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Last week, we had an excuse for nearing the two hour mark, as our special guest was an agent, and agents, by default, talk a lot.  This week?  We have nobody to blame but ourselves, and the 2010 MLB draft.  That said, if Stephen Strasburg's debut didn't happen this week, we would have it a more reasonable length.  Because it was draft week, we are joined by special guest Keith Law of ESPN for a long conversation about, well, pretty much everything draft-related before moving onto our Pop Culture Moment and why Catcher In The Rye isn't much of a classic. 

In additional good news, we are now available on ITunes, and the link is below to subscribe on whatever ITunes compatible device you might own.

Note: As always, we do alert you to the presence of the occasional adult language. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Up And In Episode 4: "The S Is Not For Sex, It's For Sports"

Download Here (123.5 MB: 131:45)
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Contact Information

Email Uspodcast@baseballprospectus.com
Twitter@kevin_goldstein@professorparks 
Skype Voicemail: kingclipon

Table Of Contents

0:00: Intro; Jason's new digs; Keith Law's sleep schedule; Agenda review; Housekeeping

3:50: Emails: Hipster police; Good/bad tools; The best email we've ever received (we love your mom)

10:15: The Strasburg Debut: Mom knew about it; he's still boring; Fernando-mania; Defending Cleveland

24:33: Arbitrary Draft Grades: Chicken-fried steak; Teams know better than you and I; Internet scout frauds

39:36: Gary Brown: Just because a guy doesn't walk, doesn't mean he's bad; an analysis of Shasta

50:30: Special Guest Keith Law: 2010 Draft Review

  • Hayden Simpson throwing MLB for a loop
  • Admitting that teams know way more than we do about these guys
  • Comparing players across racial lines and comparing Keith to Dustin Pedroia
  • Revisiting Gary Brown (there might be a formula for that)
  • Getting hyperbolic about the Pirates and their two big power arms
  • Arizona's surprise at six (Barret Loux); a brief look at their '09 class
  • The Mets surprise at seven (Matt Harvey)
  • Bryce Harper and the Oakland Raiders of JUCO baseball
  • Midwest players and the difficulty of scouting cold-weather kids
  • Did the Dodgers punt the 28th pick by selecting Zach Lee?

92:30: Pop Culture Moment (with Keith): Hating Catcher In The Rye

106:27: Not Jim Tracy: How important the draft is to building a winning baseball team

108:15: Wrapping up: Oh wait, let's talk about the draft some more first, my favorite '11 guy

Music is Les Savy Fav from the album Go Forth copyright 2001 – FrenchKiss Records.

Thank you for reading

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ravenight
6/12
Regarding Culver and Simpson, I think your point is good (that the players are probably a lot better than they were given credit for in the blogosphere before the draft). However, if no one was talking about them, and no other teams were on them, isn't it still a mistake, simply because they could have had a better player and then taken Simpson/Culver in a later round?
ravenight
6/12
Just to clarify: I suppose it's possible there were multiple teams interested in taking these guys early and somehow keeping that interest secret, but does that seem likely?
kgoldstein
6/12
We do provide some insight in the conversation about the fear that they would not be around with later picks, and as the old scouting cliche goes, "It takes just one team."
yourrolemodel80
6/12
This podcast will be a goldmine for the Tumblr "Stuff Hipsters Hate." So far, we've got:

1) Cleveland
2) Outlines
3) John Cusack movies
kgoldstein
6/12
So bringing this up next Thursday, just to watch Jason squirm.
tnt9357
6/13
Don't forget Mike's! Tasty, tasty, syrupy/bubbly Mike's!

Or, for that matter, frozen margaritas. From a machine! Perhaps I'm revealing my ignorance, but where can you get a frozen margarita that's *not* from a machine?
tnt9357
6/17
OK, I finished listening, and a few things:

- Who exactly has been complaining about draftees not taking walks? I just finished listening to the statingest stat podcast in all of Stattingham (I'm looking at you, Fangraphs), and didn't hear a peep about it there.

In any case, this guy going to the Giants: So the upside is Mike Cameron Glove, Randy Winn bat? That certainly has value, but is that really a 1st round pick? I simply don't know the answer to that, but it would have been a better use of your time looking at that question than going to town on what appears to be a strawman.

Although it did get that gem from Keith Law: "If you like walks, you'll love The Two Towers"

- So you shit all over John Cusak movies (which isn't too far off the mark*, but you also misinterpret High Fidelity, where the point of the movie is that he needs to quit whining and Become A Grownup) because he's a Whiny Special Kid like Holden Caufield, but Wes Anderson movies get a complete pass? Every single one of his movies scream "I'm Special Because I'm Special, And If You Don't Get It You're Not Cool". It's like trying to play a game of Calvinball, and under those circumstances "the only way to win is not to play."

* To be fair, it's that, as Chuck Klosterman pointed out, most people equate John Cusak with Lloyd Dobler, regardless of the movie. Some of his movies are pretty fun, like Grosse Point Blank. Frankly, the character that's irredeemable in High Fidelity is Jack Black's: Hipster Douchebag par exemplar