The SF Giants ghosted this minor league club. Now its 23-year-old CEO is starting a new league.

The Volcanoes’ beef isn’t with O’Conner, though. Mickey Walker says they secured one conversation with the Giants, with whom they previously had a “very communicative” relationship. During that conversation, he says the Giants’ brass, including Larry Baer and Farhan Zaidi, told them the proposed minor league cuts were up to the MLB. After that, the Giants ghosted their Single-A affiliate.

“We had no idea if we were still on this list because we were told that the list was fluid and changing and not final,” Walker says. “We were sitting there with our hands tied waiting for other people to decide our fate for us.”

The ominous news was public in early 2020, so the Volcanoes planned to rally their fans for the upcoming summer if this was indeed to be their last Single-A season. That obviously didn’t happen either. Walker says he has no idea who would’ve even been on the Volcanoes roster in 2020, since the season was canned and the Giants were MIA.

The Volcanoes did get creative over the summer — they ran a couple high school baseball tournaments and turned the stadium into an Airbnb for small groups. The Airbnb helped more than they expected, and they were able to bring back and pay some of their workers again (though it goes without saying they didn’t have a profitable offseason).

On Dec. 9, 2020, Walker was eating breakfast with his family when he saw a tweet from the Giants announcing the four teams who’d been invited to “join our player development program.” The Volcanoes weren’t on the list.

Giants, Scott Kazmir Agree To Minor League Deal

Kazmir was in the Moneyball draft! He was teammates with Fred McGriff!

Comeback season is upon us, it seems. The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Scott Kazmir, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney. He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training.

It’s been nearly five years since Kazmir, now 37, pitched in the Majors with the Dodgers. Current San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was serving as general manager under president Andrew Friedman in Los Angeles at that point, and he was also an assistant GM in the Athletics’ front office in 2013 when Oakland inked Kazmir to a two-year deal.

There’s some obvious history between Zaidi and Kazmir, who at one point was one of the game’s brightest young starters. Kazmir broke out with the Rays in 2005, drawing Rookie of the Year votes that season and going on to make a pair of All-Star teams with Tampa Bay, where he posted a 3.51 ERA and a 25.1 percent strikeout rate from 2005-2008 (back when the league-average strikeout percentage was just 17 percent).

Death threats, bigotry, courage: Behind Giants’ historic hiring of Frank Robinson

“Bob Lurie gets all the credit,” Herndon said. “He had the foresight to do what he needed to do. San Francisco was ready for Frank Robinson, but I’m sure Bob Lurie felt a lot of stress. He gets the credit, no doubt about it, to hire a man like Frank.”

Behind the scenes, Robinson wasn’t fully supported, including by the GM hired after him. Tom Haller, the Giants farm director and former All-Star catcher who replaced Spec Richardson, never seemed to have Robinson’s back.

“The communication between the GM and manager is not like most would have,” said Don Buford, a Giants coach under Robinson and his teammate in Baltimore. “Haller wanted to have Jim Davenport manage. They were close friends. But that was the wrong concept for a general manager.”
Corey Busch, who was Lurie’s right-hand man as executive vice president, said, “Frank never would’ve been Tom’s choice. Tom always resented the fact he inherited Frank and was stuck with Frank. It was not a one-way thing. Frank didn’t like Haller, either. It was not a match made in heaven.”

One of many issues was Robinson didn’t appreciate that Haller wouldn’t throw in another $5,000 to sign the Giants’ second-round draft pick in 1982, a high school kid from San Carlos named Barry Bonds, who wanted $75,000. Haller wouldn’t budge beyond $70,000, Bonds enrolled at Arizona State, Pittsburgh drafted him in 1985, and the future home run record-holder would not make his Giants debut until 1993….

“He could manage as well as anybody,” Buford said. “A lot of people thought he was too harsh, too mean, whatever. What he wanted was just solid, sound fundamental baseball. The Giants needed a guy to change the attitude of the ballclub, and Frank was a fighter and hustler and demanded players be the same way.”

Jake McGee heads to Giants on reported 2-year deal

Left-handed reliever Jake McGee found a new home after one season in Los Angeles, agreeing to a reported two-year deal with the Giants, per multiple reports.

He joins Alex Wood as Dodgers to sign with the Giants this offseason. Wood inked a one-year, $3 million deal with San Francisco in January.

McGee was remarkably effective in 2020 with the Dodgers, posting a 2.66 ERA and 1.67 FIP in 24 games in relief, striking out 33 against only three walks in 20⅓ innings. He led all Dodgers in strikeout rate (41.7 percent) and FIP, and was even more dominant against right-handers, holding them to just 7-for-52 (.135/.167/.269) while striking out more than half of his batters faced from the opposite side.

