Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 30, 2012

My computer crashed and I lost today's podcast.
Don't despair. I recorded it again. And along they way I discussed the Evan Longoria and David Wright contract extension.


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 30, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 28, 2012

Phil Miller, my colleague on the TV project I am working on, and I sat on the ground next to a plant and a plug in Chuck Yeager Airport at Charleston, West Virginia and recorded today's podcast.

It is hard to beat today's technology!





Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 28, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 27, 2012

On today's podcast I pay tribute to the late Marvin Miller and dismiss the idea that free agency killed competitive balance.


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 27, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 25, 2012

Late in my hotel room in West Virginia, I record the latest podcast.
And in my half awake state, I make the connection between A. J. Burnett, B. J. Upton and C. J. Wilson.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 25, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 24, 2012

Daisuke Matsuzaka's time with the Red Sox reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Trust me, the analogy makes sense.
Just listen to today's podcast!


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 24, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 23, 2012

In today's Podcast, my wife and I break down some horrible uniforms, like the Astros and White Sox unis above.

Which ones remind her of Logan's Run and which ones remind her of The Six Million Dollar Man?

Better listen.


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 23, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 22, 2012

On today's podcast, I think of the things I am thankful for in baseball, my family and in the world of Sully Baseball.



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!






Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 22, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 21, 2012

In today's Podcast, I break down the World Baseball Classic... which sucks.
I have a few suggestions of how to fix it and I explain why the World Series is the true championship of the world.

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 21, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 20, 2012

I recorded today's podcast while watching my kids play in the front yard.

I talk about the Robert Andino being traded and the Blue Jays hiring John Gibbons. And at one point my son Matteo wondered if the Cleveland Indians were named after Native Americans or people from India.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 20, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 19, 2012

On today's podcast, I avoid being distracted by my wife and son and I explain why I have such an affection for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

















Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 19, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 18, 2012

In today's podcast, I talk about the Marlins and why I hope the Red Sox trade for Giancarlo Stanton.





Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 18, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 17, 2012

In today's podcast, I talk about Melky Cabrera signing with the Blue Jays and I urge the Tampa Bay Rays to move to San Antonio.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 17, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 16, 2012

In today's Podcast I talk about the AL MVP, why I was fine with either one winning and why I hate WAR. But I offer a sensible alternative to WAR.

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 16, 2012

Miguel Cabrera = John Wayne in 1969

A star is honored with the most prestigious annual award he can get. By all old standards of the award he is a clear shoo in.

By every way the honor has been evaluated for generations, this star has hit all of the right spots and would receive the award without controversy.

 But these are different times.

There are not only new young faces to contend with but new ways of evaluating excellence. The old standards seem to have been thrown into the dumpster and discarded as old fashion, uncool and no longer with merit. 

Talent and performance are judged differently and challenges all of the old thinking. In the face of a changing world, the old standard won but the writing is on the wall.

People will be looking at talent through different glasses and judge excellence by an entirely new criteria.

 Am I talking about the 2012 American League Most Valuable Player vote?
Or am I talking about the 1969 Oscar for Best Actor?

This year it was Miguel Cabrera who did all the things that in past years would have made the MVP discussion a debate of who would finish second and third.

 He won the Triple Crown.
His team made the playoffs.
Cabrera's Tigers overtook the White Sox while Cabrera was on fire.

 Boom. Open and shut case.

 But Mike Trout, who began the season in the minor leagues, had a more complete season.

 His average and OPS were comparable to Cabrera.
His on base percentage was superior. He hit for terrific power and stole bases.

 Plus his defense was exceptional. (The fact that he didn't win a Gold Glove was insane.)

 Plus he towered over Cabrera in WAR.

 I don't get WAR. No two people seem to calculate WAR the same way. I hate WAR as a stat because it is subjective. But I digress. Trout's case is compelling without that vague stat.

 So you have the new mindset clashing with the old.

 The 1969 Oscar ceremony was very similar.

 Old time Hollywood was being overtaken by new talent and a new attitude. The Oscars still honored big spectacles and traditional stars.

During the counter culture peak of 1968, the Best Picture Oscar went to the very safe musical spectacle Oliver! 

In 1969, everything was pointing to John Wayne winning his Oscar.

He had never won before and he might not ever get a better shot than True Grit.

 It was everything an Oscar performance could ask for. He was a big star in a physically challenging role, all the while showing a sensitive side to go with his rough exterior.

 It was the big crowd pleasing blockbuster that Hollywood could crank out with one eye closed, or behind a patch in the case of True Grit.

 But new talent and a new kind of filmmaking was emerging and getting harder to ignore. Just a few years prior, The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde won a few major awards, challenging the old style of films. (The baseball equivalent of Felix Hernandez winning over a 20 game winner despite barely having a winning record.)

