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- Joe is a character in the new MLB: The Show video game.  (So is Aaron Gleeman, BTW.)  Since Joe isn’t a video game player, he doesn’t really know the details, but he’s happy.

- Playoff predictions:
Rany: TOR, DET, LAA, TB (wild card), TEX (wild card), WAS, CIN, ARI, ATL (wild card), STL (wild card); play-ins: TB d. TEX, ATL d. STL; World Series: WAS d. TOR
Joe: TB, DET, TEX, TOR (wild card), LAA (wild card), WAS, CIN, SD, SF (wild ...

For all of you dying to hear Dan Szymborki - with no pay wall restrictions and no annoying Fan Graphs formatting - explain to hopeful Royals fans why they will finish fourth in the AL Central this season. 

Sorry for the length, but I wanted to write summaries since I know not everyone will listen to these (it’s a little under 5.5 hours total).

West

• AL: HOU - Rany predicts 58 wins, Joe 52. Joe points out that previously historically horrible teams were worse defensively. SEA - Rany predicts 77 wins. Joe thinks the stadium dimension changes will hurt more than help; Rany is unsure, thinking that perhaps it will help their young hitters develop. LAA - Both like the re-introduction of Bourjos. ...

After a few months’ layoff, a new episode.  Subjects:

- Hall of Fame: Shockingly, neither Rany Jazayerli nor Joe Sheehan supports Jack Morris’ candidacy.  They both agree that the PED pile-up has rendered the HOF impossible to predict, and that it’d be nice if the Hall elected some living people.  Joe suggests that no one whose career ended before 1969 should be eligible for election.  (“Michael Bourn, if you just magically transported him back to the 1955 Phillies, would be like a ...

Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur discuss Hall of Fame voting in the context of steroids (have we touched on that subject yet?), and then run down the ballot.  Both believe the HOF should have an “inner sanctum”; in its absence, Schur believes in a first-ballot distiction.  Thus, as I understood it, their 2012 ballots would be:

Poz: Bagwell, Biggio, Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Piazza, Raines, Schilling, Trammell, L. Walker (I’m taking his statement that he voted for Edgar “in the past” as a sign he ...