McGee found his success with the simplest of plans, throwing his four-seam fastball a whopping 96.4 percent of the time, throwing just 12 non-fastballs all season.

Drew Robinson’s Remarkable Second Act (Trigger Warning: Suicide)

ON APRIL 16, 2020, Drew Robinson woke up, spread peanut butter on a cinnamon-raisin bagel, pulsed a green smoothie, sat at his kitchen table and finished writing a note that would explain to his family and friends why he had decided to end his life. He had spent the past month alone in his house, confined by the pandemic and quarantined in his own mind. He hated his life. He hated that no one knew how much he hated his life.

“I hope eventually that you guys will realize that no one could’ve seen this coming to prevent it because of how hard I try to hide it,” he wrote, “and that it’s no one else’s fault.”
...
He knows that sometimes life is like a vise, unrelenting, cranking tighter and tighter. He knows how crippling that can be. He knows that there is a burgeoning mental health crisis in this country, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 11% of American adults surveyed in June considered suicide, that suicidal ideation among 18- to 24-year-olds was at 26%. He knows this is difficult to talk about. He knows it’s even more difficult to suffer through. He knows because he lived it.
...
“I look at this thing and think, I’m stronger than you,” he says. “I’m stronger than what I thought I was.”

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or is in emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK(8255) or at suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

This is a long and fairly difficult piece to read.  Also well done and I think important. (LINK FIXED, thanks RR)

Tommy La Stella, San Francisco Giants finalizing contract, sources say

Second baseman Tommy La Stella and the San Francisco Giants are finalizing a contract, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

The deal is expected to be for three years.

The Oakland Athletics, needing an everyday second baseman who could provide consistent offensive production, acquired La Stella in a late-August trade with the Los Angeles Angels. He immediately paid dividends, finishing the season with a .289 batting average in 27 games with the A’s.

Giants sign Alex Wood to one-year contract

The Giants signed free-agent left-hander Alex Wood to a one-year, $3 million contract on Thursday. Wood can make an additional $3 million in performance bonuses.

Wood was an All-Star for the Dodgers in 2017 and has a career record of 53-44 with a 3.45 ERA in eight Major League seasons, also appearing for the Braves and Reds. The 30-year-old went 0-1 with a 6.39 ERA in nine games, including two starts, for Los Angeles in 2020.

Former Giant Mac Williamson sues club over concussion that ‘ended my career’

Former Giants outfielder Mac Williamson is suing the organization over the concussion he sustained in 2018 when he tripped over a bullpen mound at Oracle Park and hit his head on the wall, saying he continues to have symptoms that include blurred vision, and that the incident “ended my career.”

“My life hasn’t been the same since suffering the injury,” Williamson said in a statement released by a public relations firm for Williamson’s San Francisco-based attorney, Randy Erlewine.

The rare action by a player against his former team over an on-field injury names China Basin Ballpark Company LLC as the defendant. That firm is controlled by the Giants’ partnership group.

The suit, filed in Superior Court in San Francisco, alleges negligence and seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages. It says Williamson was “one of the best power hitters in Major League Baseball” when he got hurt. In a Zoom news conference Tuesday, Erlewine said Williamson could have earned “tens of millions of dollars” had the injury not occurred.

Giants-Mariners Tuesday game postponed due to air quality, series moves to Oracle Park

With air conditions considered “very unhealthy” in the Seattle area on Tuesday and an Air Quality alert in effect in the region until Thursday at noon, the San Francisco Giants are headed back to the Bay Area.

A two-game series scheduled to begin Tuesday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle was postponed and the teams are now expected to play the games this week at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

The league has not yet determined whether the Giants and Mariners will play a doubleheader on Wednesday or if the teams will take advantage of a mutual off day on Thursday and play one game on each of the next two days.

Alex Dickerson talks false positives and false reports

On Sunday, the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres played a doubleheader. They did that because a false positive result on a coronavirus test of a Giants player postponed Friday’s and Saturday’s games.

Alex Dickerson was that player, and multiple tests afterwards — including one at a hospital — proved that he did not, in fact, have the coronavirus.

But that all came after a few reporters had already leaked who the Giants player was, and even “reported” some rumors about irresponsible, protocol-breaking behavior by Dickerson that led to contracting the virus (that, again, he didn’t actually contract).

On Sunday, Dickerson opened up with the media. He confirmed that he was the positive test, and expressed a lot of hurt that the baseless rumors had been printed and perpetuated. Dickerson is presumably a responsible human, and has a wife who is 39 weeks pregnant. He’s been taking the pandemic, and the spread of the virus, very seriously (which is more than a certain member of the Padres who he faced on Sunday can say…).

