! ! ! ! Can’t get any lower. Still I feel I’m sinking ! ! ! !
Outshined by Chris Cornell and Soundgarden. The theme song for your SF Giants 2026 team.
In a season full of pitching debacles and crushing losses, they managed to pull one out for the ages.
Yes, the biggest blown 9th inning league in the 125 year history of the team. They were 2,208-0 when leading by 6 or more in the 9th. Til today.
Up 9-3 in the top of the 9th, the team could not even get an out before Cincy tied it. Bivans came in and really had no clue. Not sure why whoever the interim manager even was didn’t pull him a little faster, but I think it was pretty obvious Bivens didn’t have it. He gave up the longest home run into the cove that I’ve ever seen. Then again, Smith came in and nuked the joint. And the rest was errors, walks and general rookie ball crap.
I guess the lockout is a blessing.
For Dolly . . .
Forty Niners Forever 
As far as the team goes, yeah, it does begin and end with the ownership. Whether they are invested in a winning team (not really), or however many are just along for the ride, it doesn’t change the fact that with the departure of Duke Nuekom, the team has been a rolling disaster from the Rookie league teams all the way to the top. The farm system, player development, international drafting, any metric has this team near the bottom. Sure, we got a jump from all the trades, but those come with grains of granite. Not sand.
How they’ve managed to never fix the systemic issues for these past 14 seasons is baffling. 2012 was Neukom’s departure, and little has worked since then.
Whatever ‘The Giants Way’ meant, it was a blueprint to get the right people in the right places. We really seem to have lost that thread. Gone are the days of bringing guys up who contribute and help the team meaningfully. Strategic signings like Scutaro, Morse, Ross, Sanchez. Resurrecting guys like Aubrey Huff, pat the Bat. On and on. Sabean took a lot of grief, but he pulled a lot of the right stribngs to get this team over the top.
Now? We are littered with guys like Bader, Houser, Mahler, Scooter Gennett, Darin Ruf, etc etc etc. Or just signed and let go like Gasman, Rodon, Verlander, Snell, Even Kevin Pillar. The last bona fide stud we’ve drafted with Logan Webb in 2014.
Eldridge is the next best thing in 2023. 10 seasons later.
Between the two we’ve seen hundreds of players trip, fall, and fade away like the holograms they are. At the start of the season, there were NO pitchers in Sacto under 25.
Even the crop of dust coming up now, your Kennedys, Whitcombs, Coxes, and Kosses are 26+.
I wish I really knew what was happening behind the scenes in Eugene, San Jose, Richmond, AZ, and wherever these minor league guys are getting their time in. Gone are the days of Wille Mays roaming the clubhouse, Dave Righetti working his magic on the pitching staff, and a coherent stragety of devleoping and bringingup players.
I mean, shit, we have Bochy, Dusty, Washington, and plenty of other guys who should be at least leaned on a little bit for how to get this shit back in order.
Molina gets another start today. Openings in rotation, hope this goes well.
nothing says more about Giants lack of leadership from top down than continued use of Ryan Walker. He has been up and down, sent to AAA to fix things only to return to normal state of complete lack of command suckitude. He has no idea where any pitch he throws is going including ones that wind up in the seats.
This has zero to do with ownership-it’s pure incompetence of baseball people in charge. why Posey and Minasian haven’t DFA’d this guy months ago is beyond comprehension. Then there’s Vitello who has seen this movie play out before and yet brings him into late and close situation, with predictable results.
This season (and next if there is one) is about rolling through the turds currently in the system. Walker, and Brubaker, and now Bivens, and anyone not named Smith, is likely gone at the end of the season.
They are slots to be filled by the next round of hopefuls to come up.
I really hope they don’t even pretend they are trying next season, as given the state of the team it won’t fucking matter in the least.
I mean, either go out and get serious about rebuilding the pitching staff with actual quality, or just say “fuck it, we are gonna suck, but bear with us for a season.”
My only fucking issue is with Chappaquiddick and Adumbass. The whole thing would be sweeter if they were gone. Unless they somehow magically pull together a shocking season like the bore corps did in 2021.
but you have to admit Joshua Kushner was to blame for Borucki. Irrefutable.
it’s been a decade+ of Boruckis
Boom! #30 for Devers.
Devers hitting his 30th bomb marks a major milestone in his first full year with the Giants. Hitting thirty or more home runs for the fourth time in his career is impressive. Yeah, he has struggled with prolonged slumps and an elevated strikeout rate this year, causing his batting average to hover around .251 and his on-base percentage to drop to .328, both of which sit noticeably below his lifetime career averages of a .273 batting average and .347 on-base percentage.
However, his downward trend in efficiency can be partly attributed to the difficult hitting environment of Oracle Park. Likewise, playing with mostly “stiffs” and/or in a heavily rotating Giants lineup impacted by injuries has limited his overall run production, keeping his run-batted-in count at 79. Yeah, this is a far cry from the 100-plus RBI seasons he regularly crossed in Boston.