 Challenging John Wayne was another cowboy named Jon. Only this one was a male whore played by Jon Voight.

 Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy was going to take on Rooster Cogburn. 

(Never confuse male whore Joe Buck with Fox Sports' Joe Buck. Or at least try not to.)

 To make the race even more interesting, Joe Buck's pimp, Ratso Rizzo, was nominated as well. Anyone watching the movies saw that what Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman brought to their roles was more exciting and more complete than John Wayne's.

 Look at Hoffman! He was the kid in The Graduate and he transformed himself into a totally different role. What range!

 And like Mike Trout, Voight' s performance seemed to come out of nowhere for a new comer and he commanded the screen with emotional depth and humor.

 It was a new kind of movie and new kind of performances. And with a new criteria for judging excellence, they towered over even John Wayne.

 So what happened?

 The Oscars had the same result as the MVP. The old school won. And frankly, I am glad that John Wayne won an Oscar. He may not have deserved it for that movie, but a movie star of his quality should have a golden guy.

 In a similar manner, Miguel Cabrera won the MVP. There was no way that Sabermetrics were going to trump a Triple Crown. Not yet, at least.

Just like there was no way that Voight and Hoffman were going to deny the Duke his Oscar. But what happened after that?

 The new Hollywood's stars began to take over and the old stars and their acclaim took a back seat to a new way of thinking. Midnight Cowboy wound up winning the Best Picture Oscar. Actors like Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson and Ellen Burstyn started winning the acting awards. The old kind of Oscar films faded away for a time and a new measure of excellence evolved.

 So maybe this was the last gasp of the old guard the same way that John Wayne's Oscar signaled the end of a different era.

 Looking back, Wayne's performance does not carry the same resonance of Voight and Hoffman. It isn't even the best Oscar nominated performance of someone playing Rooster Cogburn. (I found Jeff Bridges' performance in the Coen Brothers remake to be more compelling).

 Maybe Cabrera's award will have the same feel with retrospect.

 And Mike Trout supporters take heart: Both Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman went on to win Oscars before the 1970s were over.

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 15, 2012

In today's Podcast, author Jeff Polman is my guest.

We talk about the Marlins and Blue Jays' trade while he is nearly eaten by dogs.

He is the creator of the blog Mystery Ball '58 and the author of the book 1924 And You Are There!


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 15, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 14, 2012

In today's podcast I play the second part of my conversation with actor P.J. Marino. We discuss the fate of the 2013 Red Sox. It isn't pretty.


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 14, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 13, 2012

In today's podcast, I talk about manager of the year and the idea of East Coast Bias. Then I take a look at the insane trade brewing between the Marlins and Blue Jays.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 13, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 12, 2012

In today's podcast, I talk about the Rookie of the Year award. And I compare Mike Trout's award with The Coen Brothers winning the screenwriting Oscar for Fargo.

Trust me. It makes sense.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 12, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 11, 2012

In today's Sully Baseball Daily podcast, I describe why I will never be a big NFL fan because of how I spend my Sundays. Then I question the sanity of the Colorado Rockies for hiring Walt Weiss to be their new manager.




Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 11, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 10, 2012

On today's Sully Baseball Daily podcast, I compare the Lakers firing Mike Brown with the Red Sox not firing Bobby Valentine mid season and I recall my meeting Billy Martin

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 10, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 9, 2012

Actor P. J. Marino stopped by my house the other day and our conversation became the Sully Baseball Daily podcast.



We talked baseball, his moving away from Boston before it became a hotbed of movie making and why people told him as a little leaguer that he wasn't as good as his dad.



Here's P. J.'s acting reel.






Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 9, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 8, 2012

In the latest Sully Baseball Daily podcast, I talk about robo-spam on my comment page and warn GMs against signing B. J. Upton.


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 8, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 7, 2012

In today's Sully Baseball Daily podcast, I talk about how reveling in other people's misery is part of being a baseball fan, for better or for worse.




Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 7, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 6, 2012

It's election day, and I am doing the Sully Baseball podcast in West Virginia again.
I talk about voting, moving baseball back to Montreal and other topics while trains and leaf blowers go on around me.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 6, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 5, 2012

On today's podcast, I complain about not being able to use my iPhone and I also warn all MLB general managers against signing any free agent this off season to a long term deal.


Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 5, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 4, 2012

Today's Sully Baseball Daily podcast was recorded on a porch in West Virginia.

I talked about Astros uniforms, Chris Chambliss managing and me firing my first gun.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 4, 2012

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - November 3, 2012

Recorded from a cabin in a small West Virgnia town, the Sully Baseball Daily podcast lives up to its name. It doesn't matter where I am, I will be talk baseball. And if this doesn't prove it, I don't know what will.