A\u2019s baseball officially returns to Cactus League play this weekend. I\u2019m hyped. You\u2019re hyped. Stickman Nick Kurtz is taking his teammates deep during live AB\u2019s and Zack Gelof is running around in the outfield \u2013 \u2013 all is right with the world.<\/p>\n
As of this moment, there will be no televised broadcast of Saturday\u2019s matchup against the Chicago White Sox, which means all us sickos will be regulated to the fine work provided by A\u2019s Cast. Speaking of A\u2019s Cast, anyone else listen to last Friday\u2019s Beyond The Dugout interview between Dallas Braden and Kurtz? Good stuff. Nothing crazy. Kurtz kind\u2019ve alluded to not terribly loving the lead off spot (a sentiment many of you seem to agree with). I\u2019ve got to say, Dallas Braden\u2019s presence is kind\u2019ve perfect for podcasting. Like him or not, he really excels at getting the most out of his interviewee \u2013 \u2013 which is especially helpful when talking to professional athletes who aren\u2019t big media-first personalties. He bridges the gap well. I wish the audio quality was a bit better though.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
One little bit of A\u2019s Cast coverage that I\u2019ve enjoyed from Arizona has got to be this segment on what players got up to over the offseason\u2026<\/p>\n
(In the Chris Collinsworth voice): Now here\u2019s a bunch of guys that are bonding\u2026Families are being made on and off the field\u2026Hobbies are pursued\u2026<\/p>\n
You forget sometimes that these players we invest so much of our time and energy in are just dudes. Dudes looking to navigate life with the people they love, actualize dreams that might\u2019ve at one point felt unobtainable. It\u2019s beautiful. Like I love the idea of Max \u201cThe Other Max Muncy\u201d Muncy taking a roadie to go fishing with Colby Thomas, maybe getting a little cranked with JT Ginn at a Mississippi State football game. I don\u2019t know if anyone saw the photo dump from Jacob Wilson\u2019s wedding last December, but the boys were turnt. Muncy looked to be tearing up the dance floor. Tyler Soderstrom and Lawrence Butler were straight up shade rockin\u2019 with the newly weds. B-Rook kept it classy as always. Apparently Soderstrom also had everyone out in Hawaii for his wedding in November. Vibes seemed pretty high there too. I\u2019d have to imagine it wasn\u2019t a dry event.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Seeing everyone celebrate these personal milestones together really goes to show how close they already are. Which is great! We\u2019re building a core here that should rival the best to ever exist. We should be picturing what the World Series reunions will look like in twenty years.<\/p>\n
Watching that video also made me reflect on my own offseason: lots of Dawson\u2019s Creek (RIP Van Der Beek). Possibly an unhealthy amount of cigarettes with friends, outside of bars at 2AM, debating whether Freddie Prinze Jr.\u2018s character in Summer Catch would\u2019ve had a better career than Ted Lily.<\/p>\n
What did you guys get up to? A\u2019s baseball is only but a wink away and I want to know what was the highlight of your off-seasons?<\/p>\n
Hit me with it.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
A\u2019s CoverageMLB News and Interest:Best of X<\/p>\n
The hype around my boy is crippling me. Is he Francisco Lindor? Is he Jurickson Profar? It\u2019s way too early to tell!<\/p>\n
That devastating shoulder injury that rendered him unable to throw with any semblance of strength must have healed\u2026<\/p>\n
Is Wayne Newton going to have his own suite?<\/p>\n
Please give this a read! Really excited about Causey. Royals fans seemed pretty high on the guy. Possible Lucas Ecerg redemption arc?<\/p>\n
Ken Griffey Jr. taking FPJ deep at the end of Summer Catch is an all-timer. I recommend you rent this film at your local video store as soon as you can. Matthew Lillard and Freddie Prinze Jr. are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for zillennials. Jesscia Biel circa 2001 is a goddess. Anyone who says otherwise to anything I just said is so out of touch that there\u2019s valid reason for concern. Get help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u2019s baseball officially returns to Cactus League play this weekend. I\u2019m hyped. You\u2019re hyped. Stickman Nick Kurtz is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[146,5,5250,49,11730,28330,10643,227,1950,813,5717,4810,1532,4916,4,459,75975,544,3291],"class_list":{"0":"post-579461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cactus-league","11":"tag-chicago-white-sox","12":"tag-chris-townsend","13":"tag-colby-thomas","14":"tag-dallas-braden","15":"tag-francisco-lindor","16":"tag-jacob-wilson","17":"tag-jurickson-profar","18":"tag-kc-royals","19":"tag-lawrence-butler","20":"tag-max-muncy","21":"tag-mitch-spence","22":"tag-mlb","23":"tag-nick-kurtz","24":"tag-the-dugout","25":"tag-tyler-soderstrom","26":"tag-zack-gelof"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116092412117062228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}