On the Morris Phillips San Francisco Giants podcast opening day in Milwaukee good things happen when you build a retractable roof and such is the case at Miller Park where the Milwaukee Brewers and the Giants opened the campaign in 28 degree weather outside and a snow blizzard going and a comfy 68 inside the yard. Good enough for the Giants to tee off for four homers from the Giants Denard Span, Joe Panik, Buster Posey, and Matt Duffy.
Pitcher Madison Bumgarner gets the win but didn’t feel good during spring training with soreness in his foot and ribs. Bumgarner left early he went five innings giving up five hits and three runs with six strike outs. The cold bug has hit the team and going from 80-90 degree heat from the desert of Arizona and then flying to Milwaukee in 28 degree outside temps the team persevered through the coughs and sneezes and are seeing some fat pitches.
On the Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O the Kings plan to leave DeMarcus Cousins and possibly Rajon Rondo at home as it’s expected that neither one will travel , Cousins for sure will not travel. The Kings play their last two games of the season at Phoenix and Houston and want to rest Cousins in particular. Cousins will be getting a procedure done for his foot because of tendonitis the procedure is called plasma platelet rich therapy. It will take four weeks before the procedure will take effect. For the first one to two weeks his feet will be tender.
The Kings want to rest Rondo as well and he’s had that turf toe and he’s been beat up and there’s no reason to keep playing him and he needs the rest at this juncture of the season. Rondo has been like a liaison between head coach George Karl and the players. The problem is he might not return next season because there are other teams that are interested in Rondo and would like to pay him the big bucks and the New York Knicks are one of those teams.
On the Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg the A’s open a four game home series with the Chicago White Sox at the Oakland Coliseum. A’s number one ace Sonny Gray was scheduled to start but called in with food poisoning and was replaced by Rich Hill. Hill went up against the Sox Chris Sale Monday’s opener. The Sox come into the Coliseum with a healthy roster to start the season and they are leaning on their slugger first baseman Jose Abreau who hit in the three hole on opening night.
Abreau is the guy that Sox manager Robin Ventura is leaning on to clear the bases and be in the top three in the RBI leaders on the team. Sox left fielder Melky Cabrera is also expected by Ventura to add some punch in the Sox line up. Cabrera whose made the rounds the last few years from San Francisco, Toronto and now on the Sox hit .273 last season with 70 runs, 172 hits, 12 homers and 77 RBIs.
The A’s starters for this series, Hill (Monday), Sonny Gray rumored but not confirmed for Tuesday night, right hander Chris Bassitt on Wednesday and to close out the series A’s starter Kendall Graveman. The A’s designated hitter Billy Butler struggled last season at the plate and is looking for a more productive year as team DH A’s manager Bob Melvin has the confidence that Butler will be moving guys over a lot this season.
Great basketball teams know how to rebound — from a tough loss and on the glass alike. Although its hard to revolutionize the former, the Warriors have revolutionized the latter, winning with a small lineup game in and game out. After a sound 136–111win over the Portland Trailblazers to rebound from their first home loss of the season, can the revolutionary Warriors make basketball history and break the ’95-’96 Chicago Bulls vaunted record?
They certainly looked the part on Sunday, showing resiliency after that heartbreaking loss to Boston on Friday. One potential record lost — a perfect home slate, never before accomplished — didn’t discourage Golden State, but rather served to motivate them after a shaky first quarter. Portland got off to a quick start, dropping 37 points in the first, but Golden State seemed to keep its larger goal in mind, and took it into second gear. The energy picked up and the defense tightened up, allowing just 19 points in the second quarter to give Golden State a 63-56 halftime lead.
The offense looked like that of a team on a mission, with three players scoring above 20 points. Joining the usual suspects, the Splash Brothers (60 points), in that company was Draymond Green, scoring 22 points. Stephen Curry had 39, which seems routine nowadays.It was a well-rounded offensive performance (56.8 FG%, 60.0 3-PT FG%) — what we’ve come to expect from these Warriors. If they keeping playing like this, watch out, record books. You’re in for a change.
However resilient and dominant they were, common sense says that who you’re playing matters just as much as how you’re playing when predicting future performance. Sure, the Warriors only need to win four out of five games to break the record, but it makes things a little more problematic when you take into account that they’re playing the Spurs twice, once on the road.
