Speaker 1: Running here from Berkeley cal Football Media Day. We got
Speaker 1: a whole mishmash to get to on a Tuesday, busy,
Speaker 1: busy day yesterday on Papa and Silver with the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: and it didn't stop because we signed off and then
Speaker 1: the Elliott Ramos news became official. On top of that,
Speaker 1: Eric Miller got traded as well. So we were kind
Speaker 1: of talking at the very end of the show and
Speaker 1: I said, JD, I'm a little bit afraid this is
Speaker 1: going to be just the status quo Ray Arise Killian
Speaker 1: attached in the Arise deal. Tyler Mallley was the night before.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we were gonna get much more.
Speaker 1: I was incorrect by that. And Buster Posey ends up
Speaker 1: flipping six different players at the deadline, a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of prospects to get to. And we are off and
Speaker 1: running in Berkeley today. So we got to talk a
Speaker 1: lot of Niners. We certainly will rehash the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: and we got a couple of Berkeley guests coming by
Speaker 1: as well, so it should be a nice fun day.
Speaker 2: What's going on, man, Yeah, it's great to be out here.
Speaker 2: The fog, the malaise starting to burn off out here. Beautiful.
Speaker 2: I forg gotten and how beautiful this this stadium is, frankly,
Speaker 2: and I've not been here a lot through the years,
Speaker 2: even growing up in northern California working in the Bay
Speaker 2: Area for for a long time. But this is a
Speaker 2: this is a venue, man Like, I'm just kind of
Speaker 2: taking away a little bit by by just being here
Speaker 2: in the perch and where we're set up, and it's
Speaker 2: it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Not a terrible office for the day. And Tyler tim
Speaker 1: is one of the best at getting all the logistics
Speaker 1: all set up.
Speaker 2: He's like, work here semi regularly. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: In fact, stay tuned for a little bit of news
Speaker 1: coming later toward the end of the show.
Speaker 2: We'll talk all about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the fog is burning off quickly and so
Speaker 1: ever since they did the renovations there in the early
Speaker 1: mid twenty tens, I mean, this is something that it's
Speaker 1: a pretty good view to be out here.
Speaker 2: And another reminder, as we see.
Speaker 1: A lot of our local media hanging out as players
Speaker 1: are on the field, they got the pillars of excellence
Speaker 1: up on the scoreboard right now.
Speaker 2: Relentless effort, ball excellence, power of unit.
Speaker 1: We'll talk all about that, we'll touch the boy, but
Speaker 1: just to recap the end of yesterday, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: Buster Posey, this is two trade deadlines around now where
Speaker 1: he has gone to selling. And Dwaynekuiper said it well
Speaker 1: on the Morning Show. We're not really used todays like
Speaker 1: yesterday where Brian Sabian would do a lot of buying.
Speaker 1: There would be investment in trying to make something out
Speaker 1: of the end of the season, going aggressive to try
Speaker 1: to win. Buster Posey was pretty aggressive. On the other end,
Speaker 1: we weren't sure Elliott Ramos was going to find a
Speaker 1: new home. He's now in New York Yankee. And then,
Speaker 1: as we talked about in the weeks leading up to
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, if you can flip a bullpen arm
Speaker 1: for anybody of value, I think you go and do that.
Speaker 1: They decided that Eric Miller was a chance to take
Speaker 1: a flyer on Marcelo Meyer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did it, and we talked about Eric Miller
Speaker 2: a lot yesterday and the Giants. I think Buster Posey
Speaker 2: would have loved going back to the start of the
Speaker 2: season to be in a position to where he could
Speaker 2: have added and been among the many teams who did
Speaker 2: add But the one thing now we've seen, unfortunately two
Speaker 2: years in a row, is the Giants being this position
Speaker 2: where the appropriate measure is to sell and to what level?
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody fully knew, but I think if
Speaker 2: you took twenty twenty five Giants trade deadline as a
Speaker 2: primer for the twenty twenty six Giants trade deadline, you
Speaker 2: knew that at a minimum, everybody on an expiring deal
Speaker 2: was probably going to be moved. And they Giants were
Speaker 2: able to check those boxes relatively early in the morning
Speaker 2: and heading toward the afternoon, which left them some time
Speaker 2: to be able to determine, all right, do you really
Speaker 2: want to give up Eric Miller for Meyer? Do you
Speaker 2: and a flyer on somebody that was at one point
Speaker 2: a top top prospect in the majors and the number
Speaker 2: four overall pick in the draft? The answer is I
Speaker 2: think yes, like that makes a lot of sense to
Speaker 2: take that level of flyer. And then you had some
Speaker 2: time to sort through what could you get from the
Speaker 2: Yankees for a right handed bat in Elliott Ramos that
Speaker 2: still has a couple of years left of team control,
Speaker 2: and how do you continue to bolster the pitching depth
Speaker 2: and the pitching in the minor leagues to set up
Speaker 2: what could very well be a formidable giant staff toward
Speaker 2: the back end of say twenty twenty eight and twenty
Speaker 2: twenty nine and beyond.
Speaker 1: Well, just to recap it all, yesterday, Tyler Mallley went
Speaker 1: to the Braves. That was his Sunday night news. They
Speaker 1: got Anthony Molina, right handed pitcher, just talked about Eric
Speaker 1: Miller to the Red Sox, Marcelo Meyer, Robbie Ray. That
Speaker 1: happened during our show goes to the Padres and they
Speaker 1: got a couple of prospects in return, right handed pitcher
Speaker 1: Miguel Mendez and then the seventeen year old shortstop prospect
Speaker 1: Jony al Hernandez in the Luisa Rise deal with Caleb
Speaker 1: Killy and attached to it. They got a reliever from
Speaker 1: Marty Jaiyere and then probably along with Marcelo Meyer, the
Speaker 1: other highly touted prospect that now is number two in
Speaker 1: pitching behind Jackson Flora in the farm system. That's Ramon Marquez,
Speaker 1: the rity that they feel really good about. And then
Speaker 1: with Elliott Ramos, it was a six foot seven lefty
Speaker 1: Henry Lalaine. And then of course Jeff Kent's son, Kayden Kent.
Speaker 1: It's funny Jeff Kent. They played the audio on the
Speaker 1: Morning Show How he was on after the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame induction, talked about having still a little bit of
Speaker 1: love there for the Yankees can't go full giant.
Speaker 2: Well now that's changed.
Speaker 1: And he also said, if he's sitting two forty in
Speaker 1: the miners, I'm gonna kill him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, forget about the Yankees. Now he's a Giant. And
Speaker 2: so that that was another cool part of the way
Speaker 2: everything wound up playing out. But I think the big
Speaker 2: thing that stands out to me as you look through
Speaker 2: a lot of these deals, and I won't run through
Speaker 2: all of them because you just did, but Ramon Marquez
Speaker 2: fourth ranked prospect in terms of the Phillies, you look
Speaker 2: at at a lot of these guys, your fourth ranked prospect,
Speaker 2: one of the guys they get from the Padres, ninth
Speaker 2: ranked prospect. The other player that they get from the
Speaker 2: Padres that the seventeen year old infielder Hernandez, and then
Speaker 2: you've got Lelane, fifth ranked prospect. It's just it's the
Speaker 2: high it's the high numbers. It feels as if the Giants,
Speaker 2: at least on paper, at least on paper, and you know,
Speaker 2: on paper doesn't always matter. We have those discussions with
Speaker 2: the forty nine ers draft, right, the four inch draft
Speaker 2: on paper for the experts always looks less than they
Speaker 2: think it is internally. Right, Well, the Giants are winning
Speaker 2: a lot of They're winning a lot of people over
Speaker 2: on paper here with the prospects that they've acquired, to
Speaker 2: what level do they turn into the next generation of
Speaker 2: great Giants? We shall see. But at this point all
Speaker 2: you can do is deal with what's in front of you,
Speaker 2: and with the Giants having such a miserably disappointing season,
Speaker 2: it's the right course of action to pivot toward the
Speaker 2: future to the greatest extent that you're comfortable with. I
Speaker 2: think we can debate, and today is probably going to
Speaker 2: be the last day. Should they have gone farther? Jung
Speaker 2: Hulee Logan Web two of ironically the Stars from last
Speaker 2: night's August third win against the Rangers in Arlington would
Speaker 2: tell you, all right, maybe you want to keep those
Speaker 2: guys around a little bit. But I think they handled
Speaker 2: a really difficult situation probably as best as they can.
