Question: What are good baseball podcasts? I've never listened to any, but I had to make a drive yesterday and so I downloaded the newest ones from BP and Fangraphs. I don't know if they eventually started talking about baseball because each opened with ten minutes of talking about random nothing.

Dreadful Birthday Team today. Sam West and Jim Bagby are both pretty good, Ogando is a good relief arm, but that's about all they have. Rey Sanchez is fourth all-time among October 5-born ballplayers in career hits.

No real catchers born today, so Bobby Hofman gets the call. He was a utility infielder who started ten games behind the plate in his seven-year MLB career.

C: Bobby Hofman
1B: Long John Reilly
2B: Claude Ritchey
3B: Norm McMillan
SS: Rey Sanchez
LF: Andy Kosco
CF: Sam West
RF: Randy Bush

SP: Jim Bagby Sr.
SP: Si Johnson
SP: Dennis Bennett
SP: Bill Steele
SP: Jack Fifield
RP: Alexi Ogando

Father of Baseball: Henry Chadwick
Manager: Wally Fessenden
Umpire: Ron Kulpa
Not that one: Davey Crockett

Question: What are good baseball podcasts?

I've not found any that I like either. I don't care about what bands the hosts like or what kind of scotch they drink. If I wanted to hear that stuff, I'd be listening to podcasts about music and scotch.

I think MLB is completely missing the boat by not having a daily podcast of radio highlights from the previous night's games. 2-3 minutes of highlights from each game with minimal interruption from a host.

Claude Ritchey was an excellent starting 2B; a very good fielder and an above-average bat. You could win a few pennants with him as your starting 2B

Yeah, Sam, that's fair. I was overly harsh re: Ritchey.

Baseball Today from ESPN is pretty good, especially when Keith Law is on.

MLB.com's Corey Schwartz and Mike Siano do a Fantasy Focus podcast during the regular season, which is a good one from a fantasy viewpoint.

Baseball America's is a good source for minor league, college, and draft info, not so much about the majors (which one would expect given their purpose).

I like Gleeman and the Geek, personally. I also liked Up and In, although with Kevin Goldstein gone to the Astros the podcast is gone too. If you're bothered by off-topic conversation, obviously, you won't care for either of those. I haven't listened to Tower of Power yet, but I have a lot of respect for Jason Collette so I will probably pick that up at some point.

-- MWE

I think MLB is completely missing the boat by not having a daily podcast of radio highlights from the previous night's games. 2-3 minutes of highlights from each game with minimal interruption from a host.

I'd be satisfied with a 20-30 minute "highlight film" of the best of MLB Tonight each day. I found myself watching that a lot this fall and it really is a fun program. Instead all they offer is "Intentional Talk" which is just painful. If Brian Kenny does that stat-driven show again this off-season they really should make that into a podcast each day as well (I can't remember the name of it).

I don't know what the costs are to convert an already broadcast program into podcast format but I would be doing that with as much as humanly possible if I were running a network like MLB. But I'm the guy who would offer every game of the MLB season available for download ($1.99/game or something). It can't be that costly and you never know when someone might buy their favorite team's game the day their son was born or a game they went to on a first date or something like that.

Some of the well-known sabermetric names podcast. Jazayerli and Sheehan do, Posnanski does, Keri does for Grantland. Neyer has posted some video chats with Grant Brisbee, I don't know what the current status of that is.

The Jazayerli and Sheehan podcast really needs a host who will keep it on track, make a list of things that need to be covered, detect when the discussion is at an end and move on, that sort of thing. Joe Sheehan sounds like an amazingly pompous jerk, but he could be a great contributor if someone would bring up a topic, say "What do you think about that, Joe?" and give him a two-minute limit.

There was so much stuff they could have talked about this week. The episode was NINETY MINUTES. As far as I can tell, from constant fast-forwarding rather than listening, the first fifty minutes was Joe Sheehan explaining over and over how irrational the BBWAA are to even consider voting for someone other than Mike Trout, and how irrational it is that Justin Verlander is having the same season he did last year and yet will probably not win the Cy Young. Then twenty minutes on whether it's appropriate to say that the Orioles are lucky, which I think is a conversation they've had every week since July. The last twenty minutes might have been on something else, but I couldn't bear it anymore.

You don't need to act like Jim Rome in the podcast format, because you don't have to fill time. You need to be the EXACT OPPOSITE of Jim Rome.

Neyer has posted some video chats with Grant Brisbee, I don't know what the current status of that is.

Heh, the moment I say that, he posts one. Not a podcast, of course, but there are ways to MP3 it.

MLB.com's Corey Schwartz and Mike Siano do a Fantasy Focus podcast during the regular season, which is a good one from a fantasy viewpoint.

