Ruthless Sports

Searching for perspective - a 49ers post-mortem

2013-02-05T10:58:00.002-08:00

Watching Colin Kaepernick’s fourth down pass sail over Michael Crabtree’s head was like a bad dream. We’ve all had them – the ones where something awful is unfolding right in front of you and though you try, you can’t muster a movement or a sound. You reach out to stop it, affect the outcome, but your arm moves slow as molasses, held back by supernatural forces. You open your mouth to shout, but your vocal chords fail. You’re completely powerless to affect a forgone outcome.

Everyone in my living room stared at the screen for several seconds, hoping to see the yellow penalty indicator roll out atop the score box, but nothing ever appeared. The camera focused on Jim Harbaugh as he appealed to the referees that Crabtree was held, replaying his efforts over and over in slow motion. Meanwhile, reality continued. The 49ers traded out offense for defense and the Ravens vice versa. Barring a miracle, the game was over. That miracle was barred.

Though it will probably continue for the next few days, the time for finger-pointing and blame-placing is over. I’m guilty of doing as much, both in casual conversation and on social media. It’s part of our problem solving nature – when an experiment goes awry, we strive to find the variable that made it fall apart. Over the course of a 60 minute football game, countless variables account for why one team wins and the other loses. The 49ers slow start had as much to do with them losing as the questionable officiating did. The questionable officiating had as much to do with it as the perhaps more questionable goal-to-go play calling. Who’s to say the Ravens wouldn’t have scored even if Jones’ run back hadn’t be called due to a hold? It’s all meaningless in a vacuum. Though we’ll continue to mull it over, none of it matters. The city of Baltimore hosted a parade today. San Francisco did not.

It marks the first time in 49ers’ history the team lost in a Super Bowl. Perfection is gone, and perhaps so is the insurmountable pressure that came with a 5-0 championship bid. It probably won’t make the next trip any less pressured, but it does play a role in how badly this one hurts the fan base. Even when the 49ers wallowed in a puddle of mediocrity, fans could still proudly point to their perfect Super Bowl record.

February brings a change in the seasons for sports. If you’re a fan of only the NFL then you’re in for a long nuclear winter – one filled with what-ifs and bitter feelings as you make the trudge through Spring and into late Summer. For those who love other sports – basketball, hockey and baseball – detoxification is coming, and though those won’t completely take away the side effects they’ll help to quell the pain and eventually help you forget.

Some people call passion for sports completely irrational. In a sense it is; as fans, we invest time, money and a whole lot of emotion into our favorite teams. Maybe too much of it. Losses eat away at the soul, and how it feels is probably too embarrassing to admit to anyone who doesn’t see sports the same way. They say we take it too seriously.

Maybe we do. Then again, maybe they don’t understand why we love it.

Sports exist to distract and entertain us. They’ve always existed – competitive by nature, human beings gathered to watch gladiators battle and live vicariously through them. It feeds our most primal side, the Darwinian tic in us that needs competition and craves to stake a claim on superiority. It’s no different than watching a reality show. We always pick a favorite competitor, relish in watching the villain fall and mourn ever-so-subtly when our rooting interest gets eliminated.

Except a favorite sports team gets passed down from generation to generation. It’s shared with friends. Unforgettable memories are forged while watching sports. We bond with our fathers and brothers over sports. Some of my best friendships have been made thanks to the common bond of being a fan. Incredibly opportunities have presented themselves thanks to my injudicious love for the game.

I’ve heard it said that pain spurns growth; last year’s NFC Championship loss inspired me to write, and what followed was a groundbreaking year of opportunities and progress. I left Candlestick Park that night feeling crushed and speechless, as if the world collapsed on me. In hindsight, my life was far from over. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

It’s the plight of being a fan: the highs are atmospheric and the lows fall far deeper than the crust. There’s really nothing anyone can do to ease the pain of a championship loss, but time will bring perspective and eventually, remedy. To say “it’s just a game” doesn’t take any of the sting away, but it shouldn’t deter us from holding our heads high, knowing that next season will eventually be here.

Still unreal: The Giants win the pennant

2012-10-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

There was no way I was going to write on this game last night. As spectacular as every moment of the Game 7 was, it was all a messy hodgepodge by the time I got back to my house, like the infield dirt of AT&T Park or the carpet in the clubhouse following the champagne celebration. There wasn’t one defining moment in that game; instead, being in China Basin was one big party from the 3^rd inning on, with all 43,000-plus attendees patiently awaiting the grand finale.

Is there anything more poetic that baseball? The skies opened up in the 9^th inning and set up a cinematic finish to a spectacular series. Game 2 provided the underlying story line in Matt Holliday’s slide, so everyone knew what had to be the final out – an infield fly out (Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha, irony) from the antagonist to the hero, effectively ending the Cardinal’s postseason run and sending 3^rd and King into hysteria that it hasn’t seen since 2010.

I doubt if there is a place better than San Francisco in October. Aside from the torrential downpour last night (which was glorious, by the way), the weather is usually fantastic. (Thanks to global warming, perhaps) It’s rarely raining in the Bay Area in October, but instead clear with gorgeously colorful sunsets and a nip in the air that reminds you of sitting by a crackling fire or trick-or-treating as a kid. It’s nostalgic, and last night was without a doubt reminiscent of our childhoods and, perhaps more significant, a magical 2010 Fall for folks all over the Bay Area.

The last minute decision to be at the game molested my pockets, but it was so worth it:

- Sometimes god looks out for you, like when you break 17 traffic laws between Marin County and 2^nd Street in San Francisco without seeing one cop. I left work about 10 minutes before first pitch and got to the left field bleachers by the bottom of the 2^nd inning.

- There aren’t many feelings better than screaming like a mental patient at your car radio, then looking left to see the guy in the car next to you fist pumping in approval. That happened about five times on Van Ness last night.

- 40 dollars to park seven blocks away!?!?!? Whatever, worth it.

- During the regular season, the bleachers are a pretty annoying place to sit, but during the postseason, there isn’t a better place to be. Big shouts to the blackout-drunk guy in front of us with a nonfunctional wrist, smacking my buddy in the face with his rally towel all night long.

- Matt Holliday needs a DNA test, because the left field bleachers are officially his daddy. That was the most relentless heckling I’ve ever been a part of, and the struggle for Holliday was very real.

- Standing out in the bleachers, looking up into the sky and catching raindrops in my mouth made me feel like I was seven again. If I didn’t save my ticket from every sporting event, I would have made last night's into a boat and floated down a gutter for old time's sake.

- God bless the extra sweatshirt I left in my car, or else I may have driven home shirtless. I was soaked through and probably on the verge of catching pneumonia, but I haven’t felt that good in a long, long time.

- Even after an elbow injury ended his season, Brian Wilson has still been fantastic for the Giants. He’s a great presence in the clubhouse and dugout, not to mention he’s good for a .GIF, oh, I don’t know, everytime a camera is nearby.

-That being said, Sergio Romo has fully taken over that role of “the closer that makes everyone in the park go nuts.”

- The pitching staff may not be what it was in 2010 or 2011, but they were absolutely nails when the Giants needed them. It all started with Barry Zito, and it probably will for Game 1 of the World Series too. Imagine that.

- Hugging complete strangers is only acceptable on nights like last night.

And that’s why this city is amazing. No matter how decidedly pro-Cardinals Joe Buck is, even he couldn’t concede in his broadcasts that there is a better setting for postseason baseball than San Francisco. AT&T Park is a sparkling example of how a city and a team can work together to build a magnificent ballpark and rejuvenate an area at the same time. The Giants' fan base is an example of how a city – hell, an entire region – can come together, regardless of their differences, and celebrate a common bond. The team on the field is proof that heart and hard work pay off, though there’s still work to be done. Tomorrow we’ll turn our attention to the Tigers, but today we all wake up, decidedly hoarse, and relish in the magic that is Giants baseball.

Giants playoffs make fans completely lose their minds, create #RallyZito

2012-10-19T15:47:00.002-07:00

Okay, so this is why Twitter is so much fun. Anybody checked out Facebook lately? Me neither. It's probably filled with a bunch of political status updates, pictures of puppies lying in beds of flowers and people posting on Lil Wayne's wall urging him to donate money to a charity if the post gets 200,000 likes. Twitter is the place to be right now, especially if you're a Giants fan looking for cheap entertainment while you anxiously prepare for the team's possible elimination.

I'll be accepting the award for "strangest season in the history of baseball" on Barry Zito's behalf, and the first person I'd like to thank is whoever came up with the idea of #RallyZito avatars last night. I'm sure it started somewhere in that circle of Giants fan tweeps that frequently bitch about anything from Brandon Belt's body language to Hank Schulman's loathing for advanced statistics. Either way, it was brilliant and it caught on like wildfire. I don't check "What's Trending" very often because most of the time it's filled with topics like "Why she ratchet" or "10 reasons why I miss my ex," but the fact that #RallyZito has been trending for over 12 hours shows just how daffy Giants fans have truly gone.

It had to be Zito.

How boring would changing our avatars be if we were depending on Madison Bumgarner to stave off elimination? The only awesome picture of MadBum that exists on the interweb is that one of him holding a penguin and @GiantsNirvana has been rocking that for at least a year, maybe longer. #RallyZito has been made possible by the fact that somehow the guy has had more embarrassing pictures taken of him than any celebrity in recent memory, and ALL of them ended up in the Google image vault. Here are a few of my favorites:

Okay, I just found that last one and I'm not gonna lie, it's the most amazing of them all. If you're looking for added entertainment, go ahead and search #ReplaceSongLyricsWithBarryZito and ReplaceMovieQuotesWithBarryZito on Twitter.

"You had me at 'Zito.'"

Quite frankly, I'm completely sick of writing about Zito. I started off this season comparing him to Alex Smith and basically rode that out for the entirety of his lucky year, where batters constantly made loud contact and somehow hit it right to his defense. Then I covered one of his starts in a press box and he almost pitched a complete game shutout. Now we'll all sit back and watch him attempt to play the stopper in his second straight elimination start in two weeks - a game he'll probably win.

Regardless of how he plays, one thing is for certain: my assertion that San Francisco fans are forgiving creatures has pretty much proven to be true. Is this entire #RallyZito movement coated in sarcasm and the kind of nervous laughter that is usually heard in the 5150 ward? Absolutely. But somehow, someway, we've all learned to love Barry Zito - win, lose, or no decision.

Melky Cabrera, the batting title and MLB's vivid imagination

2012-09-21T18:42:00.001-07:00

Melky Cabrera seemed to be aboard a runaway train towards winning the NL batting title until Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area broke the news that he has been ruled ineligible to win the award. Giants fans may be happy about the decision for two reasons: One, Cabrera winning the batting crown would have been yet another reason to ridicule a team whose history has the clear rubbed all over it, and two, this now gives Buster Posey an outside chance to catch up and win the title himself.

But the true result of this batting paradox is an endless back and forth over the minutia of statistics, rules and traditionalism. Sometimes following Major League Baseball feels like being in a really strict math class where everyone is expected to solve trigonometry questions with an abacus or else they’ll get beaten with a ruler. I digress.

Two types of people read this blog (I hope people read this blog, anyway): Those who follow me on Twitter and friends or family members that aren’t completely obsessed with sports like I am. The following is a breakdown of the situation for the latter group. If you already know the story, bear with me.

Why Melky could have won the award

Cabrera was hitting .346 at the time of his suspension, a batting average that remains the highest in the National League. At first it appeared that he was out of the running for a batting title because his 501 plate appearances were one short of the 502 that are required to win the award.

Of course the MLB has a rule for that. Of course they do.

Rule 10.22(a) states that if a player is short of the necessary plate appearances to win the award, and adding those plate appearances doesn’t lower their average enough to take them out of contention, then those plate appearances will be added. In laymen’s – Melky gets a free 0-fer, his plate appearances magically jump to 502, his batting average remains .346 and the batting title is his.