Speaker 2: And now time will tell as to whether or not
Speaker 2: they acquired the right players, but moving on from the
Speaker 2: players they chose to move on from. We could debate
Speaker 2: Elliott Ramos a little bit, but everybody else it was
Speaker 2: kind of a no brainer. I'm also gonna make fun
Speaker 2: of myself as we get going on a Tuesday, because
Speaker 2: how else would I want to start the show?
Speaker 1: Look, the young guy loves the young guy. I know
Speaker 1: everyone's gonna say, oh my god. Silver freaked out every
Speaker 1: time Eldridge wasn't in the lineup because they wanted to.
Speaker 2: I want to see him as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I was really glad to see Bryce Eldridge not
Speaker 1: in the lineup.
Speaker 2: I just wanted him to have a day off.
Speaker 1: But man, looking at that lineup, I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: that's the other side of the trade deadline.
Speaker 2: Like you knew they were gonna sell, you knew they
Speaker 2: had to do all that.
Speaker 1: But then just looking at the lineup when it finally
Speaker 1: came out, I was like, oh, man, maybe JD would
Speaker 1: have a field day with this one if we were
Speaker 1: on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny you had that reaction about Eldridge. I
Speaker 2: actually had the opposite reaction. I was like, why would
Speaker 2: today be the day I really that was my initial reaction.
Speaker 2: To me, it makes no sense the day in which
Speaker 2: the season is in many ways formally over right. I mean,
Speaker 2: even though I think you could make the case that
Speaker 2: it has been for two to three months at this point.
Speaker 2: So I just I was, yeah, to your point, you
Speaker 2: look at that lineup, But if Chung Houlei's gonna go
Speaker 2: double dong and Logan Webb's gonna throw shut out ball,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. There you go. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My Heidie's mom texted me in the ninth because the
Speaker 1: game was national. She goes, Hey, the Giants gonna hold
Speaker 1: onto this lead, And I was like, I mean theoretically, yes,
Speaker 1: I also don't know anything about this bullpen right now.
Speaker 2: And then they did. They did.
Speaker 1: They only allowed one and that's because they won the
Speaker 1: challenge right before that homer. So look, I'm getting a
Speaker 1: lot of reaction, and this is where I want to
Speaker 1: open it up at eight to eight K and b are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're still live in Berkeley. Yeah, we're still rehashing the
Speaker 1: Giants trade deadline. Did the Giants do enough? And how
Speaker 1: satisfied are you? Because I'm gonna stop shy of the
Speaker 1: notion of Buster Posey and the Giants cooked yesterday, Like
Speaker 1: I was seeing some of that discourse, and we just
Speaker 1: don't know. Because the timeline of the prospects that they
Speaker 1: ended up taking back, we're probably not going to have
Speaker 1: those answers on paper.
Speaker 2: He did, though, or at least two years.
Speaker 1: Sure, Sure, I would love to look back and say
Speaker 1: that was a really effective day. What I can say
Speaker 1: here on August fourth of twenty twenty six is that
Speaker 1: Buster Posey did the right thing and wasn't living in
Speaker 1: some kind of fantasy land of what the Giants might
Speaker 1: be and how close they were and maybe there was
Speaker 1: some variability of bad luck and oh if we just
Speaker 1: had a closer, we'd be a team that's a playoff team.
Speaker 1: Like there was no operation under the premise that the
Speaker 1: Giants were at all close to being a contender. And
Speaker 1: for that reason, Buster Posey I think deserves credit for
Speaker 1: how he's handled both trade deadlines.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did the minimum I think in both years
Speaker 2: of what's appropriate considering the circumstances. And it can't be
Speaker 2: easy for Buster Posey because again, both of these trade
Speaker 2: deadlines have been indicators that teams that he's put together
Speaker 2: have failed, at least up until the point where you
Speaker 2: each you know, August in the first two thirds of
Speaker 2: the season. So as difficult a pill as that probably
Speaker 2: is for him to swallow, you gotta pivot and you
Speaker 2: gotta do what's right. And I think again we'll see
Speaker 2: to what level the guys that the Giants were able
Speaker 2: to acquire wind up being the next generation, as I've said,
Speaker 2: of great Giants. But for now, all you can do
Speaker 2: is put yourself in position to where you're acquiring these
Speaker 2: guys and now you've got to look to develop them
Speaker 2: and see if they can come up and help you
Speaker 2: come maybe twenty twenty eight for a lot of them,
Speaker 2: or some of them, twenty twenty nine to twenty thirty
Speaker 2: for most of them, and maybe that coincides with a
Speaker 2: lot of the other guys that are already in your
Speaker 2: minor league system or that you drafted going back to
Speaker 2: the middle of July, and then you're cooking. Now you
Speaker 2: still got to deal with the now, you still got
Speaker 2: to deal with And I think that's in part why
Speaker 2: the Giants didn't trade Logan Web and didn't trade Junghu
Speaker 2: Lee is because and no, I'm not going to go
Speaker 2: two timelines, but they wanted to have the ability to
Speaker 2: try to put together a team that can compete in
Speaker 2: twenty seven and try to put together maybe a team
Speaker 2: that can compete in twenty twenty eight while they're developing
Speaker 2: all of these guys in the minor league system that
Speaker 2: they project to come up at some point towards the
Speaker 2: back end maybe of twenty eight and beyond.
Speaker 1: And it's just daunting looking at the pitching rotation because
Speaker 1: Logan Webb is your ace pitched like one yesterday went
Speaker 1: the six shoutout innings and then today you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Tidwell.
Speaker 2: Who's now gonna be a mainstay down the stretch.
Speaker 1: So they did the right thing by it, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a lot of piecemealing together and for
Speaker 1: what's been a challenging year for a first year manager,
Speaker 1: and Tony Vizello now gets to plug and play a
Speaker 1: little bit more pieces. Yeah, And you know what's interesting
Speaker 1: too is you know everybody and we've done it, everybody
Speaker 1: assumes that it's gonna be worse because on paper, again
Speaker 1: there's less talent, but you know what, maybe it's not
Speaker 1: like and if it is, how much And if I
Speaker 1: mean if it is, who cares. Honestly, that's just keeping
Speaker 1: it a buck if it is worse. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, maybe it's not as bad, and maybe you
Speaker 1: do find a couple of guys that can help you.
Speaker 2: Maybe you do. I mean, the Giant's best stretch of
Speaker 2: baseball over the last two years has been the stretch
Speaker 2: of baseball that wasn't supposed to be the best stretch,
Speaker 2: or maybe the stretch which they had the least amount
Speaker 2: of talent top to bottom on their roster. So you
Speaker 2: never know when it's all said and done.
Speaker 1: All right, eight O KNBR is your number. We can
Speaker 1: still take calls. We got the Golden sat Lumber and
Speaker 1: show room text line. We got a lot of the
Speaker 1: mids hanging out in the YouTube chat. We still got
Speaker 1: Tim back in the studio making this all happen. Josh
Speaker 1: Shepherd hanging out here, making sure that we stay on
Speaker 1: the air. We're in good hands another Birds by the way,
Speaker 1: among other things. Always in good hands in Berkeley, California,
Speaker 1: Giants trade deadline. Eightaway canbr. I'll tease the guest list
Speaker 1: when we come on back on these Sports Leader.
Speaker 3: This is poplay in silver on knbr's a Z Sports Leader.
Speaker 1: We are live in Berkeley at Cal Football Media Day.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking all about that later in the show.
Speaker 1: We also got some good Niners to get to with
Speaker 1: the player's day off. Of course, the Giants fall out
Speaker 1: of the trade deadline is where we're starting today. Few
Speaker 1: different things because I'm showing Tim how responsible I am
Speaker 1: even if I'm away from the studio. Number one, we
Speaker 1: are sponsored by Redwood Credit Union for you for community
Speaker 1: for seventy five years. Join RCU today at redwoodcu dot org.
