Giants set to hire Justin Meccage, Frank Anderson as coaching staff takes shape | NBCS Bay Area

Giants set to hire Justin Meccage, Frank Anderson as coaching staff takes shape | NBCS Bay Area

What’s up, Giants fans? Welcome to another episode of Giants Talk. I’m Cole Kyper here with Giants insider Alex Pavlovich. We’ve got more coaching announcements coming from the Giants filling out the list we’ve already gone over, plus the rule five draft hall of fame discussion and much more. Before we get started, Giants talk is presented by Mancini Sleepworld. Mancini Sleepworld’s Black Friday sale is on with savings of up to $1,200 on top mattress brands. Plus, for the first time ever, they’re having 14 days of deals starting on November 14th. And these deals are on more than just mattresses. They include recliners, sofas, pillows, and bedding. Don’t sleep on this. Visit your local Mancini Sleepworld or visit sleepworld.com. All right, Alex, let’s start with the rule five draft. Um, the Giants did not add anyone to their 40man to protect them from the rule five draft. But I’d rather I’d like to start with a much bigger question because sometimes my wife asked me, uh, what are you guys talking about on the podcast today? She’s fascinated to know what we’re able to get into in the offseason. I told her the rule five draft and she basically said, “What the hell is that?” What? Yeah. and it made me realize this is the kind of term we throw around a lot on a podcast like this without really diving into the nitty-gritty of what it means. Yeah, the rule five draft is um it takes place on the final day of the winter meetings. It’s actually kind of a cool event. Like it’s this huge conference room and every team has reps and they all have these desks like a regular draft, but the rest of the room is just filled with media and just everybody like like team executives. I don’t remember what Buster did last year, but like Farhan wouldn’t necessarily be at the team desk. He’d be like in the room somewhere wandering around. Yeah. Not even it just you just like see guys at the back of the room like you’re like on the way out. It’s a good place honestly for reporters to you know you see a scout that you know or the assistant GM somewhere else that you know just in the room and you like you get two minutes like on the way out of town just like hey what’s going on you know. So yeah, the the stuff we do um it’s but it it is interesting because it’s actually like players potentially having their lives changed, but it doesn’t get a whole lot of attention. And yeah, that’s what I was kind of thinking. We talk about like hug watch for the trade deadline. And I have to imagine for minor leaguers, this is the day where you’re like keeping your cell phone next to you. You got half a panic on. Yeah. you’re like, “Please get me somewhere where I can try to make a team.” Because the rule five rules are like, “You have to be on the opening day roster next year or they have to offer you back, okay, to your original team.” Which the Giants for a while, if you remember, like did that quite often like that because every year it seemed like they pick somebody under Farhan and sometimes they pick a couple guys. Uh, not a whole lot of success. There have been some huge success stories is rule five guys in general, but it’s just older minor leaguers who have not been put on the 40man. Um I believe it’s four years. If you’re above there’s some sort of rule like if you’re above 19 and you’re drafted you have like four years to go on the 40man. Anyway, this year it was like guys who were drafted in 22. Um the Reggie Crawford draft that was that was those were the guys who had to be protected. Um, and then anyone beyond that, like 21, 20, Benar, Hunter, Bishop, those groups, their drafts as well. Um, so it’s basically a way for like guys who are kind of stuck and haven’t been put on the 40man with their organization to get a shot somewhere else. It I I would be curious. I’m sure there’s a number on this, like what the actual hit rate is on like guys the whole year. I went through some lists of previous years rule five drafts and just kind of control F to the Giants. I didn’t see anyone that notable that hit, but I didn’t really dive too deep on the other teams. I’m sure there’s an article somewhere with like the biggest rule five hits. I just Googled this just to because you caught me off guard. Yeah, but to make sure we got it right. I mean, in recent years, Blake Sable, Daniel Nunes, Daniel. Yeah, Travis Bergen spent a lot of the year there. Drew Ferguson was not what they expected pretty early in camp. They’re like, “Oops.” Um, Julian Fernandez always stands out to me because the Giants picked him when they had not really picked rule five guys like throughout the championship years because they didn’t have room and they picked him and he had Tommy John and spent the whole year on the 40man getting big league money. So, it worked out very well for him. Um, but it has Giants haven’t had a whole lot of success with these guys. Uh, but it is Conor Joe was a rule five guy before uh the Giants traded for him. Yeah. So, it’s a way um it’s a way to just get a little bit extra talent in your system. I would I wouldn’t be shocked if they pick someone this year. I mean, we’ll see where their 40man’s at, but potentially a chance to like get a relief arm. And that is to the Giants point this year. That is, I guess, a surprise. Not really a surprise. They didn’t add anybody. They’re at 40 with their 40man. They have to, you know, we know they need two starters probably a right fielder, couple actual big league relievers, some other guys. So, you’re going to need like four or five, six spots on your 40man this off season. Um, and so it doesn’t necessarily make sense if if you don’t feel like Will Bedar is going to be picked to like add a Will Bedar if you might need that spot in three weeks. Uh, but they didn’t add anybody and those were kind of the guys who stood out. Bedar, um, Roxby is somebody they like. He was in TripleA. Reggie Crawford’s going through shoulder surgery. So, those are like the relief types are always the ones that I watch at rule five time. Mhm. Those