Sports
San Francisco Giants Are MLB's Biggest Disappointment in 2024
The San Francisco Giants are wrapping up the season on a nice roll.
And that’s the olive on top of the two-hour-old sundae.
The Giants were 2024’s Most Disappointing Team. It’s one man’s opinion, and that makes it a unanimous selection.
Really, the only competition comes from the Rangers, but you know Bruce Bochy takes a siesta every season after winning a championship; the Rays, who finally played down to their talent level; and the Cubs and Red Sox, just because their names are permanently etched on the list.
En route to their third straight non-winning season after a 107-win campaign had them primed to be the 2020s Team of the Decade, the Giants were such a disaster in 2024, even the things that went right went wrong.
But let’s start with the things that truly did go wrong.
Management believed adding a bunch of B-level free agents and a reunion with an old-school manager who got run out of San Diego would be enough to increase the team win total from the 70’s to the 90’s. The fans disagreed. The fans were right.
The fans believed the team’s many highly trumped-up prospects were ready to take the team toward the top again. Management disagreed. Management was right.
It took the first half of the season for management to admit its mistake. It’s taken the second half in order for the fans to recognize their miscalculation.
The result: a team that was projected to be a playoff contender but never really was, one that seriously lacked in both power and speed. And now there’s a new debate…
Let’s fire the general manager. Let’s dump the manager. Let’s sign 37-year-old Paul Goldschmidt. Let’s give 19-year-old Bryce Eldridge a chance.
Ugh. Here we go again.
Nothing is more disappointing than not being able to identify the source of your disappointment, dooming you to experience it again. See: Giants, 2017-2020, and now 2022-24.
No team learns less from history. Remember, this was a franchise that won three titles last decade… and then failed to even make the playoffs the next season all three times.
The 2024 game plan pitched well at the owners’ meeting: Take Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, Jung Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler and Jordan Hicks, add them to a team that had been in second place as late as Sept. 3 last season, and it’s 2010 all over again.
If only Chapman, Snell, Ray and Soler could turn back the clock like that.
Let’s talk Chapman. Great guy. Brilliant defensively. The fans love him.
Kinda sounds like Brandon Crawford, doesn’t he? In fact, the year after the Giants finally cut ties with their championship shortstop at age 37, they got so caught up in Chappy Mania, they added six – SIX – years and $151 million to his deal just so the fans could watch him turn 37 before uncomfortably cutting him, just as they did with Crawford.
With all the hoopla and the ours-until-retirement contact, you’d have thought Chapman was an MVP candidate, but, alas, he’s hitting .246 with 78 RBIs. Not terrible, but Crawford did better than that (.298 and 90) as a shortstop in 2021, before it cost the Giants $32 million just for fans to be able to gush “but he’s good defensively” as he aged predictably the next two years.
Even cutting ties with the cooked-past-well-done Crawford made the Giants look bad. Their much-ballyhooed replacement, Marco Luciano, was so ill-prepared this season, he not only got moved to second base, where he was equally fumble-handed, but also used as a 22-year-old DH so the fans would have less opportunity to boo him.
And then there’s Tyler Fitzgerald, the new heir apparent to Crawford’s sunglasses. He’s having a surprisingly good season…
Wait, this just in: Casey Schmitt, who knows Sacramento so well he should offer to be the A’s realtor, contributed a 6-for-14 spree to a shockingly encouraging 7-2 late-September run through Baltimore, Kansas City and Arizona. He’s now co-favorite to win the shortstop job next season, pending the availability of a veteran journeyman like Nick Ahmed, who walked in off the street and beat out Luciano last spring.
And then there’s Snell. Nothing says “Welcome to the Farhan Zaidi era of Giants baseball” quite like the lefty’s saga.
Unless you recall the previous lefty’s saga—aka the Carlos Rodon debacle—which was basically the Snell prequel.
You remember Snell. The best pitcher in the National League—maybe all of baseball—last season. The perfect addition for a team that plays in a pitchers’ park and has had trouble (understatement of the century) attracting big-time talent.
Scott Boras wanted big bucks. Oracle Park prints big bucks. It was a match made in…
March. Just late enough so that Snell, the key to a Giants resurgence, would struggle early, then get hurt.
The good news: The Giants gave themselves an out in Snell’s contract after one year. Zaidi’s logic: We’re going to make Snell prove it even though he’d already proven it.
The bad news: Boras also negotiated an out in the deal, and look who has turned into the best pitcher in baseball again. Luckily, the Giants have him locked up…
Until Sunday.