Speaker 1: Number two, we are still giving away tickets to see
Speaker 1: John Mellencamp. Just because we're in another place doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's a different case. John Mellencamp is going to be
Speaker 1: playing at the Shoreline Amphitheater Wednesday, August twelfth, So at
Speaker 1: some point during the show, just dial up four one
Speaker 1: five eight nine, six, five six two seven and Kyle
Speaker 1: Chung will take care of you.
Speaker 2: Later.
Speaker 1: On Number three, we got to tell you about our
Speaker 1: guest list today, Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle,
Speaker 1: who wrote one of my favorite pieces in a long
Speaker 1: time and a very emotional read on Greg Papa. He's
Speaker 1: going to be coming by at ten fifty. We will
Speaker 1: talk about that we of course we'll talk about a
Speaker 1: lot of forty nine ers. And it's a Tuesday, so
Speaker 1: that means we will catch up with Susan Slusser, who
Speaker 1: will join us at eleven fifty, fresh off of her
Speaker 1: handling of all the chaos of yesterday. And because we
Speaker 1: are in Berkeley, we got to get a couple of
Speaker 1: the best Toash Lapoi thirty fifth Travers family, head football
Speaker 1: coach and program history and former player himself right here
Speaker 1: in the stadium coming by at twelve thirty, and then
Speaker 1: the talented sophomore left handed quarterback Jaron Kiave Sanga Pola
Speaker 1: tell we'll be coming by right around one. So we
Speaker 1: got a busy day and I'm feeling fantastic about it.
Speaker 1: To continue where we left off at the end of
Speaker 1: last segment, JD. It was really interesting. We got so
Speaker 1: many great local media who are much smarter than definitely myself.
Speaker 1: And what I kept seeing as a common theme last
Speaker 1: night in the aftermath of the trade deadline is people
Speaker 1: saying the Giants' ownership will never call it a rebuild.
Speaker 1: They're never gonna brand it as a rebuild. But Buster
Speaker 1: Posey and his action said otherwise, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I necessarily agreed with that statement. Now, am I glad
Speaker 1: that he went beyond just trading Ray and Arise and
Speaker 1: what we all expected? Yes, I am. I don't think
Speaker 1: Buster Posey had to trade Elliot Ramos. He didn't have
Speaker 1: to take the risk on Marcelo Meyer. Those are moves
Speaker 1: that I admire. But with the timeline of the prospects
Speaker 1: that came back, just because we're looking at say maybe
Speaker 1: more twenty twenty eight twenty twenty nine. If it truly
Speaker 1: was going to be a rebuild, well then Jung hou
Speaker 1: Lee and Logan Webb probably would have been dealt as well.
Speaker 1: And I understand there's the element of what you brought
Speaker 1: up of hey not to two timeline this thing, but
Speaker 1: you do got to figure out how you could be
Speaker 1: competitive in the meantime as you look to rebuild with
Speaker 1: the farm system.
Speaker 2: Well, you at least have to sell that. You got
Speaker 2: to sell that.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go as far as to call
Speaker 1: it a rebuild, but it definitely was a greater overhaul
Speaker 1: than I would have anticipated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are, they are rebuilding for that other time,
Speaker 2: that twenty eight twenty nine timeline, But you also have
Speaker 2: to look at where you are in the calendar. I mean,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six essentially is over barring some kind of
Speaker 2: all time miracle level run that isn't going to happen.
Speaker 2: So then you've got the twenty twenty seven question marks
Speaker 2: as it relates to just how much of a baseball
Speaker 2: season is they're going to be. And now you start
Speaker 2: to think, all right, some of these players in the
Speaker 2: Giant system will start to be coming up as early
Speaker 2: as two thousand and twenty eight, and then beyond as
Speaker 2: you get, you know, into twenty twenty nine, So it's
Speaker 2: it's not really that long. And so I think that's
Speaker 2: where you I agree with you that it doesn't feel
Speaker 2: like it's a rebuild because the gap that they're trying
Speaker 2: to bridge is what are we talking about? A season
Speaker 2: and a half or maybe half a season doesn't even
Speaker 2: happen next year. So to me, it's they're rebuilding, but
Speaker 2: they're also trying to keep appearances up is probably the
Speaker 2: best way to put it for twenty twenty seven. If
Speaker 2: there is a meaningful twenty twenty seven to be played
Speaker 2: across Major League baseball. I also think as much as
Speaker 2: I was along the lines of hey, I would have
Speaker 2: looked to have moved Logan web I would have gone
Speaker 2: full bore. I think you could have turbocharged even what
Speaker 2: you did accomplish yesterday to another level if you would
Speaker 2: look to ship him to a contender with the remainder
Speaker 2: of this year plus two more on his contract. I
Speaker 2: think with jung Ulee having the opt out after twenty
Speaker 2: twenty seven, you could make the case that maybe he
Speaker 2: should have been the guy that the Giants were more
Speaker 2: app to trade right now instead of say maybe in
Speaker 2: Elliott Ramos. But I think the flip side of that
Speaker 2: conversation is not completely in fairness to the Giants about
Speaker 2: keeping appearances up for twenty twenty seven, and it's also
Speaker 2: somewhat And this is where I do believe them, even
Speaker 2: if I don't agree with them, Like they do want
Speaker 2: someone with the skill set of like Jung who lead
Speaker 2: the player fits the type of offense that the Giants
Speaker 2: want to have, So you want to keep somebody around
Speaker 2: that fits that identity. Logan Webb does fit the identity
Speaker 2: of what the Giants want their pitching staff to look like.
Speaker 2: And so I understand why you would want maybe from
Speaker 2: that standpoint where Elliott Ramos in fairness, even with years
Speaker 2: left on his deal, even though he's a productive hitter
Speaker 2: in a different way than Jung Hulee when you look
Speaker 2: at his overall game and the defensive deficiencies and the
Speaker 2: fact that he has, at least for this year, become
Speaker 2: somebody that's probably in a lot of team's eyes, more
Speaker 2: of a platoon player than an everyday player, maybe somebody
Speaker 2: that's better suited for a different ballpark as well to
Speaker 2: have some of the power numbers truly come to fruition.
Speaker 2: So he in essence, I think the Giants made the
Speaker 2: determination doesn't fit the mold for what they want this
Speaker 2: next era to look like, or that they already have.
Speaker 2: You know, guys that are maybe more the bopper less
Speaker 2: defense type, you know in their everyday concoction right at
Speaker 2: different positions, Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge highlighting it among
Speaker 2: those players, so I can understand where, yes, I would
Speaker 2: have gone all in. I think they might have wound
Speaker 2: up better for it in twenty eight and twenty nine
Speaker 2: and beyond, at the expense of how good are you
Speaker 2: really going to be next year? How much of a
Speaker 2: season is going to make it worth it? How good
Speaker 2: can you know, I don't like going too far down
Speaker 2: the road as to well that you're not going to
Speaker 2: be good this year that year, because you never know.
Speaker 2: It's baseball like, things can can flip on a dime.
Speaker 2: Look at what the Red Sox are doing in a
Speaker 2: year that a month ago looked completely lost for them.
Speaker 2: So I understand Logan Webb being a fit for what
Speaker 2: they want the mold to be, and Jung Hu Lee
Speaker 2: being a fit for what they want the mold to be,
Speaker 2: and maybe some of the guys that they've shipped out
Speaker 2: beyond just yesterday, you know, Patrick Bailey and the like,
Speaker 2: they deem to not maybe fit the mold of what
Speaker 2: they want the next future, you know, the next generation
Speaker 2: of Giant to be. Yeah, that's why I.
