Bat Flips And Nerds

BASEBALL IS BACK! Tom is incredibly excited, Darius less so, but seeing as Tom is hosting the chaps talk Spring Training. The WORLD baseball classic and it's lack of coverage available in the UK is laughed at. Tim Tebow (obviously) gets a mention And finally we look at some of the funny tweets in the past 7 days, with the potential prize giving potentially coming...potentially. Twitter: www.twitte...

Joe Hulbert (@HulbertJoe) joins Ben Carter (@UkBaseballBlog) to talk all about the Los Angeles Angels. They discuss the back end of the rotation, why Mariners fans should be cautious of Jerry Dipoto and the quick fire questions to finish. Which category will Mike Trout fit into?

Rob Noverraz (@RobNoverraz) joins Tom to talk all about the Tampa Bay Rays, the fragility of their team every year and who broke David Price (This was before we all found out he was fixed). The pod finishes with another round-up of silly questions where the stakes for "Who stays at home?" continues to shift!

New Zealand Test cricketer Daryl Tuffey joins John to discuss the crossover between his sport and baseball, how fantasy baseball brought together the NZ squad in the mid 2000s, his love of the Minnesota Twins and his enduring rivalry with 'arch nemesis' Scott Sytris.

Craig Hurring (@CraigHurring) joins Tom to talk all about the Milwaukee Brewers. They get all poetic and sentimental about this sport we all love, before deciding that Ryan Braun should stay at home, unless he's playing.

Jasmine Baba (@__baba) joins Tom to talk all about the San Francisco Giants, their 2016 fragile bullpen and lack of hitting, then they soon shift onto 2017 and who has the smoothest face in the lineup. This is the sort of content Giants fans want.

Mike Witcombe (@MikeWitcombe) joins Tom to talk all about the "playoff curse" Washington Nationals. Mike has hopes for 2017, but not much beyond the year. All this hope is on the rotation staying healthy and Jayson Werth keeping garlic chilli mayo out of his beard.

Mark Blakemore joins Tom to talk about Tom's least favourite subject, the New York Yankees. The conversation shifts quickly from what happened last year to what will happen this year, then finally onto the mighty team the Yankees could have in 2018.

John is joined by Great Britain, and former Cincinnati Reds AAA, catcher Chris Berset to discuss his career with the GB squad, holidays with the grandparents in London and the craft and psychology that goes into being the busiest man on the field.

Alex Hoad of Kent Online joins Tom to talk all about the San Diego Padres. But before the chaps get down to that, Alex reveals he once competed in the NFL combine, then proceeds to make a wild AND bold prediction about Jered Weaver. Don't miss this one!

On the second episode of the season previews, Tom is joined by BFBS DJ Hal Stewart to talk all about the Seattle Mariners. He begins by admitting he should have never chosen them and finishes by saying he hasn't seen the Adam Lind fart. In between there is some chat about last season and this upcoming season.

Kicking off our series of season preview pods, Tom is joined by Hampshire based Phillies fan Dave Shaw. They talk the team's hopes for 2017, and round off with some very UK specific looks at the roster.

Ben Carter and Darius Austin join to preview pre-season, picking out our sleeper teams, players and fantasy picks for the 2017 MLB season. Meanwhile, John goes off the long run-up at Jeffrey Loria...

London newbie and Expos Nation stalwart joins John to talk about his beloved team, growing baseball in the UK, the role of the Blue Jays in Canadian sport and what it felt like to be present for THAT bat flip.

Jenny Fromer, joint-CEO of national development agency Baseball Softball UK, joins John to discuss their plans to grow the game UK wide, develop elite talent and how the mooted MLB London series might help boost the Great Britain baseball squad's Olympic dreams.

Tom hosts as John and Ben duke it out over how MLB needs to pitch its much discussed London series. The team also introduce the Bartolo Colon Game.

Simon Crosse, Blue Jays fanatic and sports producer for BBC, Channel 4 and BT Sport joins John to discuss the offseason in Toronto and the state of baseball broadcasting in the UK.

John and Tom chat to MLB's Director of Market Development for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Jason Holowaty on his journey to the UK, how MLB found and developed Max Kepler and the next steps for the game in the UK.

Tom takes the host's chair as he and John discuss a few potentially quirky World Series stories before nailing their colours to the mast and predicting a particularly big series for a very big man - Joe West. They then turn to the issue of domestic violence, attempting to work through the thorns of risk, PR, rehab and censure to work out the tipping point for offending sportsmen. The answer? It's...

Thomas Neumann of ESPN International joins John and Tom to discuss the GB Baseball squad's WBC heroics. Things then go rapidly downhill as Ben Carter joins John and Tom to mock Tim Tebow (again) before the stakes are upped - World Series predictions, and our own adopted players? It could all come back to haunt us.

John McGee and Darius Austin are joined by LA Angels Minor Leaguer, Burlington Bees and GB Baseball utility man Jordan Serena.

John and Darius discuss two near perfect pitching performances from Rich Hill and Jon Gray, cast the lead in 'AJ Preller: Ocean's Seven' and get into the details of Adam Jones vital and timely interventions on baseball and race. This week's one off intro music is provided by The Motorettes, with the usual sounds from the brilliant Bright Falls.

Darius Austin (@dariusA64) talks to Ben Carter (@ukbaseballblog)about pitch framing, how he got into baseball, the playoff race, and the perils of following the sport from the UK.

John interviews GB Baseball head coach Liam Carroll about the team's forthcoming tilts at the European Baseball Championship and the World Baseball Classic Qualifier. They cover Liam's background as a player and coach, his hopes for the future of the sport in the UK and his own personal coaching creed - The GB Way.

John and Tom are sorry for Clayton Kershaw's loss before bantering about the Ump Show and their beloved Red Sox. They discuss the parallels between the UK and US national pastimes, touching on the Andre Gray homophobia scandal and Fulham FC's attempts at sabermetrics.