According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, the Warriors have over a 78% chance of beating all three of their remaining opponents not from San Antonio. They start with a home game against Minnesota, which should be chalked up as a win (94% chance of win per BPI), barring apocalyptic catastrophe. Then they take on San Antonio at Oracle Arena, a venue where Golden State routed the Spurs earlier this season, giving them a 59% chance of winning. Next, a road-home with Memphis (78% and 91%, resptively) that sandwiches the next meeting with the Spurs on the road should both go down as wins. Essentially, unless the Warriors let their guard down, they need to take only one of two from San Antonio.
The Warriors have a unique way of willing themselves to win, a heart and chemistry unmatched in today’s NBA of super teams and super egos. It’s hard to see a team of this caliber and this makeup dropping both games to San Antonio, or one and a massive upset in one of the other three games. This record means too much to this team for them to let it slip away. As we saw tonight, when the Warriors want to take it into a second gear, they do. Nothing can stop them. Like it or not, losing twice in five games just won’t happen to these Warriors.
On the podcast Daniel reviews the two games at the Final Four, these two games had to be two of the most lopsided Final Four’s in recent memory. Daniel says he can’t remember both games being so lopsided. Villanova crushed Oklahoma 95-61 and Villanova held superstar Buddy Heild to only nine points. Helid had been the Sooners superstar which was one of the key reasons why hewas the national player of the year.
In a one and done format all Villanova had to do just for one game and come up with just one defensive solid scheme and make Heild’s shot selection difficult and two make it tough for everybody That held Heild to just nine points. He was well under 16 his average. To do that on national semi finals if they did like the pros and have five out sevens or six out of nine you can live another day but in the NCAA your one and done.
SAN FRANCISCO–Who would have ever thought that the San Francisco Giants would open another season this week, and one of their key components over the last nine years is gone.
Tim Lincecum, who made his major league debut on May 6, 2007 at AT&T Park against the Philadelphia Phillies is not even on a major league roster as the season begins tonight.
Lincecum, who won back-to-back National League Cy Young Awards in 2008 and 2009, was not re-signed by the Giants after the 2015 season and is now a free agent.
The 31-year old right hander put on a show in his first three full seasons, as helped lead the Giants to their first World Series championship since moving to San Francisco in 1958, when the Giants defeated the Texas Rangers in the 2010 World Series. It was Lincecum who was the winning pitcher in that Game Five victory over Cliff Lee at The Ballpark in Arlington.
During the 2011 season, Lincecum went 14-15, despite an earned run average of 2.74, finishing fourth in the NL with that ERA.
Lincecum came back to the Giants in 2012 after signing a two-year $40.5 million dollar contract, and he rejected their five-year $100 million dollar offer that would make him a free agent after the 2013 season.
It was during the 2012 NLDS that Lincecum would move to the bullpen, and it was in Game a Four that his experience came in huge. Lincecum pitched 4.1 innings, leading the Giants to a victory.
Lincecum returned to form in 2013, as he pitched his first ever no-hitter, a 9-0 shutout over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park and struck out 13 in the process.
After the season, the Giants and Lincecum agreed to another two-year contract extension worth $35 million dollars.
On June 25, 2014 against the Padres at AT&T Park, Lincecum pitched his second career no-hitter against the Padres. It would have a perfect game, but Chase Headley reached on a walk in the top of the second inning.
Lincecum pitched only 15 times in the 2015 season, and ended his season with a 7-4 record with a 4.13 earned run average.
It will be very strange to the Giants lineup on the third base on Monday at Miller Park, and Lincecum will not be there to be introduced.
One of the rituals of every baseball season is predicting where your team will finish in the standings come October. With a 162-game schedule, baseball has to be the toughest sport to predict the outcome for of all the sports.
Unfortunately for A’s fans, the predictions of the experts are not positive when it comes to Oakland:
Fangraphs predicts the A’s will finish in a tie for fourth place with the Texas Rangers
Baseball Prospectus sees Oakland in fifth and final place after 162 games
USA Today also has the A’s finishing in last place (5th place)
Sports Illustrated concurs and has the A’s finishing fifth
CBS Sports agrees and says the A’s will finish the season in the cellar
The prognosticators see the A’s winning as few as 66 games on the low end and 80 games on the high end.