Speaker 1: Was always kind of standing on the Junghu Lee part
Speaker 1: of it, which is we can debate if he's one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen million dollar player. We can debate the
Speaker 1: fact that he's got an opt out coming next year,
Speaker 1: and if he's got another year like this one, well
Speaker 1: he probably is going to opt out and try to
Speaker 1: get more money out of that. We could argue about
Speaker 1: a lot of those things, but just thinking about the
Speaker 1: baseball reasons alone, and I tossed any marketing or connection
Speaker 1: to South Korea. I just tossed that out the window
Speaker 1: yesterday for this discussion. For the baseball player Jung Hu Lee,
Speaker 1: when he's been at his best, I can understand why
Speaker 1: the Giants want to hold on to him. When he
Speaker 1: plays good rid field defense, theoretically should be able to
Speaker 1: help you on the base path, although I want to
Speaker 1: see him try to attempt more stolen bases in the
Speaker 1: second half of this year to be sure. The left
Speaker 1: handed contact hitter all the more valuable now that you've
Speaker 1: lost Luisa Rise. Oh and by the way, when he
Speaker 1: goes to the East coast or I guess down south
Speaker 1: yesterday in Arlington with a roof, he has a way
Speaker 1: of getting his homers and bunches there too. So guy
Speaker 1: with eight home runs now not going to be a
Speaker 1: powerful hit are very different than Ramos. But with Elliott Ramos,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where I looked at it
Speaker 1: and said, yes, homegrown All Star team control. Ideally, though,
Speaker 1: he's someone that could be an everyday outfielder and give
Speaker 1: you better defense than he has. And because you have
Speaker 1: devers An Eldridge, you're not really going to have a
Speaker 1: need for a DH for quite some time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think there's also the component to there
Speaker 2: are others that maybe you want to take a look
Speaker 2: at in some of those outfield spots, whether it's it's
Speaker 2: jonah Cox when he comes back more of a center fielder,
Speaker 2: maybe you look to get Gilbert into left field some days.
Speaker 2: Maybe you have Gilbert and center field some days, and
Speaker 2: you look to put Bear Codo out there. Like it
Speaker 2: just it gives you, from an audition standpoint, a little
Speaker 2: bit more flexibility, as much as there may not be
Speaker 2: like like you want, I think if you're the Giants,
Speaker 2: like you want to have a really good feel for
Speaker 2: you know, Drew Gilbert, our guy, Grant McCrae, Like, is
Speaker 2: our guy Grant McCrae, Like, you know, is he somebody
Speaker 2: that's going to be on a forty man roster for
Speaker 2: the Giants next year? Like I think they want to know,
Speaker 2: Like he's been on the forty man the last three years,
Speaker 2: and he's come up and he's been a spark at times,
Speaker 2: but the overall numbers haven't, you know, let's be honest,
Speaker 2: offensively been great. And so I think you're trying to
Speaker 2: evaluate what you have along those lines to know, you know,
Speaker 2: whether some of these guys are are going to be
Speaker 2: worthy of of of those roster spots. Moving forward, well.
Speaker 1: Let's hear from Buster Posey, who spoke on Zoom yesterday
Speaker 1: after the trade deadline. That was around three thirty, so
Speaker 1: after the show and in the middle of Dirty Work,
Speaker 1: we'll get some of that audio and then we'll pivot
Speaker 1: over to forty nine ers before the end of the
Speaker 1: hour when Eric Branch joins us eight o eight knb are.
Speaker 1: We got the YouTube chat, we got the mids, and
Speaker 1: we got DJ Web back in the studio. It's a
Speaker 1: good Tuesday, live from Berkeley. I'm the Sports Leader.
Speaker 3: Let's get back to Papa and Silver from Memorial Stadium
Speaker 3: in Berkeley on the Sports Leader. Filling in for Greg
Speaker 3: Papa is John Dickinson on the Sports Leader.
Speaker 1: I don't know we'd get the formal rejoin, but yes,
Speaker 1: we are live from California Memorial Stadium. It is cal
Speaker 1: Football Media Day, Silver JD. We got Josh hanging out
Speaker 1: with us. We're feeling great on this Tuesday and good
Speaker 1: to get to some giants trade deadline talk as we
Speaker 1: had more news at the end. You know, I was
Speaker 1: kind of wondering because we had that lull, right, Robbie
Speaker 1: Ray was traded in the middle of our show, and
Speaker 1: then we're wondering, Oh, is anything else gonna happen for
Speaker 1: the last I don't know eighty minutes of yesterday, We're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this might not be anything. And then you shared in
Speaker 1: that final segment the note from Ken Rosenthal saying that
Speaker 1: the Yankees and Giants were working on a trade for
Speaker 1: Elliott Ramos that ended up being formalized when we were
Speaker 1: off the air, and of course Eric Miller was to follow.
Speaker 2: So this whole talk about is it.
Speaker 1: Really a rebuild and did Buster Posey do the right
Speaker 1: thing not just leaning into trading everybody. Well, let's hear
Speaker 1: Buster yesterday on his Zoom about keeping Devers, Chapman and
Speaker 1: a Damas.
Speaker 2: Here's what he had to say.
Speaker 4: I think what I'll say is like, we made we
Speaker 4: made it known to teams that we were really willing
Speaker 4: to talk about any player. And you know, I don't
Speaker 4: think it does any good to say one way or
Speaker 4: another for us, We're still excited that we've got those
Speaker 4: big three guys, the Devers. You know that we have
Speaker 4: Devers Chapman a Damas on the team, and still feel
Speaker 4: like there's a lot of great baseball left for those
Speaker 4: guys to play, and you know glad that they're they're
Speaker 4: going to be San Francisco Giants.
Speaker 1: So my takeaway was base on the willingness for Buster
Speaker 1: Posey to make those extra moves in the two o'clock
Speaker 1: hour right before the deadline hit. I'm gonna say that
Speaker 1: there wasn't a whole lot of interest in Devers, Chapman
Speaker 1: and the Damas, and maybe a little bit on devers
Speaker 1: As was purported, but that's the guy I probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: have traded Chapman. I get it, he's hurt, was supposed
Speaker 1: to come back in the Padres series had a setback,
Speaker 1: So who really wants to trade for an expensive and
Speaker 1: injured Matt Chapman and then Willie Adamas. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: just a tough contract. Like we joked on and off
Speaker 1: the air many times about how callers would call in
Speaker 1: and say, well, I wouldn't trade a Rise, I'd trade
Speaker 1: a Damas, and it's like, well, yeah, that's kind of
Speaker 1: the one that everyone would probably prefer to trade. As
Speaker 1: the biggest of the Albatross contracts. I'm gonna guess nobody
Speaker 1: bit on that.
Speaker 2: You can't only trade. This is one of the j
Speaker 2: D rules of franchise operation. You can't only trade the
Speaker 2: guys you don't like. You can't like that, That's not
Speaker 2: how this works. And look, I'm not gonna malign Buster
Speaker 2: Posey for the inability to move Rafaelda or Matt Chapman
Speaker 2: or Willi adamis I will. I don't think there are
Speaker 2: a lot of takers to your point, and you know what,
Speaker 2: you have to sift through your best opportunities. And look,
Speaker 2: I actually give him credit for being so open in saying, hey,
Speaker 2: we're going to listen on every player and doing it
Speaker 2: seven weeks ago, going back to the middle of June again.
Speaker 2: Unable to do it right now, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that you won't necessarily be able to do it in
Speaker 2: the off season or maybe at some point if there's
Speaker 2: a bounce back year from one of these guys at
Speaker 2: the deadline, or if the collective bargaining agreement changes. So unfortunately,
Speaker 2: you can only deal with the hand that you've dealt
Speaker 2: yourself and Buster Posey right now. Because of the way
Speaker 2: that a couple of these are all three of those contracts,
Speaker 2: depending upon your opinion of it, have not panned out
Speaker 2: to this point to the way the Giants would want.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just gotta you gotta swallow it, and you
Speaker 2: just have to try to wait for the right opportunity
Speaker 2: to move off of those guys. And it's probably going
Speaker 2: to take some unique circumstances, whether it's, you know, a
Speaker 2: change in the collective bargaining agreement, or there is a
Speaker 2: player that comes available that, as we've talked about a lot,
Speaker 2: is on a contract that's similar, and maybe that player
Speaker 2: needs a change of scenery that you can provide, and
Speaker 2: you've always liked that player, and maybe they like your player.
Speaker 2: And then so it's the sort of your problem for
Speaker 2: my problem deal for weekend debate. Should they have gone farther?
