A Giant Mess; A Big Warriors' Pick; A Lost War

The San Francisco Giants continue to struggle mightily. They find myriad ways to lose games--bullpen failures, bad baserunning, sloppy fielding, inconsistent hitting.

At 31-46, the Giants are competing with the Colorado Rockies, LA Angels and Kansas City Royals for the designation as the worst team in baseball.

They just got swept by the Miami Marlins, displaying the usual unforced errors and in the process wasting another terrific performance by Logan Webb, whose 4-5 record is indicative of the team's inability to win games they should win.

In the midst of all this losing, they also created a national controversy when four of their "Christian" pitchers refused to wear the team's rainbow-themed cap on Pride Night.

And then there's Rafael Devers.

When the Giants obtained Devers in a blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox last season, team president Buster Posey bragged that Devers was one of the few real "dudes" in major league baseball.

A great hitter. A game changer. A guy who could make your team much better.

Unfortunately, instead of a "dude", Devers has turned out to be a "dud."

Last year, in 90 games with the Giants, he batted .236 and struck out 116 times in 335 plate appearances.

Things haven't improved this season. He's hitting .238. He's struck out 97 times in 298 plate appearances, clearly having trouble getting around on fastballs. Only 11 homers and 36 RBIs in 77 games.

Yesterday, he attempted to refuse a pinch runner after drawing a walk in the ninth inning with his team trailing by a run. He stormed into the dugout and avoided contact with everyone. Not a good look.

The bad news is that the Giants inherited his 10-year contract with the Red Sox and are contracted to pay him roughly $30 million annually through 2033. 

To add insult to injury, the player the Giants traded away to get Devers, left-hander Kyle Harrison, is flourishing with an 8-1 record and 2.50 ERA.

In the midst of all this trauma, however, there are a few positive signs.

Last month the Giants were the lowest scoring team in baseball with the fewest number of home runs, walks and steals in the majors. Lots and lots of strikeouts chasing pitches out of the strike zone.

Suddenly, they have some offense. Four players are the reason--two-time batting champion Luis Arraez, rookie wonderkind Bryce Eldridge, resurgent Jung Hoo Lee and the team's MVP, Casey Schmitt.

Arraez continues to hit in the .320s, play excellent defense, and make you wonder why in hell the Giants plan to trade him.

Eldridge, tagged with the dreaded "no. 1 prospect" and "future of the franchise" labels, has lived up to the hype.

Lee, who signed a six-year, $113 million contract in 2024, has found the stroke that made him a consistent .300 hitter in Korea.

Schmitt has been a revelation, with 16 home runs, 42 RBI's, a slew of game-winning hits, and solid defense at all four infield positions and left field.

Unfortunately, the offensive upswing has been accompanied by a total meltdown of the Giants' relief pitching.

The Giants simply can't hold a lead. They've blown at least eight games in the ninth inning, several more if you include the seventh or eighth innings.

The team that brought us Robb Nenn, Rod Beck, Gary Lavelle, Brian Wilson, Sergio Romo, Javier Lopez, Jeremy Affeldt and Santiago Casilla has no reliable setup or closer right now.

It makes you long for Camilo Duval and Tyler Rogers, two solid relievers the Giants disposed of last year.

Warriors' Big Pick: The Golden State Warriors have the No. 11 pick in tomorrow's NBA draft, generally considered a very strong class.

Given that the Warriors "need everything," in the words of their general manager Mike Dunleavy, what should they do with the pick?

Our vote goes to Michigan center Aday Mara. The 7-3 junior was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and was a key factor in the Wolverines' NCAA championship run.

After two undistinguished years at UCLA under the tempestuous Mick Cronin, Mara blossomed in Ann Arbor, averaging 12 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks per game, while hitting 67% of his field goal attempts. He's also a very good passer for a big man.

The Warriors have been lacking a true rim protector for years, trying to get by with either under-sized and aging Draymond Green or under-talented Quentin Post in the post. The oft-injured KKristaps Porzingis is likely to sign elsewhere and valuable veteran Al Horford isn't a long-term answer.

In the competitive Western Conference, where the trend is toward lineups featuring seven-footers patroling the paint, the under-sized Warriors simply need to get bigger.

At 21 Mara is still a work in progress, but he has the size, talent, and defensive upside the Warriors need. If he's available, Dunleavy needs to pull the trigger on Mara.

The Lost War: Congrats to president Donald Trump for losing the war with Iran.

The good news is that an absurd, totally unnecessary and costly war will end as soon as Trump can get his pal Bibi Netanyahu to stop attacking Lebanon.

The bottom line is that Iran took our best punches for almost four months, as delivered by the incompetent Pete Hegseth, and then got Trump to sign a humiliating memorandum of understanding that all but the most clueless MAGA cultist would describe as a total capitulation.

The "deal" gives the US nothing it didn't have before the war and is a bonanza for Iran. 

Unfortunately, it took a lot of bloodshed and money to get to this point. 13 Americans were killed, roughly 400 were wounded, and tens of billions of dollars went down the drain. Across Iran, over 3500 people were killed, including roughly 1600 civilians. In Lebanon, there were another 1500 casualties.

Trump used to criticize the deal President Barack Obama negotiated with Iran in 2015, one that included detailed and invasive inspections to assure that the Iranians weren't building nuclear capability, falsely claiming Obama "gave Iran 150 billion in cash," when in actuality the agreement simply unfroze Iran's own assets.

Whereas, the deal Trump signed gives the Iranians a $300 billion reconstruction fund, delays negotiation on the Iranian nuclear stockpile, and doesn't address Iran's missiles and drones.

As for the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes every single day,  Trump signed a deal that requires Iran to allow free, safe passage for sixty days. After that, Iran can charge the ships that pass for a service it used to give away for free.

To sum up: This was a war Trump started to distract us from the Epstein scandal, without the Congressional approval the Constitution demands, at a tremendous cost. 

It ended with a memorandum of understanding that gives Iran relief from sanctions, a 300 billion fund to use however it pleases, a free shipping lane it can put a pricetag on in two months, and lets it keep the nuclear fuel the old deal made it surrender.

It seems the great dealmaker couldn't close this deal without surrendering.