The Baseball Show: Next Level Ballplayer & Fantasy Draft Primer

Last night on The Baseball Show, Mike Rosenbaum from The Golden Sombrero and I took part in a long, two-part show. In the first half of the show, we welcomed David Franco from NextLevelBallplayer.com. David (who is a former teammate of mine) has been writing about his experiences from Spring Training on Diamond Hoggers for the past week and change. You can follow him on Twitter here. As he talks about, he offers the perspective of a former Division I collegiate player who has had some great experiences.

The first half of the show was a lot of fun, and we talked about the following:

• The idea behind his site, Next Level Ballplayer.
• Why aren’t high school kids better prepared for the mental side of the game?
• David talks about his experiences playing with or against guys like John Ely, Joe Blanton, Dirk Hayhurst, Drew Stubbs, Rice University, University of Texas and many more guys who are now in the big leagues.
• A funny story about him spending 9 innings in the GM’s box with the GM of his favorite team, Ned Coletti
• A tale from Fall Baseball in college, involving fiery John Ely
• Talking Jim Tracy’s influence and management style when he took over in Colorado
• Thoughts on the Dodgers for 2011
• Tales from Spring Training

In the second part of the show, Mike & I talk fantasy baseball in preparation for our live draft tonight:

• Different draft strategies
• Our boom or bust guys for 2011
• Our favorite all-time waiver wire pick-ups
• Thoughts on sleepers at every position

It’s not a short show, but if you’ve got some time to listen in the car or if you’re sitting at the computer on a Friday, it’s a quality listen and in the true tradition of The Baseball Show we have some wholesome baseball talk that everyone from die-hards of the sport to the casual baseball fan will enjoy.