Celebration (Sierra Nevada IPA for the Christmas holiday season) is literally my favorite IPA and my wife gets cases of it for free for 2 months a year so it’s hard to not drink a lot of it.

If the Jays beat the dodgers I forgive the Raptors for stealing an NBA title from the Warriors but I’ll never forgive Canada for creating my ex wife.

True north strong and FREE

Freddie Freeman is 36, Muncy is 35, Will Smith is 31 and they are paying him until he’s 37 and he’s the worst framer in Baseball. The Dodgers aren’t invincible they are just expensive and rested their pitchers all season.

Ohtani is tired

Madison Bumgarner doing some kind of Cipher (Godolkin) puppet power on Yesavage to beat the Dodgers tonight and I am here for it

Today In 1889: The New York #Giants (National League) defeat the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (American Association - early #Dodgers) to win the World's Championship Series, a precursor to the modern-day World Series! #MLB #Baseball #SFGiants #History #WorldSeries

Will Klein is an example of how smart teams build bullpens. Constantly picking up and churning young power throwers that struggle with specific issues and develop them until one day they have a year or 2 of being a great reliable reliever. Signing a guy to big money literally never works.

If I'm the Niners I'm only trading for Hendrickson if somehow it's not for a 1st rounder.

If you're trying to match Giants players that are "Vitello type guys" think of Crochet and Tidwell as his style of pitcher. Big hard throwing fastball emotional. (Birdsong 100%) and for Hitters think of Max Ferguson or Christian Moore, Fast, firey, good defense at multiple positions (Fitzgerald)

Bringing in White and Farrell will raise the floor of the pass rush. Farrell now becomes your base run stopping end opposite Williams until Okuyanu is healthy, and White now becomes your pass rushing end that can move inside ala Omenihu a few years ago once Huff is back. Gives you more options.

Not a fan of Either Squad but this would work for the Twins. They could then spin Yoshida and cash to a team desperate for an outfielder. Someone who misses out on Tucker.

What the Eagles Giants game teaches me is that they don't need to ban the tush push they just need to teach the referees how to officiate it. They need to have a view inside for offsides, and they need to call forward progress when the pile stops moving.

Giants vs Eagles Fiasco: Cam Skattebo Disaster, NFL Officiating Crisis, 49ers Preview | Giant Mess Giant Mess podcast host Neal Lynch discusses the New York Giants' controversial loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, highlighting suspect officiating and the severe ankle injury to Cam Skattebo. Lynch…

Looking at Cal Raleigh's final stats and he never did quite surpass Buster Posey in WAR or wRC+ in 2012. He owns the second greatest single season for a catcher ever. But Posey had the best and capped it with the World Series. 1 of a kind.

“You don’t need a political-science degree to understand why having wealthy individuals cutting secret checks to the president to pay the military is a bad idea,” @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily.

I understand the 49ers' reluctance to use a bunch of IR activity in Sept/Oct after they ran out of the allotted return-from-IR moves a few years ago. That's why this is happening. But that only works if you don't have a weekly emergency early on. Which is ... right now.

If he could become simply bad at hitting he would be one of the most valuable players in baseball. I feel like Break out season offensively is coming though.

Once again Ohtani is a great player and is having an unreal post season but he's not even close to the greatest hitter ever, he's just the best hitter who is also a good pitcher. He's not even a Cy Young level pitcher.

Drafting players in the 1st or 2nd to fit a scheme instead of changing your scheme to fit a player is how teams bust players and not the other way around.

@dannyheifetz.bsky.social @dannybkelly.bsky.social @craighorlbeck.bsky.social Listening to the pod. #1 Ohtani is a great player and he's the greatest hitter since Bonds. But #2 to say Ohtani is the greatest ever is missing just how dominant bonds was.

The Blue Jays are the team that Posey is trying to build. And you can see how a team like the Blue Jays "can" beat a team like the dodgers or really any team in a 7 game series. But if Ohtani is going to be this hot you just simply aren't going to win against them.

If I were the Niners and thought some how they could compete this year but they need a boost on defense to get through this season, I'd trade for Justin Simmons. If you trade for Johnson or Thibedeaux you're taking developmental snaps away from Williams, where as Simmons just replaces Jordan elliot.