Speaker 2: What did they get back? You know, paper champions today
Speaker 2: in terms of a lot of the prospects that they
Speaker 2: were able to acquire at the deadline. But I'm not
Speaker 2: coming down Buster Posey's road for not moving any of
Speaker 2: those three contracts. I think it was always going to
Speaker 2: be kind of a pipe dream that they would be
Speaker 2: able to do it in such short order.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my larger point with that is that based on
Speaker 1: his willingness to make moves of other sort, I'm going
Speaker 1: to guess that there wasn't really a whole lot of
Speaker 1: interest in those big contracts. And look, that's not a surprise, right,
Speaker 1: you have three big question marks, which is what is
Speaker 1: baseball in twenty twenty seven? Is there going to be
Speaker 1: a salary cap? Is there going to be a salary floor?
Speaker 1: No doubt, right, So it's just this is not the
Speaker 1: year where if you're even gonna try to have a
Speaker 1: taker on one of those albatross contracts. Those are extra
Speaker 1: layers that make it really really tricky to find a
Speaker 1: taker in the first place.
Speaker 2: And look, maybe there winds up, as I've said, being
Speaker 2: a team that is a small market team that doesn't
Speaker 2: have a lot of salary committed, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: there's a salary floor and you're either going to have
Speaker 2: to pay your guys a heck of a lot more
Speaker 2: and more quickly, or you're gonna have to be willing
Speaker 2: to take on what would amount to, let's say, an
Speaker 2: expensive ancillary piece, right like, all of a sudden. The
Speaker 2: way I've sort of put it is, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: the maybe the pirates or the or the or the
Speaker 2: Rays or the Brewers or one of these teams have
Speaker 2: to take on oh Willie Adamas, just to get their
Speaker 2: books up to where you want and then maybe you
Speaker 2: can get off of a deal in that way.
Speaker 1: Let's go out to the phones ataway kanb Are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're still taking them out here in Berkeley, JT and Oakland.
Speaker 1: He has called in throughout the season, longtime Giants fan
Speaker 1: and JT. I think you called in back when we
Speaker 1: were doing our opening day slash Opening night show. So
Speaker 1: we've come a long way together in the season. It's
Speaker 1: been a big build up to the trade deadline. How
Speaker 1: are you feeling about yesterday's moves.
Speaker 5: I don't know yet because I don't know any of
Speaker 5: these players. I'm fine with Ramos, like I think we
Speaker 5: said before, I think we've seen enough of him. He's
Speaker 5: a two sixty year below average out field. He's been
Speaker 5: every year. So for that little first half of the
Speaker 5: year where he had that grade, he was an all star.
Speaker 5: I think that's fine. You know who I wanted to
Speaker 5: see go, but financially it's not gonna happen, and the
Speaker 5: drag about that is I mean, this is gonna be
Speaker 5: a problem again next year, these contracts, and we had
Speaker 5: to give up the world the best here baseball for
Speaker 5: the last and his culture that right brought here. I
Speaker 5: understand what they had to trade him, but man, he
Speaker 5: turned Jung lu Lee into a better hitter in case
Speaker 5: he's this culture he brought here. Now that's gonna go away.
Speaker 5: So you know, I'm not I'm not too excited. You know, great,
Speaker 5: they made some moves, but you know, those those are
Speaker 5: gonna be problems for a couple more years. It's not
Speaker 5: going away. And those two contracts are hurting many things.
Speaker 5: So you know, I don't know, I don't know. We'll
Speaker 5: have to see. You know, these young guys, I've seen
Speaker 5: enough with Grandma Cray three years. Right, he's been up
Speaker 5: and down three years.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 6: It looks like the.
Speaker 5: Same player to me. So that's why, madam. You know,
Speaker 5: did you see that throw a Domas made yesterday?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, yes, yes I did. Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: not ideal, JT. Not ideal.
Speaker 1: Let me appreciate you calling as always man four five, six,
Speaker 1: two seven. Look, I get it, and I actually kind
Speaker 1: of stand with JT in terms of the sentiment of
Speaker 1: I would like to think looking back in a couple
Speaker 1: of years that this was a really productive trade deadline
Speaker 1: for Buster Posey. But the reality is we just don't know,
Speaker 1: and some of the problems that the Giants are stuck
Speaker 1: with that's not going to be any different this time
Speaker 1: next year, whatever the season may be, and maybe even
Speaker 1: parts of twenty twenty eight too. Yeah, I think what
Speaker 1: it gives them right now is it gives them two
Speaker 1: areas to sell, Right. You can sell all of these
Speaker 1: prospects that nobody knows until they actually come up the
Speaker 1: level at which that they can be impactful players. Right,
Speaker 1: but if it's end of twenty eight twenty nine, it's
Speaker 1: two years of all of these guys are going to
Speaker 1: be awesome or might be awesome is probably a better
Speaker 1: way to put it. That you can sell forward to
Speaker 1: the fan base.
Speaker 2: And then you also have the well logan web still
Speaker 2: here in Jung Hooley's marketable and we're going to do it.
Speaker 2: We can. The bullpen's going to get tweaked in the
Speaker 2: offseason and all the so you can kind of sell
Speaker 2: the there's enough veterans left around, even if some of
Speaker 2: them or underperforming, and Bryce Eldridge's here to where you
Speaker 2: can also sell the we're going to try to be
Speaker 2: competitive in twenty twenty seven, all the while knowing that
Speaker 2: there may not even be much of a twenty twenty
Speaker 2: seven that comes. And now you're kicking the can down
Speaker 2: the road a little bit to twenty twenty eight, and
Speaker 2: you're you're almost to that point where these guys are
Speaker 2: going to start to come up at that point. So
Speaker 2: it just gives you different means. And look, if there's
Speaker 2: an opportunity to pivot off of somebody else, the Giants
Speaker 2: may be more likely if their record isn't what they
Speaker 2: want it to be, to move maybe a couple of
Speaker 2: those guys at that point.
Speaker 1: Let's sneak in one more here before Eric Branch joins us.
Speaker 1: Fill them on in Salinas, wants to talk about the
Speaker 1: moves Buster made.
Speaker 2: Fill them on. You're on these sports Leader.
Speaker 7: How are you guys doing?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Are you.
Speaker 7: A Buster is doing a great job? Giants fans or haters,
Speaker 7: and he just stop hating on the process. Let him
Speaker 7: do his job. Rafi Raffi is the only guy he's
Speaker 7: gonna have to deal with as far as the trains
Speaker 7: he's made, because isn't a trade from before he he
Speaker 7: became manager I.
Speaker 1: Know for it was his big free agent signing in
Speaker 1: the first Winter meetings.
Speaker 7: Was he I mean because a Damas. I mean, you'll.
Speaker 5: Figure it out.
Speaker 2: Chapman Chapman. Yeah, Chapman was the one that originally was
Speaker 2: signed to the one year contract with the opt out
Speaker 2: by far Han, and then far Han was doing the
Speaker 2: deal to extend Chapman, and then Buster Posey stepped in
Speaker 2: and was able to sort of finish the deal because
Speaker 2: it was deemed that far Hunt couldn't close the deal.
Speaker 2: So you may be thinking of Chapman as somebody that
Speaker 2: that Buster both regimes basically wanted, but Buster wound up
Speaker 2: getting getting the contract done over the top, uh, the
Speaker 2: the lengthier contract done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, Chapman, for all intentsive purposes, is
Speaker 1: a Buster guy. Willia Damas was buster big signing, and
Speaker 1: of course Raphael Dever's the big acquisition. So that's not
Speaker 1: too hate on Buster Posey. It's just the reality of
Speaker 1: his fingerprints are so much more on this team than
Speaker 1: it was last year. I want to be fair about it,
Speaker 1: but I think what you could say is Farhan was
Speaker 1: comfortable with a shorter Matt Chapman deal and Buster came
Speaker 1: in and said, ah, we'll give him the longer deal
Speaker 1: to get him here because we want him to be
Speaker 1: part of one of our guys.
