BondsCast

In this episode, I review the 6 games we played this past week, including a series victory over the division rival Padres on the road, and a sweep in the home opening series vs. the Rockies; an overview of the pitching and hitting performances in these games, including an over-reliance on home runs with a low batting average; a trip down memory lane of Giants’ closers in the past before we signed Jake McGee; an update of the standings and playoff odds; a preview of next week’s games; and a comment on two roster transactions by the team

In today’s episode, I address the one transaction made in the last week; the MLB moving the All-Star game away from the state of Georgia and my feelings about that situation; the passing of Bondscast contributor Sam’s dog; and the 3 game series against the Mariners, including Gabe Kapler’s management of the bullpen; Buster Posey’s rejuvenation batting in the 7th spot in the order; Longoria’s contribution; the impressive starting pitching performances; an update in the NL West standings; and the probable pitchers and match-ups in the week ahead.

In this episode, I dive deep into the roles of the players that I think will make the 26-man roster for opening day; I analyze the structure of the schedule within the context of the Vegas odds; and lastly I set realistic expectations and goals for the upcoming season.

In this episode, I discuss the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) of each position group for the Giants in 2020, which passed the eye test of a poor pitching staff, a top-10 infield, and plenty of room for growth; next, I discuss the salary cap commitments of the team, including somewhere between 150M and 193M in cap space in the winter of 2022; lastly, I name some of the free agents available to us next winter and the 7 prospects expected to arrive between now and then who could help us fill the roster out in 2022.

In this episode, I mention the career of Hank Schulman, long time beat writer for the San Francisco Giants with San Francisco Chronicle and his retirement from the profession; an update on Spring Training statistics, including the hitters who have featured the most times and pitchers who have faced the most batters, highlighting Arismendy Alcántara, Zack Littell, James Sherfy, Silvino Bracho, and Dominic Leone; updating on Free Agent signings Aaron Sanchez and Tommy La Stella; and ending with a statistical analysis about the physical changes made to the structural elements of Oracle Park and the impact this could have on potential free agent signings.

In this episode, I provide an update on some of the stats around Spring Training thus far, including the batters who have had the most at-bats and pitchers who have featured the most often; I also look at some potential diamonds in the rough, Jason Vosler and Jason Krizen; then I bring up some offseason news regarding the restructuring of the minor league systems and its new corporate structure, including the loss of the Green Jackets and Volcanoes; and finally, I take deep dive into the top 10 prospects, including rating top-100 prospects on the newly invented Sanchez Scale: from Freddy to Jonathan.

In this episode, I discuss obtaining my COVID-19 vaccine today; the optimism that a new Spring training season brings; my feelings about analyzing spring training and some information from yesterday’s game; Pedro Gomez’s passing on February 7th and his impact on this podcast; and a deep dive on all the Giants’ offseason transactions, including Rule 5 draft picks, non-tendered free agents, trades involving Sam Coonrod and Shaun Anderson, free agent signings, including Tommy La Stella and Alex Wood, and international free agents; also a bonus story about seeing Alex Wood pitch with the Cubs.

In this episode, I tell a funny story about hanging out in the local park with toddlers; give an overview of 2020 and 2021 for the Giants’ franchise; give a shout-out to Mike Yazstremski for his All-MLB team selection; give an overview of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the Giants would like to welcome fans back to the park; remind everyone of Larry Baer’s public domestic violence incident in March 2019; and update the listeners on the political expenditures of the team’s largest shareholder Charles Johnson and what his support means for you spending your hard earned money with this franchise.

In this podcast, I discuss the results in detail from the last week and some of the questionable managerial decisions that led to the Giants not making the playoffs; a detailed analysis of my pre-season predictions; some of the team-wide data for the season and how that correlated with our finish in the standings; and finally a retrospective of all the major storylines for the season and how they are a source for optimism for a young team and front office.

In this episode, I discuss the results from the past week, featuring a season sweep of the Mariners and nearly being swept at the hands of the A’s; some highlights and concerns regarding the individual performances from these games;  what playoffs will mean for the team and how we might survive with a leaky rotation and a closer by committee; a detailed explanation of the playoff standings; and end with an optimistic overview of the Giants’ season as a whole.

