Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Today we chat with Chris Haft from MLB.com in Part 1 of our conversation which covers the rough first half in San Francisco. The Giants beat reporter and author will talk about his new Giants book If These Walls Could Talk with us on Monday.
Haft talked to The Sports Virus about Brandon Belt’s inconsistency: …“You see him striking out a lot on fastballs which apparently are fastballs down the middle that he should be crushing. He’s a conundrum. He’s maybe one of the more enigmatic San Francisco Giants in franchise history. Not to get too grandiose, but there’s a possibility that’s the case.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Giants LHP Steve Okert joins us from AT&T Park in San Francisco.
Photo courtesy of MinorLeagueBall.com
Okert tells The Sports Virus about his learning experiences: “… Now some of these teams have seen me multiple times and kind of seeing what I got. So, now I’ve got to adjust to what I’m seeing out of them and learn off of their swing paths…It’s a hard game. If it was easy everyone would do it…The guys here are great. The atmosphere is fine. These guys have been in trouble before and came out of it. They have the three World Series and they battled to get those so it’s never out of the question.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Giants Manager Bruce Bochy is trying to keep his team’s spirits up through a terrible first half that has seen the club sink into last place, 20+ games out of first place. The SF skipper joined us over the weekend from the Giants dugout at AT&T Park.
Bochy told The Sports Virus about his approach under the current losing situation: “…We all have a responsibility and that’s to come out here and perform to the best of our ability, for ourselves, our teammates, our ownership and all of these great fans that are coming out here. That’s not going to stop and that’s my job to make sure it doesn’t stop and to keep guys upbeat and the moral good. It’s easy to like your players when they’re going well, but it’s when they are going through such difficult times like we’re going through right now, that’s when they need all of us…We’ll come out of this. Tough times don’t last forever, but tough people do.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
We get an update on Madison Bumgarner’s rehab with SF Chronicle columnist John Shea. Plus, we chat about trade possibilities.
Shea tells The Sports Virus how Madison Bumgarner is dealing with being out of action: “… He’s kind of a bulldog. He doesn’t like this business. When (Bryce) Harper and (Hunter) Strickland went at it, he wanted to be out there protecting and bumping heads, maybe throwing punches if need be. He couldn’t go on the field or else he’d be suspended. So, he just walked away and that was hard for him. He’s been a leader of this team. A physical, emotional, spiritual leader…This is all new for him and he’s just trying to adapt, but it’s really affected him and the team.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
The Giants are experiencing a low point in franchise history, on pace to lose over 100 games. SF Chronicle columnist John Shea puts it all into perspective after their current losing streak reached 7 games with the Monday night loss in Atlanta.
Shea describes the scene for the Giants right now to The Sports Virus: “…(after being swept in Colorado) How can it get any worse? Then you come to Atlanta and the first game (Johnny) Cueto throws an amazing game and he leaves trailing 2-0 and then in a matter of moments the bullpen turns it into 9-0. It doesn’t matter what they do, in terms of good defense, well somebody else will blow it, good starting pitching, somebody else on the team on the team will blow it….so, they never do enough to win.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Ahmed Fareed from NBC Sports Bay Area joins us to talk Giants baseball in part 2 of our conversation.
Fareed talked to The Sports Virus about Johnny Cueto: …“He’s at his highest performance level when he is out there enjoying himself and having a fun time…It’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole when you show up to work and it’s not a fun environment.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Ahmed Fareed from NBC Sports Bay Area joins us to talk about the Giants heading into their road trip to Denver and Atlanta in part 1 of our conversation.
Fareed talked to The Sports Virus about why the Giants should play their younger players: …“The offense is just so inconsistent and just not producing that you have to look towards the future and you can’t be stubborn. The danger for them is you don’t want to turn into the Phillies right after they had their run and then tried to hang on for one or two more runs with some aging veterans like Ryan Howard and some of the pitchers and it set them back…They gotta be smart about it.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Former Giants 1B Will Clark joins us to talk about the current team, the number 22 and Christian Arroyo.
Clark talked to The Sports Virus about Christian Arroyo: “…He was putting too much pressure on himself and then once he sorta calmed down, things started happening a little bit better for him, but then the organization made a change and sent him back to Triple-A. Since he’s been down in Triple-A he’s been swinging the bat well. It seems like he’s calmed down and relaxed a little bit more. So now when you see him come back for the second time hopefully that little experience that he had will provide him with a little benefit and he’ll be able to take advantage of it a little bit more.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Giants CF Denard Span is our guest, explaining how the club is trying to get out of its first half funk. We also talk about his role as the leadoff hitter and even get his thoughts on the NBA Finals.
Span talked to The Sports Virus about why the Giants are optimistic despite a rough start: …“we just got Hunter (Pence) back off the DL and we’re still waiting on the big fella (Madison Bumgarner) to come back…once we get full strength it will be good and just give us some confidence knowing we have our opening day roster in tact.”
On his DL stint earlier this season: “Whenever you’re on the DL it’s kind of like a sad, lonely feeling, especially when you see the team not doing as well. The main thing you want to do when you are activated is try to bring some energy. That was my main focus.”
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