Speaker 2: Which included a full note trade clause. Correct.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so anyway we can get a lot back into
Speaker 1: the Giants. Susan Slusser will join us coming up in
Speaker 1: about an hour five three zero. By the way, really
Speaker 1: likes the comment you made, JD about the hand that
Speaker 1: the Giants dealt themselves. So what's what we're dealing with,
Speaker 1: That's what it is. We keep it a buck man.
Speaker 1: Eric Branch talking to little Niners and of course our
Speaker 1: guy Greg Papa, who we'll get into that article as
Speaker 1: well as a lot of the injury news. Yeah, Mike
Speaker 1: Evans did not practice yesterday, Kaylon Black did not practice.
Speaker 1: Dejon stribbling dealing with a little bit of hamstring. So
Speaker 1: every time JD we talk about a unit of this
Speaker 1: team being a strength, I feel like I gotta hold
Speaker 1: my breath, and I know a lot of Niner fans
Speaker 1: feel that way here in the Bay area as well.
Speaker 1: Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle has been a
Speaker 1: while since we had him on and looking forward to
Speaker 1: it next on The Sports Leader.
Speaker 3: Live from Cal Football Media Day at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.
Speaker 3: This is Papa in Silver on the Sports Leader.
Speaker 1: Gonna be with you on a Tuesday, Greg Silver, John
Speaker 1: Dickinson live from Berkeley, and we are gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little forty nine ers right now after focusing on the
Speaker 1: Giants and the trade deadline. Stay tuned for Susan Slusser
Speaker 1: coming up at about an hour. But before we get to that,
Speaker 1: it is time to welcome in our good friend, also
Speaker 1: of the San Francisco Chronicle, one Eric Branch, who joins
Speaker 1: us on the UMA guest line. Branch long time, at
Speaker 1: least as far as it goes on the show, although
Speaker 1: we like to communicate frequently.
Speaker 2: How's it going, Happy new season.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we've had a few stops and starts, so I
Speaker 6: apologize for previous cancellations. But the third time, actually it
Speaker 6: appears to be the charm.
Speaker 2: Well every time Branch that you're supposed to come on,
Speaker 2: some news breaks, so I we're I know your head
Speaker 2: is probably on a swivel right now as you talk
Speaker 2: to us, but are feverishly checking your your messages and
Speaker 2: missed call logs.
Speaker 6: I would assume injury news is for coming right knowing
Speaker 6: this team having covered them for a while. Yeah, if
Speaker 6: we doing breaking news today, it'll be that.
Speaker 1: But no, that's not well that's why I said. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, let's book a on the player's day off.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe it'll be okay that way. But look, I mean,
Speaker 1: in all seriousness, when we had to postpone our last hit,
Speaker 1: it was for something that was unexpected, something that was
Speaker 1: really insightful and serious, and that was Kyle Shanahan calling
Speaker 1: the meeting with media to talk about the car accident,
Speaker 1: explained that there was a clerical error and that he
Speaker 1: was the one at fault. So just take us through
Speaker 1: that meeting where he was so emotional, feeling guilty for
Speaker 1: being at fault, and how all of this has affected
Speaker 1: him as he's now making his way back to coaching.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, in thinking about that, it really was,
Speaker 6: you know, surreal, just in that obviously increasingly in modern
Speaker 6: day professional sports, everything it's not stage, you know, you know,
Speaker 6: all the major principles are at a podium, they have
Speaker 6: their talking points, and this was not that. It was
Speaker 6: it was Kyle Shanahan behind his desk. You know, seven
Speaker 6: beat writers kind of circle circled around and you know,
Speaker 6: there's a pair of person in the back of John
Speaker 6: Lynch in the back, But it was really Kyle Shanahan,
Speaker 6: raw and very emotional.
Speaker 2: Just talking.
Speaker 6: You know, initially he spoke off the record. It wasn't
Speaker 6: because what he was saying off the record, you know,
Speaker 6: he didn't you know, end up saying on the record.
Speaker 6: But it was just wanted to I think he just
Speaker 6: wanted to be able to speak, you know for really
Speaker 6: kind of more a manned men. There are plenty if
Speaker 6: f woods. You know that you didn't get at the podium,
Speaker 6: but it was just speaking and you know, from his heart,
Speaker 6: and so yeah, it was you know, obviously it's a
Speaker 6: unique situation with the car accident and then you know,
Speaker 6: you know everything that has followed, and so you know,
Speaker 6: I don't think any of us had obviously seen you
Speaker 6: know Kyle and that you know, it wasn't like a
Speaker 6: forty nine ers coach. It was more like a you know,
Speaker 6: was a forty eight year old man kind of bearing
Speaker 6: his soul. Eric.
Speaker 2: As far as Kyle's ability to to get back out
Speaker 2: on the field and and and have more of the
Speaker 2: day to day control of of everything that's going on there,
Speaker 2: what what have you seen as training camp has progressed here, uh,
Speaker 2: you know through the last week and a half or
Speaker 2: so as far as just you know, him taking on
Speaker 2: more of a role. I've been out there a couple
Speaker 2: of days, but not every day because we're doing the show.
Speaker 2: So how have you seen him sort of increase his
Speaker 2: his uh, you know, control over everything.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's kind of just you know a little bit
Speaker 6: here and there, like little things like was it Saturday
Speaker 6: was the first day he you know, got up in
Speaker 6: front of the team and addressed them in a meeting.
Speaker 6: Yesterday was the first time he addressed them after practice. Uh,
Speaker 6: you know in the huddle. It was a few days
Speaker 6: ago that you know, instead of you know, standing with
Speaker 6: John lenn thirty yards behind the defense, he went on
Speaker 6: the offense like, which is normal spot and actually you
Speaker 6: know was doing you know, if not coaching, doing some talking.
Speaker 6: Even things like it was a couple of days ago
Speaker 6: that he was right next to a speaker. I mean
Speaker 6: there's loud music, uh, you know, blaring during practice and
Speaker 6: John Lynch it said, you know earlier in training camp,
Speaker 6: like let's relax with like the ACDC and uh, you
Speaker 6: know they're a little more soft rock. But you know,
Speaker 6: Kyle was like ten yards away from one of the
Speaker 6: speakers and it wasn't got rock. You know. So there
Speaker 6: are just these little things that indicate, you know, obviously
Speaker 6: that he's proceeding in you know, there's no concussion protocol
Speaker 6: for coaches and executives, but John Munches said they're kind
Speaker 6: of doing that, you know, taking a phased approach. You know,
Speaker 6: players have to complete five steps, and I think Shanahan
Speaker 6: this is probably completing, has to go through him more
Speaker 6: steps as the mixed progress.
Speaker 1: Talking to Eric Branch on the UMA guest line kind
Speaker 1: enough to join us on this Tuesday morning, love what
Speaker 1: you wrote about Dre Greenlaw. We were fortunate to have
Speaker 1: him on the show at training camp this last friday.
Speaker 1: He just seemed so happy, and I asked him to
Speaker 1: use one word to describe being back here, if it
Speaker 1: was revived, if it was motivated, and the first one
Speaker 1: he settled on was thankful. Now you had the numbers,
Speaker 1: it was six hundred and fourteen days and two games
Speaker 1: for a guy that when he's on the field we
Speaker 1: all have seen up close, just al varoj as he is.
Speaker 1: Which reunion story do you think benefits the team more
Speaker 1: in the end, green Law or debo.
Speaker 6: Would I would settle on green Law. I don't have
Speaker 6: the numbers off the top of my head, but you know,
Speaker 6: I want to say he played in six sixty four
Speaker 6: games in his first you know, start with the forty
Speaker 6: nine ers, and if you look at their record when
Speaker 6: he played and when he did not play, it is stark.
Speaker 6: And I know, you know sometimes that can be well, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 6: It's not just Dray green Law, but I do think
Speaker 6: it gives a you know, hints that his his value.
Speaker 6: And when you hear him with Fred Warner, you know,
Speaker 6: those are two of the biggest badass linebackers in the NFL.
Speaker 6: And so I would say, meanwhile, you know, it comes
Speaker 6: with a caveat at As you mentioned, he went through
Speaker 6: a recent strtchery. He played two games in six hundred
Speaker 6: four six hundred and fourteen days and didn't finish either
Speaker 6: of them. So you know, he's twenty nine, and he
Speaker 6: has obviously a pretty significant medical file at this point.
