Rodon’t You Go There!
I’d still love to know the offers Zaidi received for Rodon. I don’t think i’ll ever get over him not trading him at the deadline and only a fool would think we were offered nothing for him. If the offers weren’t good enough, like I said would love to know what they were.
Regardless, Farhan gets a passing grade for this off season. I’d say C+ or so. He picked up a stud and 3 other guys who make us better plus he kept Joc and he didn’t bring back Belt or Longoria something I thought he might do.
But today isn’t about the Giants it’s about basking in the glorious glow of yet another NFC West title…….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Giants were never going to go to length of deal/$$ to keep Rodon, Boras guy. My guess is Z had Harris look into potential trade partners at deadline, knew guys they were interested in, and their demands weren’t met by anyone. So held onto him and they get comp pick, the last of whom Z/H turned into Kyle Harrison. The comp pick is not nothing…btw the word nothing comes up constantly in ramblings by math prof main character in latest novel by Percival Everett, “Dr. No”.
If I wanted to get mad at Z, I’d have said couldn’t Giants have kept Gausman (first year with Toronto was fine) and had Rodon last year, plus Webb Cobb et al?
Agree Willie. We are all speculating regarding what happened at the trade deadline. Z isn’t one to overpay and/or get outmaneuvered. I suspect most PHDs aren’t. One other thing, Rodon is injury prone as hell (that’s why he took the 2 year deal with an opt out last season, i.e., to reestablish his value). Last, I am probably underestimating this, but I think there were upwards of 75% of all free agent deals before last season face planted. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens again this season.
agree on the FA faceplants but when you can’t produce shit out of your farm system what are you supposed to do? Gotta take the risk. Can’t Brebbia Aisle your way to a championship. And at this point that’s really all I care about. Win it all again, baby
Besides the amount of free agent money spent by so many MLB clubs this off season, I guess how much of that was directed at “old farts” like deGrom, etc., was the biggest surprise to me. I wonder if Kershaw could have gotten much more money had he waited versus signing that one year deal with the Bums?
OK so now that Niners have clinched and are likely to have solid seed all set up in NFC, how do they handle workload for McCaffrey going forward? Not that I’m in fantasy football, but I’m sure those who do own the guy in various leagues mighty curious. And um, Shanahan and running backs do have history.
Don’t know what we will do but I would cut his workload in half. If we have a shot at the #1 seed I might play it different but I think Philly has that locked up. I still don’t know why we haven’t seen Davis-Price yet. We also still have Coleman on the PS. I would definitely make sure Purdy doesn’t run up the middle for awhile. This is a great position to be in.
A healthy Rodon would have provided some very comforting depth to the rotation and been the number 1 for the postseason, but he wasn’t going to determine whether or not the Giants are contenders for the playoffs at midsummer. The usual trade deadline rental logic applies. By then Harrison may have been called up to replace a faltering or injured starter or three. He seems like the closest thing they have to a sure bet in the minors.
There’s an outside chance for a trade that isn’t just about garnering prospects. A Belt-free zone is not yet entirely assured.
Rodon is an odd case. The stats look good, but when you actually watch him pitch, struggling to get 5 or 6 innings in, it doesn’t look quite as great. But, of course, we live in a new normal, where a quality start is accepted as 5 or 6 good innings.
It’s just that when it’s turned over to a bunch of guys in the bullpen, then you have to hope one of the bullpen guys doesn’t have an off night.
This is the new normal in the pitch count era though, 5-6 innings and onto the parade of pen guys. Rodon missed a lot of bats, btw breaking ball and that killer fastball of his, and the high K rate meant lot of pitches, ergo. To me he was just fun to watch.
Like Blade said, lot of $$$ spent on older guys (and deGrom) with health risks and they aren’t going into innings 7-8-9 either.
https://sports.yahoo.com/brandon-crawford-preparing-position-change-000108952.html
Minus Steph Draymond and Wiggins, GS playing Philly tough, tied up in first minutes of second half.
I’m getting a little psyched for that opening series in the Bronx.
Goddamn right I’ll be there!
Fly Stix in!!!
Think of the pictures!!!
You know I’ll be there. Either Sat or Sun, I want no part of the opener.
The opener would be the sickest – as will ticket prices I guess…
Stats courtesy of MLB network. Pitchers in MLB the last TWO seasons. Under 3.00 ERA. K/9 over 11. Only 4
Scherzer Starts 53 ERA 2.38 K/9 11.3
Rodon 55 2.67 12.2
Ohtani 51 2.7 11.4
Burnes 51 2.71 11.6
Go Niners. Next game or two they need to get ahead by a big margin so they can put in Josh Johnson in for a few series. In the last TEN years he has played in 11 games.
