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#MLB Pitchers and catchers report in about 10 days. So officially baseball winter is over as the sound of balls hitting gloves is imminent! Watching video of #Rangers Jacob DeGrom is compelling and full of promise! The fate of the team is likely tied to how DeGrom pitches in 2025 and how much!

We talk about the American League teams and what they did of interest since the 2024 season regular season ended in early October. Four months is a long time! Which AL teams got better? Did any? #Yankees lost Juan Soto and Clay Holmes as well as Anthony Rizzo. They brought in Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt, and Cody Bellinger. Seems like it could be a good exchange if the three play to their best selves.

But who's gonna play third base for the Yanks especially when Max Fried pitches? We cover every team on the Junior Circuit - even the team that formerly played in Oakland and was called the Athletics. We have no idea what they will be when they play in Sacramento this and the following two years at least.

"This is the year" is one of our favorite expressions that is too often hope triumphing over experience.

Correction - Matt Manning did not pitch for #Tigers in playoffs. It was Matt Boyd who is now with the #Cubs.

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!

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Dan was not the voter who didn't vote for Ichiro. But we all wish we knew who it was! For the 3rd straight year Dan joined the podcast to discuss the final HOF voting. He voted for Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, Chase Utley, and Billy Wagner. 9 in total and we discussed why he didn't vote for one more - could have been King Felix, Andy Pettitte, or Dustin Pedrioia or even David Wright!

We also discussed allowing voters to vote for more candidates than the current limit of 10. Gordon suggested that if a player got one vote in his first year on the ballot he could stay on for year 2 and then be subject to some sort of minimum percentage - 5% or even less.

As #Mets fans we are thrilled that Billy Wagner finally made it. New Yorkers will be traveling to Cooperstown this coming July to celebrate CC and Billy.

Dan is working on a couple of new articles including an upcoming one on Babe Dahlgren's foray into video analysis more than 70 years ago!

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. And please tell your friends!

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#pirates and #whitesox Smoky Burgess had a pretty good career with a career OPS+ of 116. But he's third all-time in pinch hits and was a beloved player at the end of his career. We talk about the changes in pinch hitting and why all-time pinch hitting records are likely safe!

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. And please tell your friends!

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As Director of Product Adam has been part of Sports-Reference for a long time. Keeping Baseball -Reference.com fresh, being part of the addition of Football, Basketball, (both college and pro), and hockey has proven to be groundbreaking. Adam has also worked on bringing in Negro League player data into BR.

We talk Hall of Fame (Adam is a Dustin Pedroia advocate), and what's next for Adam!

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. And please tell your friends!

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We don't know about you, but we forget things that happened during a baseball season even when it was LAST season! Sure the #dodgers beat #yankees in the #worldseries but besides Shohei and Aaron Judge, and Skubal, Sale and Skenes, there still were a lot of interesting and even amazing things that happened.

We discuss the four no-hitters, the pitching triple crowns, and sad things like the #whitesox season.
Remember how many #MLB managers got fired during the season. We do! This was a way more fun exercise for us than we first thought and we hope you agree! And since it's our first podcast drop for 2025 - Happy New Year!

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. And please tell your friends!

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Founded in 1901, the AL contains teams like #Yankees and #RedSox who have an epic list in their top 5 for players hitting home runs while a member of the franchise.

Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, David "Big Papi' Ortiz, Jim Rice, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra are all in their teams top 5. All are HOFer.. Aaron Judge is outside the Yankee top five but he's closing fast.

Then there's the #orioles. Another original #AmericanLeague team, they started as the Milwaukee Brewers for one year before moving to St. Louis and becoming the Browns. HOFers Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr. and Frank Robinson are in the top 5. But Besides being mostly terrible, the Browns had few home run threats. The #bluejays and #Rays are more recent additions but only Fred McGriff is in the top five of either team and is a HOFer. Carlos Delgado rules the roost for Toronto. Edwin Encarnacion has 424 career homers not 434

#guardians #tigers #whitesox #twins #royals have familiar names in their top two but once you go deeper it gets more difficult.

#athletics #angels #rangers #astros #mariners have a few HOFers on their list.

Link to an article by Mark - https://almostcooperstown.substack.com/p/career-home-run-leaders-for-each-be7?r=6m2o9

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. And please tell your friends!

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Who are the home run leaders while wearing a team's uniform? Sounded like a interesting episode topic but then Rickey Henderson so sadly and suddenly passed away at age 65. Rickey's 66th birthday would have been on Christmas this Wednesday. With 1,406 stolen bases Rickey doesn't only have the most stolen bases in one season, or in a career, he also scored the most runs in baseball history with 2,295! He also had 81 career leadoff home runs, the most in history. Rickey is and was the best leadoff hitter in #MLB history. He will be sorely missed.

#Padres Manny Machado became the franchise home run leader. But he hasn't been there that long. It was surprising! With 167 he passed Dave Winfield, Nate Colbert, Phil Nevin, and the former leader Adrian Gonzalez.

Gordon and Mark go team by team in the #nationalleague to reveal the top 5 in home runs for each team while wearing their uniform.

Here's a link to an associated article by Mark: https://almostcooperstown.substack.com/p/career-home-run-leaders-for-each?r=6m2o9

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. And please tell your friends!

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Steve Phillips has been a radio personality for 20 years starting not long after his time his time as GM for our #mets. Steve brought in Mike Piazza who had the biggest non-playoff home run in Mets history - until this year maybe? Today Steve hosts 'The Leadoff Spot' on Sirius/XM radio weekdays from 7-10AM. Steve also broadcasts some Toronto Blue Jays games and is a regular contributor the #mlbnetwork.

We didn't want to ask him about Bobby Bonilla but did finally at the end, and we did not have time to get into the failed deal for A-Rod or the Kenny Rogers meltdown in 1999 so we will have Steve back hopefully very soon!

Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!

Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. And please tell your friends!

www.almostcooperstown.com