Why Melky won’t win the award

Cabrera actually reached out to Major League Baseball and asked to be removed from contention. Here is the statement that Cabrera made to the Associated Press:

''I ask the Players Association to take the necessary steps, in conjunction with the Office of the Commissioner, to remove my name from for the National League batting title. To be plain, I personally have no wish to win an award that would widely be seen as tainted, and I believe that it would be far better for the remaining contenders to compete for that distinction. So too, the removal of my name from consideration will permit me to focus on my goal of working hard upon my return to baseball so that I may be able to win that distinction in a season played in full compliance with league rules. To be plain, I plan to work hard to vindicate myself in that very manner.''

Commissioner Bud Selig is granting Cabrera’s ~~public relations maneuver~~ request, thus rule 10.22(a) will not be enacted on his behalf and the NL batting title is now a race between Andrew McCutchen (.339) and Buster Posey (.335).

Why this whole situation is completely absurd

Rule 10.22(a) exists for a pretty admirable reason. Tony Gwynn was on his way to winning his third straight batting title in 1996 but when all was said and done he was four plate appearances short of 502. They created the provision for Gwynn to win the award; he took an 0-for-4 and his average remained the highest. The reward was his. The added plate appearances are for players who lacked them due to shortened playtime or injury (but testosterone kept Melky relatively healthy, I’m sure). That same rule would have aided Cabrera in winning a tainted award, and yet some are outraged that the league is changing the rules in the middle of the game to avoid it.

But it’s true that the batting title isn’t actually an award – really, it’s a statistical fact. Even without him being crowned, his batting average will remain the highest in the NL. He who has the highest batting average in a minimum of 502 plate appearances wins the crown. If that’s true, then it is a statistical fact that Tony Gwynn didn’t have enough REAL LIFE plate appearances to be awarded in 1996. The same can be said for Melky Cabrera, who doesn’t have enough REAL LIFE plate appearances to be eligible for the award now.

Amendments will surely be made this offseason. Players who test positive for performance enhancing drugs will not be eligible for rule 10.22(a) or the batting title at all, most likely. But the real enemy here isn’t Bud Selig or Melky Cabrera or even PEDs. The real enemy is imagination, because without that, Melky’s 502^nd plate appearance wouldn’t exist in the first place.

49ers continue to flash their dominance in defeating Lions 27-19

2012-09-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Two weeks into the NFL’s 2012 season, and the 49ers have already won two games in which the score is no indicator of how dominant they’ve been. The 49ers beat the Lions 27-19 at Candlestick Park last night, but the game wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicates. Up until the waning moments of the fourth quarter the lions had only mustered four field goals. Had it not been for a deep completion to Calvin Johnson thanks to a missed offensive pass interference call, the Lions probably would have turned the ball over on downs and the game would have been over.

San Francisco will surely get a lot of credit from the media now. Several sports personalities, including Jim Rome and Michael Irvin (who predicted four touchdowns for Calvin Johnson last night), have become “believers” in Alex Smith. Everybody knows about the 49ers defense and their run game. But I want to talk about all aspects of the win last night, not just those “sexy” angles from ESPN.

Random bits of Ruthlessness

- Aldon Smith is a phenomenal pass rusher and he looked stout against the run, but watch for teams to exploit his inexperience in coverage during the course of the season. He looked really raw in coverage last night and gave up some big chunks of yardage on swing passes. With Parys Haralson out, the 49ers will need to coach Smith up quickly.

- Mario Manningham has quietly become one of the best additions this offseason. He split reps with Randy Moss last night and shined when the ball came his way. Three catches for 28 yards and a 29-yard pick up on a reverse are not too shabby for a guy who isn’t playing every down.

- How long is Randy Moss going to be cool with seeing such limited playing time and targets? He was only thrown to one time, so unless they’re planning on trying to get defenses to forget about him (and I don’t think they will), he’s been a non-factor so far.

- Delanie Walker is going to have to really step his game up. From memory, he has four drops on the season of easily catchable balls. He also got called for holding to negate a big Alex Smith run in the fourth quarter.

- Speaking of drops, Smith would probably have a completion percentage over 80 had it not been for receivers dropping balls. Last night’s game featured drops from Walker, Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree, Bruce Miller, Manningham and Vernon Davis. None were poorly thrown balls.

- Vernon Davis had another two touchdown catches last night. With so many weapons on the field, it’s going to be hard to key on Davis every play. He might just take his touchdown record back from Rob Gronkowski this year.

- People are calling it “the Moss effect”: Michael Crabtree is coming of age. He had three catches on the 49ers’ final touchdown drive, all for first downs. His hands look fantastic, his routes look clean. He could be in for a 90 catch, 1,000 yard season if he stays healthy.

- The 49ers have by far the most complete defense in the NFL. Fantasy owners are still sitting their running backs when they play the 49ers, and now they might want to sit their quarterbacks too. Kevin Smith had 53 yards on 16 carries, and Matt Stafford had under 200 yards passing and no touchdowns before the garbage time scoring drive. The defensive backfield looked better than ever – flying around, hitting hard and keeping yet another elite quarterback in check.

- Frank Gore is forever young. I wrote in the offseason about how Gore might have another productive season in response to fantasy experts that said players should stay away from the 29 year old back. The way he’s running right now, he might have even more than that left in the tank. He’s so patient, so savvy and so explosive when he hits the hole. He showed some ankle breaking cuts last night, and it seemed like every time he touched the ball he ran for a first down. He may not have the home run speed that he had in years past, but he definitely seems to be benefitting from Kendall Hunter.

- Anthony Davis might be one of the chippiest players on the 49ers. He got into it with the Lions’ Cliff Avril on Twitter following the game last season and dominated Avril last night. You’d like to see him put a muzzle on the extracurriculars during the game, but as long as he continues to keep Alex Smith clean it doesn’t really matter what his attitude is. Check out BASG's postgamer for some more hilarity from the guy who made #StopCohn possible.

- Alex Smith, Alex Smith, Alex freaking Smith. I don’t want to swoon too much, but I’ve got an unbelievable man crush on this guy. I used to feel like the whole “never had two years with the same offensive coordinator” excuse was a complete cop out; now I’m not so sure. Jim Harbaugh has done a fantastic job of coaching up Smith, who almost quarterbacked his way out of the NFL completely two years ago. Smith had a revival last year by being safe and getting the job done when he needed to, but Smith looks like a completely different quarterback in his first two games than he did last year. Don’t just watch the highlight reel on Sportscenter; check out every play that Alex Smith dropped back for on Sunday. He’s setting his feet, going through his progressions, showing pocket awareness and throwing accurate balls. He used to look like Colt McCoy dropping back. He’s starting to look like Tom Brady now.

If there’s one complaint I have about Alex it’s that he’s not looking downfield and finding the open receivers deep. That, of course, doesn’t matter if Smith is completing passes and moving the chains, but you’d like to see more big plays for this offense. Nevertheless, I’m going to go ahead and say it right now: he may not be recognized for it, but in terms of quarterback rating and completion percentage, Smith will be one of the top five quarterbacks in the league when all is said and done.

- One more thing: check out this dude photobombing Smith's postgame interview with NBC. I don’t know who you are, or how you got on the field, but I respect you, photobomber. You’ve got gusto. You’ve got swag.

A closer look at Alex Smith's incompletions in Green Bay

2012-09-12T11:34:00.001-07:00

Scott Warfe (East Bay Sports Guy) footed the bill for BASG writers to have access to NFL Rewind, an online package for watching any NFL game. I took the opportunity last night to rewatch the 49ers game, focusing on the offense, so I could see why San Francisco was so effective moving the ball.

One of the best parts about the package is the coach's film option: it allows you to see the whole field on every play instead of following the ball like the national broadcasts force you to. You can really understand how plays develop from that angle. I paid close attention to Alex Smith's pre-throw reads to better understand his decision making process.

Smith finished his day 20-26 for 211 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. His completion percentage was an astounding 76.9. Compare that to Aaron Rodgers, who went 30-44 with 303 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Rodgers may have passed for 89 more yards, but he also threw the ball 18 more times. His completion percentage: 68.1.

Smith had six incompletions on the day. Three of them were passes intended to Delanie Walker, two were passes to Crabtree, and one was targeted for Vernon Davis. What I discovered about these incompletions make Smith's day that much more impressive.

The three Walker passes

With the exception of left tackle Joe Staley (who struggled with Clay Mathews after splitting his nose open on the first play), Walker had the most disappointing performance of any 49er on Sunday. He ended up absent from the box score despite being targeted on three different throws. Two balls were thrown right into his numbers, bouncing off of his chest incomplete. The last pass saw Walker covered pretty soundly; Smith hit him with an outside shoulder throw that was a little high, but Walker tried to catch it with one hand and the pass fell incomplete. It was a fairly accurate throw, not an uncatchable ball by any means.

Two passes to Crabtree

As the second quarter neared closing, the 49ers inserted Colin Kaepernick for a designed run that netted 17 yards. Smith was put back in the game and he attempted two passes before they brought David Akers in for what ended up being a NFL record-tying 63-yard field goal. They ran the same play on both downs: Michael Crabtree ran sideline routes and Smith, seeing that the cornerback had Crabtree well covered on both plays, threw the balls high and well out of bounds. He took the safe route; it didn't get them any closer to the uprights, but it also ensured that the ball wouldn't be turned over. And besides, Akers didn't end up needing the extra yardage after all.

The Vernon Davis pass

Smith's last incompletion came early in the third quarter. Davis ran his route out of a three point stance, cutting between the two inside linebackers and underneath the Packers' safety. While running his route, Davis got bumped by both linebackers, interfering with the timing of the pass. The safety fell in to cover Davis while Smith threw the pass to a location slightly ahead of where Davis could catch it. The ball hit off of the tight end’s hands while another Packers' defending was bearing down on him; he likely would have been crushed had he caught it. Nevertheless, this represented the sixth and final incompletion on Smith's stat line.

The quarterback was bailed out by a couple of nice catches by receivers when he threw balls high – a pass to Mario Manningham on the sideline and one jumping first quarter catch by Randy Moss come to mind. This is something to consider – as good as Smith was, he did still had some flaws in his game. But as a whole, Smith had an excellent day under center; both on the throws that were caught and those that weren't.

49ers grate the cheese in Green Bay, defeat Packers 30-22

2012-09-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

The 49ers came in to their monster Week 1 matchup with the Packers in Green Bay as 5-point underdogs, but if the court of public opinion was in charge of setting the line it probably would have been a touchdown. Even I – in all of my fervent, fanboy optimism – had a sinking feeling that the 49ers would get picked on by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ offense. It mattered not – the 49ers walked out of Lambeau 30-22 victors in the opening week of the 2012 season.

All the reasoning behind why I believed the 49ers WOULD win proved true. Alex Smith indeed looked a lot more polished than he has in years past. The run game was revitalized and punishing with Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter sharing the responsibilities. The preseason defense that looked so suspect was really a mere pimple on the intricate face of Vic Fangio’s regular season game plans.

Here are a couple observations from the game.

- Although we saw a lot less Randy Moss than I expected, he had a big impact while he was in the game. He caught 4 passes for 47 yards and a touchdown – quite the contribution for a guy returning to an NFL field after over a year without playing.

-The 49ers ran the ball a total of 32 times for 186 yards and a touchdown. Although Kendall Hunter appeared to be a difference maker during the game, he only ended up with 9 carries for 41 yards (and a not-too-shabby 4.1 average). Frank Gore was the man yet again, toting the ball 16 times for 112 yards and a touchdown. The score was a 23-yard scamper late in the game that I’m sure Gore wouldn’t have finished off had he been the primary ball carrier for the entire contest.

- Vernon Davis showed some pretty good hands on his touchdown catch in the 3^rd quarter, but the goal post wasn’t impressed by his celebratory dunk attempt. Watch SportsCenter’s “Not Top 10 Plays” this week for a highlight of Davis getting rejected.