What a great life right. NFL min is based on service time. Since 2011 the minimum for 9 years service is $900k to $1.1M
A rich guy who makes a million a year or so and never gets hit. Of course he would rather play (I assume) but things could be worse:)
I’m thinking (hoping) the Niners treat these games like preseason games. Give the starters 1.5 quarters and put in the backups. There’s NO reason to go after these victories. We won’t get a bye and we are guarantees a home game. Catching the Vikes won’t really do anything but flip-flop playing the Giants or Generals.
I want CMC out after the first 2 series. Give Mason reps. Fucking Price Davis is Shanny’s latest
wasted 3rd round RB draft pick. A clone of Trey Sermon. I seriously don’t understand Shanahan’s thinking when his last 5 team leading RBs were either UDFAs or low round picks. Williams, Sermon, and now PD are all garbage. I knew before the season started that Mason was gonna be better than PD.
Damn. Louis Orr gone at 64…
Oh shoot. Not a fan of Boeheim or Cuse guys, but Louis Orr was cool player.
Saw a pic of him in NY Post obit (on phone) being guarded by Kevin McHale, and Orr looks like Manute Bol.
Saturday football on TV in December is cool. Enjoyed Al Michaels Thursday night as well.
i love NFL games on Sat.
Z picked up Nick Duron on minor league deal, pen guy off Phils who spent most of season at AAA Lehigh. Hard thrower who K’d 63 guys in 48 innings, but um walked 29. Only gave up 3 HRs, so maybe something to work with there. Played HS ball at Tigard HS of Oregon, outside of Portland iirc.
https://theathletic.com/3999853/2022/12/16/ross-stripling-san-francisco-giants-free-agent/
Brisbee generally pollyanna type beat writer, so no surprise he only sees upside. But as he said, “should work” applies here. Craw will be 36 in January so interesting to see where he plays with ground ball heavy pitching staff/no more shift.
Comments in Athletic always interesting.
I have a feeling he’s gonna have quite a few days off here and there. If his bats hot lots of DHing. I doubt he really cares if it’s 2nd or 3rd.
Dansby gets 7/177 from Cubs-about half what Correa got in years and money…
From today’s NY Post…
It Takes All of Us” continued:
Deebo Samuel, star 49ers receiver, is just another demonstrably self-interested act who makes it more difficult to watch, let alone enjoy, NFL games.
Last Sunday on Fox, he scored a touchdown after taking a pitch and running inside the right pylon. As he was tackled, too late, he undercut a photographer at his knees, sending the man sprawling. With play stopped, Samuel could have — should have — checked with that photog to indicate that he at least cared if he was OK.
Instead, Samuel returned to the field by arrogantly and callously stepping over the fallen man, never even looking down toward him as he didn’t want to delay his self-smitten TD celebration. Couldn’t miss it.
Announcers Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen pretended that they didn’t see it, thus we must’ve missed it, too. They just kept tossing bouquets at Samuel.
Soon, Samuel would be carted from the field with, as fate would have it, knee and ankle injuries.
Good to see that…
Although I can’t imagine how he missed it “in the moment”…
i saw a tweet that showed a photographer right next to him ignoring the flattened guy and taking his own follow on pics. in the moment
I’ll bet that photographer plus the NY Post “journalist” just crush Deebo on the lack of integrity scale.
Please. THIS riles you up? He’s got 11 maniacs trying to separate his head from his shoulders. I’m sure in the heat of the moment he didn’t realize what happened.
I’m losing patience with Z. last 2 years Swanson and Correa stats very similar. Power similar, Correa higher ave.
Swanson last 2 years
same age. Swanson 160 and 162 games played.
Correa 148 136.
Correa is better, but more injury prone. Swanson and Rodon crush Correa alone. GRRR
Except that Swanson’s deal isn’t any more conducive to signing Rodon than Correa’s is. Not signing Rodon is completely unrelated to the longer term commitment to Correa.
tonight’s rerun tv Columbo is the first that Patrick McGoohan was involved with. He and Falk were friends, I guess, but his influence, his extensive influence, was terrible, imo. No fun at all.
A bit of a tangent, but references to McGoohan always bring to mind not The Prisoner, but a 50s favorite, Hell Drivers. He stars with Sean Connery, Stanley Baker, and David McCallum. If you don’t know the director Cy Endfield, you might want to check him out. https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2022/06/potent-pessimism/
Haven’t even looked at the link yet and yeah, Endfield is a great director . . . See Zulu from the 60s, one of the best movie spectacles from that era, but with well drawn out characters, e.g., see Pvt. Hook. Loved that movie.
Edit: Also Sands of the Kalahari, another great film, Stanley Baker was in.
What a great essay. As a 12 year old kid, I saw Zulu in an English theatre when it was first released. By then, we’d been in the country for a year, but I still found the movie confusing and dangerously foreign. I couldn’t understand why they were fighting. (I did vaguely understand that I never bothered to ask that question when I sat through Hollywood westerns or WWII dramas.) I probably didn’t face my Zulu trauma until years later, when I stumbled across Pontecorvo’s Burn!