Dickerson pointed out how harmful it has been to his family, due to the cruel snowballing nature of social media.

Orlando Cabrera To Retire From Baseball

OH NO, EXPO!

Last season, Orlando Cabrera batted .238 with the Indians and Giants, posting a 61 OPS+. The season before that, he posted a 76 OPS+. The season before that, he posted an 85 OPS+. Orlando Cabrera has been declining, and just turned 37 years old. As a free agent, Cabrera didn’t drum up much interest, which I’m guessing is why he’s intending to hang ‘em up. Enrique Rojas:

  “Orlando Cabrera to retire from baseball, he said in Colombia radio station. Thanks for memories!”

Cabrera had a long career that’ll be difficult to forget. He debuted with the Expos in 1997, and remained there until the giant Nomar Garciaparra three-way trade in 2004. That year, with the Red Sox, Cabrera won a World Series. He wound up with the Angels, earning the unfortunate nickname “The Wizard of O.C.”, and then he wound up with the White Sox, and the A’s, and the Twins, and the Reds, and the Indians, and the Giants ... He remained a shortstop to the end, and collected 2,055 hits. He will always be remembered as a pest. An absolute pest.

Giants and Pablo Sandoval agree to a three-year, $17.15 million contract

That can buy 1,715,000 Kung Fu Panda dolls

While the Giants have some work to do in order to keep Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain for the long haul, they have at least locked up a key position player through his arbitration seasons.

The Giants just announced that they have agreed to a three-year contract with third baseman Pablo Sandoval. Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News reports that the deal is worth $17.15 million guaranteed and includes some performance-based incentives. He’ll make $3.2 million this season, $5.7 million in 2013 and $8.25 million in 2014.

Sandoval was arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter after batting .315/.357/.552 with 23 home runs, 70 RBI and a .909 OPS over 117 games in 2011. The 25-year-old owns a .307/.356/.501 batting line over his first four seasons in the majors. If he can stay in shape and continue to produce similar numbers, he’ll be a tremendous bargain.

Tim Lincecum asks $21.5M in arbitration

That’s still just barely more than what Barry Zito will make.

Giants ace Tim Lincecum asked for $21.5 million in salary arbitration Tuesday and was offered $17 million by the club.

The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner’s request neared the record amount sought in arbitration. Houston pitcher Roger Clemens asked for $22 million in 2005.

San Francisco’s offer was the highest in arbitration history, topping the $14.25 million the New York Yankees proposed for shortstop Derek Jeter in 2001.

“I’m overall optimistic that we’ll find common ground without a hearing room,” Bobby Evans, Giants vice president of baseball operations, said before seeing Lincecum’s filing numbers. “It’s a process that begins long before today in terms of conversations about possible deals that work for both sides. That process has continued in a mutual fashion. At this point we haven’t reached a conclusion.”

Lincecum, the winning pitcher in the Game 5 World Series clincher at Texas in 2010, earned $13.1 million last season and completed a two-year deal worth $23.2 million.

MLB Trade Rumors: Bartolo Colon Agrees to Sign With Unknown Team

Bartolo Colon has agreed to a deal with an unknown club reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). The right-hander wouldn’t divulge the team because he has not yet passed his physical.

Pretty sure it’s either the All-Stars or the Champs.

BN: A Proposal To Break The Territorial-Rights Logjam Between The A’s And The Giants

With a doff of the chapeau to Mr. Calcaterra, a modest proposal indeed:

All of the two-team territories but one share the same counties: the Yankees and Mets; the White Sox and Cubs; and the Dodgers and Angels. Only the Giants and A’s split the counties surrounding their home cities. The A’s territory includes Alameda and Contra Costa counties; the Giants’ territory includes San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey and Marin counties, “plus Santa Clara County with respect to another major league team.” San Jose is in Santa Clara county.

St. Louisian Don Mueller, former big-league star, dies

Don Mueller...

St. Louis native Don Mueller, who led the majors in hits in 1954 and roamed the outfield with Willie Mays of the New York Giants, died on Wednesday. He was 84.

Mueller, who played at CBC, was signed by the Giants in 1944 and made his big-league debut four years later.

At age 23, he became a starter for the Giants in right field and hit .291 in his first full season.

...A career .296 hitter, Mueller became known as “Mandrake the Magician.” He finished his career with two seasons with the White Sox in 1958 and 59.

Oakland Athletics Will Be Granted Permission To Move To San Jose, According To Report

Rosicrucia

n

l Park!

The Oakland Athletics may not be in Oakland for much longer, if new reports about the prove true: USA Today writer Bob Nightengale reports that sources say the Athletics will be granted permission to move to San Jose by February.