So what you have is a team that won 79 games last season, fired its manager, then signed a half-dozen veterans with resumes to complement a bunch of “can’t-miss” prospects who were deemed ready solely based on a memorable moment or two last September, some at Triple-A.
And here we are, a weekend before the end of the season, still struggling to top last year’s win total.
That’s disappointing. And so is this:
Veterans Michael Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski are finishing strong, which means they’re likely to be retained to hit .240 again… and keep the Giants from mortgaging McCovey Cove to add Juan Soto or Paul Goldschmidt. Or maybe both.
And who needs Gerrit Cole, Corbin Burnes, Shane Bieber or Walker Buehler (all with California ties) when you’ve got Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong, Landen Roupp and Mason Black?
Management: We can get Frankie Montas, who pitched well for Melvin six years ago, with an opt-out in case we’re wrong.
Fans: Have you seen what former 15th-round pick Tommy Romero has been doing at Sacramento? Let’s give him a shot.
Welcome to Giants baseball, where next year’s slogan will be: The Bay Area’s best… and the Bay Area’s worst.
Sports
A'ja Wilson has no shortage of motivation after Aces' early exit in '24
Oct 1, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart (30) during game two of the 2024 WNBA Semi-finals at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images LAS VEGAS — Entering her eighth season in the WNBA, Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson is poised to build on what was arguably the most dominant individual campaign in league history.
Wilson joined Cynthia Cooper (1997) as the second player in league history to win a unanimous MVP award and joined an exclusive club as the fourth player to win the award three times. She averaged 26.9 points and 11.9 rebounds per game last season and set the all-time single-season mark for points (1,021) and rebounds (451).
Unfortunately for Las Vegas, injuries and fatigue from their two previous championship runs mounted and resulted in the team’s worst regular-season record (27-13) since 2019. The Aces’ three-peat hopes ended with a 76-62 home loss to the New York Liberty to drop their semifinal series 3-1.
It’s that loss on her home floor that served as Wilson’s motivation this offseason.
“Losing sucks, especially on your home court,” Wilson said “It still kind of burns a little bit, but I’ve used that as fuel to help my teammates understand how hard it is to win in this league. Yes, we can celebrate the two championships. They were great. But for us to move forward, we have to understand how hard this league is and value the basketball and the little things. I think that’s what we lacked last season, so we’re going to make sure that we can show up better than we did.”
While the Aces appeared to be on top of the world heading into their potential three-peat campaign in 2024, the reality inside the locker room was that both the internal and external pressure to win another championship had become suffocating. A common theme across media day was the fact that the team feels less pressure entering the 2025 season, a sentiment Wilson shared as the unquestioned leader of the team.
“(Three-peat talks) obviously impacted us, because it’s like, y’all think we don’t want to win? We’re trying as well,” Wilson said.
“I would definitely say it’s refreshing this year. I feel like this is one of my only years where it feels like there’s no weight. There’s a lot of weight to be defending champs. It’s a lot of weight to be trying to win one. We don’t have that. We actually have a clean slate to really dial into getting back to who we are culturally, like, in our system and everything.”
Leading the Aces back to the top of the mountain for a third time in four years is one of a few historically significant achievements Wilson can collect this upcoming season. Wilson could also become the first four-time MVP in league history, though the meaning of that is something she hasn’t quite allowed herself to ponder yet.
“I haven’t given it much thought, but it would be a blessing to have my name in that conversation,” Wilson said. “Every year, I try to be better than I was the year before just to give myself a chance in this league. Because the league is getting better. We’re growing. At this point, you just want to maintain your stamina. You want to maintain your mental, all of that, because the season gets hard. I can’t think too much about that just yet, but I’m definitely going to try to be better than I was last year.”
As Aces coach Becky Hammon put it, fans can expect to see an even better version of Wilson this season.
“What I see is, she went and got better,” Hammon said. “Which is hard to do when you’re already the best, but it speaks to her work ethic, her desire and her mindset this whole offseason. We talked a lot this offseason. She’s a busy lady, but I can tell you what she always does is her workouts. She’s always getting her workouts in. That comes first and foremost, she never gets her priorities jumbled up.”
When Hammon was asked what a player like Wilson would possibly need to improve after last season’s campaign, the coach did not feel like revealing too much.
“There was (something for Wilson to improve), and she did,” Hammon said. “I’m not going to tell you what it was. Actually, there were two things.”
–Will Despart, Field Level Media
Sports
Jacob Wilson joins Aaron Judge in spotlight for Yankees-A's series
May 5, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson (5) throws to first for an out against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Lee-Imagn Images The top two hitters in the majors square off Friday night when the New York Yankees face the Athletics in the opener of a three-game series in Sacramento, Calif.