It’s lengthy, but the nuanced observations and through lines don’t seem forced or contrived, even if you haven’t seen many of the films. I barely remember Zulu, and haven’t actively sought it out, which I now will. Come and Get Me isn’t that hard to see and is worth it for Lloyd Bridge’s performance alone.
Lengthy? Ha!
James on one level you are 100% correct, but commitment to $360 million vs $177 million weighs on the men spending the money imo
Well, Larry Baer can’t simultaneously be pushing a squeamish Farhan to embrace the big contract and then slapping his fingers away from a clinching deal because the money guys are actually uncomfortable with spending. They signed Correa because he’s been a significantly better player than Swanson. They didn’t sign Rodon because he’s actually got a much riskier injury profile than Correa. There’s nothing unreasonable about these decisions, even if your intuition tells you otherwise. Let’s hope your intuition fails you.
I like Swanson myself, and Cubs not having to pay him those extra 4-6 years at end of contract is good deal for them.
Swanson hits for power (which wouldn’t hurt Giants lineup)–60 extra base hits and 25 HRs last 2 seasons. Also plays every day, including 158+ starts at SS each of last 2 years. Stole 18 bags too, which is 18 more than Correa did. Might not be better player overall, but much less expensive or longer term deal than any of the other FA SS.
Defensively he only made 8 errors last year, as opposed to Crawford’s 16 despite over 100 more chances.
There are the rare occasions you choose the premier cru at three times the price. More often than not, you don’t regret it.
All good points . . . But I have to agree with ESPN analysis and grades regarding both trades (B- for Swanson and A for Correa).
https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/34978963/2022-23-mlb-offseason-grades-free-agency-trade-analysis
Helluva a soccer match.
Davis Mills lol has already thrown 1TD and run for another. Texans could still lose by 30, but lead Chiefs at Arrowhead mid second quarter.
Mbappe and Messi put on a show on soccer’s biggest stage. My daughter’s in Bordeaux. She sent vid of downtown going wild at the great Mbappe’s hat trick 3rd goal to tie it at 3 all with 2 minutes to go in OT. Then vid of all trudging home in silence after the loss on penalties — and, of course public transit is on strike today and tomorrow in France…
My sister lived in Asnieres and used to take metro to get into Paris where she studied design of men’s clothes. Strikes drove her crazy– any one union goes, others go out in sympathy.
Texans (1-11-1) into OT vs. Chiefs. Game is in Houston but looks like Chiefs home game.
Wow and in the end a critical fumble by QB Davis Mills in OT seals a Chiefs win on a McKinnon TD run..
Shit missed the end of that game.
Epic WC final. Messi and Mbappe 5 goals between them. Nonstop action down the final whistle. FIFA and soccer fans worldwide could not have drawn it up any better! lets hope the US gets this lucky in the next final in 26!
You think shootouts are the best way to decide the most important game in history?
I turned on the game right when the shootout started and I though ‘hey cool’ but I’m not by any stretch a fan of soccer. Seems like a cheap way to decide it.
I would tend to agree, but by the time of the shootout, they’d played 90 minutes regular time, plus more than a handful of minutes of stoppage time, plus 30 minutes of OT, so they were well over 2 hours of high level competition. One can argue they should play to exhaustion or all the players are subbed in 2nd stringers, but IDK if that’s the best way, or better than a shootout. The game was great, though, otherwise. A game with ups/downs, pathos and an old hero finally winning the big one — worthy of a WChamp game…
I always dreamed of BB9 drawing ball 4 to win a World Series.
Has an NBA Final ever been decided by a free throw shooter in the final seconds?
I know a conference finals was. Ask the Kings.
raiders game had a great ending, even though they won
And I thought only the Raiders could do stupid shit all the time! WTF were the Patriots thinking, geez just go into OT and you’re probably going to win.Stevenson should of just went down after his long run but holy smokes after giving it to Jacoby Meyers and he throws a pass 20 yards backwards? for a easy Raider pick to grab and score was ridiculous.Meyers should of grabbed a cab immediately instead of going to the locker room and checked into a hotel room in Vegas under witness protection program then to deal with the Wrath of Belicheat..
He and Jeff Saturday will be looking for work.
The band is on the field!!!!!
They got a gift of a TD late. WR was OB on the deep pass.
The World Cup trophy isn’t a cup. I don’t get that.
NHL players can actually drink beverages from the Stanley Cup.
In answer to James 5:31, J R Smith of Cleveland Cavs, Game 1 NBA finals.
4.5 seconds, game tied, Cavs George Hill misses FT. Smith grabs offensive rebound and dribbles out clock instead of trying to score. GS wins in OT, and Smith gets hammered on twitter etc.