are guys, if you think about it, like a bad team, you could just stick Will Bedar throws 100 now. I mean, his command’s off, but he was throwing 100 out of the bullpen. Like the Rockies could just grab him and be like, “Let’s see if you make our bullpen out of spring.” And yeah, if not, then we send you back. I mean, him and and Bishop are like the kind of guys who are sitting there with, I assume, with their phone waiting for it to call. They’ve been down in the minor league system, you know, change of scenery. What can another organization do with me? Yeah. The one who’s really fascinating to me right now is Reggie Crawford, just because he like has had success when he’s been healthy. He’s just never healthy and he just had a second shoulder surgery, but like somebody could I don’t know the exact rules on this, but I know the Giants have done that. There’s there’s certain rules on like how long you can be on the 60-day and things like that. Someone could take the shot and just like rehab him and pay to rehab him. Maybe at the end of this you have a guy who’s spends few months in the big leagues next year somewhere in your bullpen just soaking up innings. Yeah. And you have you have this former firstrounder or lefty who throws throws a hundred. So I don’t think someone will do that. But I would guess it’s like those reliever types that make the Giants a little bit nervous just because those those are easy for some bad teams to to snag. Didn’t the the double Didn’t the the Flying Squirrels get like savaged last year by the rule five draft? They just There’s a minor league rule five draft as well. Yeah, similar except just a different level. So, yeah, it’s an interesting thing. You’re kind of like in this room Googling guys on the fly like who on earth is uh who’s Travis Bergen? Like what does he do? Why why are the Giants interested? and and then you talk to, you know, the team executive right afterwards and they’re like, “Well, we’ve always loved this guy.” Like, it’s so yeah, it’s one of those um a very small part of the offseason, but I I think the import the notable thing here is, you know, you’re looking at some draft classes that the Giants just they have no one to protect like logically. So, yeah, you look through Bedar’s, I mean, it’s Benar, the first rounder. We’ve talked about him quite a bit. The only guy in the first 11 rounds of that draft who’s who got to the big leagues for the Giants was Mason Black, who’s been traded now and didn’t succeed for him. They just picked a ton of pitchers and it hasn’t worked out. I mean, Landon Rup was in that draft, but it’s it’s 20 rounds and just not guys in the big leagues and not guys who are at the point where they feel like they have to protect him. And then you look at 21 and we’ve seen Bird Song, we’ve seen Wizenh Hunt, um Will Kempner is on the Marlins now. He did get protected. He was their third round pick. They traded him last year to try to get more international money when they were trying to sign Joshua. But, you know, Reggie Crawford, their first round pick. Uh Spencer Miles, their fourth rounder. He’s been hurt. Just I think that’s the disappointment as you have these classes. It’s pretty rare to not be like we’re adding, if you look around the league, like almost everybody’s adding two, three guys. So, it’s pretty rare to be like, we don’t feel that we need to protect almost anybody from from those draft classes. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, when we see all these other teams with highly talented farm systems, I have to imagine they’re having much different conversations, but it does say a lot about the Giants situation that it’s not a worry. And it’s something you and I have talked about a lot is the strength of their system is like a ball. and Mhm. um you know, the 19-year-olds and and Bryce obviously, but there’s just not a whole lot in AAA and double A um that you can expect to help them next year. So maybe we’ll have some surprises, but it it’s really just not a whole lot close to the big leagues, which is generally where rule five guys come from. Yeah. Well, you already mentioned Will Kempner. Do we want to do a quick remembering some guys? Um, he could be the first one. He got added by the Marlins. Do you have any uh standout Will Kemper memories? I can’t say that I do. Yeah. Can’t say that I do. No, he’s he got added by the Marlins. Uh the other guy who just is an old old name is Alexander Canario who’s bounced around now. He got DFAD during some of the roster shuffle. That was the other notable thing is the Giants didn’t have anyone to add, which meant they didn’t DFA anyone. Mhm. You can look at the 40man and probably pick two or three guys that are pretty obvious DFA candidates this off season, but usually that happens in November because it’s we have these deadlines. We have these non-tender deadlines, these rule five deadlines. Not a whole lot for them in terms of arbitration and nothing with rule five guys. But yeah, um, Canario of course was in the Chris Bryant trade, which for all that all that has not gone right from a baseball ops perspective in the last few years, that trade did not come back to Burnham in any way. Yeah, the the the biggest risk with that trade was almost resigning him or at least the thought that they might It would have been the biggest risk would have been giving him $180 million. All right. Well, if we’re going to remember some guys, would like to do a quick touch on Mauricio Dubon, good friend of the Giants Talk podcast, who got dealt from uh Houston to Atlanta for another infielder. He’s kind of like an infield swap, I assume, to clear a little bit of cash. Yeah, I think he makes a lot more than the guy who came back. Um, he’s turned into a pretty good utility player. Yeah, very good defender. I maybe I’ll give you this homework assignment at some point in January. I feel like the Braves for like three years always had like four former Giants, five former Giants, and then it was maybe like a year or two dip and then now all of a sudden it’s like, oh, JP Martinez is there, Pete Patil is there, Michael Schwarz is their assistant GM, he was with the Giants. So, a lot of front office