It’s no surprise to see Yankees star Aaron Judge off to a superb start after winning American League MVP honors last season. He has a major league-best .400 batting average and entered Thursday’s play tied for the big-league lead with 12 homers and 34 RBIs.
But who had Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson ranking second in the majors at .357 as the season nears the quarter pole? Wilson has played in just 64 career games and quickly has solidified himself as a future All-Star, perhaps even this season.
Sharing the marquee board with Judge seems quite surreal for the 23-year-old shortstop who was the No. 6 overall pick of the 2023 draft.
“It’s a great feeling, for sure,” Wilson said of his name being mentioned with Judge. “Obviously, everybody has seen what he is doing. It’s pretty incredible watching him do his thing on a daily basis. To be up there with him is pretty cool for me.
“I’m excited to play against him this week and see what it looks like in person.”
Wilson had his first career four-hit game during Wednesday’s 6-5 home loss against the Seattle Mariners and has six multi-hit outings in the past eight games. He went 8-for-14 with one game-winning hit in the three-game series against the Mariners and is 16-for-34 (.471) with four walks during the eight-game stretch.
The hot hitting led to Athletics manager Mark Kotsay moving Wilson to the leadoff spot on Wednesday. Kotsay indicated Wilson may be sticking at the top of the lineup.
“I think you’ll see Jacob up there now,” Kotsay said. “Jacob’s earned it. … Jacob has shown enough over the last week. He’s walking and taking pitches, and, obviously, swinging the bat really well.”
Judge arrives in Sacramento in the midst of a four-game funk in which he is 2-for-15.
The two-time MVP just went 1-for-10 in a three-game home series against the San Diego Padres, but the one hit was a homer.
Judge grew up 50 miles south of Sacramento in Linden and starred for Linden High but wasn’t highly sought by major league teams. The then-Oakland Athletics selected him in the 31st round in 2010.
Judge instead went the college route and starred for Fresno State. He was chosen in the first round (32nd overall) by the Yankees in the 2013 draft.
Trent Grisham was one of the heroes of Wednesday’s 4-3, 10-inning win over the Padres. He hit a tying two-run pinch-hit homer in the eighth inning.
Grisham had two homers and five RBIs in the series against the Padres — one of his former teams — and already has 10 long balls in just 89 at-bats. He hit just nine last season in 179 at-bats.
“I’m having fun with the guys, I would say that more than anything,” Grisham said. “The clubhouse is really good in here, led by Cap (Judge). So, I would say the guys have been the most enjoyable part.”
New York is starting right-hander Will Warren (1-2, 5.65 ERA) in Friday’s series opener. Right-hander Osvaldo Bido (2-2, 4.71) will be on the mound for the Athletics.
Warren, 25, struck out a career-high eight in 4 2/3 innings while losing to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. He gave up five runs (three earned) and seven hits. Warren hasn’t previously faced the Athletics.
Bido, 29, received a no-decision against the Miami Marlins last Saturday when he gave up four runs on three hits over five innings. He is winless (0-1) over his last three starts. Bido hasn’t faced the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Report: Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao coming out of retirement
Aug 21, 2021; Las Vegas, Nevada; Manny Pacquiao (right) fights Yordenis Ugas in a world welterweight championship bout at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao plans to end his retirement and return to the ring on July 19 against Mario Barrios in Las Vegas, ESPN reported Thursday.
Pacquiao, 46, will be fighting for the first time since losing a unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas in 2021.
The fight will be for Barrios’ WBC welterweight championship belt. Barrios turns 30 on May 18.
Pacquiao is an eight-division champion who is slated to be inducted into the boxing Hall of Fame in June. He reportedly will formally announce his return to boxing next week. The report stated that Pacquiao has been cleared to compete by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
In recent years, Pacquiao has been focusing on his political career in the Philippines.
The boxer nicknamed “PacMan” has a 62-8-2 record with 39 knockouts during his career. He won his first major title — the WBC flyweight crown — at age 19 in 1998.
Pacquiao was 54-3-2 prior to turning 33 and 8-5 afterward. One of those losses was to Floyd Mayweather Jr. via unanimous decision in 2015, a bout that reportedly drew nearly $400 million in pay-per-view sales.
Barrios (29-2-1, 18 knockouts) fought to a 12-round, split-decision draw against Abel Ramos last November. This will be his third defense since winning the title by beating Ugas in 2023.
–Field Level Media
A'ja Wilson has no shortage of motivation after Aces' early exit in '24
Best Mothers Day gifts: Show mom some love