- Colin Kaepernick only saw one play, but it looked like a designed run and it got the 49ers a good handful of yards. Looks like the 49ers will be getting Kaepernick involved this season after all. He got the 49ers close enough to attempt an end of the half field goal. More on that in a minute…

Role reversal: an ironic day for the 2005 draft

- Alex Smith finished his day 20-26 for 211 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions; a stat line that resembled a lot of his starts last year. But Smith clearly outplayed Rodgers, despite the Packers’ QB throwing for over 300 yards. Smith made all the throws that needed to be made; all the while it was Rodgers who had the back-breaking mistake – an interception that resulted in Frank Gore’s touchdown run.

- Smith distributed the ball more efficiently than ever before: he hit six different receivers on the day and involved every wideout on the roster en route to the win. It was nice to see Smith hit Mario Manningham on a few different instances; Mario was pretty much MIA in the preseason, but he looked game ready today.

- The Packers sacked Alex Smith 4 times today and yet the 49ers’ quarterback never fumbled or threw an interception under duress. He still seemed to favor taking a sack over taking a risk, but he did show progression in his playmaking ability. One play that stood out: he rolled right and looked to run, drawing the linebacker off of Bruce Miller. He then dunked the ball right over the defenders head and into the hands of Miller for a first down.

- A 49ers fan member of Boyz II Men, who performed at the game today, made a bet with Aaron Rodgers before the game: If San Francisco wins, he has to wear an Alex Smith jersey. I’m REALLY hoping a picture of that gets leaked. Heads will explode, I tell you!

- One more pretty significant stat: Alex Smith surpassed Steve Young today for the longest streak of consecutive passes without an interception at 185. Young threw 184 before getting picked off.

The 49ers defense doesn’t lose a step

- Aldon Smith spent a lot of his afternoon playing tag with Aaron Rodgers. His highlight of the afternoon was chasing Rodgers down in the backfield in the opening of the game; a play that got negated by an unsportsmanlike call for removing his helmet. I never liked that penalty much anyway, but this one was particularly auspicious. Aldon’s helmet was already halfway up his face before he pulled it off. Nothing celebratory about it.

- The 49ers ran a wide variety of different personnel sets to counter the Packers’ 4 and 5-wide receiver sets. They weren’t any worse for the wear, even when they had to pull NaVorro Bowman or Patrick Willis in favor of cornerback Perrish Cox.

- It’s clear that teams won’t have fun running against the 49ers again this year. Not that the Packers like clouds of dust to begin with, but Cedric Benson only had 18 yards on 9 carries. If you have a fantasy running back going against the 49ers this season, I suggest you start calling that a second bye week and planning for a replacement now.

The leg of Akers

Jim Harbaugh brought David Akers in at the end of the second half to attempt a 63-yard field goal and he nailed it. It doinked off the crossbar, but it had the right spin to fall on the winning side of the goal posts, tying Akers for the longest field goal in NFL history. Of the others that hold the record, two of them were kicked in Denver. Akers has had the word “record” mentioned following his name several times since coming to the 49ers; that’s definitely not a bad thing.

A few words on the replacement refs

There was an interesting situation that led up to the Packers first touchdown – it was a pass interference call on a throw to Jermichael Finley in the end zone (it looked completely uncatchable, from my couch at least). Clumsiness and chaos ensued in the end zone, and the whole scene got pretty ugly. I noted on Twitter that things probably wouldn’t have gone any better had the regular referees been in, trying to defend the scabs. Of course it all went downhill from there.

The most notable mistake by the crew today came on a Randall Cobb punt return that resulted in a touchdown. Cobb was sprung by a few questionable blocks, including one surefire hold on Larry Grant and a no-doubter block in the back on Anthony Dixon. The refs initially threw a flag for the block in the back, but then picked it back up and awarded the Packers the touchdown.

The other mistake that stuck out – and could have proved the most costly – was the no-call after a late hit on Frank Gore’s touchdown run. He got hit walking into the end zone, helmet-to-helmet, and sat on the ground looking dazed for several seconds afterwards. No flags were thrown. Gore could have been seriously injured, and the replacement refs did nothing to control it.

Ultimately, the adversity that the 49ers faced wasn’t enough to stop them from winning in Lambeau for the first time since 1990. The Packers 13-game home win streak ended. It was their first loss in a home opener since 2006. For San Francisco, it was a loud statement to the NFL – there's no regression here. The 49ers are going to contend for a championship again in 2012.

My first press box experience: A night neither I - nor Barry Zito - will soon forget

2012-08-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Most sportswriters probably don’t write a cute little story about their first experience in a press box. My guess is they probably go about their business, furiously recording and taking notes, write their game stories and pretend like it was just another day.

That’s not going to be me. What can I say? I guess I’m a romantic for this kind of stuff. Growing up, I was the kid that loved to write. I would walk down to Long’s Drugs after a 49ers win to buy a copy of the morning newspaper and read the articles over 10 times before tacking them on my wall. I would have rather been the “PA announcer” for the recess stick ball games than actually play in them (I really did that, several times). Last night was special for me.

I was scheduled to meet Steve in front of the Dugout Store at 4 PM, so naturally, I decided that traffic would be terrible and left around 2:15. Of course I got to China Basin around 3, so I spent a good half an hour looking for a parking spot that was free. I settled for a metered spot in one of the more questionable neighborhoods about ten blocks from the park despite only having 40 cents in change. I said prayers that my car ~~would still be there~~ didn’t have a ticket when I got back.

My walk took me down to the Embarcadero, past the famous Red’s Java House and to the corner of 3^rd and King, where I watched a gaggle of Braves fans stand around, waiting for a chance to see the team bus pull up. I stood there awkwardly, eavesdropping on their chatter until Steve arrived.

Pregame adventures

Once he showed up he led me to the room where we picked up our media credentials, then through the security gates and right into the bowels of AT&T Park. His gait was a little too fast for me; I was the guy with the hand that trembled when security checked my press pass. This was a lot to take in. I followed as we weaved our way through the halls, trying to remember my way (I accidentally forgot my breadcrumbs at home). The first place we went was out onto the field.

Stepping out onto the diamond was surreal. We made our way behind home plate, where we stood and chatted, waiting for manager Bruce Bochy to come out for his pregame question and answer. Madison Bumgarner hung out by the batter’s box conversing with Dave Righetti. Ryan Vogelsong emerged from the dugout, followed by Tim Lincecum. I did a great job at not staring, I have to say.

Eventually we went down into the dugout and settled in for Bochy’s interview. I stood behind Steve while the manager talked, gaining respect for those that cover the game with every word spoken. There was so much going on around me that it was hard to absorb what he was saying. At one point my focus drifted from the manager to Hunter Pence, who was talking to a young fan on the top steps of the dugout. He asked the kid if he grew up in “San Fran,” at which I cringed.

After Bochy was done talking to the media we made our way up to the press box, where Steve pulled something out of an otherwise bland interview and wrote his pregame post. I tinkered with my old, rusty laptop’s internet capabilities for nearly an hour, wishing I owned a Macbook. Once it was finally working we celebrated with a trip to the media’s dinner room, where I served myself way too much quinoa and tried not to stare at Duane Kuiper. He was standing with someone by the TV, commenting on the Little League World Series. Steve served himself seconds, trying to kill time before first pitch, but I set out by myself to head back down to the press box, an adventure that was chock full of nervous and awkward interactions.

Game time

It didn’t take long for me to make my first gaff as a member of the press. At the end of the Star Spangled Banner, I allowed myself to applaud. It lasted probably three seconds, but felt much longer; it wasn’t until I looked around, noticing that everyone in the press box had already returned to their respective workloads that I quickly stopped clapping. Hopefully no one noticed. I’m sure someone did.

Thankfully, that would be pretty much it for my struggles with celebration as a member of the media. Occasionally I’d let it slip – a fist pump here, a reactionary jump there; watching thousands of games as a fan makes cheering a part of your muscle memory. It’s harder to turn off than you’d think.

The game was filled with weirdness, from Atlanta’s defensive gaffs to Pagan’s continued bonfire at the plate and even a “BAR-RY” chant in the 8^th inning (without Mr. Bonds in attendance). If you’re interested, BASG handled the game, and naturally I handled the ode to Zito.

Ultimately the Giants won, which according to Steve boded well for my clubhouse experience. We quickly abandoned our laptops in the press box and made our way downstairs.

So about those postgame interactions…

First we headed to the room where Bochy’s postgame press conference was held. We sat silently awaiting Bochy’s arrival. I always expected that the manager would be ushered in by team cronies, but instead he just walked in by himself and sat down, immediately fielding questions from the surprisingly small crowd. The way these interviews ended was the oddest part – once there was a short period of silence, Bochy just nodded to the crowd, uttering the words “alright, then,” and suddenly everyone cleared out.

From there we entered the clubhouse. Steve told me that it would be pretty lively, but that wasn’t the case. Joaquin Arias was making his way out the door as we walked in, and there weren’t many players around as we swarmed Barry Zito.

The lefty gave us a look like we were about to sandpaper off his cheeks as we approached, but he answered every question pretty graciously nonetheless. Once we were done with Zito, we stood around in a circle with other members of the media, quietly pondering who to talk to next. Steve grabbed Javier Lopez for a one-on-one interview, which I observed from the side. Matt Cain and Ryan Theriot both bombed the interview, running by and making faces to the camera as they passed. I stood in for interviews with Hector Sanchez and Pablo Sandoval, but I didn’t ask anything. It wasn’t until we talked to Sergio Romo that I spoke up. Romo was wearing one of those “creepy guy” 49ers hats, which Steve asked him about. I spotted a 49ers jersey in his locker, so I asked him about that too. He said it was a “Joe Mon-Tanya jersey… greatest linebacker in the NFL – just kidding.” Romo was a good interview. I felt comfortable in his presence.

After the clubhouse we headed back up to the press box, where all the writers sat at their laptops, furiously working on their write-ups. At one point the lights went out on the stadium, leaving a dark backdrop for my newest workspace. I met that with surprise, but everyone else was used to it. It was nothing new to them.

I didn’t end up finishing my post and packing up my laptop until around 11:45. I spent the next 15 minutes wandering around the halls of AT&T Park, testing several different exits to no avail. God bless the friendly vendor who showed me my way out; if he hadn’t, I’d probably still be there.

Then it was just me and the cool San Francisco night. My brisk walk back to my car lasted about 15 minutes and ended with me finding my car unscathed and ticketless. I listened to the midnight replay of my first covered game on the way home, but really it was just background noise. I kept replaying the surreal evening in my head.

Hopefully the novelty of an experience like that never wears off for me, though I’m sure it will at some point. Eventually I’ll be that jaded guy, completely unfazed by Buster Posey walking by me in the clubhouse, or Duane Kuiper passing me in the hallways, nodding hello. Returning home, I put my press pass in a safe place; I don’t want to lose it. That pass will always be a reminder I won’t need, of a night I will never forget.

A Melk-pun free reflection on Cabrera's suspension

2012-08-15T18:33:00.002-07:00

Pre-Blog Note: I haven’t written anything for this site in a while (I know, I know, what a tragedy) – what can I say? I’ve taken on a larger role at Bay Area Sports Guy and have really been enjoying it. Life doesn’t always allow me to spend large portions of everyday blogging about sports, so I write when I can, and what I write I put on BASG.

Given both the severity of this situation, and the fact that BASG (a 5-tool blogger in his own right) was already at the park and on the case when the suspension came down, I really didn’t have anything more to add on his site. Nevertheless, I have some thoughts on the situation, so consider this my triumphant (but probably brief) return to the Ruthless Sports blog.

Okay, let’s get to it

The shockwaves of Melky Cabrera’s 50-game suspension for a positive testosterone test have surely reached anyone reading this blog by now. It is the biggest news in the sports world today – especially in the Bay Area. Cabrera was the fasted rising star that San Francisco has seen in years, not only because of his immediate production but because of how he sustained it.

Melky’s on-field performances were not of the Gregor Blanco variety – that is, fun but short-lasted. Cabrera started hitting immediately and kept right on hitting. The movement for resigning Cabrera was large, loud and rabid. There were concerns that the Giants couldn’t even afford him after the 2012 season that he’s had.

So much for that

Giants ownership – a group larger than the headcount in my community college statistics class – is already a hard bargain when it comes to shelling out money for players. To make matters worse, nearly every risk that ownership has taken in signing free agent players to big contracts has resulted in disaster (see: Rowand, Aaron).