guys and Dubon’s there now. So, they’re they’re getting their Giants quota back up. Yeah, they’re they make for a easy team to root for if they make the playoffs and the Giants aren’t in it. especially for those of us who uh grew up in the era when seeing them on TV as a kid was just as commonplace as seeing the Giants. U but yeah, shout out Mauricio Dubon. Crazy that he’s been he was in Houston for four years. Seems like he was on the team just yesterday. Seems like he was on this podcast just yesterday. I remember us talking to him. It was probably during the COVID year, maybe 2021. Um, and I have this vivid memory of we were talking about like gaming and we asked him if he got a PS5 yet and he had to like turn around to check if his wife was in the room before he answered. Yeah, he was he was a good dude. Great story. Um, it is crazy sometimes you you’re like, “Oh, we’ve been doing this for a while.” Yeah. Like we’re gonna look up 31y old utility infielder somewhere. Exactly. Exactly. Well, shout out Mauricio. How about this, Alex? As we have the second baseman discussion, would you have wanted Mauricio Dubon on this team? Defensively, sure, offensively lacking utility options. He would fit the roster. Yeah, and it’s actually a nice, you know, he’s turned into a really nice piece just because of his defensive versatility. And there’s not a ton with the bat, but um yeah, I I think we have a mailbag question about this. I’m I’m high on Casey Schmid getting that opportunity, but yeah, they could use that they could use that Swiss Army knife piece. Yeah, it’s not something they really have right now, especially when you look at a roster that might have like Deborres and Eldridge, you know, and yeah, they could use a guy who who can play four or five positions and run a little bit for like a easy money swap deal. That would have been a fun one for the Giants to be in on. Um yeah. Oh, well, enjoy Atlanta. Enjoy Atlanta. You’re going to see some familiar faces there. All right. The Giants apparently have their pitching coach per Robert Murray. Alex, what do you know about Justin Mech? I think it’s message. Justin message. That’s what I know. Um, not a whole lot. I mean, he’s he’s gonna send a message to this pitching squad. He does not have a lot of big league experience. He was on the Pirates staff for a while. He was their bullpen coach. last year was in Triple A um with Milwaukee. I think with these coaching hires, what I’m most curious to see is what is the connection to to Tony Vitello. Yeah. What what is um you know, we know Jay Singler, that one was obvious, but like we’ve talked about the hitting coach, we’ve talked about now there’s a pitching coach, there’s we know Tony’s bringing like a strength coach from Tennessee. Sounds like he might bring his pitching coach in some way to to join the Yeah. So, but these other guys, I guess that’s what I’m most curious about is like because when Gabe was here, it all made sense because Gabe had been scouting coaches for like eight years. That was one of his passions was scouting young coaches and watching Kai Korea YouTube videos. Um Tony I don’t think has been doing that. So, I think it’s pretty safe to say he hasn’t been doing that. So that’ll be where I’m curious is who um you know and like Hottie Rod who’s in in charge of pro scouting for the Giants comes from Pittsburgh. So maybe that is the connection here. Um but yeah, I think that’s when the staff is laid out and we see where everyone came from, that’s what I’m going to be most fascinated by is is where were the connections made and and uh where’ they find these guys? Yeah. Yeah. Well, kind of what we said about a lot of these coaching candidates, not guys we know a ton about going to be guys. It’ll be fascinating to learn a lot more about. I think we, you know, I think I said this last podcast, anyone who’s all the way on one side or the other like is just full of it. Like if you’re like, I hate these hires, or if you’re also saying like Tony did it again, like it’s you don’t know what you’re talking about one way or the other. like these are these are pretty inexperienced guys who are uh getting a shot. What I like about it is that we have seen this model a little bit in Gabe staff in in grabbed coaches who had come through um the minor leagues who had done a lot of development work. Um and it it these aren’t retreads like so I think that’s what what is a positive to me now. We’ll see if they’re good. We’ll see if the players like them. We’ll see if if uh you know the team is better defensively next year, runs the bases better, like holds runners, all those little things that sometimes you can attribute to coaches. But I I do like that it seems like it it’s guys who are on the way up as opposed to sometimes you see coaching staffs and it’s like that guy’s been a pitching coach seven times and it’s like, well, has he been good though? Like it Yeah. Or does he just have a lot of friends around around the league? talking about like how nobody knows enough to have the hot takes they give about coaching. It would be fascinating to go back to 2020 2021 and see what reactions were to the hirings of like what is now the coaching tree we’ve discussed as these guys go on to bigger and better things. Yeah. I mean if you remember back we didn’t know anything about any of these guys. Yeah. So, it was a little bit easier to Google them because Google worked back then, but it was but that was basically how you know I’m obvious I have a lot of contacts around the league, but a lot of Gab’s guys just kind of came out of nowhere. So, and when you’re talking like TripleA pitching coaches, like there’s people won’t know that much about him. So, totally. But we’ll see. That’s a good I’m sure Tony will be on here at the winter meetings. We’ll ask him about his staff. Let’s talk Hall of Fame, Alex, because the ballot was released and there was at least one name Giants fans will smile to see on there. And that was uh Buster Posy’s good friend, Hunter Pence. Um this is one of those fun ones. I don’t think apologies to Hunter uh friend of the podcast. I don’t think anyone’s expecting Hunter Pence to get into the Hall of Fame. Hall of