One run games
The Athletics had a 19-35 record in one-run games in 2015. Improving that record to .500 in 2016 would add at least eight wins for the team. The A’s must improve their record in one-run contests in 2016 if they are to beat the predictions of the experts.
Cut down on the errors
The A’s led the American League in errors with 126 miscues in 2015. Winning a baseball game is tough enough and it is made even harder when you make mistakes that allow your opponent to put men on base or move them into scoring position. Oakland has to reduce the error total if they are to win more games this season.
The Athletics need to see real improvement from shortstop Marcus Semien. Semien was charged with 35 errors in 2015. He is an outfielder that the team is trying to convert to an infielder “on the fly”. That is a difficult task at any level but especially at the major league level.
By all reports, Semien has been working very hard with Coach Ron Washington to improve at the position and to cut down on the errors.
Jarrod Parker Update
Parker underwent successful surgery on his right elbow on Friday. The surgery was performed by Dr. Neil ElAttrache at the Kerlan Jobe Clinic.
This was a revision of a UCL graft that was performed on Parker’s elbow two years ago. He has returned to Arizona.
Opening Day items
The parking lot will open at noon for you who want have big and long tailgate party
Stadium gates will open at 5:00 pm
32,000 magnet schedules will be given out
Special tributes along with a moment of silence will be observed for Dave Henderson and Tony Phillips
Take BART on Tuesday
There is a Warriors game on Tuesday as well as the A’s game. Parking will cost $30. If you have ever thought about taking BART to a game, Tuesday night would be an ideal time to give it a try.
Last opening day for Sonny?
Many “experts” are speculating that this will be Sonny Gray’s final opening day outing as a member of the Oakland Athletics. Most feel that other teams will be making offers for Gray that A’s “cannot refuse” at the 2016 trade deadline.
What’s happening down on the farm
Make sure to listen to out weekly Oakland A’s podcast. We will keep you up to date on what is happening with A’s farm teams. Who will be the next call up from Nashville? Who will be the opening day starter in 2018? How is the number three draft pick doing in A-ball in Stockton? We will answer those questions and more on the Farm Report.
The Kings plan for Saturday night in Denver was simple and straight forward. Leave Cousins and Rondo at home to rest, give the younger players some much needed playing time and put on a good show in the “Mile High City”.
No there was no mention of winning the game. Wins are secondary for Sacramento at this point in the season. In fact, the Kings need to finish in the bottom 10 of the NBA overall standings to avoid losing their 2016 first-round draft pick (listen to this week’s Kings podcast for the details). It is not that the Kings do not want to win but winning might not be that helpful at this moment.
Something strange can happen when you give the second unit a chance to play more minutes. Those second unit guys want to step up and show the world they got game. That is what happened on Saturday in Denver.
The Kings allowed the Nuggets to set the pace in the first half. Denver scored 62 points in the first half and appeared to ready to run the Kings off the court in the second half, but someone from the Nuggets forgot to tell Seth Curry to go along the plan.
Curry carried the Kings on his back in the first half scoring 17 points while connecting on 7-of-8 shots from the floor. The Kings would go on to score 55 first-half points and trailed the Nuggets by just seven points at the half.
The teams played an even third quarter with the Kings outscoring the Nuggets 29-26 in the period. The Nuggets still had an 88-84 after three quarters.
The Kings caught fire in the fourth quarter outscoring the Nuggets 31-18 in final 12 minutes. Darren Collison led the charge for Sacramento scoring 10 of his 14 points in last quarter. Collison shot 2-for-4 from the floor and converted 6-of-7 opportunities from the free throw line. He also dished out four assists. Ben McLemore scored eight points and Rudy Gay added five points in the period.
At the final buzzer, the Kings had beaten the Nuggets 115-106 to record their 31st win of the season.
Kings
Rudy Gay led the Kings scoring attack on Saturday with 25 points. Gay also grabbed nine rebounds and had three assists. He shot 7-for-18 from the floor and an impressive 10-for-13 from the charity stripe.