This is obviously speculation – as no one except Melky really knows how long he has been using performance enhancing drugs – but Cabrera’s numbers definitely indicate a questionable spike in his 2011 turnaround season with Kansas City. His OBP/SLG/OPS jumped significantly - .317/.354/.671 in 2010 (ATL) to .339/.470/.809 in 2011. The numbers were even better with the Giants in 2012 – Cabrera was hitting .390/.516/.906.

Knowing what we know now, signing Cabrera to anything longer than a one year deal would be a ridiculous risk. We know that he was a player that underperformed and had issues with his weight early in his career. We know that he got in shape and turned his game around in eyebrow-raising fashion. We know that, at some point in time, he used a performance enhancing drug to get better. The question remains – will he revert to his post-2011 form when he returns from his suspension and PEDs are no longer an option? The risk may be too large for Brian Sabean – or more importantly, Giants ownership – to take.

The ripple effect

Hopefully most savvy Giants fans (and I’m assuming that if you’re reading this, you’re savvy) avoided shelling out 150 bucks to buy a Melky jersey. Of course, some fans did. Oh, the humanity.

The effects of this suspension will be felt from the luxury boxes all the way out to the parking lots. As I predicted, the Giants marketing staff went nuts with the word “Melk” and produced a ton of gear catering to Cabrera’s following. The Melkmen, the group of Cabrera fans that became a staple at the ballpark, will have to look for ~~new employment~~ a new player to get behind. And the small companies making a name for themselves through the Melk movement (like LND Apparel) will have to find something to do with those creative clothing options that probably won’t sell now. This suspension was an enormous blow to this franchise and its fan base, and we haven’t even talked about the team yet.

Moving on from Melky

Cabrera’s absence in the lineup doesn’t leave it completely devoid of pop, but it is a major blow. Alex Pavlovic reported on Twitter that the Giants will be optioning Dan Otero to AAA Fresno and calling up two hitters tomorrow. The names of those players have yet to be announced, but you have to assume that OF Justin Christian will be one of them. Brett Pill is another option; they just love to call up Brett Pill.

In the meantime, Gregor Blanco will be seeing a significant amount of play in left field. Although it will have to do, it won’t replace the production that Cabrera was providing. Blanco went 2-for-4 in the Giants loss to the Nationals today, but he was 0 for his previous 20 at bats.

Beyond Blanco, the Giants will need Hunter Pence to start producing, Pablo Sandoval to stay healthy and Brandon Belt to keep his newfound poise at the plate alive (and maybe start running the bases a little smarter, too). As for Buster Posey? He’s the guy who’s had to put the team on his shoulders more than a few times in his still-young career. It looks like he’ll have to do it again.

Speaking of the Giants’ catcher – how does Posey feel about Cabrera’s suspension?

“It was just a bad decision,” Posey said. “I’m not really going to say more than that.”

Territorial Pissings - Previewing the Bay Bridge Series

2012-06-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

Oh, how quickly things can change.It was only yesterday that I flipped on 95.7 The Game just in time to hear that Yoenis Cespedes walked off the Dodgers with a 3-run shot in the 9th inning to complete the sweep. This was sweet news to my ears - after all, the Giants had all kinds of trouble getting anything going against the Angels, and they need all the help they can get trying to catch the Dodgers.Giants fans wake up today with a much different feeling. As if all the "You're welcome, Giants fans" posts on social media weren't enough to grind gears, tonight is the first game of the final 3-game set between the two Bay Area squads and, quite frankly, this one feels like it has a little more juice than in years past.

Here's what I see

A's fans are feeling mighty cocky after sweeping the Giants' interstate rivals, and as well they should be. They did the Giants a favor and they looked good in the process. They're also a little critical of the Giants, who pretty much got owned by the Angels this week and by the AL West as a whole in 2012.

Giants fans know that they need every win they can get their hands on if they're going to give the Dodgers a flat tire on the way to the playoff chow line. It doesn't matter who they get the wins from, but hey - if they come from the Athletics, that's all the better.
Then there's the whole issue of territorial rights, something that probably pisses off the teams' respective ownership groups more than their respective fan bases. Giants fans could probably care less one way or another where the A's play. My guess is that most A's fans would rather not see their team moved to San Jose, in which case they're most likely rooting, not necessarily for the Giants ownership, but more against Lew Wolfe & Co. Regardless of your feelings on the territorial battles, there's bound to be some added tension, as both teams are in conflict with one another - more so off the field than when they're actually playing.
The Giants took 2 out of 3 from the Athletics when they showed up at AT&T Park in May, which means that it's the A's turn to show what they got in their own digs. Sitting 9 games behind the first place Texas Rangers, it's hard to imagine the A's roaring back to win the division. But Oakland is only 2 games under .500, meaning they aren't just playing for bragging rights anymore (especially with the extra wild card now in place). Should the A’s complete a sweep, they’ll pop out on the other side of this series with a winning record.
The Giants would be leading the NL West easily if it weren't for the high-flying Dodgers, so there's no mystery what's at stake for them. There's no way to paint a June series as monstrous, but this one just FEELS more important.

Without further ado, here's what we're looking forward to

Tonight: Tim Lincecum vs. Jarrod Parker
7:05 PM
What to watch for: The fate of Tim Lincecum rests on this start tonight. With a ballooning ERA of 6.19 and confidence at an all time low, Major League Baseball's eyes will be on the two time Cy Young winner. Should he have another bad outing, manager Bruce Bochy may look to skip Lincecum's spot in the rotation, or worse. It will be interesting to see how Timmy handles facing Yoenis Cespedes, the Cuban defector that has exceeded expectations for the Athletics this year. The Giants avoided facing the A's most dangerous bat the first time around, but they won't be so lucky this time, as Cespedes is healthy and raking. Will Timmy be able to bottle up Cespedes, or will we see a Paul Goldschmidt redux?

Saturday: Madison Bumgarner vs. Tyson Ross
4:15 PM
What to watch for: Madison Bumgarner will look to build on a spectacular 2012 resume vs. a very unfamiliar A's offense. Only three players in the Athletics' line up have faced Bumgarner in the past - Seth Smith (0-3), Brandon Inge (0-2), and Jonny Gomes, who is 1-5 - with that 1 being a 3-run homer.

Sunday: Matt Cain vs. Brandon McCarthy
1:05 PM
What to watch for: The A's will trot Brandon McCarthy and his 2.54 ERA (4th in the AL) out to the mound to take on Matt Cain in his second start since the perfecto. Considering that neither team is really destroying the baseball right now, perhaps this is a good time to throw 100 bucks on the under and sit back, prepared to watch a pitcher's duel. Both McCarthy and Cain have been excellent in 2012 - there's no reason to think that it won't continue on Sunday.

Matt Cain - The perfect guy for perfection

2012-06-14T08:58:00.001-07:00

It started with a guy flying a hydraulic jetpack over McCovey Cove and ended with a riot on the pitcher’s mound. What most of us thought was going to be another ho-hum Wednesday night match up with the Astros will without a doubt go down in the annals of San Francisco folklore.

Matt Cain pitched a perfect game - only the 22nd in MLB history and the first in the Giants 128-year existence.

Too much awesome

Cain's big day started out long before first pitch, as the US Open prompted an unusual pregame change of pace for the Giants' ace. Several hours before first pitch, in front of a gaggle of cameras and reporters, Cain, Rory McElroy and others turned AT&T Park into a driving range, launching golf balls from a tee at home plate into McCovey Cove. Cain took one swing - a beautiful one at that - and hit a shot that sailed further than any ball hit into the Cove since Barry Bonds still swung the sticks. I'd say that Cain should quit his day job and take up golf but, hey, he proved last night that he's a man of many talents.

The scene at AT&T Park only got better from there. At some point in the first inning, a guy flying a hydraulic jetpack emerged in McCovey Cove, turning the usually serene landscape of China Basin into a scene out of "The Avengers." This sight nearly melted Twitter in the Bay Area, but it would turn out to be an afterthought when all was said and done.

That wasn't the only afterthought of the night. What was also left in the dust of Matt Cain's perfection was the outburst of Giants offense in a home park that has been anything but kind to its hometown hitters. Melky Cabrera was 2-for-5 with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first. Gregor Blanco was 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs and a homer. Pablo Sandoval was 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and the #FreeBelt movement pushed right along as Brandon hit his second home run in as many nights, finishing the evening 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs.

But offense-shmoffense. Let's talk about what really owned the evening.

Just how perfect was Matt Cain?

According to ESPN Stats and Info, Matt Cain pitched possibly the best perfect game ever. Cain's 14 strike outs tied Sandy Koufax for the most in the history of perfect games; it was also a career-high. His game score, 101, tied Koufax for the highest in perfect game history (an average game score for a pitcher is around 50). His velocity increased as the game wore on, from 90 to around 94 in the later innings, and he struck out 11 of the 14 on fastballs. His command was immaculate all night, painting corners with his fastball and letting his curveballs tumble out of the zone gracefully all game long.

Getting high with a little help from his friends

It's been said that there is at least one amazing catch in every perfect game, and in Matt Cain's case that catch came from Gregor Blanco. It was the 7th inning when the Astros' Jordan Schafer scorched a ball to deep right-center. Everyone watching, Cain included, probably thought that it was the end of the perfect game bid, as the ball was quickly sailing to that no man's land on the warning track in between the range of Angel Pagan and Blanco. But the White Shark had enough fuel in his tank, and enough sense of the moment, to track it down in spectacular fashion, successfully wrangling a diving catch that will go down in history as one of the greatest grabs in San Francisco sports lore.

Blanco wasn't the only one to help out Cain Wednesday night. Melky Cabrera made a spectacular catch on a Chris Snyder ball that got crushed to the warning track in left field. And the Giants' infield, a group that's faced its hiccups over the course of the 2012 season, found a way to rise to the occasion as the game wore on and the mercury rose. We can't forget Buster Posey either, as he was the man who quarterbacked the perfecto. Posey, who said it was the most nervous he had ever been on a baseball field (and he caught the final out of the Giants 2010 World Series victory), somehow managed to find a rhythm with Cain and keep Houston batters off-kilter for 27 perfect outs. He may be the most underrated performer of the night.

***

Perhaps the most symbolic aspect of the night is that THIS was the game that turned Cain's career win-loss record into a winning 76-75. Cain got an anomalous 10 runs of support, but he wouldn't need a single one of them. With not just a team, but an entire city behind him, Cain rose to the occasion and showed the sporting world just what a special player he is. Because after all, Cain has always been a special player, but last night he was perfect.

San Francisco Giants - Pleasant (and important) 2012 surprises

2012-06-08T17:45:00.002-07:00

We have almost reached the 60 game mark of the 2012 Major League Baseball season, and that means that by now we should be getting a better idea about how each team is composed.
Some teams are not difficult to judge - their lineups stay, for the most part, intact. There isn't much shuffling in the batting order or the pitching staff, meaning that most fans know what they're going to get when they walk in the ballpark for Opening Day.
For Giants fans, who have seen their team go through more fung shway rearrangement than a college dorm room, this is not the case. As the Texas Rangers come into town to gear up for a rematch of the 2010 World Series, it is more evident than ever that these are not the World Champions that we fell in love with two years ago. Much has changed in the land of the orange and black, so at the 1/3rd mark of the season, they stand to be evaluated. Let’s take a look at some of the players who have been not only pleasant surprises, but actually paramount pieces in the Giants’ success:

5.). Gregor Blanco

Are you ready for a right field rant? Good, ‘cuz here goes: I have some kleenex ready for anybody still crying over the Giants letting Carlos Beltran walk. Sure, Beltran has been tearing it up for the Cardinals, but make no mistake about it - things wouldn't have been the same if he stayed in San Francisco. Asking him to stay in the oft-perceived pitcher friendly confines of AT&T Park would have meant much more money than what the Cardinals are paying for him. They would have had to pay him top flight money, meaning that they would have needed to design an offense with him as the centerpiece. Beltran didn't want that kind of pressure. He wouldn't have been happy here, and quite frankly, I'm not sure he was happy here after the Giants traded for him in 2011.
I digress. A Beltran-less lineup left a big question mark in right field, and it's become clear that Nate Schierholtz isn't the answer. Nate has a cult hero to some in my circle, what with his propensity for the clutch at bats and surprising power in the past. But Schierholtz was more than underwhelming in Spring Training and just as lackluster when given opportunities early in the regular season. He has been terminally inconsistent throughout his career, and that is poison for a Giants lineup that must click in order to score runs.
Gregor Blanco has been the remedy. Plugged into right field and the leadoff spot, he's provided an invaluable shot of energy to the team. His .288/.390/.468 (Batting Average/On Base Percentage/Slugging Percentage) clip rivals some of the best leadoff hitters in baseball right now, and he has flashed some unexpected power on top of it.