More often it’s a missed opportunity, as in Karl Malone vs. Jordan/Pippen Bulls. Pippen’s “mailman doesn’t deliver on Sunday” haunted him forever.
Hey Mac–Can NYGs hold onto six seed? Was had Niners Browns and Boys for last 3, you guys have Indy still. 3 vs. 6 would mean trip out here to Levi’s. Thoughts?
Hey, I’m hoping they can hold onto any seed. Or whatever seed it takes to avoid the Niners, haha.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/why-the-dodgers-are-mostly-sitting-out-the-free-agent-frenzy/ar-AA15sgI4?ocid=anaheim-ntp-feeds&pc=U531&cvid=eedca3ef446d41fb883cce0caf5e2406
The look he gives to whoever that is after his first home run is fucking wild. Love that shit!
Good times.
Good article about the Dodgers posted by Loo. The Dodgers have been strangely low-key in this off-season so far, and the article goes into how the Dodger’s front-office was deeply unsettled by the way the ’22 Dodgers, after having such a dominant regular season, were eliminated in the first round, winning only one game in the playoffs. They seem to be making a recommitment to building from their farm system.
Thank you Zum.
And Merry Christmas!
i heard it has something to do with the luxury tax and they are hamstrung if they sign anybody else now. Once we hit 2023 I’d expect they will make some moves with whoever is left
And yet, Padres wiped out the 100 win Mets first, and Mets don’t have any qualms about lux tax at all. Phils have bunch of high priced FAs, including Harper who isn’t gonna play til maybe AS break, and they got Turner for next 11 years.
It will be interesting to see how all these high rated prospects Dogs have perform at ML level. Lot of their fans griped about Lux playing 2b (lotta Steve Sax references) so slotting him in as full time SS seems a risk.
Lux has one of the worst arms in MLB, along with (. . . wait for it), Swanson, who probably has the worst arm strength for SS in MLB.
That quake near anybody?
Not sure about Flappers, but before I moved to SF I lived there and still have some friends there. Hoping everybody is OK.
Nah, way up north from us. It’s actually closer to my dad who lives Medford Oregon now. Gonna call him in a bit to see if he felt it
A couple of things the article points out is that LA wants to reset their luxury tax to get away from the 50% penalty, they aren’t sure if they will have to pay Trevor Bauer and how that would affect the tax, they want to have cash on hand because they plan on going after Shohei Ohtani next year and yes, their farm system is so strong they feel they can fill a few holes from their system.
They also probably don’t feel any urgency in filling positions after winning the West by 20 games.
If the Giants want to go after someone it should be Ohtani.
Yeah, didn’t feel anything down here. There was one in El Cerrito yesterday but didn’t feel that one either.
The quake was in Fortuna. Heh heh . . .
A late alternative to the thread hed?
Rodon’t Come Around Here No More.
nice 1
The article on Dogs linked by Loo was really good. That said, with more WC teams now than ever getting in (SD and Phils were both WC teams in NLCS) the odds of one winning it all are better than ever. 2019 Nats were WC team and Giants won 2014 of 3/5 that way too.
Ohtani sweepstakes, oy. $500 million?
If it’s true that the Mets luxury tax bill will be around $75 mil this year, that is pretty insane.
MLB is broken.* Anyone who thinks otherwise is ignoring the fact that less than a half dozen teams are participating in these insane contracts. You might have another 3 teams that maintain a half-assed façade of participating, e.g., Chicago and Boston come to mind.
Meanwhile, the A’s, Pirates, Mariners, etc., are bottom feeders. Here is an excellent column about what happened this season, with emphasis on what’s happening with the Mariners, whom seemed like they were a rising team in 2022 – are they holding back to bid on Ohtani after next season or just saying fuck it (and enjoying their lucrative television contract)??? Love that the article starts out with the Giants Al Rosen and Bud Black (lol).
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/mariners-sat-out-mlbs-free-agent-frenzy-and-now-must-deal-with-fallout/
* Of course, they have been saying that since the advent of free agency. lol
Any concerns about the Giants postponing the big Correa introduction scheduled for today, while they wait for test results from yesterday’s physical?
maybe they got mixed up with all the ones they did on Belt.
Hah, maybe he’s just hungover.
I still think Belt will be getting another physical in SF.
Matt Carpenter get $12M for a year in San Diego.
Out of control is insufficient…
That wily Farhan. He both signs the crazy deal and looks to get out of it, shrugging his shoulders with an “I really tried” emphasis.
Knicks cool down from 3 GS might have shot tonight. Brunson killing everyone, man he looks good. Meanwhile, Klank Thompson (2 hoops 0-4 from 3 4 turnovers) does not.
Klank, haha.
Correa to the Mets. What the fuck?
wow