Nevertheless, his ability to supply consistent middle-of-the-order power has given the Giants a crucial anchor during this admittedly putrid season for the team. Posey deserves credit for this trade imo, as Devers has played well overall in the season and a half that he’s been with the club. Likewise, beyond his statistics, it’s my understanding from what I have read – that Devers has stepped up as a vocal leader during team meetings.
Agreed. He and Eldridge will be fun to watch, hopefully for years to come.
Also, I hope V keeps them both in their current 3 and 4 spots (or vice versa works too) in the LU.
Man Giants sure play Braves tough, even with rooks in there. Hill doubles off LHP, they take 5-3 lead.
“No name” Giants playing well in this game. More important, it isn’t against another mediocre or “dreg like” team, but the Braves, whom are on a 7 game winning streak. Not certain, but they either have the best record or near best record in all of MLB right now.
Almost makes you believe that if Buster tightens up the starting and relief pitching next season, along with getting some support for what Devers and Eldridge are doing almost daily, this team might be competitive next season?
Woo Hoo! “Wally” Cox Boom!
Loo, would know this – weren’t Marlon Brando and Wally Cox secretly in love?
do not go gently into that blown save.
*gentle
Yaz got an extra pitch and still watched strike three. Well, thanks!
Eff Elias, that’s a sweep!
lol!! I’ll take it.
Just catching up on the ff highlights. 3-3 one out, pitching change.
Cox with a bunt RBI and a home run.
Cox can do some things, like run. Does strike out a lot so I hope Posey emphasis on drafting contact guys like Kilen pays off eventually. Given Schmitt and Big 3 in lineup he already has enough guys that will K during slumps.
Vitello PH for one LH Gilbert with Hill, another and it paid off.
Webb vs. Skenes tomorrow if I heard right.
I don’t know about lovers, but Wally Cox and Brando were childhood and lifelong friends. After Cox unexpectedly died Brando gained like 100 lb.
giants lineup should be pretty solid next year, and they have wealth of OF prospects. Like them or not Adames and Chapman are lot better than Whitcomb Koss Basabe and Furman. If they can find any pitching from guys they are using in last month more the better. Pen guys Foley Sanmartin and smith shut down Braves yesterday after Molina left.
If there is baseball 2027 might not be as grim for Giants as I originally thought.
I believe that is possible. We start to win some games and next year most everything is gonna be competition. We just have to get some efficient pitchers and I agree the wins will show up. It would be nice just to have a fun year.
for everyone distraught over the way the team has gone since the great Chas. Johnson ceded ownership control to his son, be assured, another ownership change has occurred. E.g.,
Key Minority Owners and Investment Groups
They are taking obvious tax advantage of owning a baseball team that doesn’t have to show their books.
here’s the facts, I think.
2008: Peter Magowan backed down from principal ownership. Neukom became the principal managing owner, but Baer was there, as was Charles Johnson, with a huge ownership share.
2011. The owners, led by Johnson, fired Neukom. (WS bonus dist. disputes, but also the bold dfa of Rowan and trade for Beltran, which probalby required Neukom’s ok.) Johnson took over as principal owner. So, Chas. Johnson was the owner who presided over the glory years.
2019. Chas J, who’d been getting very quiet, ceded control of the Giants to his son and control of his investment fund to his daughter. Today, I think he’s 93 and essentially invisible.
Also today: There are some 35 separate owners, and some of many of the larger investors are funds who care more about the Mission Bay development and the Curran Theater than they do about the bullpen.
Was Chas. J. a great baseball owner? Did buying SpaceX make musk a rocket scientist? It’s the commercial context. Johnson took a thriving franchise, built I’d say under the eyes of Magowan and Neukom, and he and his co-owners exploited the assets and opportunities profitably and well through, perhaps, 2016. Entirely different economic and financial exigencies control what happens today. Maybe techboom gentrification supports profit and equity appreciation now. I don’t know. Makes sense. But regime change has occurred; as ever, in the moment we just can’t quite discern who or what that means, much less what to do about it.
Moanin and groanin about “ownership” in the abstract doesn’t make sense.
It isn’t abstract. It is a huge tax break. These guys are real estate investors in the end. They own the building and the land and everything around there yet can claim major losses wherever and whenever they want because they own a baseball team.
THAT is their impetus. They could give two fucks about the team. Flailing around like they are is simply them delegating tasks to people that don’t know any better and simply don’t care.
It very well could be that with the ownership group firing Neukom, the knowledgeable people behind the scenes that ran the farm, drafting, scouts, and the like started drifting away only to be replaced by lesser guys.
Even with guys like Sabean and Evans, the drafts were going poorly after 2010. And the farm has been hot garbage for 14 years. Nothing has gotten better. And here we are waiting for Buster’s drafts to reach the majors. In 2028.