4.) Angel Pagan

All credit due to Bochy here, who found a way to quiet some of his doubters by dealing Andres Torres to the Mets for Pagan. I knew very little about Angel when he came to the team, and I expected even less. If he could provide just a little more than what Torres brought to the Giants in 2011 I’d be happy.
He had a terrible Spring Training and an equally ugly start to the season, but Pagan has settled in nicely ever since, especially after moving out of leadoff and into the five hole. He has now enjoyed 3 hitting streaks of 10 games or more, and he's batting at a .321/.358/.473 clip. Probably overshadowed by the out of control season that Melky Cabrera has been enjoying, Pagan already has 72 hits on the season and isn't showing signs of slowing down. Perhaps most important of all - Pagan seems to have become one of the more outspoken leaders in the clubhouse, bringing a consistency that Andres Torres failed to provide.

3.) Ryan Vogelsong

I heard Vogelsong described as possibly being the Andres Torres of the pitching staff during the off season, but at this point that couldn't be further from the truth. Even with Vogelsong’s injury concerns early in the season, he has been every bit as lights out as the rest of the pitching staff. Given Barry Zito's long documented history of getting shelled and Tim Lincecum's sudden frailties, it has been paramount for the Giants to have 3 solid starters in their bullpen.
Solid is really the only way to describe Vogelsong. Through 10 games, he is 4-2 with a 2.38 ERA. He's averaging 6.8 innings per start with a WHIP in line with 2011 (1.211, compared to 1.252 in 2011). The Giants never needed Vogelsong to be spectacular, but he has far exceeded expectations up to this point. Although it probably won’t end up happening, Vogelsong has been pitching well enough to deserve another look for the All Star Game.

2.) Barry Zito

You could call me a full-fledged Barry Zito fanboy at this point in time. During the offseason I decided to spitball and explore the possibility of Zito making an Alex Smith-like comeback on Bay Area Sports Guy. I had no idea that he would actually do it, and through 11 games he has far exceeded what I ever thought he was capable of doing. He has already pitched more innings than he did in 2011 (66.1, compared to a total of 53.2 in 2011), and almost all of his numbers are better.

	H	R/ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+**	WHIP	SO/BB	WAR***
2011	51	35/35	10	24	32	60	1.398	1.33	-0.6
2012*	55	28/22	6	28	39	118	1.251	1.39	0.7

*Zito has pitched 12.2 more innings in 2012

**ERA+ refers to adjusted ERA. It adjusts the pitcher’s ERA according to the pitcher’s ballpark and the ERA of the pitcher’s league. An average ERA+ is 100, so obviously Zito was far below average in 2011, and is above average in 2012.

***WAR stands for Wins Against Replacement. WAR represents how many more wins a player would earn a team versus a “replacement player.” Obviously, Zito’s negative WAR in 2011 shows that he was actually contributing negatively to the Giants in 2011 (as if I needed to tell you that). His positive WAR value in 2012 shows that he is contributing positively.

These numbers speak for themselves. Again, given Lincecum’s struggles, Zito’s 2012 successes have been a huge bonus. Whether or not this can continue for an entire season, we’ll find out. But believe me, this Zito fanboy will be keeping a close eye on it.

1.) Melky Cabrera

I don’t think I need to explain myself much here. If you’ve been watching the Giants at all then you know how invaluable Melky has been to the offense this season. His 87 hits lead the majors and his .364 BA leads the NL. His 2.6 WAR is 5^th in the NL, his 7 triples are 1^st in the NL and .934 OPS (On Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage) is 10^th in the NL. His value is only compounded by how much weight he’s pulling on the team – his 58 games played and 258 plate appearances rank 2^nd in the NL respectively.

All this from a player whom the Giants acquired in a trade for Jonathan Sanchez, currently on the DL with an elbow injury for the Kansas City Royals. Whatever your expectations for Melky were during Spring Training, hardly anyone could have foreseen him providing this kind of pop. Sure, Melky has been on another planet, and they say that players’ statistics always progress back to the mean over the course of 162 games. But if you’re a Giants fan, you have to be impressed and hoping that Mr. Cabrera never comes back down to earth.

Like it or not, Barry Zito is making strides

2012-05-19T11:35:00.004-07:00

Barry Zito.

The name alone evokes a plethora of emotions for baseballfans on both sides of the San Francisco Bay. If there is a more polarizing figure in Bay Area sports recently (notalso named Barry), they are certainly slipping my mind now. He seems indifferent. He’s been inconsistent. At times, the man has been completelyintolerable. And yet I have to admit – I’vebecome one of Zito’s biggest fans.

I definitely won’t deny the selfishness behind my rootinginterest. Just over three months ago Iventured out on the flimsiest of limbs to suggest that Zitohad a comeback left in him, a hypothesis that was met by more snickeringthan a stuttering student in a 4^th grade grammar class.

Was my prediction bold? Definitely. Was it probable? No. Wasit written to score pageviews? CERTAINLY not.

And yet, in the way that I detailed the possible comeback,it seems to be coming to fruition. Perhaps that’s why every time Zito takes the mound, I watch with atwinkle in my eye. For starters, thedead space where KNBR-Zito-rippers used to exist has been pleasant (when it’snot being replaced by the “middle infielders who can’t hit” banter, that is). Secondly, I want to be right when I make aproclamation; after all, I have to make up for botchingmy predictions on the 49ers and Randy Moss. And obviously, watching a goat turn into a hometown hero of sorts isalways a fun exercise.

Let’s be clear

My piece was more of a shot at the sensitive nature of BayArea sports fans than it was a vote of confidence in Zito. I watched with pleasure while Jim Harbaughtransformed Alex from a beaten puppy dog to somehow-someway winner. Alex didn’t transform into Drew Brees, but hecertainly won over the hearts of 49ers fans in a hurry.

They say that winning cures all; it seems to mask a lottoo. Forget the fact that Alex Smithwasn’t going “Bombs over Baghdad” every Sunday – he was winning games withmodest statistics all season long. Thekey word is winning – that’s all it took to get the fans on his side. He didn’t shock the world with gaudy numbers,but he got the job done.

The same can be said for Zito. He’s far from making a case for a Cy YoungAward or an All Star bid, but in the hearts and minds of Giants fans, he’s madea hell of a comeback. Zito started inonly 9 games in 2011 (although he pitched in 13), and through 8 starts thisseason he has shown notable improvement:

	W-L	ERA	ERA+	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB
2011	3-4	5.87	60	1.398	8.6	1.7	4.0	5.4	1.33
2012	3-1	3.00	116	1.250	7.3	0.8	3.9	5.3	1.33

Okay, so we all know how meaningless W/L records are, butsome of the other statistical differences are hard to ignore. Zito boasts an ERA almost 2 runs lower thanlast season and an ERA+ that is up 56 points. Nearly every aspect of Zito’s game has improved except walks, asdocumented by his BB/9 and SO/BB ratio. Like I said, not exactly Cy Young material, but still pretty good stuff.

DoesTom House have something to do with this? Perhaps. There definitely seemsto be a change in Zito’s game, both physically and mentally. How contrasted has Zito'sfiery 2012 attitude been to the Zito of years past. How often have we seen him stare off intospace after a gaggle of runs got scored on his watch? Maybe Zito isn’t as indifferent about his on-fieldperformance as we once thought.

If you’re still hanging onto the financial and contractualmisgivings you are a master grudge-holder. He’s getting paid too much money – it’s time to move on. The most important thing to understand now isthat the bar has been lowered, and Zito seems to be hurdling it. As the 2012 season wears on, I’ll certainlybe watching Barry Zito with vested interest. After all, I’m a selfish guy, and myreputation depends on it.

ESPN power rankings... with a twist

2012-05-14T18:04:00.001-07:00

It's human nature to rank things. We love to categorize, list, and order whatever it is that’s put in front of us. It helps keep us sane in a world of constant disorder, and when all else fails it gives us a meaningless exercise when there's nothing better to do.

Just ask Mel Kiper, who has made a career out of it. He has been ranking college players that are getting ready for their NFL careers since I was in diapers. During the draft off-season, Kiper has a radio show that KNBR syndicates on Saturday mornings in which he always seems to be teasing his weekly "top five lists." "Coming up, my top five taco shops in the greater New York area!" Man, I can't wait until I have Saturdays off.

Just prior to the NFL Draft, ESPN released their "Off-season power rankings". They placed the 49ers 3rd, I believe, behind the New York Giants and Patriots. Predictable, but my guess is that's not what ESPN wanted.

Let's take a look at the ESPN Power Rankings from a different angle. Rather than judging teams based on talent or win-loss record, let's judge them based on ESPN's interest in them. By the time I'm finished, I'll have sufficiently killed any chance of working for the mothership, but oh well. Who really wants to live in Connecticut anyway?

1. The New York Jets - No real explanation necessary here. We have a New York team, head-manned by a coach with an affinity for talking - A LOT. They traded for Tim Tebow. They're not all that good at football, so even when there's no controversy to speak of, we can always discuss their "struggles." They signed Tim Tebow this year. They have a lot of players that love to put their feet in their mouths like Bart Scott. Oh yeah, did we mention Tim Tebow?

2. The New York Giants - Here's another New York team that loves to talk. They won a Super Bowl, their quarterback's last name is Manning AND they're pretty good at football. If THEY signed Tim Tebow, the list would start and end with them.

3. The Denver Broncos - The ghost of Tebow past resides in the Mile High City, which means we would have left them high on our list because of the whole "how the Broncos are doing without Tebow Time" angle anyway. Luckily for Colorado sports fans, they pulled off signing Peyton Manning, so the Broncos will be good for endless hours of debate come football season. We pray for Peyton's neck on a daily basis.

4. The New England Patriots - We would love this team a lot more if Bill Belichick would talk a little more. We're also hoping Tom Brady gets himself into some kind of trouble - a DUI, a divorce, whatever. After all, being controversial is better for ratings than being good at sports is.

5. The Indianapolis Colts - The ghost of Peyton past lives here, but Andrew Luck should provide us plenty to talk about for Indianapolis this year. If he's good, we'll slobber on him. If he sucks, we'll point and laugh. Perfect.

6. The Dallas Cowboys - Even without Tony Romo and all of his mediocre tendencies, this team would still be high on our list. They are "America's team," so everybody loves them... Right?

7. The Philadelphia Eagles - Even though Vince Young is gone, the Eagles are still the number one dream team in our hearts.

8. The Green Bay Packers - The whole "small market" aspect of the cheese heads makes us want to ignore them, but their pesky knack for winning overrides that. Discount Double Check!

9. The Detroit Lions - We love Ndamukong Suh's nasty attitude. We also love nicknames like Megatron. Jim Schwartz is kind of douchy, so we like that too.

10. The Washington Redskins - We're hoping Robert Griffin III sucks so we can keep our streak of ridiculing the Redskins alive and well.

11. The New Orleans Saints - If it wasn't for this team, we wouldn't have had much NFL to talk about this offseason. Keeping the "bountygate" storyline on life support is our number one priority here at ESPN.

12. The Chicago Bears - Brandon Marshall is nuts. Jay Cutler throws interceptions. Devin Hester will probably take a few to the house. Get your popcorn ready, folks!