Oakland has been very average in hitting and starting pitching, but absolutely lock down in relief pitching, which we saw when we played them because we got to their starters, but ended up blowing games late In this episode, I discuss our dominance in the brief Mariners’ series; Pablo Sandoval’s Giants legacy (I forgot Javy Lopez as part of the 3 World Series teams); the Padres’ dominance over us; USA Today’s terrible reporting of the Alex Dickerson false positive COVID-19 test; the franchise’s direction going forward from here and our prospects for the playoffs; the upcoming series and against the Mariners and A’s

In this episode, I give an overview of the Rockies series in which we had an epic 23-run blowout and gave up a classic Coors Field inning to avoid getting the sweep; our 3-1 series victory over the Diamondbacks; the emergence of Mauricio Dubon as a leader; Brandon Belt’s acceptance as a platoon player; Sam Coonrod’s questionable use in high leverage situations; revisit my predictions for the season; look ahead at the potential playoffs; and finally preview the upcoming series against the Mariners and Padres.

In this podcast, I am depressed about the status of life right now. After the police brutality events of last week, I basically try to explain them and squeeze in a little about how the Giants have been doing. Later this week, we face the Rockies, I guess.

In this episode, I review the Giants’ 3-game sweep of the division rival Diamondbacks; I go over some of the impressive performers, including Yaz’s hot streak at the plate, Dickerson’s game-changing 3-run homer, and all the impressive starting pitching performances, including Tyler Anderson’s complete game. As of now, the Giants are in a good position to make the playoffs, but what does this say about the direction of the franchise? And lastly, a brief preview of the Dodgers series ahead.

In this podcast, Tyler and I discuss his initial reactions to this 30-game check-in; the national disrespect for the Giants’ lineup, despite their reliance on the offense this season to carry the team; the issues with the Giants’ pitching being either the talent or management utilizing it properly; who really calls the shots in a game for the franchise; parting thoughts on Hunter Pence’s Giants’ tenure, where I reference his 2014 World Series batting average, found here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=pencehu01&t=b&year=0&post=1#32-38-sum:batting_gamelogs_post; the roster construction leading to the Giants having multiple DH-type players; Tyler’s notion that management wanted a renewed focus on acquiring offensive-minded talent, which is a problem we’ve had for the last decade;  Austin Slater’s surprise impact on this year’s squad and how that could parlay into more homegrown talent getting a chance; Joey Bart’s call-up; the future of the Giants’ prospects; the roster construction surrounding veteran contracts ending and ability to find older hidden gems; some questions about which players have earned the sentimental stamp of staying; the transition of the regime to acquire interesting young talent; should the Giants attempt to buy or sell at the trade deadline; the trend toward trusting the regime; views on the A’s; closing thoughts on the remaining 30 games.

In this episode, I discuss the Giants finally winning a series, 3 games to 1 vs. the Angels. Our offense has been well above average recently, and this is an overall positive direction for the franchise, demonstrating that maybe our overpaid veterans do have something left in the tank, specifically Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Evan Longoria, and Pablo Sandoval. However, we still managed to blow a 9th inning lead in the first game of this series by placing trevor Gott in a position where he is not performing well, and our pitching overall has been awful this year. By most metrics, we are 29th in the league in terms of overall pitching performance, which is a product of our talent and it’s mishandling by the coaching staff. Joey Bart finally got a chance to debut, and I look forward to seeing how we do against divisional rivals Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend.

In this podcast, I review the tragic series that we had with the A’s, where we go from here as a franchise, and a preview of the Angels series

In this episode, I discuss the brittle spirit of the Giants’ team, but give credit for their Game2 comeback vs. a good Astros team; discuss how much we missed an injured Donovan Solano; question some of the catching techniques and ask why Joey Bart has not been called up; a review of the Astros series and a preview of the A’s series.

In this episode, I review the three game series versus the Dodgers; questioning the futures of Jeff Samardzija, Wandy Peralta, and Hunter Pence on the Giants. Looking forward to 2 big transactions for the franchise’s future and the ominous match-up versus the Astros.

In this episode, I discuss why I haven’t recorded in the last 10 days; an overview of the Giants’ record over their last 3 series; trying to explain what the Marlins’ positive tests say about baseball and the country as a whole; revisiting my projection for the Giants’ record thus far; reviewing the 10 games, including storylines and any plays that changed the winning percentage by more than 15%; the storylines of this patch of games, specifically balancing starting pitchers and relief pitcher matchups, plus winning the home run battle; a preview of the upcoming Dodgers series; the two bright spots for the team this year thus far: Mike Yaztremski and Donovan Solano