This move has been a possibility simmering on a back burner for some time now; Rob Neyer wrote about the potential of the San Jose A’s in September. But while it has been a possibility for many years, with the A’s looking to improve their accommodations from the outdated O.co Coliseum to a new ballpark and/or get out from under the shadow of the successful San Francisco Giants, this new approval may accelerate a timeline to get the A’s out of the city they have called home since 1968.

Schulman: Giants: The winter of our disconnect

Coherentism rocks! Sabean’s team-building philosophy rolls!

I’m bringing up ancient history because it is very relevant this morning in illustrating Sabean’s team-building philosophy.

Sabean always has believed that it makes little sense to have one or two big players if the supporting cast is weak. He would rather own a room full of toys than one Xbox 360. He was ripped for that philosophy in 1996, ripped for it again after the 2003 season when he didn’t make a move for Vlad Guerrero and is being ripped for it today. But he is not budging.

...Two months later, we know it’s not going to be this way. If the Giants’ heavy lifting is over, Cabrera and Angel Pagan will have been the primary additions for 2012. I must admit I think folks are underestimating Cabrera’s potential impact. The guy did come to bat 706 times for Kansas City last year and hit .305/.340/.470 with 18 home runs from the second spot in the order and playing 81 home games in a pitchers’ park. An outlier year? Kind of hard to say that when the guy is supposed to be 27 years old.

To compete for another division title, the Giants are banking on a healthy Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez, a fitter and more determined Huff in another contract year, Panda being Panda, a few more hits from Brandon Crawford, the potential emergence of Brandon Belt, better defense and athleticism, and the usual strong pitching staff, which largely remained intact.

NYT: Bonds Avoids Prison - Sentenced To 30 Days Home Confinement

Starts with GWB’s attack in the State of the Union, ends with a whimper. Parallels to Iraq at your own risk.

Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects: San Francisco Giants

Come back Kenny Kolkhorst, wherever you are.

1. Gary Brown, OF
2. Tommy Joseph, 1B/C
3. Heath Hembree, RHP
4. Joe Panik, SS
5. Francisco Peguero, OF
6. Andrew Susac, C
7. Eric Surkamp, LHP
8. Kyle Crick, RHP
9. Ehire Adrianza, SS
10. Hector Sanchez, C

The current strength of San Francisco’s system is in position players, led by speedster Gary Brown and longball threat Tommy Joseph. Brandon Belt, who graduated to the majors in 2011, could make an impact for years to come. Scouting director John Barr added two polished college hitters in the 2011 draft, with St. John’s shortstop Joe Panik in the first round and Oregon State catcher Andrew Susac in the second.

However, the Giants don’t have another can’t-miss position player like Posey in the system. He’s determined to catch again and club officials will relent to his wishes, but they’ve talked about moving their best hitter out of harm’s way in the not too distant future.

Buster Posey’s leg rehabilitation progressing nicely in Georgia | SFGiants.com: News

Giants catcher Buster Posey is continuing his smooth recovery from extensive left leg injuries and appears poised to intensify his training, head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner said Friday.

Interpreting Scott Boras’ Comments On Prince Fielder: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

The big concern for anyone signing Prince is that he will age like his father.

There has been some talk of Boras trying to get Fielder signed to a three or four year contract, so that Prince gets another bite at the free agency apple. That strategy, I would think, would work best for teams and Prince’s long-term earnings. Of course, who knows what silly offer could already be on the table? I am just glad the Red Sox already have Adrian Gonzalez.

Episode 60: ZiP It, Thomas

Noticed on Twitter that Szym did a long Giants podcast, so I figured I’d send it to Repoz since Szym didn’t.

NY Times: Prosecutors Seek 15 Months in Barry Bonds Case

In court documents filed late Thursday, prosecutors objected to a recommendation by a federal probation officer that Bonds get only probation when he’s sentenced for obstruction of justice on Dec. 16.

In the documents, prosecutors asked that Bonds be sentenced to 15 months in prison. ...

Federal sentencing guidelines for conviction on the obstruction charge recommend a prison sentence between 15 and 21 months. But Bonds’ lawyers have cited an investigative report prepared by a federal probation officer for the judge that recommended a sentence of probation.

Defense lawyers said in a previous motion they disagreed, however, with the probation report’s recommendation that Bonds spend an unspecified time under “location monitoring,” a form of house arrest.

Giants Acquire Pagan From Mets For Torres, Ramirez

The Giants and Mets have agreed on a deal that will send Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez to New York and Angel Pagan to San Francisco, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The deal is pending physicals, Sherman reports (via Twitter).

Thanks to Magoo.