Fantasy 411, I think it's called.
I was listening to it for most of July and August as a way to keep up with player movement, and info about injuries.

I don't know what the costs are to convert an already broadcast program into podcast format but I would be doing that with as much as humanly possible if I were running a network like MLB.

It can't be that hard. Take the audio feed, trim out any video-only segments you might have had, drop in commercials in the right spots, and you're done. ESPN's PTI produces a quick 20 minute podcast of each show. The only time it stumbles is when they say "Watch this clip!" and I have no idea what it is they are talking about. Otherwise, it's perfect for podcast listening, as they never take more than a minute or two on any subject, and the interviews are limited to 5 minutes.

I have to think the minimal cost to convert a broadcast show is more than made up for it by adding yet another method to draw in people to your brand, and commercials (15 seconds) in podcasts are almost always unskipped because there is no visual cue when it's over. It's just easier to listen to the ad and wait for the show to continue.

I don't know what the costs are to convert an already broadcast program into podcast format

Zero. If you have the hardware and software, which are pretty much required if you own a television station, it would take one person about 10 minutes.

My last job was editing video at a TV station, and one of my responsibilities there was to take our weekly political talk show and convert it to a file that could be viewed via the station's website. Took almost no effort.

Re. bad birthday team:

Had Dennis Bennett stayed healthy, he would have been a top-tier pitcher. (And the Phillies wouldn't have blown that '64 season.)

ESPN's PTI produces a quick 20 minute podcast of each show.

This is my issue with some of the podcasts mentioned above. I love the 20-30 minute timing with a couple of segments. I find podcasts are perfect to break up my commute (a not unusual 25-30 minutes) and for an hour workout at the gym.

Not sports but NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is perfect for my needs. The format, about 10-15 minutes then a break to switch segments, works perfectly for me. I also find the Guardian's Football (Soccer) Weekly podcast to be a good timing thing. In both cases I can listen to a segment, then move on to music and catch up on the rest the next day.

I also find the Daily Show's video podcast of the first 3-5 minutes of the show pretty convenient.

I've enjoyed Radiolab's podcasts, but the "Yellow Rain" segment really bugged me. It's one thing to have the Hmong genocide survivor on to present the story, but it's another thing to press and press and try to get them to admit that maybe there wasn't really any Yellow Rain. It really left a bad taste in my mouth.

My postseason prediction: There's going to be an absolute manure-storm of controversy over the ALDS game (Oakland at Detroit) that's available only on MLB's premium channel. You and I may have MLB Network, but the casual fan doesn't, and all those A's bandwagoners are not going to be happy about having to pay extra for a postseason game. A sizable number won't bother to pay, and baseball will have been penny wise but pound foolish in not making one of its playoff games more readily available to Tigers and A's fans.

EDIT: There's also going to be a LDS game tbd Wednesday only on MLB Net.

You and I may have MLB Network, but the casual fan doesn't, and all those A's bandwagoners are not going to be happy about having to pay extra for a postseason game.

It's already started on Twitter.

-- MWE

You and I may have MLB Network, but the casual fan doesn't, and all those A's bandwagoners are not going to be happy about having to pay extra for a postseason game.

Interesting. Doesn't seem like a very good idea to have any postseason games unavailable to basic TV viewers.

Won't make a difference to me though. I'll watch the wild card games tonight but then I expect to miss all the weekend games. I'm not even sure if I'll have a cell phone signal so I might be in for quite a surprise when I get back from camping on Monday.

Baseball America's is a good source for minor league, college, and draft info, not so much about the majors (which one would expect given their purpose).
Seconded.

Only other sports podcast for me is Slate's Hang Up and Listen, which is very good.

Radiolab/Hmong: It really left a bad taste in my mouth.
You and a lot of other people, afaict.

EDIT: There's also going to be a LDS game tbd Wednesday only on MLB Net.

Gee, I hadn't realized that the Mormons made the playoffs.

Gee, I hadn't realized that the Mormons made the playoffs.

That's clown thing to miss, bro

You and I may have MLB Network, but the casual fan doesn't, and all those A's bandwagoners are not going to be happy about having to pay extra for a postseason game.

Are they putting it on free tv locally for Oakland and Detroit? I know the NFL has in the past put cable games on free TV in the local markets.

You and I may have MLB Network, but the casual fan doesn't, and all those A's bandwagoners are not going to be happy about having to pay extra for a postseason game.

Are there any broadcast rules similar to the NFL, where a station in the local market is allowed to broadcast the game? This is what happens when a game is on NFL Network.

EDIT: Coke to Jose.

Are they putting it on free tv locally for Oakland and Detroit? I know the NFL has in the past put cable games on free TV in the local markets.

nope

Also on the Birthday Team:

Henry Chadwick's logical heir: Bill James