Awesome. Hall of like good giants. Hall of dudes who got really famous and and took advantage of their their moment. You know, guy was on Full House. He was a star with those signs being held up. Um but what do we think? Is he going to be on the ballot again next year? You need Yeah, that’s the question. You need 5%. Um this year’s class, it’s it is this is a remembering some guys as well because it’s I’ll just read it off. I think for people of a certain age, you’re like, I saw a ton of this guy. Um, Cole Hamills, Ryan Braun, Alex Gordon, Shinsu Chu, Edwin and Carassio, and Hunter Pence, Matt Kemp, Rick Porcel, Daniel Murphy, Howie Kendrick, Nick Maris, uh, Gio Gonzalez. Lot of familiar names in there. A lot of guys we’ve seen in big spots. I don’t think there’s a Hall of Famer in that group. No, I don’t think so either. Um, a lot of Hall of Very good. Is that what it is? I don’t know. The Hall of Fairy Good would have a really cool museum. Yeah. Um, also, you’re blowing my mind right now that Matt Kemp and Hunter retired around the same time. Matt Kemp seems so old to me at the end of his career. I just looked it up. He’s younger than Hunter Pence. He also, who’d he finish with? It feels like he Was he in LA to finish? He hung around and hung around. Uh, he was in Colorado to finish. He wasn’t in LA since like 18. I blacked out the Matt Kemp Colorado Rocky. Um Hunter, he’s not going to make the Hall of Fame. He would say this as well. The question, like you said, is do you get the 5% to stay another year? I think sometimes with guys, I will vote for guys to keep them on the ballot because I do think sometimes they become more interesting after a few years and you you see, you know, different classes and who’s gotten in and um I don’t know that I’ll I have a ballot. I haven’t gotten it yet. Um, I don’t know that I’ll do it this year. I’ve I’ve gone back and forth the last couple years on whether I want to be a big hall guy or a small hall guy. Um, I used to always vote for 10, which is the maximum because it one I came in with like Bonds and Clemens and all those guys, and I’d vote for all the all those guys. Um, and then if you vote for them, you got to vote for A-Rod and Manny and those guys as well. So, it gets a little crowded. Uh, it the names I imagine are not going to be very good this year. So, might be checking like two or three boxes, but I don’t know. Maybe I’ll I do like to I I think it’s cool, too, when you have like 10 on a ballot. Um maybe throw a vote to someone just so they get a couple Hall of Fame votes. It’s like Yeah. five, six hundred people. But we’ll see. I’ll see what the ballot looks like. If I know anything about you, you respond really well to being pestered. So, I implore our listeners to spam your mentions with Put Hunter in the Hall of Fame. It’s a f, you know, it’s it’s pretty common when you look at the Hall of Fame when the vote totals come out, like most people get one or two votes. Yeah. And I I think generally even the guys on this list who are the furthest from the hall, they might have one or two former beat writers of theirs be like, “Yeah, I’ll throw I’ll throw that guy up.” So, I’ll see what the ballot looks like when it comes um and how many I feel like checking. Well, if it’s not gonna be Hunter, let’s talk let’s take a look real quick at the future of the Giants Hall of Fame. Do we have Who who do you think is the next Giant to like have an actual shot at getting it? It’s easy. It’s Buster’s Buster is next year. Okay. You think Buster’s first ballot? He should be. He absolutely should be. I think he will be. I think Will he be unanimous? No. Okay, we’ve had what? Two unanimous. One, IRA wasn’t unanimous. I don’t understand guys who like make someone wait a few years. Put him in the Hall of Fame or don’t put him in the Hall of Fame. There’s a lot of old beat writers who are uh Yeah, I you don’t have to name names. You got to brush elbows with these guys over the press box. Um Joe Mau was first ballot and he was 76% and I feel like it’s gonna be first ballot for Buster. It has to I you know part of this too is like a lot of people are looking for reasons not to vote for somebody and it’s really easy. I mean, you can Kurt Schilling is a great example of this, like gave pe gave baseball writers, not me, but gave baseball writers a lot of reasons to not check that box next to his name. Um, there’s other guys who have things going on. I mean, Omar Viskeell is a current example of someone who’s you can look that up and see why maybe is not in. Uh, Buster Posey is like queer across the board. like it’s it’s a not just his reputation, but also I I know he always did a really good job of being respectful to other writers and national writers. So, I’d be shocked if anybody had any reason to be like, I’m going to make him wait a couple years. Yeah, it’ll just be purely a a stats thing and a career thing. And I think he had a Hall of Fame career. So, well, before then, Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent are on the contemporary ballot list this year. It’ll be really interesting to see how Barry’s narrative plays with a new audience. Probably not great. You know, the funny thing about the contemporary thing is the players are almost harsher than Yeah. than the media is in certain respects. Um those two Yeah. And then that that contemporary baseball era ballot, it rotates every year. So next year’s managers and executives and Bruce Bochi should be I think a lock. Yeah. So I unless I’m missing something like looked into this for a few minutes before we podcasted. I think Bochi and Posie can go in together not next summer but the summer after. So that would be so cool. So it it looks like unless there’s something weird that happens with contemporary ballot or or you know maybe Posie I don’t know doesn’t make it first year but they have a chance to go in together. Yeah. What about beyond that? Bumgner is 20. I’m trying to do some quick math in my head here. I pulled up a list that said Bumgarner and Longoria are 2029. Okay. Um, I think Longo is gonna be sneaky successful in Hall of Fame voting. Yeah, that’s one of those guys that he had a whole he had a whole