This is the guy that got 30 steals from Juan Soto. To give you guys an idea, Soto is slower than everyone on the Giants besides Eldridge and Devers. Slightly faster than Bailey. If he had the same effect on say Gilbert or Lee they'd both be close to 50 steals. HIRE HIM BRING HIM BACK!!

If Vitello fails as a manager it will be because of in game management and older players not respecting him. But if he's successful he could literally change the job of "Manager" into a guy that is actually coaching players, and improving and developing them at the major league level.

Baseball folk! The great @johnsheahey.bsky.social is on BluSky, writing for the @sfstandard.com. Give him a follow and read their independent local journalism!

I hope Dodgers fans one day hate Tony Vitello as much as Vanderbilt fans do.

My hope is it's a mix and he brings in young hungry innovating guys

If I just showed people the Defensive lineups the Niners were running out there before the season you'd say this is the worst Defense in the NFL. the fact that they have been top 3rd in scoring is a testament to the Coaching. But if they want to sneak into the playoffs they need more offense.

My hope is Vitello does something similar.

The biggest reason the Niners lost was that they literally could not pressure stroud. Guy has been the most pressured QB in the league and they couldn’t get pressure with 4. Losing Huff, totally annihilated any ability to get pressure.

Either the Texans Defense continues to just shut down the Niners or the Niners just totally take over the game in the 2nd half. There’s not middle ground I feel like I’ve watched both games before.

Nobody happier than Robbie Ray and Matt Chapman. #SFGiants

This is essentially the Niners argument for Coach the Year and Assistant coach of the year.

With it being Devers Birthday I'd like to point out that his contract is better than VGJs and his numbers are pretty comparable to VGJs and he's actually won a world series before. So Though Vlad is a bigger name getting a shorter cheaper deal for Devers was GREAT.

We are all saying "The Giants could be making a huge mistake, No one from College has ever jumped right into the pros" but what we should be asking is why is being a baseball manager so easy a guy like Boone, or Suzuki can just jump right in with no experience at any level.

🤖 SF Gigantes ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Rafi! 🥳

the Job of Major League Baseball manager has become a very small job. They only are worried about 40 guys on their roster, they don't know anything about players they aren't scouting for next week. They only really control pitching changes and lineups and we know lineup success is basically random.

This comment actually tells me a lot about Vitello's management style. They are friendly, but there is respect there. I am legit excited for this. It could go way off the rails and the bench coach hire is super important. But this could also make the Giants very very fun to watch.

I could see the Giants looking at next years Free Agent class headlined by Haywards own Tarik Skubal and deciding to bring in Woodruff, Verlander, and Scherzer on 1-2 year deals and hoping the young guys develop and then throw their money at Skubal in 27.

The BA article really spells out why this Manager hire could be the biggest swing of any team in the offseason. Someone was going to hire a college coach. They are currently developing players much better than pro baseball and MLB wants to know how.

why some say that hiring Vitello is proof Buster is building some old-school team stuck in the past baffles me.

Best article on the hire out there

Drew Gilbert, as you might imagine, is just a little bit fired up today after his college coach became his major league manager (although he'll have to get used to not calling him "Coach Vitello" anymore):

My wife saw Gilbert go nuts on the rails and said "That's my new favorite player, that dude is a rabid chihuahua in a baseball uniform" and I can't wait to show her this quote. We might be buying opening weekend tickets just to see this insanity.

Buster Posey didn’t just think outside the box in hiring Tony Vitello to be the new manager of the San Francisco Giants, he’s thinking outside the warehouse the boxes are stored in.

If it doesn't work with Tony: The reasons it won't work are about him not relating to major league players and them not respecting him and him losing the locker room. And him not having coaches that fully understand the difference between the college and pro games.

Whether this era is ultimately successful or not Posey wants us to remember it.

🤖 Alex Pavlovic "We look forward to the energy and direction he will bring along with the memories to be made." Buster Posey is taking a massive swing with his biggest decision yet, but after four straight years around .500, maybe that's exactly what the Giants need:

The Giants hiring Tony Vitello is a massive risk, but it's one that Buster Posey is uniquely positioned to make, @alexpavlovic.bsky.social writes