Grilled Cheese

Grilled Cheese is the Sports Deli interview headquarters. When we start conducting interviews, they will be posted here. Until then, we'll just fall asleep at night wishing for the skills of Dan Patrick.

This week, the staff was fortunate enough to interview California Aggie sportswriter and Fantasy Baseball mastermind Adam Foster. When Adam's not busy writing columns, you can find him playing wiffle ball or researching baseball in his quest to become the next great MLB guru. In other words, watch your back Peter Gammons.

Patrick: As beat writer for the UC Davis baseball team, you've experienced a lot of the ups and downs that the team has encountered. Usually with a roller coaster season like this one, there's a lot of frustration and a lot of comedy. What's the most ridiculous thing you saw this season?

Adam: When UC Davis was playing at Cal on Tuesday, April 18th, the Golden Bears had the bases juiced and the umpire called a balk-bringing in a run-on freshman Andy Boas. The call gave Cal all the momentum it needed to run away with the game, so as you could guess Coach Peters was enraged.

He stormed out and dropped more f-bombs to the home plate umpire than a typical adult drops in a year, all of them audible from anywhere in the stadium. And then, after being ejected, he walked down the first baseline-toward the clubhouse-for as long as possible so he could delay the game and make his statement. A bunch of the players told me that he had an even better departure last year, but Coach Peters has always been good to me, so if you want to hear about that one you will have to get it from another source.

P: Another source. We'll work on that one.

Besides the obvious benefit of getting to hang with the coach and players, what's the biggest perk of being a California Aggie sportswriter?

AF: It's pretty rewarding just to walk around campus and see people reading my articles. The readership for the Aggie is around 30,000, so in a given day, tens of thousands of people may end up reading what I stayed up late working on.

But like you mentioned, getting to know the players is cool, too. Graduating senior pitcher Vince DeCoito offered to play wingman for me a few weeks ago at Soga's...he told me what he would tell the ladies, "This is my buddy Adam. He writes for the Aggie. He's kind of a big deal."

P: Speaking of big deals, the MLB draft's going down tomorrow. With the exception of Dave McKae getting picked up in free agency, the Aggie laid a big old goose-egg in the draft last year. Any chance we get some guys picked this year?

AF: First off, "getting picked up in free agency," kind of discounts McKae and Tyler LaTorre. As intelligent UC Davis students, they utilized market scarcity in their favor to reach professional contract agreements.

Phil Rasmussen told me that largely because of his build and because he is a lefty, the Tigers have expressed a lot of interest in him. He could easily be someone they use a late-round draft pick on. Lukas Kirby also has a shot of getting drafted. Given his current health (elbow injury), Michael Potter will probably not end up being drafted.

P: You've talked about guys like Tyler LaTorre, Vince DeCoito and Michael Potter who're moving on next year. With those starting spots opening up next season, who's primed for a breakout year in 2007 for the Aggies?

AF: You can expect a better year from Daniel Descalso. He joined the team late, after recovering from a broken hand, and kind of slumped for most of the season.

Evan Hudson is another talented hitter who didn't really show his potential this season. He was playing hurt all year, so once he's healthy, he could put up some great numbers.

But my favorite Aggie to breakout is Grant Hirneise. Redshirting as a sophomore due to the team's depth at first base this season, Hirneise will probably start at first next year. He has as much power potential as any Aggie in recent history.

Coach Peters was just telling me how excited he is about community college All-Conference players that the team is bringing in: Trevor Fox and Jeff Reekers. One of those two will probably crack the 2007 rotation immediately and make a fair amount of noise.

P: After this year's showing, the Aggie rotation could definitely use some fresh arms. But coming back to this year: what's the fastest pitch you've seen from an Aggie hurler this season? Also, who has the most intimidating mound presence?

AF: Freshmen Bryan Evans and Brad McAtee both hit 91 when I was watching them throw. UC Davis didn't really have a prototypical flamethrower this season.

McAtee was one heck of a scary at bat, though. He struggled with finding a consistent arm slot, so he was all over the place. I told him that I thought he hit the backstop as often as he struck batters out...and he struck a decent amount of guys out.

P: Adam you see a lot of baseball. Pro ball. Minor league. College. Which is the most exciting for you to follow and why?

AF: Of course it's the most fun seeing baseball played on the biggest stage and at the highest level, but it's cool to be able to connect to a team intimately. I went and watched the Giants and A's at Spring Training and I've seen games in Fresno and Sacramento...just because I like digging a bit deeper than the typical fan.

Still, it's hard to get closer to a team than I did this year. I've never had so much fun following a team. I'm becoming a bigger college baseball fan every day. You're lucky that I took the time for an interview in the midst of the NCAA Baseball Championship...in a few weeks, during the College World Series, you may not have been able to get an interview.

P: No doubt. It hardly seems fair that they put the World Series so close to finals. They do the same thing with March Madness. It's ridiculous.

But let's get to another of your favorite pastimes: fantasy baseball. As a fantasy guru, how much of the sport is predictable and how much is just plain dumb luck?

AF: Last year, you got a first hand demonstration of what one knowledgeable fantasy baseball player can do to a weaker crop of competition.

In adaquate sample sizes, the numbers can say a lot. Babe Sheltons will pop up every once in a while to carry a team, but noticing the steady progression of Jake Peavy's ability to pitch (through numbers) as he entered the 2004 season is a horse of a different color.

There comes a level of competition where luck has a lot to do with things, but there's always a way to compensate for luck and land far enough ahead of your competition to seal victory.

P: As an honorary member of that "weaker crop" I'm gonna move off fantasy baseball before I put my foot in my mouth.

Let's talk a little foosball. Word on the street is that you're quite good. Which makes me wonder: how is it that a baseball guy like you can be so obsessed with a soccer game? Why haven't you invented the baseball equivalent of foosball yet?

AF: I like soccer. I started playing it before I started playing baseball (four vs. six).

Isn't wiffle ball kind of a compacted version of baseball like foosball is to soccer?

P.S. I haven't lost on my foosball table in about three months. Anyone want to challenge me?

P: Alright Adam, final question. When I say greatest baseball movie ever, you say...

AF: My alarm clock lets me put in a CD and select the track I want to wake up to. I've been waking up to The Natural theme song every morning for the last six months. I'm pretty sure that my IM softball teams would have gotten a smidgen closer to glory this year if we were using Wonderboy. That movie still gives me chills...and I've even read Bernard Malamud's book that the screenplay is based on.

P: Ladies and gentlemen, that's what I call hardcore dedication. Personally, I gotta go with Major League at number 1. But both are unquestionable classics.

Thanks for your time Adam, keep up the good work.

To challenge Adam's foosball skills, go find him somewhere on campus. He looks like the guy in the picture above and he's always looking for a good game. Also, be sure to look for more columns from him this summer and next fall. You can find them online at the California Aggie web site.