legendary career before we even knew him as Evan Longoria. So, that does not surprise me. I remember Gabe Kapper one time mentioned him as a future Hall of Famer and I was like, what the hell are you talking about? And then I went and looked it up and I’m like kind of compares favorably to a lot of third baseman, you know, just played a long time. Put up Yeah. numbers, steady numbers. Steady numbers. Get the counting stats. Um, bomb I’m going to be fascinated by because I I’m going to vote for him, no doubt, because I I think we have to change the way we look at pitchers and, you know, 100 10 wins or whatever I don’t think matters anymore. and he’s the best postseason pitcher maybe of all time, but certainly of his generation. So, yeah. Um I’m curious to see how other people view that. He seems to me like somebody who you want him to have a few years on the ballot, let people like marinate on it and start to see some of the other pitchers who get in and just go like, “Wait a second, Bumgner single-handedly won a title.” So um and then after that the year after is uh Crawford and Quato who you know fit into our current conversation of marinating I think of of will you get your 5% um yeah I I’d like to throw one more name in Alex who we got Dwayne Kyper’s back up for the Ford Frick award and that counts. So that gets announced in I think almost exactly a month and we could be having a celebratory podcast here. We we could Wednesday of the winter meetings I believe Wednesday morning is um is this his fourth time? I think this is his fourth time. But the interesting one about this one is the last few years him and Mike were both on it together and I I get the feeling I don’t have any data but I get the feeling they kind of split the vote when that happens. Yeah, maybe. So, I know I’ve talked to the hall about why they can’t just put them both in at the same time. Yeah. I think the answer was basically every broadcast duo sees themselves as a duo. So, it’s cute that you guys are crew and kite, but we’ve got X and Y across the league. They did it early on and then they stopped and they just haven’t done it for like 30 years or something. That’s I was like, that’s a fair point that there’s a there’s not a Ken Kype in every city, but every fan base thinks they have a Ken Kype. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, that’s we’re gonna be watching that one closely in a few weeks. Yep. Yep. Emergency pod watch. Oh, we’ll we’ll be ready. The Kyper family will be ready. Winter meetings, you’re going to get pulled away from something really important to emergency podcast with me. Pull me out of the rule five draft. All right. I want to look around Major League Baseball and I want to get to some mailbag questions from listeners. But first, Giant Stock is presented by Mancini Sleepworld. And Sleepworld’s Black Friday sale is on. We’re talking bedding bundles packed with pillows, sheets, and more. Plus, recliners for less than $300. Don’t sleep on this. Visit your local Mancini Sleepworld or visit sleepworld.com. All right, Alex. The first order of business, Tatsuya, was posted. So, now the games begin. Now the games begin. Now we see how high this number gets. And now we see um how truthful the Giants have been about their distaste for nine figure pitching contracts. Yep. So it’ll be interesting. We’ll be we’ll all be waiting to see the Instagram videos of him in various cities. Anyone who lives or works near the ballpark can keep an eye on that scoreboard to pop up with welcome messages. I think they learned their lesson about the scoreboard welcome message. Yeah, that’s fair. Yeah, that’s a that’s a throwback. Yeah. Yeah. Be no major news there other than that the games have begun. Um elsewhere around the league, the Padres’s are officially for sale. Um this will be interesting because their ownership being being willing to spend massive money has kind of been like a cornerstone of their modern identity. And it’s very possible new ownership does not feel the same way, especially when that has not it has definitely resulted in them changing who they are. They’re better. Their tickets are selling out. They own that city of San Diego. But without winning anything major, I don’t know if that will maintain. Well, the owner who was giving all the money away um passed away. Unfortunately, he’s no longer with us. Yes. His family, not his I think his brothers are running it now and don’t spend as freely. Um, we try to bring everything back to the Giants here on the Giants Talk podcast. I think shortterm this is good for the Giants because there’s uncertainty there and that usually means not a lot of spending and often that means cutting as you’re selling. Um, long term, you know, you never know. It could be a local San Diego businessman who’s very frugal. It could be some guy who’s worth 70 billion dollars and wants to own a baseball team and says San Diego looks like an awesome place to own a baseball team. Yeah, let me uh turn this let me spend freely. So, um you know, we’ve seen what’s happened to the Mets and the Dodgers with new ownership. So, long term, if you’re the Giants, probably not. You probably would have preferred it was I think you for sure would have preferred it was the family running it and running it the way they have the last couple years. Yeah. Yeah. Is is there any possibility here that the Dodgers shell out two billion for a uh a satellite franchise right down the road? That’d be a great great move. So yeah, just show can do it on his own because Yes, exactly. He hasn’t been paid yet, so he can’t do it on his own. That’s fair. Um yeah, I’m curious to see. I mean, you and I both we talk about this often. Like that is an awesome place to watch a game. That’s a great fan base, great ballpark. So, and without football down there anymore, it’s just the Padres City. Yeah. Seems like somebody, you know, like a Steve Bomber type, just walk in and go, let’s do this. