Sox Pop on the Farm Podcast 58 — Birmingham Barons jumping straight to the majors

Brett Ballantini travels back to Birmingham to talk with Jonathan Nelson about the juggernaut Barons and two more jumps straight to MLB

Once more it’s Brett Ballantini’s favorite week of the month, when he gets to again call on president and GM of the first-place Birmingham Barons, Jonathan Nelson. Somehow again talking during a tough series pitting the two best teams in the Southern League against one another (Birmingham and Pensacola), the two catch up on all the good coming out of Double-A:

• Stats review: Just how dominant have the Barons been?
• Drew Thorpe gets the call straight to Chicago ... and will his ability to pitch overshadow his lack of a “big arm?”
• Duke Ellis gets the call straight to Chicago. Jonathan feels some generational pride there, but also warns of the danger of speed like his ... to opponents
• Oh, and yeah, we’re just tossing out some crazy comps for these players
• Thorpe was great in Birmingham, but two starters (Mason Adams and Ky Bush) have been essentially as good
• No better way to patch a Thorpe-sized hole in your killer rotation than, oh, to call up the No. 1 pitching prospect in the system, Noah Schultz
• What’s the plan for Noah the rest of the summer?
• Looping back to speed, even with Ellis gone the Barons are stealing bases at a killer rate (85.8% success as a team, and they’re coming in bunches)
• What has surprised Jonathan most about this Barons team?
• And, what ho, as we wrapped up our podcast, the Barons had surged ahead in their Blue Wahoos brunch battle
• Plus! Bonus Jonathan Nelson content next week, when we run our Rickwood Field/Birmingham Black Barons podcast!

Follow Jonathan Nelson on Twitter @JonathanN_Bham, the Barons @BhamBarons, and find tickets to an upcoming Barons game by clicking this link.

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