Speaker 6: And what makes them so special is you know, the
Speaker 6: way he plays, you know, hair on fire, going all out,
Speaker 6: and so they're legitimate concerns and questions about sensibility to
Speaker 6: hold up. But you know the encouraging thing, you know,
Speaker 6: from a forty nine Ers perspective, As you said, you know,
Speaker 6: his body hasn't felt this good since about a month
Speaker 6: before the Super Bowl, so that would be what January
Speaker 6: twenty twenty four, and you know, so you know, if
Speaker 6: you can avoid an injury in training camp, unlike a
Speaker 6: lot of his teammates can get to the season healthy,
Speaker 6: that would be you know, a significant step for him.
Speaker 2: And he's one of the few it feels at this
Speaker 2: point that that aren't dealing with some level of injury.
Speaker 2: I mean, how concerning It's always a story Eric that
Speaker 2: the camp injuries and just injuries in general with this team,
Speaker 2: But how concerning is the amount at this stage of
Speaker 2: camp versus other years, and and just the fact that
Speaker 2: this continues to be an ongoing issue almost despite anything
Speaker 2: the forty nine ers try to do to combat it,
Speaker 2: because they've tried to lot of things.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, this comes on the heels of you know,
Speaker 6: they nine million dollars into you know, upgrading their facilities.
Speaker 6: You know, more specifically, they're kind of hydro areas added
Speaker 6: three more physical therapists, change the trainee camp schedule instead
Speaker 6: of a regular practice they've inserted a dog through, so
Speaker 6: they don't have you know, they'll have back to back practices,
Speaker 6: a day off, a practice, a day off. I'm sure
Speaker 6: I shouldn't say day off. The jog through is in there,
Speaker 6: so just designed to let me wearn't haear, And yet
Speaker 6: you know, it's still kind of a similar situation. The
Speaker 6: other day they have seventeen different alignment on the ninety
Speaker 6: man roster. They had eight healthy defensive linement to finish
Speaker 6: a practice. You look at the wide receivers right now,
Speaker 6: they don't have you know, what would be the top three.
Speaker 6: Ricky piercew obviously out with season ending knee surgery, Mike
Speaker 6: Evans with the quadrice up, Sean stribbling with a hamstring.
Speaker 6: You know, we go on. But you know, Brent Boyer,
Speaker 6: the special teams coordinator, was talking about, you know, the
Speaker 6: punching competition, and he was saying, you know, hopefully we
Speaker 6: can have one, but you know, it could be the injuries,
Speaker 6: you know, make it that they can't have the luxury
Speaker 6: of having two punters. And of course we'll recall last
Speaker 6: year injuries or why they couldn't have you know, two
Speaker 6: kickers and they had to release Greg Joseph and they
Speaker 6: gave the job to Jake Moody early in training camp
Speaker 6: and obviously don't worked out. But the point being, yeah,
Speaker 6: it's days a blue ish.
Speaker 1: Eric Branch joining us on the UMA guest line. I
Speaker 1: want to go back to the twenty five predictions that
Speaker 1: you put out there, and you know, you went nine
Speaker 1: and eight no playoffs, and you left a lot of
Speaker 1: predictions out there and go reasons behind it, but just
Speaker 1: explain why you ultimately settled on a team that has
Speaker 1: high expectations, understands that a lot of their core players
Speaker 1: are only got so many limited shots left.
Speaker 2: What has got you concerned the most?
Speaker 1: Why you think this might be a slightly above five
Speaker 1: hundred season with no postseason?
Speaker 2: I mean, is it really the travel? Is it just age?
Speaker 1: Is it what we're already seeing with some of these
Speaker 1: injury scares cropping up again? Just wanted to elaborate on
Speaker 1: that one a little bit.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there are you know, they will set an NFL
Speaker 6: record for most of miles traveled. They do have one
Speaker 6: of the oldest rosters in the NFL. They do play
Speaker 6: in the NSC West. That's four games against the Rams
Speaker 6: and Seahawks, and yeah, most of their you know, the
Speaker 6: players that are leaning on the most heavily are you know,
Speaker 6: thirty and over. So I think because of that and
Speaker 6: just the you know, my assumption as injuries are going
Speaker 6: to play and you know, a role again, you know,
Speaker 6: just due to the age, if nothing else. That's why
Speaker 6: I was, you know, at nine and eight and now
Speaker 6: you know, was I too optimistic? Now I'm just kidding.
Speaker 6: I mean, we haven't gotten to weak one. But uh,
Speaker 6: you know, anyway, those are the reasons I went into
Speaker 6: the nine to eight prediction.
Speaker 2: A couple of wide receiver questions for you, branch Deebo Samuel,
Speaker 2: What what do you feel is the best way for
Speaker 2: the forty nine ers to use Deebo Samuel one? And
Speaker 2: because of the injuries, are they going to be afforded
Speaker 2: the luxury of using him in the way that's best
Speaker 2: suited for him and them as opposed to just needing
Speaker 2: him out there because he's one of the few guys
Speaker 2: that are that are healthy right now.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, it could be you know, we get
Speaker 6: to the season and it's like, oh, they're debout playing
Speaker 6: wide receiver and then the Steve Boat playing one back
Speaker 6: and he's also returning kicks, and this is a guy
Speaker 6: who they waited and waited and waited to sign. Uh,
Speaker 6: you know there was not a lash by to put
Speaker 6: nighters to sign Deebo Samuel. You know, he's thirty years old. Obviously,
Speaker 6: I think it's safe to say, you know, he's not
Speaker 6: gonna replicate his all Pro breakout season at this point.
Speaker 6: So in an ideal world, Deeba Samuel, you know, is
Speaker 6: an excellent kickoff returner and then he helps you out,
Speaker 6: you know, a wide receiver. You know, he plays a role,
Speaker 6: but he doesn't have to, you know, try to play
Speaker 6: a starring role. And he doesn't have to movement running back.
Speaker 6: So you know, we shall see. You know. The first
Speaker 6: step is they had to sign him because they don't
Speaker 6: have risky pearsall and you know they continue to deal
Speaker 6: with injuries. You know, he brought up the depth chart
Speaker 6: and you know, I don't think it's something then say
Speaker 6: you will want to have happened.
Speaker 2: I also wanted to follow just on on djon stribbling,
Speaker 2: what what what did did you see from him before
Speaker 2: he ended up needing to miss And I don't believe
Speaker 2: had he been out there in pads for for a
Speaker 2: day or had he gone out before, I'm getting maybe
Speaker 2: the days mixed up a little bit and was just
Speaker 2: has he impressed at least in the time he was
Speaker 2: out there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it comes with the caution of like, oh, you know,
Speaker 6: it's practice. I believe he wasn't least the first part
Speaker 6: of practice, and so you know, you hesitate to make
Speaker 6: snap judgments on rookies that said, he was just he's
Speaker 6: just very smooth. It looks fairly easy for him, and
Speaker 6: his catch radius is is impressive, and his frame is impressive.
Speaker 6: And then you know, we haven't seen some of the
Speaker 6: other things, like he's known as a really elite rent blocker,
Speaker 6: which is a huge thing in's offense. So the with
Speaker 6: up as they said before he got hurt. Yeah, now
Speaker 6: having said that, it's tough to say now, Like I said,
Speaker 6: the exception of Ada Jenkins was back in the day
Speaker 6: who couldn't stay on the street in his first training
Speaker 6: camp practices and could catch the ball and you're like, huh,
Speaker 6: why did you pick this guy in the first round?
Speaker 6: So U but usually you can't you don't necessarily say hey,
Speaker 6: they hit or they hit or they missed. But you know, yeah,
Speaker 6: h scribbling looked very very big before he had, you know,
Speaker 6: sit out.
Speaker 1: Final couple of minutes here with Eric Branch on the
Speaker 1: UMA guest line. Ricky pier Sall individually for him, just
Speaker 1: a real bummer. It's second practice back, reaggravates the PCL.
