The McCovey Chroncast

A 9-17 start is, as the kids say, a "suboptimal" start to the season, and there's no question that the team has a nearly impossible chance of making the postseason... so where does that leave our weekly podcast if there's nothing really to root for? Well, that's the thing -- there's still plenty to root for and plenty to talk about. What is there to root for, you may ask? Why, friendship and camaraderie. This Chroncast wouldn't have come into existence without the bonds formed on McCovey Chronicles during those post-2004 lean years. And Matt Cain being the only beacon of hope in terms of the Giants' next window of success begat such wonderful images as this (the Millenium Falcon racing away from an exploding Death Star -- courtesy of @SeanGothman), so, consider that the Giants being bad now could still be very, very good for you. We also rank the worst pitches to get hit by and give our theories as to why Brandon Belt of all playes gets all the blame for the Giants' current woes. 

So, 2017 isn’t what you hoped it would be, but that’s okay. The Giants were never going to win every game and they were never built to be the best team in the league. Sure, they have been the worst team in the sport since last year’s All-Star Break, but they have a bunch of guys on the roster we and you really, really like. So, let’s still get together and talk about them. This week, we follow-up on Doug’s article which asked if “This is who the Giants are” — is the team really this bad? Is the franchise doomed? What did I have to do with a 6-13 start? Surely, I must’ve done something. And what about Gorkys Hernandez? Is he a major league baseball player? That seems like a question worth asking, given the circumstances. The Giants have to face off against a lot of major league teams over the next several months and it would be good for them to match those major league teams with major league hitters.  But fielding a major league roster is sometimes difficult for major league baseball teams to do. We’ve seen the Giants struggle to field a competitive team before, only McCovey Chronicles didn’t have a podcast back then. Now it does, so come listen and enjoy the sarcasm. Oh, and Doug gives us some a AAA scouting report to fuel our hopes and dreams for how the farm might help the major league roster (although... yeah, don’t get your hopes up).  We also answer your Twitter questions and play a couple of fun games, though I think you’ll admit that my answer for one of the games was Gorkys Hernandez-level bad. 

Sure, the Giants haven’t had a comeback win in the ninth inning since May of 2015, but as we approach the two-year anniversary of this bit of history, is there enough evidence on the current roster to explain or disprove just why it is that they’ve been so unlucky in this specific way? And how have the staples of the Giants’ lineup looked in the early going? More than a few of the hitters seem to get worse as the game goes on, and we try (in vain, to be sure) to diagnose just what it is that might be ailing them. Is Denard Span the best leadoff hitter? Does Chris Marrero have left field on lock? 

We're back to talk about the Giants' first week of the season. Did blowing two saves in one game set them up for a historic run? Is there anything to the idea that the Giants' bullpen isn't hitting luck it's actually carrying over the same performances from last year because it's basically the same composition? We also look at the performances of each significant player from the past week and wind up honing in on left field, also known as a performance graveyard to start the season. Seriously, left field is so bad that the Giants started Aaron Hill out there. There are also some Twitter questions and the results from our first ever McCovey Chroncast poll: if you were a closer, what would your blown save style be?

There are 13 rankable managers in the National League and by gawdness, we rank the everlovin' heck out of 'em. This comes just before the first pitch of the 2017 season and on the heels of the national baseball writers anointing Cool Joe Maddon as the greatest manager in the game. We think there's something wrong with that label and try to sort out just exactly where Joe and the other NL managers fall on that list of 13. But then, and perhaps most importantly, we mourn the loss of Buster Posey's peak performance. He just turned 30, you see, the age at which most baseball players begin to enter the "decline phase" of their careers. But catchers have a steeper slope on that phase and we can't expect Buster Posey to be an exception to that. Was 2016 a harbinger of 2017 results or is the unstoppable stampede of time just taking a minor detour on its way to dragging the beauty of Buster Posey's peak away from our collective consciousnessness?   Oh, and we also answer your Twitter questions.