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Braves, in addition to acquiring Mauricio Don, signed Razelle Iglacius. Um, was this a name we had discussed? He we hadn’t discussed him. He’s kind of on that deep list of closer candidates. I think the notable thing here is it’s one year 16 million which means every other free agent closer their agent currently is going oh 16 million per year baseline is there interesting. So we were talking two-year deals now it’s two and 34 or whatever. So, it won’t necessarily end up that way, but that is a, you know, pretty good contract. Um, 16 million for he’s a good closer, not a great closer. Um, yeah, I I think if you’re the Ryan Hley’s of the world and, you know, Williams and and all those guys who are not that not the Diaz’s, like you’re like, “Okay, cool. Let’s Let’s go for 20. Let’s do it. It must be nice. But yeah. Yeah. Some of those other second tier guys. I mean, Suarez is right there with him. So, yeah. Yeah. It’s going to be expensive to get a closer if the Giants want to go get a actual experienced closer. Before we move on to mailbag questions, we have been getting listeners asking why we haven’t discussed um I don’t know the scandal of our era in Major League Baseball. Uh, so Alex, you want to take a little time here on Giants Talk to put our thoughts into what’s going on in Cleveland with the prop bets? I feel like they’ve done a pretty good job of not making it the scandal of our era. Yeah, that’s true. I kind of just said that flippantly. And I know this has not been the story that you’d think it would be. This should be a much bigger deal. Yeah. And it’s it’s not. I one thing we’ve talked about in the past and I think is that and MLB did this already like they changed the rules on prop bets. Um it makes no sense that you can bet on like the first pitch from the guy in the seventh inning. Yeah. So, uh, it also makes I I guess the thing about gambling is it makes no sense from the outside that these guys who especially like, you know, Class A who’s a one of the best closers in the game, he’s got a $20 million contract would probably give up his career to for to throw a couple balls in the dirt. You should have just like given your boys a couple million instead. I guess this is the danger of getting into organized gambling as we’ve seen in the NBA lately. And um my main thought is if you’re Major League Baseball, I think you’re lucky that this seems to have been couple guys in Cleveland where it’s not going to be that big a deal if we’re being honest just because it’s Cleveland and like you kind of get to change the rules and get to give everyone a little bit of a scare and give them that talk in spring training and be like, “Hey, look what’s happening here without they have like ammo for the scared straight great discussion in for the minor leaguers in spring training. They also got lucky that it was just like first pitch of the outings of ball prop bet kind of stuff. It wasn’t probably not throwing actual games. It wasn’t, you know, impact stuff. I think MLB is a little lucky that this is like a not a huge huge deal, but enough to like scare everyone straight probably. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the league minimum is 800,000. Come on. This this is as I think you kind of said inevitable though. The sports in the league have entrenched themselves with gambling and honestly they’ve taken steps to address this just in changing how prop bets work. But that’s not the only problem gambling brings to the sport and I don’t see them making any changes to the overall issue um anytime soon. No, they won’t. I mean it’s you know GM meetings were in Vegas. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, team’s moving there. So, we’ll see about that one. We will. TBD. All right, Alex, we have mailbag questions. Um, first off, do we have an update here to a previous mailbag discussion? We did. We do. I don’t know if um this listener wanted her name because she does work in politics and works for a congressman. Okay. Yeah, he did say um Giants talk fan, Giants fan and uh she said what Nam did in you know congratulating what do we get fired up about? He congratulated the Dodgers when he’s Yeah. San Francisco guy said pretty typical and he would probably do it for any California team. Um however, state legislators will rep their home teams on opening day. They all wear gear from their favorite teams. And there was assembly member who posted a video this year making fun of all his Dodger fan colleagues. So, our state legislators are more in tune with this podcast. Yeah. Great. Great. The hiring you get, you have to please everybody. I don’t remember if we talked about this on in the discussion, but I guess California is in a unique situation where the rivalry is within the state. You know, most of the rival teams are like Missouri versus Illinois, but California, you do have both of them here in, you know, Massachusetts, New York. Now, California, they’re both within the state, the same governing body. Yeah. So, there’s a good answer. Yeah, good answer from an inside source. I love that. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. All right. Next question is from Curtis. Curtis says, “How does a potential slashl likely lockout impact any contracts players and teams would be looking for this off season?” It’s a great question. It was one that was asked at the GM meetings, not really answered. Um, I think it is one we can answer in a month. Okay, we’ll see. I, you know, the early returns are pretty big group accepting qualifying offers. Um, we’ve seen, you know, Aglacius is the one deal so far. I don’t know that that tells us anything. I mean, it was a one-year deal. Yeah, it maybe tells you something. Yeah, I think it’s a little older, too. But yeah, um, yeah, we we’ll see where where people go with this um, contractwise, and I think it is going to be something when the offseason when the dust has settled, we can frame it around the Giants and what what they wanted to do longterm payroll-wise. And I think there’s some question about what the Dodgers might do. Do they go crazy this off seasonason thinking that more restrictions are coming a year from now? Um, but I don’t know that any I talked to a lot of people about this in Vegas at the GM meetings. Like I don’t know that anyone has a true answer yet about how this is going to play out. So it’s going to be uglier next year