March 13, 2011

Show #138: Our Interview with David O’Brien

We sit down with the man, the myth, to discuss team chemistry, Bobby, Nate, and KK

Show #138 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 

61 Responses to “Show #138: Our Interview with David O’Brien”

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  1. 26
    brandon Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    Omg sherril again with a bad outting. Horrible pick up.

  2. 27
    Mark in Memphis Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    I have great fear how Brian McCann will be affected this year by the injury to Luis Salazar.

    McCann was “shaken” by the event and left the game immeaditely following the at bat. Now that Salazar has lost an eye, I think it might hit McCann even harder…

  3. 28
    Kate Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    I was listening to the ESPN baseball today podcast and one of the hosts (Keith Law) was killing Fredi for his decision to bat J-Hey 6th. His argument was that you don’t take 70 at bats away from your best hitter. Does anyone else feel this way?

  4. 29
    Curt Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    I agree with both of you. Beyond the baseball, you worry as a young man how it will impact him and his very promising career. I think of Dany Heatley and how, I think, his life and career were ruined by the crash that killed Dan Snyder. Heatley was so great and had so much in front of him and came off as such a likeable guy. Now he has jumped from team to team, has been rejected by fans in two cities where he formally played, and he has accomplished very little. It’s sad.

    On a more positive note, I read this article and it was really great. I know it isn’t baseball, but you get hope that all players aren’t self-serving jerks when you read something like this.

    http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Players-chip-in-to-save-coach-8217-s-life-after?urn=nba-wp184

  5. 30
    Curt Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    Back to baseball, I looked at Sherrill’s line to see if it was maybe righties he had troubles with, hoping to be encouraged in the fact that he will be a situational guy when the season begins. No such luck. Righties, lefties, didn’t really matter.

  6. 31
    Steve Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    Kate, re #28: it depends on what you value most. OBP or RBI. It is true that Heyward was one of our best OBP guys last year. On the other hand, he can hit for power and drive guys in. I’m not wound up about it.

  7. 32
    Steve Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    From DOB: #Braves will start Lowe on opening day, followed by Hanson, Hudson and Jurrjens. Braves will skip 5th starter until April 6 at Milwaukee (6th game). Hudson starts home opener.

    Anyone care that Lowe gets start over Huddy? For the record, I don’t. Lowe finished the season our best starter. And I like the juggling that lands Hudson the home opener.

  8. 33
    brandon Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    I like heyward 6th for rbi’s and clutch hits he’ll probably slot into the 5th hole, after time maybe next year or the 3. As for Lowe as the #1 starter I like the rotation with huddy 3it balances out the rotation a little better.

  9. 34
    Leah Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    So I have been refreshing the screen from #137 over and over and over again wondering why no one is chatting. It’s Spring Training for the love of baseball! And here you all are. Yes, I’m worried about Mac as well. Hopefully Luis will callbhim in and give him the ole ‘such is life’ speech’, slap his behind and tell him to get out there and play ball!

    Sherrill…I don’t wanna talk about it.

  10. 35
    Tim in Orlando Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 8:14 pm

    “Sweet County Boy”

    Another great day at the ballpark, but hot. Biggest crowd of the year – 11,000+. Lots, and I mean lots, of Red Sox fans. Traffic getting into the complex was terrible. But I like the Sox fans a lot better than Yankee fans. It’s like Yankee fans tolerate non-Yankee fans in the stadium and don’t seem to understand why everybody’s not a Yankee fan. Sox fans just root for their guys. Like the Cardinal fans. For example, they gave Big Poppy a rousing cheer when he went out to shag fly balls before the game. Gene Garber took out the lineup card again today.

    Won’t go into too much detail on the game since it was on ESPN. Pitching, except for Sherrill, was excellent. Hanson just had the one bad pitch to Scutaro. Finishing his 5 inning effort by striking out the side was a nice touch. Linebrink, Moylan and O’Flaherty were rock-solid. The Sox had all their big guns in the lineup today except Carl Crawford so holding them to three runs in nine innings is a good sign.

    Interesting defensive positioning on Big Poppy’s at-bats (don’t know if the TV guys picked up on this?) We had the big shift on verses Ortiz – 3 infielders on the right side of the infield. But was what curious was that Fredi moved Chipper over into the 2nd baseman’s position leaving the Short Stop (Diore Hernandez) on the left side of the infield. Why? Less stress on Chipper’s knee to cover the large exposed area between 2nd & 3rd? Hmmmm?

    Good offense. Prado hit the ball solid all four at-bats. Chipper good day – 2 hits and great hustle from 2nd base to score on Mather’s single. Afraid Hinske was going to be the goat by leaving folks stranded at 3rd but he came thought with the big sacrifice fly to score a go-ahead run in the 5th inning. Loved the bunt by Ross.

