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Ben and Sam discuss the Orioles' exciting 14-inning victory over Tampa Bay, then break down Rafael Soriano's season and his upcoming opt-out decision.

Episode 42: "Breaking Down Baltimore's Latest Extra-Inning Win/Should Rafael Soriano Opt Out?"

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gweedoh565
9/14
Dear Sam and Ben,

A few days ago I was on the verge of posting a whiny comment about how you never talk about the Reds on the podcast, but I decided instead to hold up, gather some data, and make sure my complaint was warranted first.

So I made a spreadsheet tracking every BP Daily Podcast topic that has been discussed so far and which team, if any, each topic pertained to (or if the topic was a particular player, that player's team (or teamS if it was a recently traded player)).

The results show that my whiny accusation is justified:

Of the 73 topics that could be linked to a particular team or teams, only 1 (the very first, on Chapman) was about the Reds.
But, CIN isn't the only team given short shrift: SDP = 0 topics, and only 1 topic for: CLE, HOU, MIL, STL, TOR.

Look further, and we see a bone-chilling trend:

-Summarizing by division-
AL East - 16 (3.2/team)
AL Central - 14 (2.8/team)
AL West - 16 (4.0/team)
NL East - 18 (3.6/team)
NL Central - 9 (1.5/team)
NL West - 12 (2.4/team)

(*it adds up to >73 since some topics pertain to multiple teams)

It's not like the NL Central is bereft of interesting things to talk about:
Reds: best record in MLB at times?! 32-16 w/out Votto! Cueto! Frazier! The magical plays of Brandon Phillips!
Cardinals: great run differential; mediocre record! Many runs w/out Pujols, Berkman!
Pirates: The Pirates?!?! Finally, Alvarez! McCutchen OMG!
Astros: SOOO BAD OH NO! OH NOOOO!
Cubs: ...well, they've been talked about most (3 topics) despite their most non-descript season of the past few decades, so don't talk about the Cubs.
Brewers: Also a baseball team!

-The most talked about teams-
Yankees - 6
Orioles - 5 (+1 proposed-but-not-talked-about topic, from the old pre-episode#4 format)
Angels - 5
Rangers - 5
DET/NYM/OAK/PHI/SFG/WSN - 4

All this being said, I don't actually think you guys should make any sort of concerted effort to make sure you cover every team equally, and, of course: SSS. And I do LOVE the podcast, and in particular your abilities to hone in on interesting and often under-reported stories, or at least present refreshingly reasoned perspectives on the bigger stories, so I don't actually want you guys to change the way you do things. But I'm also a whiny fan of a particular team and therefore you are both jerks.
bornyank1
9/14
Wow, that was a lot of work. We appreciate the effort! In our defense, we talked about the Brewers and the Astros' TV ratings this week, and I would've talked about the Pirates if I hadn't been saving my material for the article I wrote about them yesterday. You're right about the Reds, though. Oh, how we hate the Reds. Sometimes, before we start recording, one of us says, snickering, "Hey, want to talk about the Reds today?" And then we laugh, and laugh.
gweedoh565
9/14
I knew it!!!!!