Yeah, I know. All speculation. But the truth remains that this team is run to hide real estate profits and sink them into the ‘losses’ they incur running the team.
_____________________
I wish there was a way to know how and why Buster saw fit to think this pitching staff was anything but a hope and a prayer. I mean, if they can’t draft, they’d better do something major.
Greggie Johnson reportedly has been “in charge” of the Giants operation since 2012, though his old fascist daddy has technically been the principal owner until 2024. So, it’s not disputed that Greggie’s been in charge the entire time since the Giants last post season appearance in 2016. That’s an 11 season S show era, sans 2021. A S show to the extent Bochy didn’t even know his outfielders on Opening Day 2019 (Conor Joe, Michael Reed). The myriad other anecdotes of the S show over a decade long, we all know and are far too numerous to mention. What kind of ownership allows that stuff and crap seasons to happen for that long without serious organizational changes? Merry go round rosters and horrible drafts continued under Farhan for 6 years, all on Greggie’s watch until the whole thing cratered too much even for the “break even” man’s taste and PR needs. Now here we are again with a laughable lineup and a near laughingstock of a team. That cannot all be put on front office failures when ownership hires the front office(s).
show me that “report.” I do not believe it’s true. The old man fired Neukom and took over in 2011. But I am willing to believe that later when the old man stepped away and let greg take over things went wrong. Greg, however, does not today possess the leverage he or esp his father once had. Everything has changed since the pandemic, as the partial list of new owners since the posted above shows. The “owners” you’re pissed off at aren’t fully in charge any more.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Charles-Johnson-emerges-as-Giants-top-stakeholder-2308736.php
I mean, I kinda agree with Willie. I’d agree even more if they’d shitcan Chappedass and Dumbass. The assless chaps brigade.
This team has a pretty good looking trio in Eldridge, Schmitt, and Devers.
3-4-5 right there. Gilbert is showing clues that he might start hitting consistently. He ain’t gonna be Barry Bonds, or even Ellis Burkes, but as long as he can hit for average and some extra bases thrown in there, he’ll be fine. Lee is, well, Lee.
The rest are back of the lineup guys, but we have some talent hopefully coming up for SS. Shit, Get Arraez back for 2nd.
Then all you need is 2 starters and a bullpen.
I think (hope) some of the OF guys can make it alongside or even minus Lee. gilbert has improved. Cox Hill Bericoto Davidson Bandura have all shown skills at top levels. Schmitt can play LF if necessary. Btw Mayer Kilen and guys in lower ranks IF prospects have a chance to skip a level (pun intended).
I think Giants can score more runs next season and while I don’t freak out over lineup order, why not lead off with Eldridge/Devers? Whether they can prevent them, idk.
Hard no on Schmitt in LF.
Also, giving CJ credit for winning those chips is like giving Barry Switzer credit for winning a Super Bowl. A dead monkey would have won with that team.
“Was Chas. J. a great baseball owner? Did buying SpaceX make musk a rocket scientist?”
So, Chas. Johnson was the owner who presided over the glory years.
yes. He used Baer and Rob (iirc) Dean as the front person the way John Fisher used Lew Wolf and what’s his name, the guy who fronted the failed Oakland ballpark, for the A’s. But Johnson was the big dog during the post Sue burns glory years. It’s an interesting fact. As I also said, i don’t credit him with the success. And that circumstance gets at the real issue.
I used to complain about Stoneham all the time and none of these owners now could be a pimple on his ass. i don’t give a shit about how much money they make even though i consider some of them traitors. They run a fucking baseball team and they should act like it. IMO
Btw Cohen and Dodgers, these 2 teams plus Yanks are what has fans clamoring for salary cap. And yet, Mets are irrelevant toast as far as even WC and LA has come back to pack. Betts Teo H and Tucker (most recent signing) all have OPS in Adames range of .700 and Diaz has been total flop of a closer. Yanks trail Tampa and are fighting to hold onto 2nd place. who knew?
Right, but LA has 3 chips in the last 6 seasons because they’ve drafted and traded well.
We have not.
NL seems more wide open, Dogs not as scary as before.
Though this team is now in many ways a laughingstock of young and/or never will be primetime talent, I continue to say I’d rather see this than a team with Adomass swinging at sliders a foot outside, yukking it up with the oppo 2nd baseman; and Chapman striking out 2X a game with RISP and seemingly always playing hurt with some kind of nagging injury we find out exists 2 months after it supposedly started. Those guys dragged the already talent-challenged team into sleepwalking the games away.
The last couple of games — guys like Cox and Hill, they’re gamers. They make up for some of their lack of experience and talent with effort and attention. They are fun to watch, even if the team still loses. Cox should be in contention for a 2027 roster spot just because he is faster than hell, steals bags easily, and he can actually bunt. Not to mention he has some pop. The Giants are getting to see potential players for 2027, including these “who is he?” pitchers they keep bringing up, and that is what they should be doing, given the otherwise dire circumstances.