In today's episode of Bleav in San Diego Baseball, Alex Miniak checks in on preparations at the “Heath Bell Gingerbread House Factory,” where the 3x All-Star is gearing up to bake and build as many as 20 homes for friends, family, and a New Year’s celebration. It’s peak festive chaos in the Bell household!
From there, the discussion turns to meaningful baseball moves. Former Padres manager Mike Shildt is heading “home” to the Baltimore Orioles organization, taking on a player-development role that reconnects him with the franchise he grew up with. The conversation then shifts to Toronto’s massive commitment to Dylan Cease — seven years and $210 million — and what that says about durability, value, and the evolving expectations for starting pitchers in today’s MLB landscape.
Finally, the guys have some fun with Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day, debating which era of baseball they’d most want to play in — from the Golden Age to the pitcher-dominated ’60s to the wild expansion era of the ’70s and ’80s. It’s a nostalgic, imaginative finish that brings baseball history to life.
Chapters:
00:00 - Holiday Cheer and Gingerbread Houses at Casa de Heath; 02:09 - Mike Shildt's New Role with the Orioles; 04:39 - Is it Hard for Someone Like Shildt to Stay Retired?; 06:57 - Dylan Cease's Record Contract with Toronto; 07:32 - Is Cease's Durability Worth $26M a Year?; 11:07 - December 8th is Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day; 12:16 - Exploring Baseball Eras: A Time Traveler's Dream; 17:16 - Did Heath Bell Enjoy Hitting?
Stay in the lineup — follow Bleav in San Diego Baseball on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to our Substack for bonus content and follow us on Instagram, X, and TikTok for more Friar Faithful fun!
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com