Episode 19 of The Pirates Prospects Podcast can be downloaded or streamed below. It has been a few weeks since our last podcast. We recorded a show a few weeks ago, but the Pirates traded for Marlon Byrd the next day which made the podcast outdated before we had the chance to post it. Then we waited through illness, waited until the Pirates made all of their moves, then finally waited until the Pirates won number 82. That leads us to this special episode, following up the Pirates first winning season.
It wouldn’t be fitting if we just did a normal episode. So instead James Santelli (@JamesSantelli) and I invited special guest Rocco DeMaro (@RoccoDeMaro) on to the show this week. You may remember Rocco as the host of Pirates Extra Innings, and the leader of the resistance. Highlights of the show include:
**Rocco is working for GameTrailers.com now, where he hosts the Side Mission Briefing podcast. This week he had Neal Huntington on the show, talking about the winning season. They also talked about sports video games, and how they compare to the real deal with building a franchise. It was a very entertaining interview, regardless of whether you’re a Pirates fan, a sports video game fan, or both.
**We started off discussing some of the moves that were made when Rocco was the host of the post game show. That was during the early Huntington years, including 2008-2010, which were some rough years where the Pirates were in total rebuild and made a few mistakes during the process.
**One of the moves we discussed was the Nate McLouth trade, which Rocco was high on at the time of the deal, and which has worked out extremely well today. That’s an example of a deal where the Pirates sold high, bought low, and went for guys who could make a difference. It’s the same strategy the Pirates are using today in making deals like Joel Hanrahan for Mark Melancon.
**Rocco was unapologetic about praising Neal Huntington’s work, since he has taken a horrible team and turned it into a contender with a top farm system.
**We talked about whether Matt Morris was the low point for the Pirates during the losing streak.
**Of course we got into a long discussion about the history of the Pirates developing prospects.
**After rehashing a lot of the old moves and how they’ve worked out, we get Rocco’s thoughts on the Pirates this year and the rest of the season.
**We also talked about video games, specifically sports games. Rocco feels that Baseball Stars 1989 is the best baseball game there is. He also recommended Out Of The Park baseball to me. After checking it out, I’m pretty sure I know what the downfall of this site will be.
**Music: ‘Let’s Get it Started’ by Oh No Not Stereo. Courtesy of BeatPick.com
Click here to download the show (right-click and “Save Link As”) or stream it below.
‘Let’s Get it Started’ by Oh No Not Stereo. Courtesy of BeatPick.com
Rocco’s music: ‘Karn Evil 9’ by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