It's difficult to look at the San Diego Padres and think "now there's an exciting baseball team!", but it's a lot easier to look at the FOX-TV show Pitch and think "now there's an exciting TV show about baseball!". We used that reasoning this week to close out the NL West preview as writer Jason Holtham of the aforementioned FOX-TV show Pitch joins us to discuss the fictional Padres, a far more entertaining subject.  If you haven't watched Pitch yet, the entire first season (just 10 episodes!) is available to stream on Hulu. It's fun and interesting and has for a backdrop a recognizable world of Major League Baseball. They even managed to characterize the fictional Giants in ways that are familiar. That said, listen to Jason's story about when the TV show shot at AT&T Park... We also talk to Adam Peterson of Purple Row about those Colorado Rockies. It turns out, while the Giants have been focusing their attention on the Dodgers, the Rockies have been stockpiling pitchers. Will this obnoxious team annoy the Giants even more this season? Probably. But will that annoyance propel them into a playoff race?  And, of course, we answer your Twitter questions. They were a bit more existenstial than usual, and that's okay.

This week’s show begins our preview of the rest of the NL West, starting with the loathsome Dodgers and followed by the gritty Diamondbacks. We invited a couple of guests to help us out with those previews and we think that makes them far more entertaining than you, a single-minded Giants-only fan, could ever possibly imagine. Eric Stephen of True Blue LA helps us understand just how it is that the Dodgers seem to have a Springfield-esque roster of obnoxious characters (obnoxious, of course, from the Giants’ fan perspective) and how their incredible roster just might manifest this year and where we can expect a couple more surprises – because, really, what a team that’s projected to win 99 games needs is even more talented surprises.  And then we bring back Mike Ferrin of SiriuxXM and the pre and post-game show host for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Is Paul Goldschmidt as amazing as Tim Lincecum thinks he is? What did the Mariners get wrong about Taijuan Walker and how is the superior scouting of the Diamondbacks about to cause a world of hurt for the National League. We also answer some Twitter questions which I think you’ll agree were extraordinary this week.

We’re back! And it’s — wait, what? Spring Training has been going on for a couple of weeks already? We’re still shaking off the podcasting rust, but we do manage to talk about some key items of Giants baseballery, including reasons to be optimistic this season. It’s a striking departure from the usual back and forth and we’re cautiously optimistic it will be a new trait of ours going forward. But the meaty goodness of the season’s first show is a how-to guide by our own kdl for getting to experience the entire Giants organization at Spring Training through the minor league camps. It’s literally the knitty-gritty... where to go, how to get there, what to do once you get there... even the best place to sit and when to grab a seat. So, if you’ve ever wanted to know how to best experience Spring Training as an absolute baseball junky, then you’ll want to listen to all of kdl’s gems. We also answer some of your Twitter questions and make jokes.

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that the Chroncast is at it again, but just one last time in 2016. That's right, after this week's episode, you won't have me or Doug to kick around anymore! Joining us this week for an appropriate send-off is Baseball's Grant Brisbee.  What's the best course of action for the Giants to take heading into 2017? Do the recent Gold Glove awards make a whole lot of sense? What does it mean that the pitching is good? Who were the top 2 homegrown Giants by OPS last season (without looking it up!).  Beyond that, we answer one last round of your always excellent Twitter questions and decide, once and for all, what band reminds Joe Maddon reminds us of the most.  Doug and I thank you for listening to and supporting us all season long. We'd also like to thank all of our wonderful guests, from Grant Brisbee to Grant Brisbee, and all the Grant Brisbees in between. Actually -- seriously -- thank you to Jen Mac Ramos, Roger Munter, Wendy Thurm, Reuben Poling, Carmen Kiew, Bryan Srabian, Mike Ferrin, my buddy Joe, Jason Wojciechowski, Dan Szymborski, Goofus, thirteenthirteen, jponry, and kdl for taking time out of your busy schedules to help make this thing a real thing.  We'll be back next season

The Giants' farm system has experienced a dramatic shift in quality over the past few years: they can grow position players now! That's cause for excitement, because in the coming years, the offense is going to need a boost from somewhere given how no free agent bat wants to sign with San Francisco. Is Christian Arroyo worth all your hopes and dreams now? One thing's for certain: the Giants' bullpen isn't going to get a whole lot of help from the farm. But there's still plenty of intrigue on the horizon. 