than but this year I do think there’s going to be some guys who are like let me just get the, you know, on the table. Sure. Yeah. Let me take it. All right. From Jonathan. While Reggie Crawford never played at Tennessee, he did sign there and was expected to be a two-way player under Vitello. At this point, any chance they revisit Crawford being two-way again? Maybe just back to hitting. Even at this point, it has to be out about getting any MLB service time with him at all. Right. Yeah. I mean, it’s trying to, you know, get him to the big leagues and get something out of that draft pick. I think your best chance is still probably as a left-handed reliever. Um, you can move pretty quickly as a left-handed reliever who throws that hard. So, I there has been I know there are some Giants people who when he needed the second shoulder surgery were like, “Yeah, maybe this we’ll see where the we’ll see how the shoulder bounces back and maybe we revisit Hayden next year at some point.” It’s not going to be two ways ever again. that’s just too much for a guy who’s had this many surgeries and you know, you start getting up there in age. Um, but I I think the first goal is to get him back on a mountain midway through next summer and he’s a lefty who throws really hard. And I there’s also probably an element now with him of like however many bullets you have, do not waste him at TripleA if we ever feel that you’re ready. So, um, if if I had to guess how this works out, I think he’s if he makes it to the big leagues, it’ll be as a left-handed reliever. But there are some Giants people who still are intrigued by the bat and and, you know, they’ll see how he he gets through this this second shoulder surgery. As someone who has read the franchise, I know all about the use your bullets at the big league discussion. Yeah. I think, you know, it’s maybe more important for him than just about anyone who’s ever put the uniform on just because he hasn’t, you know, poor guy just has said one thing after another. So, and this is I know Farhan felt this a couple years ago like he was throwing well and moving quickly and they’re like, “Let’s get him in the big leagues.” Yeah. All right. Next question. Next question is from Joe. Joe says, “Am I being a homer or did Logan Webb get overlooked in Sai Young voting? Can you shed light on why he wasn’t in the top three even though he led in strikeouts and innings? What am I and other Giants fans missing? I don’t think you’re necessarily being a homer. I I went and looked through this. I think I would have had him third and I don’t really get the there were nine people who left him off their ballots which go five deep. Um I that surprised me and you know there’s a few like Nick Paveta votes and I’m like all right you’re looking at like one sat over Logan um because he hasn’t basically across the board but you look at what he did first in innings, first in strikeouts, eighth in RA, third in fifth, second in X-Fip, um third in Fangraph’s version of Boore. So by most measures he was one of the top three pitchers in the National League. Uh, I guess a lot of people voted on purely on erra and he had a rough July and never bounced back from that. Still had I think he was like 3.2, but yeah, I think I would have had him third. I I don’t really see the justification for not having him on a five person ballot. Yeah, and we kind of talked about that he needs to avoid that rough month that has plagued him his whole career to be at that top slot. Maybe next year’s the year. Yeah, Joshua says, “Did you happen to see Kevin Kier Meyer wanted to get into coaching outfielders?” exclamation point question mark. I mean, he’s a perfect fit for what the Giants need, outfield defense. He fits what they’re looking for, former player and young. Yeah. No, he I did watch that video. Um I don’t remember where he put it out, Instagram or Twitter or wherever, but Well, Joshua sent me a Tik Tok link when he asked everywhere. I couldn’t watch it because I don’t have Tik Tok. Oh, I have it. Yeah, I don’t have it either, but uh I saw it somewhere. Yes, I saw it as well. Yeah. No, in theory, he’s like a perfect fit. Um my Again, this is like a no insidef info. I I would guess he probably got a couple calls from people who like, you know, like he he knows much better than um than anyone with the Giants. So, although maybe he knows Tony from somewhere or one of Tony’s guys, but this is where the Tony web comes big. Yeah, my guess is that he probably got some calls from people who are like, “Oh, he played for us. You want to coach outfielders? Sure. Yeah, let’s give it a shot.” But he they could use somebody like that in spring. Well, he fits what the Giants are looking for. I think he fits what a lot of people are looking for. Yeah. Yeah. I think he Yeah. And he played for a few teams at the end. So, all right. Next question is from David. David says, “Way too early of a prediction, but mark this one down. Trevor McDonald is going to be a demon next season.” Not a question, David. No, there’s no question mark in there. Bold prediction. Um I I don’t hate it. I he stands out to me as like the most likely to maybe take the land and root path and yeah, you know, break into the big leagues and then over time get more and more of a role. Um I he also stands out to me as a if I were ownership, I probably at the end of the season after watching what he did that last week probably would have asked some questions of like why were we running some of these other people out here? Yeah. instead of this guy who um did we miss something along the way. So, and again, it’s two starts, but or two appearances there the last week. Um but no, I I think he we’ve seen the stuff plays at the big league level. We’ve seen he’s kind of fearless. Went into Dodger Stadium. Think he has a good mentality and he’s someone they’ve liked for a while. Just that there’s been some things holding him back. But I I don’t hate the call. I think that would be a perfectly valid bold prediction when we get to that point. Um, yeah, I like it a lot. Brett asks, “Does it make sense to have Eldrich Endeavors split DH in first base? Both of them only playing 50% of the time. I’ve