Speaker 1: Now he's done for the season. How can they combat
Speaker 1: the loss of Peer Saul Because it's very clear that
Speaker 1: when he was healthy and right, and when he was
Speaker 1: either unavailable or playing limited, the offense looked very different
Speaker 1: in terms of field stretching, man to man, coverage, explosiveness,
Speaker 1: and while Deebo Samuel coming back is a welcome edition,
Speaker 1: very different player from what a healthy Ricky Pearsall brought you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that that is significant because you're right there, you know,
Speaker 6: on the kind of rare times where he's been healthy,
Speaker 6: he's really good. I mean, he clearly has the talent,
Speaker 6: he has first round ability, He's a very special route runner,
Speaker 6: you know, just the way he can disguise his routs,
Speaker 6: and so it is a significant loss. And like as
Speaker 6: discussed you know previously, you know, a healthy Ricky Piersall
Speaker 6: at this point and my estimation is far better than
Speaker 6: a third year old Devo Samuel. So you know, in effect,
Speaker 6: you know, swapping pear Saw for Samuel, you know, is
Speaker 6: a pretty significant loss in that wide Receiver corps.
Speaker 1: We didn't want to let you go either without talking
Speaker 1: about our favorite article that you've written out of the
Speaker 1: many eight things lately in the SF Chronicle. That's, of course,
Speaker 1: the piece you put out on Greg Papa over the weekend.
Speaker 1: And look, I don't really know what to say. I
Speaker 1: don't think I have a question on of it. I
Speaker 1: just want to say, very well done. I know that's
Speaker 1: the kind of thing you didn't necessarily want to write.
Speaker 1: We're all thinking of him every single day, and even
Speaker 1: as someone that's been pretty in the know with a
Speaker 1: lot of what you detailed in that piece, it was
Speaker 1: a really emotional read. So just thank you for putting
Speaker 1: that out there. I know that he really appreciates it
Speaker 1: and we miss him every single day on the show.
Speaker 1: But yeah, just very proud of that piece and well done, Eric.
Speaker 6: Well, thanks very much. He really is remarkable, beyond obviously
Speaker 6: his career as the broadcast it right now, that was
Speaker 6: two hours of talking with him that he did mostly
Speaker 6: were talking. I could have been talking to a cancer
Speaker 6: doctor or a lung specialist. I mean, he knows everything
Speaker 6: about everything that he's dealing with hostibly better than his doctors,
Speaker 6: and anyway, he's inspiring on a lot of different levels.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I was privileged to able to speak with
Speaker 6: him and share his story, which is, uh, you know,
Speaker 6: pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: Well, and that is one of the great things about Greg,
Speaker 2: right is the preparation, no matter what it is, and
Speaker 2: the knowledge of of what of what's going on, whether
Speaker 2: it's preparing for a game or to do a show
Speaker 2: or in this case, uh, you know, with his diagnosis
Speaker 2: and his current fight. So that doesn't surprise me that
Speaker 2: that that that's how that conversation went. Branch.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I was like, thank god I was talking
Speaker 6: to him. I mean, not only does he was able
Speaker 6: to you know, I'm an English major, so you know,
Speaker 6: it was a lot to kind of work through all
Speaker 6: his various medical issues, but you know, he was kind
Speaker 6: of be able to explain it in more layman's terms.
Speaker 6: And then of course he's a quote machine, you know,
Speaker 6: and so I had to you know, the challenge was
Speaker 6: can choose which took his great soundbites, you know, to
Speaker 6: put in the article, you know, because as you know,
Speaker 6: if you read it, you know, despite all that he's
Speaker 6: dealing with and it's very serious. He's able to maintain this.
Speaker 2: Well. It was a great read, and we encourage everybody
Speaker 2: to to check it out. Obviously, we get we get
Speaker 2: the questions a lot, you know, hey, how's Papa doing
Speaker 2: and and how are things going? And what has it
Speaker 2: been like? And and you know to that point, we
Speaker 2: we do know a lot of what has been going
Speaker 2: on that that he was willing to openly discuss and
Speaker 2: be a part of of what you were able to write.
Speaker 2: So for anybody that really wants the update, that's it,
Speaker 2: in his words, a lot of it. So we we
Speaker 2: definitely encourage everybody to check it out. And of course
Speaker 2: we we love him and we're you know, keep keep fighting, Pop,
Speaker 2: keep fighting, brother. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much Eric for coming by, and we'll talk
Speaker 1: to you about a lot of niners in the coming
Speaker 1: weeks as well. And uh, hopefully we can't get our
Speaker 1: guy Papa in there to give some site, but look,
Speaker 1: health is wealth, got to take care of himself first
Speaker 1: and looking forward to when we do get him back,
Speaker 1: and until then, we'll keep reading every piece you put
Speaker 1: out there, because whether it's on Papa dre Greenlaw Deebo, Samuel, etc.
Speaker 2: It's good always reading the Chronicle. So thanks Branch.
Speaker 6: I appreciate you guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Thanks absolutely, Eric Branch of the SF Chronicle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the one thing I did want to share off
Speaker 1: of that piece is I'm not really into spreading health
Speaker 1: details unless they become public exactly right, Like, can't be
Speaker 1: doing that. And you know, we've gotten a lot of questions,
Speaker 1: and I mean, he is just fighting his ass off,
Speaker 1: that's first and foremost. But in a rather slightly humorous note,
Speaker 1: we've had a rare medical bonding moment because he had
Speaker 1: told me when he got the temporary diabetes from all
Speaker 1: the steroids. So he's sending me pictures of some of
Speaker 1: the blood checking he's had to do and talks about
Speaker 1: doing some of the insulin shots and everything. He's like,
Speaker 1: he sends me the picture of his first ever insulin
Speaker 1: shot and he goes, yeah, I can't be easy for you.
Speaker 1: I think about you every time I do this, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, I am the victim here. It is
Speaker 1: so hard for me and what I deal with. But no,
Speaker 1: it's been good to in a really really hard situation,
Speaker 1: we have been able to bond over that I actually
Speaker 1: got sent the wrong supplies one day. I sent that
Speaker 1: to him, and I'm like, hope U c SF doesn't
Speaker 1: do this to you. So now I'm glad it's just
Speaker 1: a temporary thing for him, because yeah, you know, the
Speaker 1: insulin shots and the blood checking. I wouldn't say it's
Speaker 1: something I look forward to, but in this context, I'm
Speaker 1: by far have it the easy way.
Speaker 2: Well, and he's just fighting, I mean you said it.
Speaker 2: I mean he's battling and fighting. And there have been
Speaker 2: a lot of ups and downs that that we've you know,
Speaker 2: to your point, known a lot of But at the
Speaker 2: same time, it's it's also not not our story to
Speaker 2: necessarily tell other than the fact that that we know
Speaker 2: he's fighting. So to have him him just be so
Speaker 2: open as he was in the article with Branch was
Speaker 2: was tremendous and inspiring and and and you just you
Speaker 2: just can't not love the guy. Oh, and also just
Speaker 2: tells you how fragile the whole process is, like totally
Speaker 2: bone marrow transplant is a major procedure. And that went well,
Speaker 2: thank good, that was incredible, That was successful.
Speaker 1: That was yeah, and even so there's still a long
Speaker 1: road ahead of just all the other type of things
Speaker 1: that can go sideways.
Speaker 2: But he's a warrior. There's no other way to put it.
Speaker 1: And as I told him on his last show, I
Speaker 1: used the quote he said about John Weeks. I said,
Speaker 1: you're a machine bro. So he's gonna keep fighting, no doubt.
Speaker 1: Let's get back into some of the niners as well,
Speaker 1: and you know, injury updates. Snick Wagner had a lot
Speaker 1: of good notes from practice yesterday. We of course were
Speaker 1: occupied with the trade deadline and doing the show being
Speaker 1: live on the air. We'll get into that part of
Speaker 1: it with Susan Slusser, but we got to also get
Speaker 1: into this wide receiver situation. Mike Evans did not practice.
Speaker 1: Dajon Stribbling is dealing with hamstring tightness. Ricky pearsall now
Speaker 1: officially done for the season. It's Papa and Silver with JD.
Speaker 1: Extra love to Papa. I'm the sports Leader.