Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Giants reliever Kyle Crick had a longer road to the Major Leagues than planned after being a first round pick in 2011 out of high school in Texas. He made his debut with the Giants this season and has fared well in his first 11 appearances with a 2.03 ERA. Crick joined us before the Wednesday afternoon game with the Pirates at AT&T Park.
Crick talked to The Sports Virus about making the transition from starter to reliever: …“It didn’t take that long. It was a pretty easy transition. I like not knowing when you are pitching…I think I took more of a reliever approach when I was starting, here’s my best stuff, try and hit it.” Crick also talked about his journey: “I appreciate (making the Major Leagues) a lot. I don’t think (struggling in the minor leagues for awhile) was a mechanical thing, I think it was mental for the most part. Just committing to baseball day in and day out.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
National baseball writer Jayson Stark gives his opinions on pace of play and what might change as MLB tries to shorten the time of games.
Stark told The Sports Virus that there are a few key issues when it comes to slow pace of play in baseball: “…Guys just don’t get in the box, they take too much time between pitches to throw the baseball…you compound that with too many mound visits and not enough balls in play…The players are really resistant to a pitch clock, but they’ve got to do something.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
National baseball writer Jayson Stark joined us earlier this week. In part two of our conversation we chatted about Pablo Sandoval’s tenure with the Red Sox. The Panda was eventually signed to a minor league contract by the Giants.
Before Pablo Sandoval signed back with the Giants, Stark talked to The Sports Virus about his future: “…He hasn’t done anything since the day he signed that contract (with Boston) that would make you think this guy is somebody who could help your team win…He (still) has that same Panda smile and love of baseball, love of being in the batter’s box that we used to see…I ran a list the other day of players in Red Sox history who wound up with a higher OPS than the Panda in his time in Boston. It was comical. Mike Benjamin and Bob Zupcic and names like that. If you saw Pablo Sandoval swing the bat as a Giant you would ask yourself, how could that be?…If you don’t do everything in your power mentally and physically to prepare you’re not going to be that guy. You just can’t show up in the batter’s box four times a night and think that’s enough. This guy hasn’t put enough into it mentally and physically to be a great player.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
National baseball writer Jayson Stark joins us to examine Buster Posey’s season, Madison Bumgarner’s return and the Giants priorities with the trade deadline approaching.
Stark talked to The Sports Virus about Buster Posey’s low RBI total: …“This is a reminder why RBIs don’t mean what they used to mean in baseball because you can’t drive in runs when you’re coming to the plate with nobody on base…The Giants rank next to last in the league in on base (percentage)…The whole team seems like it goes through this when those opportunities come along, a lineup full of guys who have always been great at situational baseball, it seems like they feel the weight of those situations in a way they never did before because they’re so much more infrequent. The disparity between Buster’s numbers with runners in scoring position, men on base vs. nobody on tells you that even he’s done it.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
San Francisco Chronicle columnist John Shea joins us from San Diego to talk about what to expect on the trade front and the return of Madison Bumgarner as the Giants play the Padres following the All Star break.
Shea suggested to The Sports Virus that Joe Panik might be on the trading block: “…He’s three years until free agency. He’s a very good defensive player. He can get in a groove offensively. He’s a good teammate. He’s got some value on the market. I think a second baseman can be replaced… He’s not a power guy, they’re not going to miss any kind of power. He’s not a speed guy, they’re not going to miss any kind of speed. They would miss his defense and his presence, but if you could get a left field prospect and a pitching prospect for Joe Panik I think you’ve got to make the move.”
Come back FRIDAY for Part 2 of our conversation with John Shea as we talk about what the Giants might do before the trade deadline and the return of ace Madison Bumgarner.
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
San Francisco Chronicle columnist John Shea joins us from San Diego after covering the All Star Game in Miami.
Shea talked to The Sports Virus about Aaron Judge as the possible face of baseball: “…Three months into his rookie season, a little bit unfair. Asking Buster Posey who the face of baseball is he didn’t think twice. He said Mike Trout. Think about it. Aaron Judge is 25, he’s a rookie. Mike Trout is 25, he’s a six-time all star.”
Come back FRIDAY for Part 2 of our conversation with John Shea as we talk about what the Giants might do before the trade deadline and the return of ace Madison Bumgarner.
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Barry Bloom from MLB.com joins us to talk about Barry Bonds getting a plaque on the AT&T Wall of Fame. Plus, we discuss what went wrong for the Giants in the first half and what they might look to accomplish before the trade deadline.
Bloom talked to The Sports Virus about the legacy of Barry Bonds: …“Regardless of what people may think or not think about what he did in his career, the numbers speak for themselves, the era speaks for itself and I think it’s great that the Giants have finally moved to have him involved with the team and to recognize him for the significant person he was in this era of San Francisco baseball.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Today we sit down with Giants pitchers Matt Moore and Sam Dyson at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Moore is trying to figure out a way to have a much better second half while Dyson may have found a home with the Giants after a rough start to his season in Texas.
Moore talked to The Sports Virus about a rough first half for himself and the Giants as a team: …“It’s supposed to be fun. When you’re losing so many games and the expectations of ourselves, of our city, of everyone that’s surrounding our club, when those aren’t met it’s sometimes hard to fake it out there with a smile when we’re down three nothing…It’s something that we all are passionate about…I would like to say there’s a deeper place to dig and no doubt there’s some searching going on, not only with myself, but guys throughout the team.”
Dyson talked to The Sports Virus about simplifying his approach: …“Sometimes there is too much information given from the statistical side of things. Too many analysts in the game these days. Hearing it from too many sides, it’s tough to get it all to work sometimes.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Detroit Tigers TV Play-By-Play Announcer Mario Impemba sets us up for the Giants 3-game series at Comerica Park starting on Tuesday.
Impemba agrees with The Sports Virus that replay isn’t good for Major League Baseball: “…I was kind of on the fence about replay and now I just hate it…I understand getting it right, but a lot of times we’ll show three or four replays of the play and because it may show that a guy was safe but it was still a very close play and the call on the field was out, they’re going to stick with the call on the field because it was too close to call, even though you probably could tell the guy was safe…Yes, you want to get the call right, I agree, but we’ve played this game for 100 years without replay and it did pretty well. Now we’re just bogging down the game…It’s getting to the point now where I think we’re losing fans because baseball is slow to begin with and it’s a more methodical and cerebral game, but if you slow it down even more it’s going to be difficult to capture the youth these days.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Join us for Part 2 of our conversation with Chris Haft from MLB.com. We chat with the Giants beat reporter and author about his new Giants book If These Walls Could Talk.
Haft talked to The Sports Virus about the World Series era, plus Candlestick Park memories: …“For me it was a magical place, as crazy as that sounds because, to quote Dave Righetti, that’s where the Giants played… It was dreadful, let’s face it. It was cold, it was inadequate as far as a lot of amenities goes, but it was what we had…(One of his favorite memories came in 1980) Willie McCovey, who had announced his retirement about a week earlier, won the game (against the Dodgers) with a pinch-hit double. Afterward there was a very, very long, very, very loud standing ovation for McCovey and people prolonged the ovation until he came out and took a curtain call. He was really reluctant to do that, but he did it and it created a great moment in San Francisco Giants history.”
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