    Gotta root for those Disney folks. In the bottom of the 6th inning, the PA started playing the opening notes from Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” like in Fenway Park. The Sox fans got all excited. But before the first words came out of Neil’s mouth, they switched to “Thank God I’m a County Boy.” The Sox fans were pissed. I loved it. All-in-all good tight game. Very enjoyable. Fast and we win!

    Tomorrow our first evening game (6:05 PM start) of the year against the Nats. Guest the Nats have been having a pretty good spring. I haven’t seen Huddy pitch yet this year, so I’m looking forward to it. And it should be cooler. Yea!

  11. 36
    Steve Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 8:54 pm

    Hey Tim. Love the recap. And refreshing to get some offense after the two games I saw in Jupiter. The offense looked abysmal against the Cards.

  12. 37
    Walker Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 2:05 am

    Curt

    There may be only one Black American on the team but counting Christian Martinez and Jurrjens there will be 3 black guys on the roster even though they are Afro-Caribbean.

  13. 38
    Curt Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 6:48 am

    Walker, agreed. It was just interesting to thing about it when DOB mentioned latinos and anglos, and obviously in his point, Heyward is an anglo, as in non-Hispanic.

    I’m sure you all know that the Braves have been criticized in the past for being so white. I found this argument to be absolutely ridiculous and insulting. The Braves have done their best to secure the best talent available to them. When that was David Justice, Ron Gant, Otis Nixon, whomever, they got them. Heyward is their poster boy. And the fact is that African Americans are not playing baseball as the rates they play football and basketball. I was reading the new SI last night and there was an article on the Royals and the ridiculous talent they have in their farm system – a very good article for those interested – but none of the guys profiled were African Americans. I don’t think people are suggesting they are racists as a result. But being in the deep south, you get that crap.

  14. 39
    Steve Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 7:59 am

    And don’t forget that Frenchy’s blinding, million dollar smile shields the Royals from criticism they might otherwise receive.

  15. 40
    Curt Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 8:51 am

    Dayton Moore might take all our castoffs on the major league level, and our ridicule, but this article notes that he also pilfered away two of the Braves’ best talent evaluators. Not that we haven’t found some studs, but the Royals are pregnant with riches. Apparently, they have top prospects at every position ready to move in to Kaufman Stadium in the next couple of years. 5 of the top-19 and 10 in the top-100 in all of baseball. The article noted that they have as many top prosects as all other teams combined. The projected value of these players was listed at something like $245 million.

  16. 41
    Nate Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 10:52 am

    I think the percentage of African American players in baseball is under 9% now.

  17. 42
    Nate Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 11:04 am

    You also have to consider that basketball and football are both more popular than baseball and have been since the strike in ’93. Kids just don’t grow up wanting to be baseball players anymore. In the early 80s like 20-25 % of all MLB players were African American. When you break it down, most of those players grew up experiencing iconic African American players playing baseball, which perhaps created a desire amongst those kids to grow up and play the game themselves. Most guys who are Jason Heyward’s age grew up in the post ’93 strike era….

  18. 43
    Leah Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    I may have just become a Royals fan.

  19. 44
    Curt Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    Is this good?

    “Heyward said he was examined by a team physician on Wednesday who told him he was predisposed to some back soreness because he had less cartilage between the discs of his spine than most, but that he couldn’t further injure himself by playing.”

  20. 45
    Leah Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    I’d say a big no.

  21. 46
    Leah Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    Is there such thing as a cartilage transplant? I’ll gladly volunteer.

  22. 47
    Mark in Memphis Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    I would agree with Heyward not batting sixth if it get Chipper out of spots 2 – 4.

    Bat Chipper leadoff… he gets on base all the time and the pitchers in front of him will see nothing but fastballs.

    My line-up card:
    1 Chipper
    2 McLouth
    3 Heyward
    4 Uggla
    5 McCann
    6 Prado
    7 Gonzalez
    8 Freeman
    9 Pitcher

  23. 48
    Walker Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    3 Things

    1.Mark R u serious? Chipper leadoff? LOL You don’t maximize his abilities that way. And McClouth batting second is a bad idea. The #2 spot in the batting order is the most misused spot in baseball. Slap hitting second basemen are not the ideal hitters in that spot. We maximized Heyward’s abilities last year putting him there.

    2. I can say with complete confidence that no team in the majors are racists. Maybe some players are racists.(Luke Scott, Jeff Kent, Mark Beuhle). But not the teams. They just want to find the best talent no matter what their color.

    3. Even though there are not a lot of Black Americans in the game there are alot Black American stars. Hunter, Fielder, Crawford, Heyward,Kemp, Upton, Sabathia. There are alot of Black Latinos also. I wonder the percentage?

  24. 49
    Leah Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 6:50 pm

    I think J-hey’s back feels better. Also, could Jordan Schafer’s head be smaller? I don’t think so.

  25. 50
    Leah Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 7:10 pm

    MiM- #27 me too.

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