Wendy Thurm returns on the penultimate episode of the season to talk about what lies ahead for our favorite baseball team. But we also talk about what exactly went wrong this year and why 2016's weaknesses won't necessarily cause the 2017 season to start from behind.  Will new base coaches make a huge difference? Does the "final year" of Johnny Cueto's deal mean the Giants will treat the offseason like a last hurrah? Does the tarnished postseason legacy of Madison Bumgarner portend to, well, anything? We also answer your fantastic Twitter questions.

KNBR and the Internet's Carmen Kiew brings her mega Giants fandom to this week's Chroncast to help Bryan and Doug breakdown the Giants-Cubs series and the season that was as well as look at what's next for San Francisco and everyone else still in the playoffs. We also try to figure out the biggest d-bags remaining in the playoff field. Is Bryce Harper the #1 seed? Jake Arrieta?

Despite a calamitous second half filled with failure and frustration, the Giants find themselves as the National League's second Wild Card. Recently, on this very podcast and on this very website, it's been said that this is the most dislikable Giants team in recent memory strictly because of their performance. Well now it's playoff time so we're all changing our tune, right? The Giants are good, the Giants are great, we surrender our will as of this date. Doug and I talk abut the wild week that brought them to this point. There was a t-shirt, a surprise trade, some wrestling moves, and Ty Blach. None of those things seemingly go together and yet here we are, again, talking about the Giants in the playoffs. Sure, it's just a one game playoff where anything can happen, and the Giants and Mets have typically experienced some wackiness whenever they've matched up, but whereas Bryan is willing to use past events to predict Wednesday's outcome, Doug things there are many key factors that give the Giants the advantage. And then there's that whole thing about the Giants getting payback -- FINALLY -- for the Bobby J. Jones game back in 2000. In the meantime, we answer your Twitter questions and try to determine if Doug's prediction that the 2016 Giants would win mid-80s number of games means that he nailed his prediction or simply was the closest between the two of us without going over (recall that I had predicted a 57-win Giants team for 2016). We put it as a poll question below. The Giants won 87 games this year: do you consider 87 to be "mid-80s"? Finally, what do you think about the Chroncast? Should we do it again next year? Leave your vote or comments down below.

You'll read many elegant tributes and tearful remembrances of Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez in the coming weeks and months, but in the meantime, Doug and I dedicate the opening of our show to exchanges our favorite memories of him and discussing his impact on the baseball world and what his loss serves to remind us of -- because death doesn't have to be the end of memories and those memories that remain should inspire us to take stock of our own lives, what we have, and what we might leave behind. And then there's the whole matter of the dumb stupid Giants and their dumb stupid ways. What's wrong with them, you ask? Literally nobody knows, and for once, we have the same amount of information about the players as the front office does. What does 2016's historic collapse mean for the 2017 team and beyond? Can the Giants rally around the label of ending this year as the worst team in baseball when starting up again next year? Or is it all a hopeless cause and you, me, and everyone in between should focus on other pursuits like reading or watching TV or... whatever else it is that people do when they're not watching baseball...? How does the Giants' window of success compare to a long-running TV show? There are a surprising number of similarities between the San Francisco Giants and, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or House. We also answer your Twitter questions.

The Giants get their first sweep of the second half and they finally have a memorable game in September that harkens back to successful seasons of yore. Do the next few weeks promise more of this sweeptastic Giants team or something more akin to the majority of the second half?  Meanwhile, Santiago Casilla's 8th blown save on Friday night means he's blown as many saves in a season for the Giants since Armando Benitez. But Casilla's frequent failures feel a lot less his fault and a lot more his manager sextupling down on one of his players just to prove to the clubhouse that he'll back his guys through thick and thin. Has Bochy really learned his lesson, or will Javier Lopez keep getting chances to walk the one guy he'll face in a series? We also answer your really good Twitter questions, explaining why Yoenis Cespedes will never be a Giant and why STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE is a slow movie. You might already know the answer to the Cespedes bit, but there's a good chance you'll learn something new about the Star Trek fact. Wait. What's that? You've already tuned out? Fair enough.