13. The Pittsburgh Steelers - Troy Polamalu's hair! Terrible Towels! Ben Roethlisberger's wacky bar bathroom antics! Blue collar! Lunch pail football!

14. The Carolina Panthers – Cam Newton throws for 500 yards per game and still loses. But who cares, because offense is more important than winning.

15. The San Francisco 49ers - Like we said, offense is more important than winning.

16. The Baltimore Ravens - They are the 49ers of the east coast, so we considered switching spots here. In the end, Jim Harbaugh's handshake situation gave the 49ers the edge.

That's it.

Wait, there's more? Damn it!

17. The Houston Texans - Matt Schaub to Andre Johnson, and Arian Foster can run fast. Enough said.

18. The San Diego Chargers - We're still waiting for Philip Rivers to completely lose it before we really start covering this team.

19. The Cincinnati Bengals - They had a breakout season last year, but they can’t seem to breakout of their legal issues. Give me a break - we're ESPN, not TruTV.

20. The Oakland Raiders - Their new coach is Dennis Allen? Zzzzzz...

21. The Atlanta Falcons - Dear Falcons regular season performances,

We don't believe you.

Sincerely, ESPN

22. The Miami Dolphins - The way Stephen Ross swings and misses, we're going to have to send Buster Olney to cover the Dolphins pretty soon.

23. The Kansas City Chiefs - We're still pissed that they ended the Packers' perfect season last year.

24. The Seattle Seahawks - We won't pay attention to them until we have to sell you reasons to watch those Monday Night Football games that we scheduled for them late in the season.

25. The St. Louis Rams - We're praying for Sam Bradford's ankle.

26. The Buffalo Bills - We're praying for Ryan Fitzpatrick's beard. We're also praying that Mario Williams injures Mark Sanchez, and doesn't injure Tom Brady.

27. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

28. The Arizona Cardinals - If it's Kevin Kolb, sure, why not? If it's John Skelton, forget it.

29. The Tennessee Titans - It was fun pretending that Peyton would go to Tennessee, wasn't it?

30. The Minnesota Vikings - Adrian Peterson may crack SportCenter’s top ten plays, but that's about it.

31. The Cleveland Browns - Let's play "who is younger than your rookie quarterback"!

32. The Jacksonville Jaguars - There's a team called the Jaguars? Where the hell is Jacksonville anyway?

Blogging vs. beat writing: The Grant Cohn story

2012-05-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

For many of you who have been faithfully reading my blog since its inception, the roots of its title are no mystery. I was given the nickname “Ruthless McLorg” some time ago, mainly because I have a knack for letting someone have it, regardless of their feelings or the consequences.

Up until now, I haven’t felt much of a need to be that brutal. In many respects, Ruthless Sports is a misnomer. If you’re a newer follower of mine, you were probably wondering where the name even came from. Aside from the occasional zing that I’ll throw out on Twitter, I’m not exactly roasting people on a daily basis. I’m not trying to make enemies, after all.

I started up Ruthless because I love sports. I have lots of thoughts on them, and a large portion of my life revolves around them. I decided some time ago that I wanted a rich life – one where I eventually get paid to do something that I love. Not to toot my own horn here, but writing comes pretty naturally for me. My passion for sports and my ability to write seem to be a perfect marriage. While I trudge through the school system in an attempt to earn that piece of paper that hopefully lands me a job, I might as well get a head start on writing sports. I don’t make money for writing on Ruthless. Bay Area Sports Guy isn’t paying me either. I do this stuff because I love it.

I have great respect for the beat writers around the Bay Area. We have a collection of guys who absolutely know their stuff, do their homework, and excel at their positions. Andrew Baggarly, Hank Schulman, Matt Barrows, Eric Branch – these are just a few of the many beat writers whose work I read on a regular basis. They are embedded in the teams that they cover. They report the facts as they come and they offer their opinions when necessary. Keep up the good work boys.

That’s more than I can say for Grant Cohn.

I know, I know – this isn’t the first time that I’ve ripped the guy and I’m certainly not the first person to pick him apart. It would be pretty easy to attack the “riding his father’s coattails” angle, but when it comes to Grant, that’s not really what offends me. He is in an extremely desirable position, so for me to say that jealousy didn’t play a role in my resentment would be an outright lie. More important than all that is the amount of effort that goes into the columns that I read. (Full disclosure: I read them with the same interest that a driver would have rubbernecking a three car pile-up on 101 North.)

What is an article or a blog without facts? Simply put, it’s an opinion. Opinions not based in fact can sometimes be disguised when they are well written (see: Lowell Cohn), but when neither facts nor eloquent writing is present, it’s hard not to gawk.

Take this article on the 49ers first round draft pick, AJ Jenkins, for example:

“I give the Niners an F for their A.J. Jenkins pick at No. 30 in the first round, and here’s why.”

Whoa, whoa! Stop right there. Didn’t we learn early on (perhaps freshman year of high school) not to say “and here’s why” in our writing? Maybe he missed that class.

“They will not win the Super Bowl this season unless they improve [third down conversions and red zone]. So, they needed to spend a first round pick on a player who would help the cause.”

“So, what did they do? They drafted a 6-0, 190 lb. slot receiver who will be the fourth-string wideout and backup punt returner this season, most likely. In other words, he’ll replace Kyle Williams.”

Lots of the word “so,” misplaced commas and opinions here. The facts are coming, right?

“The Niners are sending a message, and it’s this: “We’re the best team in the NFL even if we’re the worst on third down. We were the best team last year, too. If it weren’t for Kyle Williams fumbles, we’d be champions. Now that we’ve replaced him, the Super Bowl is ours.”

They’re wrong. You have to be respectable on third down to win playoff games, and the Niners will not be respectable on third down this season because Michael Crabtree is still their possession receiver and Alex Smith is still their quarterback.”

Fin, sans evidence. I especially loved the ending, where he took offhand shots and Crabtree and Smith without any facts to back up his points.

Let’s not beat the dead horse too hard, and instead move on to the column he wrote the next day, shortly after the 49ers’ second round selection.

“The Niners just drafted Oregon running back LaMichael James with their second round pick. I love the selection. I give it an A, and here’s why.”

There’s that “here’s why” again. And if I’m not mistaken, AP Style frowns upon referring to a team in a short form name, especially the first time they are mentioned. I try not to refer to them as “the Niners” in any of my writing. “49ers” isn’t all that hard to type.

“James could end up one of the best players in this draft. He was a great college running back, and he’ll be a better pro than Kendall Hunter.”

A stellar writer with a crystal ball! Still no facts, though.

“They wanted to make sure they had not one but two quality backups at punt returner, and they’re giving Alex Smith not one but two fast third down checkdown options – something he needs.”

So with one pick, the 49ers magically fixed their third down issues; issues that were unbelievably glaring 24 hours ago! Objectivity is the word of the day, and Cohn seems to lack it. He hated AJ Jenkins, and ripped the 49ers as a result. Conversely he loved LaMichael James and suddenly changed his tune. But no college statistics? No evidence for his “points?” Beat writing at its finest.

About beat writing…

What separates a beat writer from your average blogger? Both have intimate knowledge of the sport that they cover. Both have a keyboard and internet access. Both have some basic understanding of journalistic style.

The primary difference is access. This brings me to Grant’s latest attention-garnering article on Randy Moss at the 49ers’ voluntary work outs.

Aside from the poor syntax and lackluster writing style that we’ve all become used to (starting off a paragraph with the word “but” and writing something that bordered on being a run on sentence in the second paragraph), this piece wasn’t all that bad. He had access to practice and he gave fans information on it – stuff that we normally wouldn’t see. We heard about who was stretching with who, who was there and who wasn’t, etc. Good stuff.

Then he went on to write what could only be compared to a gossip column in a high school newspaper. He portrayed Randy Moss as the new cool guy, while he painted the rest of the 49ers as swooning school girls desperate for his approval. He said that quarterback Josh Johnson “hovered” around Moss and “trail[ed] the great wide receiver like a spaniel… trying to make a good first impression.” How do you know that was Johnson’s intention? Did he tell you that?

Crabtree and Ted Ginn (players that he referred to as “dudes”) apparently “shuffled over to Moss like star-struck kids.” That’s not all – apparently Ginn is a style biter!

“Ginn even dressed like Moss – red shorts and black tights. Ginn was blatantly copying Moss’ style. Last year, Ginn had his own style. He always practiced in white tights which he pulled over the heels of the cleats. Lots of Niners coppied him – Crabtree, Kyle Williams and Frank Gore, to name a few. Today, Ginn was the copycat.”

“Coppied,” huh?

Then Grant described a little bit of the practice, which was full of good information. Unfortunately, these good vibes didn’t last long, because he couldn’t keep this tidbit inside of his own head when detailing a Moss catch in the end zone:

“Anthony Davis threw his hands up in the air and squealed like a child.”

Oops. I think we all know where this trainwreck is headed.

By now I think I’ve made my point. If the senior editor of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat is wondering why his newspaper’s readership is declining while sites like Bay Area Sports Guy and Niners Nation are getting flooded with traffic, he should look no further than the material that he is publishing. As sports fans, we want opinions. We want facts. But more importantly, we want to read something with effort and meaning behind it. All over the country, journalism students are working hard to achieve access to the places that Cohn can go. This is what remains baffling to me. This is what drives me to be a better writer.

Because a press pass should be something earned – it isn’t just a (birth)right.

LaMichael James - A 49ers luxury pick, or a need for speed?

2012-04-28T12:13:00.001-07:00

Even for a team as complete as the San Francisco 49ers, there was much discussion leading up to the draft about needs. The 49ers lost Adam Snyder. With young Daniel Kilgore waiting in the wings as an unproven commodity, right guard was definitely a need, right?
How about cornerback, the only position in their defense that could have been described as a weakness, given the way Eli Manning took apart the secondary in the NFC Championship?
Or perhaps defensive end, because Justin Smith is probably on the tail end of his career, despite the defensive player of the year-type 2011 season he enjoyed.
Need-shmeed. The 49ers built this team up by using the past couple drafts and free agency so that they could draft in 2012 for luxury. Apparently, it’s speed that Trent Baalke considers to be luxurious.
The 49ers surprised a lot of people (myself included) when they used their late second round pick to draft Oregon running back LaMichael James, one of the most prolific runners out of the NCAA in recent memory. Following the pick, they traded their third rounder away to the Indianapolis Colts for a fourth rounder this year and a fifth in 2013, ending the first two days of the draft with some shiny new weapons for their offense, and five prospects to be named later. (Note: Since writing this, the 49ers made a number of trades backwards and ended up drafting guard Joe Looney out of Wake Forest in the 4^th round of the draft.)

Need for speed

Without further ado, let me introduce you to the 49ers newest running back. Through 3 years at Oregon, James rushed for 5,082 yards. In 2011, he ranked third overall in the NCAA with 2012 all purpose yards, averaging 182.91 yards per game. In 2010, he rushed for 1731 yards and 21 touchdowns, and in 2011 he rushed for 1805 yards, 18 TDs and a 7.3 yard average, despite missing time with a dislocated elbow.
James's downside? His size. At 5'8", 194 lbs, most teams don't consider him to be an every down back. No problem for the 49ers, though. Apparently that's just fine with Harbaalke.

Why I'm scratching my head

I expected that the 49ers would take a running back in this draft, I just didn't think that LaMichael James would be the guy. Frank Gore, after enjoying a Hall of Fame-type career with the 49ers, is getting a little long in the tooth. I would be surprised if there was anything more than one more productive year left in the 49ers' backfield work horse. San Francisco drafted a similar, small running back in Kendall Hunter last year, and that had LaMichael James nowhere to be found on my draft board. The logical decision would have been to draft Gore's eventual successor, a running back with enough size and durability to handle a Gore-sized work load. But yet again, we're reminded that Trent Baalke rarely sides with the logical, and who really knows what he plans to do with James at this point. Draftniks don't seem to think that an all-small backfield will work. Apparently the 49ers believe otherwise.

