Over The Monster Podcast

This week we're fortunate to be joined by one of my favorite guests, the excellent Chad Finn of Touching All The Bases on the Boston Globe and The Boston Globe Red Sox Podcast. Chad, Marc and Matt cover the Red Sox bullpen, the third base situation (Youk v. Middlebrooks), and more, all for your listening enjoyment and edificational purposes. It's a not entirely depressing 52nd episode of The Over The Monster Podcast!

Marc Normandin and Matt Kory talk about the Red Sox farm system with Chris Mellen, the Director of Scouting for SoxProspects.com. They cover the recently promoted Will Middlebrooks and Matt Barnes as well as getting the lowdown on Xander Bogaerts, Anthony Ranaudo, Sean Coyle, and a host of others. It's an informative, fun, and just super sweet 51st Over The Monster Podcast!

Marc Normandin is back! He and Matt Kory talk about the Boston Red Sox. Specifically what the Red Sox have in their immediate and semi-long term future. They talk about the up-coming schedule and how it may benefit the Red Sox Then they discuss changes that are coming to the beleaguered bullpen in the form of the return of injured players Rich Hill and (longer down the road) Andrew Bailey, and potential minor league call-up Alex Wilson. The new-ish role of closer-ish reliever Alfredo Aceves is also a point of conversation, as is the potential return of Mark Melancon who was banished to Triple A for ineffective pitching. It's a crazy-informative and totally-worthy-of-being-the-50th-episode 50th episode of the Over The Monster Podcast!!

It's all baseball all the time except when it isn't on the OTM Podcast. This episode Matt is joined by Sam Miller from Baseball Prospectus and Jason Wojciechowski from Baseball Prospectus, The Platoon Advantage, and Beaneball.org. The gentlemen in question yammer a bit and then get down to the business of discussing the numbering of starters (good? bad?), and the A's Josh Reddick. At that point Jason has to go so Matt and Sam carry on and discuss the best teams in the AL with a single detour towards the Pittsburgh Pirates who can't hit. It's a speedy, exciting, un-edited, and more than a little embarrassing episode of the Over The Monster Podcast!

The Red Sox haven't gotten off to the best of starts, but glory be, Matt and Marc are here to talk you through it. Topics addressed include the pitching staff, Bobby Valentine's first couple weeks on the job, and importance of sample size. All that and maybe something I forgot on this, the 48th Over The Monster Podcast!

In this, the final episode of the trilogy that is the Crazy Super Massive Extreme AL East Preview Pod 2012, Matt Kory talks to Marc Normandin about the AL East. They run down the division team by team, and examine where they thing the teams will fit into the division and the league as a whole. Then they digress a bit and get into the rash of contract extensions that have been handed out recently and what the implications are for the salary structure of Major League Baseball. All that and probably some stuff I forgot on this, the 47th Over The Monster Podcast!

It's the second half of OTM's Crazy Super Massive Extreme AL East Preview Podcast. This week Matt talks to Jay Jaffe of Baseball Prospectus and the Pinstriped Bible about the Yankees and Steve Slowinski of D-Rays Bay and Fan Graphs about the Rays. We discuss the off seasons of the teams in question, and look ahead to their respective 2012 seasons. It's a talent-laden 46th episode of the Over The Monster Podcast!

In this, the 45th Over The Monster Podcast, we endeavor to talk American League East in the first half of OTM's Crazy Super Massive Extreme AL East Preview Podcast. We do this with two fine gentlemen bloggers. First Daniel Moroz from the excellent Camden Crazies blog tells us about the 2012 Baltimore Orioles, his expectations for the franchise this season and where he hopes they'll end up in the near future (hint: not Winipeg). Then we're joined by Dustin Parkes from The Score and the Getting Blanked blog and podcast to talk about the Toronto Blue Jays. We start with the 2011 Jays, cover the off season, and then talk about the Jays prospects for this up-coming season. It's all here on the 45th OTM Podcast!

It's the one, the only, Steven Goldman, formerly of Baseball Prospectus and now about to start at his new gig, Baseball Guru for Bleacher Report, who joins us on the 44th Over The Monster Podcast. Steven, along with Marc and Matt, shares stories of his career at Baseball Prospectus, writing as a job, and in the end they all talk some prospects and some AL East. It's an elucidating episode of the Over The Monster Podcast!

Matt and Marc get it going for a special spring training podcast. They discuss Adrian Gonzalez's odd but productive 2011 and the possibility of him improving on it this season. Then they move on to Jacoby Ellsbury and his amazing 2011. Can he do it again? It's a solid maybe. Then it's a bit of lineup talk before concluding the 43rd Over The Monster Podcast. It's a doozy!

Marc and Matt hit the proverbial ground running in this half hour burn of a Red Sox podcast. They address several topics: Jason Varitek and why he might be under-rated, the new (i.e. second) Wild Card and how that might impact the 2012 Red Sox, and Bobby Valentine's new managerial strategy of saying silly things about the Yankees. All that and a barking dog, on the 42nd Over The Monster Podcast!

Marc is back and, sadly, Matt is still here, so the two talk about the recently decided Theo Epstein compensation before bringing on Wendy Thurm of Hanging Sliders, Fan Graphs, and Baseball Nation. Wendy tells the guys talk about her odd but fulfilling career turn towards baseball writing, and then they all discuss the Giants and their frustrating management. It's an action packed 41st Episode of the Over The Monster Podcast!

Matt is joined by Jason Wojciechowski of Beaneball and The Platoon Advantage to discuss this year's free agent signings, the Red Sox/A's trade of Andrew Bailey, the Yoenis Cespedes signing by Oakland, and the future of Manny Ramirez.

Was there any doubt that when you combined the Over The Monster Podcast with The Platoon Advantage, you'd wind up upsetting somebody? On this week's episode of the OTM Podcast, Matt Kory and Marc Normandin are joined by Bill Parker from the Platoon Advantage and now of Baseball Prospectus to talk baseball's the off season, TwinsFest 2012, the Twins, and the Prince Fielder contract. There may be a little bit about Jim Bowden, something know only as ESPM (you'll never figure out what that stands for!) and of course, your standard desirable 'eating pudding in your mom's basement' blogger insult. Yes, it's all here, and it's all... uh, near...? One way or the other, it's a raucous 39th episode of the Over The Monster Podcast!

There may be a more scattered podcast in existence, somewhere, some place, but I would not put what the ancient Chinese called "Money" on it. That said, I challenge the listener to find a podcast containing more fun per square gigabyte. The patient listener will be rewarded by discussion of actual baseball, but prior to that "purpose" there may be times when, wandering in the desert of existential/old Red Sox prospect madness, you wonder if it can get any better. I assure you, it can't. And it doesn't. But that, my friends, is far far from an insult. This week, Matt and Marc are graced by the gentile humor of one Jeff Sullivan, proprietor of the blog Lookout Landing which ostensibly focuses on the Seattle Mariners. The guest and hosts discuss: volcanoes, Portland's impending doom, Brian Rose: Steroid Starter Kit, boxes of crap, Abe Alvarez, the recent Mariners/Yankees trade, and Jeff's opines on the Red Sox off season. It's an abbreviated, vulgar, and generally awesome 38th episode of the Over The Monster Podcast!

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