never heard of two lefty superstars playing the same position like this before. Is this a sustainable option?” Um, Alex, has this ever happened with the Giants before? Having two first baseman superstars? Am I missing? Is this a Didn’t I read about this in the franchise? Oh, like way back. Yes. A book about it. Yeah, this is Yes. McCubby. Yes. I’m thinking like JT Snow and who? Michael Morris and Yeah. Uh it luckily now you have the D8 spot and you don’t have to put somebody in the outfield and then trade somebody. Uh yeah, I don’t see any reason why you would force Devers to play first when you can just make Eldridge get better. He’s got the reach. He’s got the size. See, I’m going to go the other way. Really, they have We have heard it over and over again. Buster said this again last week at the GM meetings. He thinks Dors can be like a gold glove caliber defender. And okay, I I do think we saw like some flashes of really good instincts. And then also like a guy who sometimes just didn’t know where to put his feet and was like just didn’t know quite what to do, which is natural. He was learning on the fly and was battling an injury when he got here and a lot going on. Um, I I kind of agree with Buster. Like I I think a full off season of work and a full spring like he might be a really good defensive first baseman. Interesting because I see that size and reach on Bryce Eldrich and think to like how nice it was having Brandon Belt just be that much closer to the ball coming from third base. And it seems like if they can get him passable, that is a huge option to be playing there defensively. Plus, I still have all that first base nonsense with the Red Sox rattling around the back of my brain. Um, hey, so maybe uh maybe this question has something to it. Maybe Rhett has a point. Let’s go with Alex’s pick and Cole’s pick and let science decide. It it is a massive organizational question because if you don’t think it’s a good allocation of resources, and this is please nobody take this the wrong way, but like then Brett Soldiers becomes an incredible trade ship potentially. Yeah. If you don’t think that’s the way you want to go through the next five, six years, um I think it’s very doable. You have two spots for two guys in, you know, there’s going to be injuries. There’s going to be things that that lead you to, you know, change over time. Um maybe there’s a trade years from now, but I think it’s very doable. And I think the San Francisco Giants of all people, like if you tell them that the worst case scen, not the worst case, if you tell them that like the the complication here is that two years from now you have two sluggers who both probably should be playing first base every day and one of them should not be the DH. Like that’s a nice problem to have. Exactly. Not a problem anyone’s going to be upset about. Like oh my god, you have two 30 home run hitters in San Francisco. So, um I also think we should, you know, Giants fans should be aware that there’s a chance there’s, you know, they slow play it with Eldridge a little bit more. So, yeah. Um I would put him on the open roster, but they they might slow play it and and uh just be like, we have Devers, our first baseman, and let’s let’s see how this goes. But if I had to guess next year, I think Devers gets the vast majority of time at first. Okay. All right. Um, one last question and I I want I added this to the list because I want to be inclusive of all the questions we get, but I don’t even think it was from a Giants Talk listener, let alone someone who even follows me. Um, but this came in my inbox. Chris asks, “What’s your fave soup?” Are you sure this was for the mailbag or just some guy emailed? It might have been a personal question on my Instagram, just someone curious, but it’s on our rundown anyways. Alex, what’s your favorite soup? Um, great question. I People are like, “You started with like 10 minutes on the rule five draft and ended with what’s your favorite soup?” Like, we ended with the important stuff. Giants, please make a make a move here. Um, I think mine’s chicken enchilada. Oh, strong choice. It’s not It’s more of like a meal than a soup. Yeah. Hardy. Hardy. Yeah. Yeah. I think I’m a like a Tomka guy. Like a Thai soup. I love a coconutbased Tom soup. Um, but Chapino strong as well. And this is like Chapino season in the city. It is soup season. Yeah, soup season’s here. So, Chris, great question. Great question. Great timing. And look, it’s November 19th and the Giants have not named the coaching staff yet. And the only move we’ve had was Mason Black Trade. So, yep, we’re podcasting through it. Yep. We’re podcasting our way right through soup season. Uh, with that, thank you for listening to Giants Talk. We have a long off season ahead of us. We will be here breaking it all down as we march our way towards pitchers and catchers reporting the winter beatings before that and everything in between. Don’t forget to subscribe to Giants Talk wherever you listen to your podcast. Don’t forget to give us a fabulous glowing rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast. And don’t forget to buy every single person you know the franchise by Alex Pavlovich available at bookstores near you. Oh, one thing. if the guy made it this far in the podcast. Um, somebody sent me an Instagram message asking for a signed book and I was responding and then got distracted and when I went back onto Instagram, I could not find the message. So, if you sent me an Instagram message asking for a signed book and you see that I read it but I never responded, send me another message. Oh, that reminds me. The guy who we literally read his mailbag question about do you sign messaged me back and said like, “So, will he sign for me?” Um, I’ll put you in touch with that guy. If I left you on red, send me another message. Yeah. Don’t forget to ping back. All right. See you guys.

On “Giants Talk,” co-hosts Cole Kuiper and Alex Pavlovic offer the latest on San Francisco’s newest coaching hires and address news around MLB.

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Giants set to hire Justin Meccage, Frank Anderson as coaching staff takes shape | NBCS Bay Area