Short Takes: Giant Disappointment; 49ers' Draft Woes; Needless Expansion; LIV Dying; Stanford Exodus; TV Time; Quote of Note

The San Francisco Giants are borderline unwatchable. They're the lowest scoring team in baseball. Shut out seven times in their first 32 games. Fewest home runs and lowest number of walks and steals in the majors. Lots and lots of strikeouts chasing pitches out of the strike zone. And blown ninth inning leads.

Their prized acquisitions, Rafael Devers (above) and Willy Adames, continue to underperform, both hovering near .200.

The Giants will be paying Devers around $30M per year through 2033. At 29, he already is having trouble getting around on fastballs and could be on the downhill slide... with seven more years to go on his deal.

Adames is getting roughly $26M per year through 2031. At 30, he strikes out literally half the time. 

Dare we say "high-priced busts?"

49ers Draft Woes: Another year, another undistinguished NFL draft for the 49ers. This year produced a number of head-scratchers and reaches, with no clear choice of a player who will make a difference this year.

GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan are entering their 10th year running the franchise, with no Super Bowl titles and a series of weak drafts, including the worst draft decision in the history of the NFL--trading three No. 1 picks and a third rounder to get unproven QB Trey Lance, a guy with one year of experience at North Dakota State. The repercussions of that disaster are still being felt.

Gentlemen, it's time to put up or step down.

Needless Expansion: So now the geniuses who run the NCAA want to take the greatest show on earth--March Madness--and expand it to 76 teams. 

Why?

This isn't about rewarding more deserving teams. It's about appeasing the Power Four Conferences and generating more money. The additional teams are almost certain to be Power Four teams hovering around .500 with losing conference records.

This needless expansion will continue to diminish the regular season and give tournament bids to more below average teams.

We already went from 64 to 68 to provide more access. Now, instead of four "play-in" games we may have 24 teams playing a new "first round" of 12 play-ins?"

There were a lot of teams in the 68-team field this year that had no business participating in the post-season. Consider the quality of three of the teams in this year's "First Four Out" who'd be included in a 76-team field.

Oklahoma lost nine straight games in January and February, finishing 7-11 in the SEC. Auburn lost nine of its last 12 to finish one game over .500. And Indiana lost six of its last seven.

So they deserve to compete for the national championship?

Whoever is driving this bus needs to have his license revoked.

LIV Dying: The Saudi backed golf tour known as LIV is dying. The much-hyped tour is running out of money because the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia is no longer willing to finance it. 

The reason the PIF is pulling out? 

No one cares about LIV. It has no credibility. It receives little media coverage, and the few events that are televised get test pattern ratings. 

The Saudi government has lost a ton of money on LIV, $5 billion since the tour's founding four years ago, according to some estimates.

It's an example of sportswashing that failed miserably.

There are a few insufferable morons like Stephen A. Smith, who claim golfers left the PGA for LIV because they were being abused. 

Stephen A. is clueless, as usual.

The golfers who left the PGA did so for nine-figure checks from a corrupt regime looking to sportswash its history of human rights abuses.

That hasn't worked, so the money is drying up, and the golfers who left the PGA. are crawling back with their tails between their legs.

Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed have abandoned the LIV and returned to the PGA through a "Returning Members Program." Others hope to follow.

Now they know.

When you get in bed with the devil, you shouldn't be surprised when things go into the toilet.

Stanford Exodus Continued: The transfer portal was not kind to Stanford women's basketball. The Cardinal lost seven players, including the team's four best. Here's the list of departures and their destinations:

• Team scoring leader Nunu Agara, Maryland

• Freshman star Lara Somfai, TCU

• No. 2 scorer Chloe Clardy, North Carolina

• No. 3 scorer Courtney Ogden, Michigan

• Rotation forward Mary Ashley Stevenson, Columbia

• Seldom used Harper Peterson, Tennessee

• Seldom used Carly Amborn, Cal

  
  

The only incoming transfer will be former Michigan State center Ines Solelo, who averaged seven points and four rebounds last year.

She'll join the lone returning starter, Hailee Swain, and two incoming four-star high school players.

Not a promising scenario.

Tennis Trials: For many years Stanford dominated NCAA tennis, both on the men's and women's side. Under legendary coach Dick Gould, the Cardinal men won 17 national titles. Under Frank Brennan and Lele Forood, the women won 20.

This year Stanford's men's and women's teams are not among the top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

The reason? An incredible rash of injuries.

On the men's side, No. 1 player Samir Banerjee, plus top teammates Alex Chang, Kyle Kang and Jagger Leach all were sidelined or played hurt for much of the season. The women's team endured similar maladies.

But the men put the rankings aside last weekend, upending both Penn and Texas A&M to advance to the sweet 16. The Stanford women beat BYU before losing to Pepperdine in the second round.

Hopefully the men will continue to surprise this week. Next year, assuming everyone stays healthy and with strong recruiting classes arriving, Stanford should contend for the natty on both sides.

TV Time: Last year we recommended the new Netflix series, Running Point, featuring Kate Hudson as a Jeannie Buss-type president of a pro basketball franchise in Los Angeles. 

Season 2 has just dropped. We just finished watching the 10 episodes a few days ago and, if anything, this year's series is even better than last. Always entertaining, realistic problems to solve, and excellent basketball scenes. 

Hudson is flat out brilliant in the role, and the supporting cast members including capable assistant Brenda Song, brothers Justin Theroux, Drew Tarver and Scott MacArthur, Ray Romano as the grizzled old coach, and love interests Jay Ellis and Max Greenfield, are all excellent.

Wise Man: Former Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany was one of the smartest men I dealt with during my career in pro and college athletics. He was always a step ahead of everyone else, thought outside the box, anticipated problems and developed creative ways to solve them. Always interesting to talk to, a touch arrogant and condescending at times, but typically the smartest guy in the room.

The Big Ten just released its financials for 2025. Jim retired as commissioner in 2020. As part of his retirement package, he received $5.82 million in bonuses and deferred compensation, plus $600,000 in consulting fees, last year. The current commissioner, Tony Petiti, who is a font of bad ideas, reported $4.5M in compensation. 

Enough said.  

Smart Coach: Speaking of smart guys, we've always believed that Kyle Whittingham was one of the best coaches in the country. The former Utah head man is now running things at Michigan, where I expect he will thrive.

Kyle recently weighed in on the current state of college football:

"You either embrace chance or you embrace irrelevance. That's kind of how it works in life. And yeah, there are things in college football now that are different, the portal and NIL being right at the forefront. But that's just how it is. If it's so distasteful for you, then get out. No one's forcing you to be in it...80 percent of recruiting now is tied to NIL. So if you don't have the resources, you could be the best evaluators and the best recruiters, but if school B is offering a half a million and you've got $200K, that's an easy decision for these kids because that's life-changing money for their families."