Many believe that the 49ers already had their scatback in Kendall Hunter, however Joey McMurray (of Bay Area Sports Guy and The Flurry) feel that James is more Warrick Dunn than he is Darren Sproles. If this is true, the 49ers may well be set at the position of tailback.

Why I'm jumping for joy

I've been condemned for loving the splashy moves, and what can I say? When you're tucked away in San Francisco, a place where your teams find themselves ignored more often than not, it never hurts to make a little noise.
It doesn't get much splashier than this in the second round of the NFL Draft. If James was 3 inches taller and 20 lbs heavier, he would have perhaps been the first running back taken, even over Trent Richardson. Although he wasn't the most sought after running back prospect, he was still a show stopper in college, turning heads every time he touched the football.
Between AJ Jenkins and James, the 49ers have added a whole different level of giddy-up to their offense. James has been touted for his burst and vision; that, mixed with his 4.37 40, must have had Baalke convinced that there is something special in his new toy (257 yards and 3 touchdowns against Jim Harbaugh's Stanford Cardinal in 2010 didn't hurt his cause either).
The 49ers now have a unique mixture unlike any other team in the NFL right now. They are returning one of the most stifling squads in the history of the NFL on defense - 11 players with speed, discipline and ferocity. On offense, their ability to spread the field should be uncanny. LaMichael James, Kendall Hunter, AJ Jenkins and Randy Moss bring a whole new definition of fast to a team that has never really been considered speedy. Alex Smith should have weapons o'plenty in the 2012 season, as the skill positions are now stocked to the point of overflow.
Speaking of overflow, is the 49ers backfield too crowded now? Anthony Dixon is probably on his way out, and it never hurts to have too many playmakers, especially when you're playing with the casino's money. Just ask Harbaugh.
"It's like poker, that's a full house," he said. "That's a good hand, right?"

With AJ Jenkins, Trent Baalke proves he has a taste for the unexpected

2012-04-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Last night was the 4 year anniversary for my fiancé and me, so we took to North Beach for dinner at our favorite restaurant - Franchino. It’s a place that she and I have been to several times, so when I sat down, I grazed the menu despite already having my likely meal selection in mind.

For a brief moment, I considered doing something different. Lasagna was my go-to dish; in fact, it’s the only thing that I ever order when I go there. But how about something different for a change? The clam and mussel risotto was calling my name. It was unique, different, perhaps healthier. It was the road less travelled.

Always a slave to the routine, I scrapped the meal with upside for the trusty pick: my lasagna. It was delicious, of course, but it made me think – lasagna is probably not what Trent Baalke would have gone to in that situation.

Middle fingers to the experts

Since taking over general manager duties for Scot McCloughan in 2010, Trent Baalke has been anything but conventional in his approach to the draft. Each year, the Mel Kipers of the world try to figure out what the 49ers will do with their respective draft picks and every single time Baalke leaves their heads spinning.

The 2012 NFL Draft was no different. On the clock with the 30^th pick in the draft and names like Coby Fleener, Stephen Hill, and Janoris Jenkins ripe for utterance, the 49ers decided yet again to go unconventional with AJ Jenkins, wide receiver out of the University of Illinois.

This was Baalke’s equivalent of clam and mussel risotto. While Mel Kiper Jr. foreseeing me picking lasagna would have been an easy call, Baalke’s meal choice was nearly impossible to preconceive. He is unpredictable yet successful in his decision making, and still people want to second guess him. This fact casts doubt on the title of “draft experts,” but after a battery of successful drafts in hand, my blind faith in him is growing.

Mourning the loss of Fleener

I was one of that many voices crying out on Twitter for the 49ers to draft Coby Fleener. Up until about a week ago, I had a strong belief that if he was available, Jim Harbaugh would not allow Baalke to pass on the beastly sized tight end out of Stanford.

Last night, though, as the 30^th pick drew closer, my visions of three tight end sets creating havoc for opposing defenses began to fade. It wasn’t that I thought he would get stolen like David DeCastro going to the Steelers. I just started to realize that Bay Area Sports Guy was probably right – the pick was simply too obvious. To my dismay, the 49ers passed, as did every other team in the first round it turns out.

The second round won’t be too far underway before he gets snagged. The chances that the Colts pass on the Fleener air freshener to go along with their Lucky brand new car are slim. Time to come back to reality, 49ers fans. And don’t forget, Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker aren’t a terrible tandem either.

So about this Jenkins guy…

Jenkins was a productive wide receiver at Illinois, a guy that many consider a “burner.” Although he doesn’t have exceptional size (6’0”, 190 lbs), he has breakaway speed, running 4.39 40 (Jim Harbaugh said they clocked him running a 4.31). His senior year was his most productive, racking up 90 catches and 1,278 yards en route to catching 8 TDs.

He’s probably not a guy that will step into the 49ers as an immediate starter, but he’s certainly a more proven college producer than the other wide receiver options still available at 30, like Stephen Hill. Hill gained a lot of attention for his 4.30 40 time at the combine, but 820 yards and 5 touchdowns in 2011 pale in comparison to Jenkins’ numbers.

While Hill’s quarterback at Georgia Tech was the main playmaker in their triple option offense, Jenkins’ quarterback at Illinois, Nathan Scheelhaase, recognized AJ as his go to guy. Scheelhaase threw for 2110 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2011; that means that only 832 of his yards passing and 5 of his touchdowns went to any other receiver on the team.

As for the red zone, Jenkins’ size certainly won’t translate to an immediate fix for the 49ers’ deficiencies. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m giving San Francisco an F for the pick like certain "49ers beat writers."

With Michael Crabtree, Randy Moss, Mario Manningham, Kyle Williams and Ted Ginn, this team is sufficiently platooned at the position of wide receiver even without AJ Jenkins. Whether he is a metaphorical fire under Michael Crabtree’s ass, or Randy Moss is the stop gap to the 49ers 2012 draft selection, none of us really know. Jenkins was the Baalke draft crush that we all wondered about. We’ll have to trust the process.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only person who cocked his head, thinking “who?” when the selection was made. Even Damon Bruce, who spent days preparing for his 49ers Draft Special on KNBR, admittedly didn’t have a lick of paperwork on the guy that the 49ers chose. Few people probably did. After all, I had never heard of Aldon Smith before the 7^th pick of the 2011 NFL Draft – look how that turned out. But this is becoming the norm when you’re dealing with Trent Baalke, so if you’re tuning into to the next episode of the draft tonight with the 49ers future in mind, just remember this – expect the unexpected.

Lee v. Cain - An April duel, instant classic

2012-04-19T08:25:00.003-07:00

What was it about last night's Giants-Phillies extra innings show down that made it an instant classic? Perhaps it was the almost certain renewal of a rivalry ignited in the 2010 playoffs. Maybe it was the fact that fans atAT&T Park witnessed two of the best at their craft facing off, performing at the top of their game. Or better still, it was a return to that baseball we've come to know and love - well-pitched, futile baseball. One-run ball games. Walk offs.

More often than not, a gem like the one Matt Cain and Cliff Lee delivered last night would end around midnight with Jon Miller and Dave Flemming on an intravenous caffeine drip, but not this one. Lee and Cain were so masterful on the mound that the total run time of yesterday's extra innings duel was 2 hrs and 27 minutes.

How good were they? Lee and Cain combined for 19 scoreless innings. 9 hits. 11 strike outs. 1 walk. No runs allowed. Oh yeah, and no wins.

Yesterday's game extended Matt Cain's scoreless streak to 18 innings when combined with his one hit shutout over the Pirates only 6 days ago. Forget the KNBR horse sounder - what noise does an ace make?

Cain had only thrown 91 pitches through 9 innings when Bochy pulled him for Hector Sanchez to bat, and despite the fact that he could have probably gone for three more, this was the right move. Here's when having a bullpen nastier than a snuff film comes in handy - Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo, Javier Lopez and Clay Hensley formed a committee that was nothing short of stifling in relief.

Lee went the extra inning, ending his outing with 10 IP and 102 pitches, in favor of Antonio Bastardo - the man whose name is only slightly less fortunate than how his Wednesday evening ended. A Brandon Belt pinch-hit single up the middle got the runner on. A fielding error by Ty Wiggington got Pagan aboard and moved Belt to second. A single by Melky Cabrera (whose contract year is in full effect, with the Giants reaping the benefits) plated the only run of the evening. Juego, Gigantes.

Don't look now, but after being swept in their first series in Arizona, the Giants have won their last three against the Rockies, Pirates and Phillies. They now head to New York for a four game set with the Mets, followed by a three-game trip to Cincinnati. While the story lines surrounding the Giants - from Lincecum's struggles to the lineup's new found ability to hit - will be plentiful, one thing seems certain: Matt Cain is locked in, and he's earning his money.

San Francisco Giants baseball - The Twilight Zone Redux

2012-04-10T08:23:00.001-07:00

Alright, now raise your hand if you saw Zito's complete game, 4 hit, 0 walk shutout coming. That's what I thought.

This is the point where my audience would look like my statistics class on a Wednesday night (not only half empty, but also answerless and baffled). It's a crazy, mixed up time for Giants fans right now - we live in a world where the aces get shelled and Zito is lights out. A world where the Giants defense plays like a scene from the Three Stooges remake. A world where runs are becoming easier to attain than outs. Have we entered the Twilight Zone?

Not quite. Some of these are anomalies and some of these are not. Let's separate fact from fantasy after the first four games of the season.

Lincecum, Bumgarner and Cain getting shelled - obviously fantasy is a poor choice of words here; perhaps a better way to describe this would be a nightmare. I'm sure I'm not the only person who foresaw a mediocre start to the season - after all, the Giants were opening at Chase Field, the home of a team that squashed San Francisco's hopes of repeating fairly early last season. I just figured it would be of the 3-1 variety with the runs coming on some sort of bullpen breakdown. I didn't think Timmy and Co. would be tossing the Snakes batting practice for the first three games of the season.

Luckily for Giants fans, this is a nightmare - one they'll be waking up from soon. Lincecum settled down for a good four innings after getting smacked around early, while Bumgarner is prone to getting slapped from time to time and Matt Cain was left in perhaps a few batters too long. All of them suffered the consequences of some poor fielding (on an even worse infield in Arizona), making it difficult to end innings that otherwise would have been squandered rallies. If you're panicking about the Giants' starting rotation, knock it off. This is not a cause for concern - yet.

Brandon Crawford, Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey audition for The Three Stooges - This is also a fantasy. Posey is still getting his bearings at catcher, undoubtedly with some jitters in the wake of the Scott Cousins incident. Brandon Crawford is suffering from a hand injury and the infield position players have yet to field a routine ground ball. As Posey returns to form and Crawford's hand recovers, this should even itself out. I certainly don't foresee this season becoming a comedy of errors, that's for sure.

The Giants line up can actually hit the ball - With the exception of Angel Pagan and Ryan Theriot, I would say this has become a fact. That's not to say that Pagan and Theriot will hit .190 the rest of the way while the rest of the order hits near .300, but this team has shown some pop and I doubt that it's an anomaly. The Giants decision to go with power in the lineup seems to be paying off. Melky Cabrera looks like a stellar addition. Pablo Sandoval is crushing the ball. Buster Posey hasn't missed a beat at the plate, and the young guns aren't too bad at hitting the balls themselves. The Giants won't be Cespedesing the ball all over the field for the next 157 games of the year, but they won't be historically bad again offensively.

Barry Zito is going to baffle batters and shock the world - I'll leave this one up to you. Given this town's ability to insanely overreact when anything out of the ordinary happens, I wasn't shocked by the outcry of praise and hope after Zito's latest shutout. In fact - I called it.

But will it last? His mechanics changed, as promised, and as a result he was able to get his velocity up (88 mph on some of his fast balls, certainly not Santiago Casilla speed but better than the 80 mph we knew and loved last year) and locate his curveball. The question is whether he can find longevity for this new form and keep hitters from figuring him out. But if you’re into taking risks, go ahead and grab those Zito jerseys now so you can profess that you saw it coming. After all, it's a crazy, mixed up world we live in, and when it comes to Giants baseball, anything is possible.