Willie Cauley-Stein, Ben McLemore and Darren Collison scored 14 points each.
Kosta Koufos and James Anderson added 13 points each.
The most impressive stat of the night for the Kings was their assists to turnover ratio of 4-to-1. Sacramento had 27 assists and turned the ball over just seven times. Not bad for a team that has been averaging 16 turnovers per game.
Sacramento was also strong at the free throw line hitting on 25-of-31 attempts for a 80.6- free throw shooting percentage. For the season, the Kings have shot just 72.7-percent from the free throw line.
This was also just third time the Kings have won when DeMarcus Cousins did not play in the game. They have lost 11 games when Cousins was not available.
Nuggets
Gary Harris led the Nuggets in scoring with 19 points. Harris had four rebounds and two assists to go with those 19 points.
Rookie Emmanuel Mudiay had a strong game scoring 15 points and dishing out six assists. Mudiay did foul out of the game.
Joffrey Lauvergne played a strong 24 minutes off the bench for Denver. He scored 15 points, grabbed six rebounds and had two assists in those minutes on the floor.
Alex Toupane scored a career-high 14 points off the bench for the Nuggets.
Up next
The Kings have just three games left to play in Sleep Train (Arco) Arena. Portland visits Sacramento on Tuesday and Minnesota comes calling on Thursday night. The Kings final game ever in the arena they have called home for 28 years will take place next Saturday night when they host Oklahoma City Thunder. This reporter will be filing the story live from the arena that night.
Oakland Athletics’ Jed Lowrie, right, celebrates with Josh Reddick, left, and Marcus Semien (10) after scoring on an inside the park two run home run against the San Francisco Giants in the third inning of an exhibition baseball game Saturday, April 2, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
By Morris Phillips
OAKLAND–Both guys played collegiately at Cal State Fullerton, can hit with power, and have the potential to help the A’s in a major way. Both guys suited up in green and gold for the first time at the O.co Coliseum on Saturday and didn’t waste much time introducing themselves to the home crowd with a taste of that home run ability. But both guys don’t fit on an opening day roster that only has 25 spots.
So while 28-year old Khris Davis will likely land in Bob Melvin’s starting lineup on Monday night, 22-year old Matt Chapman’s time isn’t now, and he was reassigned to Minor League camp following the Bay Bridge series finale.
The A’s powered up to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Giants, winning 4-1 as both Davis and Chapman hit solo shots, and Eric Surkamp turned long man supreme by pitching seven innings in relief to get the win. Felix Dubrount, who was slated to begin the season as the A’s fifth starter was injured, and left the game after an inning, putting his first start at Seattle on Friday in doubt.
Davis was acquired in an off-season trade from Milwaukee, and after hitting .314 with a pair of homers in spring, appears to be ready to supplant veteran Coco Crisp as the team’s everyday guy in left field. Crisp and utility outfielder Sam Fuld were Davis’ competition for the spot, so it figured Davis would claim the competition, given his career-best 27 home runs for the Brewers in 2015.
Davis, the son of a longtime major league scout, Rodney Davis, is the latest in a line of sluggers that don’t necessarily impress you with any other facet of their game other than their ability to run into one frequently enough to justify their spot in an everyday major league starting role. The stout slugger handles fastballs with ease, homering at a rate off of fastballs that rivals Bryce Harper and the top sluggers in the game. But while Davis increased his ability to be discerning at the plate in 2015, drawing more walks, he still struck out 122 times in 392 official at-bats.
On Saturday, Davis homered of a 2-2 pitch from Matt Cain, which surely will be noticed by an organization that puts great value on hitting deep in counts. The newest Athletic has an impressive 60 home runs in 1092 big league-at bats, and he hit significantly higher average in spring than the .250 over his first three big league seasons. But maybe most importantly, he’s naturally gregarious, and happy to have been dealt from rebuilding Milwaukee to reloading Oakland, where good things have happened to players in Davis’ age range and skill set.
“I do what I do and take the elements out,” Davis said in explaining the dynamics of his homer off Cain.
