Baseball Digest Audio Blog

Catching Up with Will Carroll

The ever-popular Will Carroll (from Baseball Prospectus among other places!) joins us today to talk about the latest on injuries to Tom Glavine, Placido Polanco, and Derrek Lee as well as his next gig at, umm, ESPN. Will is his usual entertaining self, and doesn't disappoint today as we enjoy a few laughs here at BDD!

"Salty" Talks with BDD!

Jarrod Saltalamacchia entered the 2006 season as arguably the top catching prospect in the minor leagues. Coming off a strong showing at the Arizona Fall League and an appearance on Team USA, "Salty" was destined to be the next great home grown Atlanta Brave. But then the bottom fell out. Through the first three months of the season, Jarrod hit just 4 homeruns and struggled to bring his average up to the Mendoza line. Then he injured his hand. For any mere mortal, that would mean things would only get worse. But not for Salty.

Jarrod returned to the Mississippi lineup in mid-July and proceeded to finish up the month hitting .357 with 5 HRs. But he didn't stop there. Through the first week of August, Saltalamacchia was hitting nearly .400, bringing his season average up to .234. He's now getting on base almost 36% of the time and has accumulated 17 doubles and 9 homeruns. So what changed?

Today we sat down to talk with a much more confident Jarrod Saltalamacchia to try to find out what really is going on with the young catcher. Click the play button to see what Salty has to say!

Approximate time: 4 minutes

Photo Courtesy of the Mississippi Braves

BDD Interview with Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield!

Earlier today, we spent a few minutes with Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield. Littlefield has been under fire recently from both fans and media alike. Unpopular trades such as those made at last week's deadline certainly didn't help the GM's public image. Today, Littlefield gives us his perspective of what went down last week and tries to provide a little insight into where the Pirates are headed.

Approximate time: 11 minutes

Conference Call with Deric Ladnier Regarding Luke Hochevar

On Thursday, the Kansas City Royals agreed to terms on a four- year Major League contract (through 2009) with Luke Hochevar, the No. 1 overall pick from the 2006 June Free Agent Draft.

Royals Senior Director-Scouting Deric Ladnier announced the signing and later conducted a conference call which you can hear right now on BDD. Just click on the play button below.

Hochevar will sign the contract on Saturday, Aug. 5 and be placed on the Royals 40-man roster. He is only the fourth No. 1 overall pick in the last 20 years to sign a Major League contract, joining Delmon Young (2003), Pat Burrell (1998) and Alex Rodriguez (1993). **Note: Our sources indicate that the deal is as follows: $3.5 mil signing bonus, $5.3 mil guaranteed, $7 mil w/ incentives.

Approximate time: 14 minutes

Interview with John Tamargo, Manager of the Durham Bulls

A few weeks ago we had the chance to speak with John Tamargo, manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays AAA-affiliate Durham Bulls. Tamargo has had his hands full this season dealing with Delmon Young, BJ Upton, Elijah Dukes and the new management in Tampa. John talks about these things and more in our first audio interview here at Baseball Digest Daily! When we first planned this interview, we intended to transcribe it. Since we changed direction and went with the audio version, there are a few unnecessary comments here and there! Please bear with us. :)

Approximate time: 6 minutes