanza Barbecast

Jan29 by Jordan Shusterman

Hey! Welcome to Part 2! We talked to the ORIGINAL GUEST OF THE BARBECAST, Craig Goldstein. It was a disaster. Then, we talked to the official minor leaguer of CFB, Kieran Lovegrove, about his off-season habits. And finally, Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry was spent reflecting on the ridiculous number of Barbecasts we’ve made her do. It got pretty emotional. IT’S BARBECAST 25; the most absurd podcast we’ve ever produced. Thanks for listening <3

iTunes link (rate and review us! seriously!): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cespedes-family-barbecue-cespedes/id683535357

Link to all previous podcasts: https://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/the-barbecast-cfb-podcast/

Tweeterz: https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CespedesFamilyBBQ

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Episode 24: #80Flail and Doug the Thug

Jan23 by Jordan Shusterman

Episode 24 is here and is significantly less exciting than any episode of “24”. Our special guest this week is Doug “The Thug” Thorburn, pitching guru and Ubaldo Jimenez hater. Doug writes for Baseball Prospectus about pitching mechanics and he is the best of the best of the best at it. We talked to him for about an hour about his favorite and least favorite deliveries in baseball, as well as some ridiculous analysis on Jake’s pitching mechanics. Tales from Logdog with Lana Berry was actually pretty decent; we talked about Richard Sherman and why more athletes should take credit for their awesomeness. We had a particularly impressive crop of e-mails this week that covered Barry Bonds as a fetus, walk-up music, Eric Sogard, and Big Poop with another legendary piece of poetry. Our musical guest is DJ YRS JERZY for reasons that we cannot possibly explain. Next week is going to be CRAZY. Thanks for listening <3

Netball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBuxsRnU50A

Original Jake pitching video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynXhwDF7GxU

iTunes link (rate and review us! seriously!): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cespedes-family-barbecue-cespedes/id683535357

Link to all previous podcasts: https://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/the-barbecast-cfb-podcast/

E-mail: cespedesfb@gmail.com

Tweeterz: https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CespedesFamilyBBQ

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