Chapman, the A’s 2014 first-round pick, hit .295 in spring with a team-best six homers, including his eighth inning shot off Josh Osich that came on the first pitch. Despite his surprising spring as a non-roster invitee, Chapman will begin 2016 at Double A Midland. Defensively, he’s not nearly where he needs to be to earn a big league spot playing third base, but he’s put the organization on notice that his time is coming soon.
“The big thing for me, it’s kind of a boost in confidence,” he said. “To know that no matter what kind of slump you hit, or no matter what happens here on out, wherever you go, to know that you can compete at the highest level.”
NOTES: The A’s placed Eric Sogard on the disabled list with a neck strain, leaving Chris Coghlan in Sogard’s role as the team’s primary utility infielder. In fact, Coghlan is listed at five different positions on the A’s Opening Day depth chart, including all three outfield spots.
Yonder Alonso will be the starter at first base, and Danny Valencia has claimed the third base job. Crisp figures to see most of his time as a pinch hitter as Coghlan will be the primary backup to center fielder Billy Burns, and Mark Canha will back Davis in left.
The A’s set in pencil rotation has Sonny Gray followed by Rich Hill, Chris Bassitt, Kendall Graveman and Dubrount with Jesse Hahn on speed dial if the former Boston reliever/starter injured on Saturday misses any significant time.
Sean Doolittle, John Axford, Ryan Madson and 27-year old Australian Liam Hendriks will comprise the back end of the Oakland bullpen.
AP photo: San Jose Sharks Tomas Hertl celebrates his third period goal against the Nashville Predators on Saturday night
Thanks to two goals from Tomas Hertl and a shootout winner from Logan Couture, the San Jose Sharks came back in the third period to defeat the Nashville Predators 3-2. The win puts the Sharks just three points out of first in the Pacific, but with only three games remaining, the chances are slim that they will catch Los Angeles or Anaheim.
After the game, Sharks goaltender James Reimer talked about how the win bodes well for the playoffs:
It’s good to see. Obviously, sometimes things aren’t going to go your way in the playoffs and so …I’m sure they’ve been doing it all year, but to have the confidence that you can come back from being down two goals in the last twenty, it’s nice to see and another good building block leading up to the playoffs.
With their 27th road win this season, the Sharks tied a franchise record. The last time the Sharks won 27 road games in a season was 2007-08. The Sharks have just one more chance to break the record, on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.
The third period comeback featured a 13-4 shot disparity in favor of the Sharks. San Jose also made an impressive showing in the faceoff circle, winning 71% of the draws in the game.
The first goal came 8:07 into the first period, after a neutral zone turnover from Chris Tierney that ended up on Roman Josi’s stick. His pass found Mike Ribeiro near the far boards. He waited for Weber to cross the blue line and set him up for one of his phenomenal slap shots.
Before the first period ended, Ryan Johansen seemed to score a power play goal for the Predators, but officials determined that time had run out before the puck crossed the line. The difference was razor thin.
The second Nashville goal came early in the second period. Johansen took the puck into the zone and held onto it long enough to find James Neal in the slot. Neal took a shot that bounced off of Jarnkrok’s skate and into the net. Brenden Dillon had Jarnkrok tied up but he could not control the puck’s trajectory as it went through their skates.
Just over two minutes into the third period, Joe Thornton gained control of the puck just below the Nashville blue line and made a quick pass to Joe Pavelski as he bore down on the net. Pavelski’s shot came back out in a rebound but Hertl was there to pick it up and put it back in for his 20th of the season.
Just past the ten minute mark of the third, Hertl tipped a slap shot from the blue line courtesy of Brent Burns. The play before that was fairly dazzling, as Thornton and Paul Martin moved the puck up and down the boards before Thornton found Burns with a quick pass.
The Sharks could not end it in overtime despite a power play 50 seconds in. A broken stick for Pavelski certainly had something to do with that. The Sharks managed five shots in overtime, while only allowing one to the Predators.
In the shootout, Logan Couture shot first for San Jose and scored with a quick release that went under Hutton’s pad. Joonas Donskoi shot second for the Sharks but missed. James Reimer stopped shots from Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and Craig Smith to win it.
Penalty kills were perfect for both teams, as the Sharks power play went 0-3 and the Predators power play went 0-2.
The Sharks next play in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday at 5:00 PT.
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