Gregg Williams audio, the 49ers, and what it means for the game

2012-04-05T08:41:00.002-07:00

The 49ers divisional round playoff match up against the New Orleans Saints in 2011 is one that will forever live in the annals of this city's sports history. San Francisco was a team finally on the upswing after nine long years of mediocrity. New Orleans was a team at the peak of their dominance. Few chose the 49ers to move on, and yet against all odds, David took down Goliath. It was a special moment in the life of any 49ers faithful.

In the wake of the Saints' Bountygate scandal, the 49ers' playoff victory became all the more sweet. But the latest leak of Gregg Williams's pre-game speech to the Saints defensive players has placed that tilt on a entirely different plane.

Sean Pamphilon, a documentary filmmaker, was with the Saints working on a documentary on former special teamer Steve Gleason when he recorded this audio. What he discovered, and has now shared with Yahoo Sports, is a side of football that most of us only understood to exist in films like "Any Given Sunday." Pamphilon exposed the darkest side of the NFL locker room to the world.

In the audio, Williams makes repeated references to "killing the head" so that the "body will die." This is an obvious reference to taking out the 49ers primary game changers, but his speech doesn't end with vague metaphors. He refers to Frank Gore, saying "We want him running sideways. We want his HEAD sideways."

Okay, so this is probably coachspeak. Perhaps sensational talk to hype his players up. But keep listening.

He goes on to target Alex Smith specifically, demanding that his players hit him "right here," pointing to his chin. Then he lets them know, "Remember me. I've got the first one," rubbing his fingers together to indicate a financial reward. Williams also makes reference to the 49ers-Saints preseason match up in which they blitzed Alex Smith relentlessly, urging his defensemen to repeat the performance.

He didn't stop there, next targeting Kyle Williams. “We need to find out in the first two series of the game, the little wide receiver, No. 10, about his concussion,” he said. “We need to [expletive] put a lick on him, move him to decide. He needs to decide.”

Then he went after both Michael Crabtree's knee and his character: “We need to decide whether Crabtree wants to be a fake-ass prima donna or he wants to be a tough guy. We need to find that out, and he becomes human when you [expletive] take out that outside ACL.” I don’t have an issue with calling him a premadonna. I do have an issue with targeting his outside (?) ACL.

Finally it was Vernon Davis, and apparently Williams's tactic was to "decide how many times we can bull rush and we can [expletive] clip Vernon Davis’ ankles over the pile."

All that posturing turned out to be for naught. Frank Gore got his licks, but he eventually chunked up the Saints defense. He was critical in converting downs twice on the 49ers game winning drive. Michael Crabtree caught the second touchdown of the game, completely untouched by Saints defenders en route to the end zone. Kendall Hunter and Kyle Williams proved to be of little consequence, but they also emerged with their respective “heads” intact. As for Alex Smith and Vernon Davis? I don't think I need to tell you what kind of game they had.

While at first glance this audio is inflammatory, the outcome of the game is what's important. The 49ers defense, although they surrendered a pretty hefty portion of points, emerged as the more stifling squad (See: Donte Whitner v. Pierre Thomas). While the 49ers were preparing to face off with the New York Giants for the NFC Championship game, Gregg Williams was unknowingly preparing for the likely end of his career. Despite the Saints' best attempts to "kill the head," the 49ers were the ones who owned that afternoon at Candlestick Park, and they came out the other end no worse for the wear.

If that game proved anything, it's that the NFL doesn't need dirty play to survive. In fact, given that the 49ers moved on to be a Super Bowl contender with a physical and fair defensive game plan, it proved that a bounty system doesn't truly provide a team with any distinct advantage. Football is about having the will to win rather than the will to injure. The game of football, as in life, is not always fair. But go back and watch tape of Gregg Williams's face after Vernon Davis's touchdown; there will be no doubt whose head was truly killed.

Giants deliver six more years of Matt Cain

2012-04-02T14:08:00.001-07:00

At long last the San Francisco Giants have found some common financial ground with Matt Cain. Originally broken by John Shea on Twitter, the Giants have officially agreed to terms with Matt Cain on a 5-year extension worth $112.5M in guaranteed money. That includes a $5M signing bonus and a $7.5M buyout in 2018. He also received a full no-trade clause in the deal.
This is the second major agreement that the Giants have made in the last three months, as they agreed to a two-year, $40.5M deal with Tim Lincecum in January. Madison Bumgarner is a Giant until 2016, meaning that the meat of the Giants’ pitching staff should remain intact for at least the next two years. With Vogelsong remaining a long term question mark, Barry Zito still learning how to pitch again with Opening Day just days away and a farm system that Carlos Beltran emptied out, this is some fantastic news for fans of 1 run ball games.
There you go – everybody take a deep breath. Good. Now exhale.
A ton of good sports talk fodder was created by what felt like a never-ending contract duel with Cain. He seemed as stoic at the negotiating table as he is on the mound, and if he ever broke a sweat over the discussions he certainly didn’t let the media know it.
During a Spring Training that saw Cain peppered with questions regarding his pending free agency, he always stood pat – either deflecting the questions completely or reinforcing his Opening Day deadline for contract talks. Giants fans quivered, wondering “What the hell is Brian Sabean’s deal?” They can now rest easy. He promised that pitching would be a priority, and at 5 years $110M, he certainly delivered.
After all, a contract negotiation is exactly what it sounds like – a negotiation. The Giants would have been crazy to just walk in and give up whatever Cain was demanding. From an outsider’s perspective, 5 years for $110M seemed like a no-brainer, but baseball is a business first. Due diligence had to be attended to. Low-balling and countering are the name of the game.
Now that the red tape has been shed, it’s time to get back to the game. Matt Cain will enjoy a nice dinner on the town after the Battle of the Bay tonight because, after all, money is no longer an object. Giants fans will pass each other on the street with a smirk, knowing that their man is locked up for the next 6 years. But buyer beware – the Matt Cain deal, as happy as you are, is a pleasant distraction. This is still a flawed team with many holes still left to be filled.
But enjoy it for now. After a Spring Training like that, you deserve it.

Giants to start season with more questions than answers

2012-03-27T18:55:00.002-07:00

I haven’t done much on the San Francisco Giants since the inception of this website. It shouldn't be surprising, though – in fact, it's by design. Maybe it's because the NFL - even in the heart of March - continues to steal the spotlight from all the other major sports. Perhaps it's because the Giants are in the midst of Spring Training, that long stretch of baseball where player's stat lines are completely overblown and unjust panic is constantly created.

That’s not to say that some Spring Training occurrences aren’t meaningful. When it comes to the 2012 Giants as a matter of fact, several things of consequence are actually happening. Here are a couple little tidbits to start sweating over, for whatever they may be worth.

Barry Zito

After writing an article in which I suggested that Barry Zito's comeback story could be similar to Alex Smith's, a huge pundit of readers got after me, basically claiming that I had lost my marbles. Let me be clear - I was not suggesting that Zito even has a comeback left in him. After his performance against the White Sox, he may have been suggesting that he didn't have one left in him too.
Zito gave up 9 hits and 2 walks in 2.1 innings to Chicago. It was a performance so bad that he had to finish his outing in the bullpen. He gave up back-to-back home runs to AJ Pierzynski and Alex Rios and generally looked like the old Zito that we’ve come to know and hate. He had trouble getting his pitches over the plate, and when he did get ‘em there he left ‘em up high. San Jose Mercury News Giants beat writer Alex Pavlovich described it as “batting practice” on the Damon Bruce Show. It's become pretty clear that Zito's location and velocity problems have not been solved through extensive yoga and egg scrambling exercises.
True to form, Bruce Bochy stood pat behind his lefty. "Hopefully he can learn from this," Bochy said. "He's going to be out there (every fifth day)." Giants fans should be getting used to this $126M charade by now. But look on the bright side - if you're broke and looking for a cheap game to attend, it looks as if Zito's starts may be your chance.

Ryan Vogelsong

Vogelsong is still dealing with his ailing back that he injured doing squats several weeks ago. He is expected to start the season on the DL, but fans shouldn't be too concerned about his long term health.
The Giants may be taking the cautionary route with Vogelsong, ensuring that they don't risk re-aggravating the injury by throwing him back in the mix too early. Who will replace him if he does miss starts is up for debate, as Eric Surkamp had an MRI taken on his left elbow on Monday, though it came up negative for any structural damage.
As Andrew Baggerly of CSN Bay Area reported, Vogelsong is expected to start the season in the Giants' Triple-A Club, the Fresno Grizzlies. He may have one more rehab start after the Grizzlies’ season opener, and then be back with the big league club barring another injury setback.

Freddy Sanchez

Remember when Freddy faceplanted while diving for a ground ball and we all held our collective breathes? He was helped off the field clutching is right arm while we tossed our ballcaps at the ground, certain that it spelled the end of the Giant’s 2011 playoff hopes. Then, as the postseason became a blur in the rearview mirror, we all took comfort in the idea that Sanchez, with more than a full offseason of rehabilitation, would be back in the lineup as a contributor in 2012? Not so fast.
Sanchez was the other name brought up as a guy who's probably not going to be on the field come Opening Day. Like Vogelsong, the Giants are taking the slow and steady approach when it comes to his recovery. Unlike Vogelsong, his return will be much longer in anticipation - if it even happens at all.
According to multiple reports, Sanchez's shoulder isn't close to being at 100% strength, and Andrew Baggerly reported that it might even be "career threatening." He got a cortisone shot in his shoulder in hopes of alleviating some of the pain, but according to Giants head trainer Dave Groeschner, his recover has hit a "plateau."
This leads to more question marks regarding the Giants' middle infield situation. Emmanuel Burriss has been a stand out at Spring Training and appears to be the leading candidate to start at second base for the season opener. Mike Fontenot and Ryan Theriot are also on the roster, but Sabean admitted to be shopping the two for a possible trade. Even with the depth at second, the middle infield appears to be the Giants' weak spot as far as hitting goes, with Crawford and Burriss's bats still remaining unproven commodities. Letting Jeff Keppinger walk is turning out to be the bad decision that we all thought it would be after all.

This is all without mentioning Brian Wilson's injury rehabilitation and Matt Cain's contract battles. Buster Posey, the biggest injury concern for the Giants this offseason, is turning out to be the bright spot as he is coming along well, both at the plate and behind it. Posey played his first back-to-back games at catcher on Monday and Tuesday and he seems to be near 100% at long last. Hopefully more questions will be answered as we inch closer to Opening Day.

49ers sign Josh Johnson, change their quarterback status to "it's complicated"

2012-03-23T08:29:00.003-07:00

The weirdest offseason in recent memory for the 49ers just got weirder. If you’re like me, you probably thought you had Baalke figured out. He doesn't go big on the first day of free agency. He hunts around for the bargains and turns them into game changers. Big names aren't his thing.

Enter Randy Moss and the 49ers flirtations with Peyton Manning, and that theory is pretty much null and void. Now it's gotten even more interesting. After Ted Ginn had a personal revelation about his chances of being a number one receiver in the NFL and decided to come back to San Francisco on a one year deal, most felt that the 49ers were done shopping. Not so fast said Baalke, just before he snuck Josh Johnson into the back door of the team's facilities and managed to get him to sign a two year contract with the club.

Well that's awkward...

The log jam of quarterbacks that the 49ers now have may be appealing to their competition-obsessed head coach, but it’s probably not conducive to any of the players' developments - namely one Alexander Smith.

The 49ers now have 4 quarterbacks on the roster - Smith, Johnson, Colin Kaepernick and the oft forgotten Scott Tolzien. To make matters more interesting, Johnson isn't just any old backup quarterback - he's a former Harbaugh protégé out of the University of San Diego. It's the equivalent of Harbaugh renting out a bedroom in his 3-room flat to an ex-girlfriend, possibly making his current girlfriend (Smith) jealous while forcing the long shot (Tolzien) to go sleep on the couch, or maybe even hit Craig's List for some new digs all together. As Bay Area Sports Guy suggests, he may even find it too crowded and send the suddenly supplanted fourth roommate (Kaepernick) packing as well.

This move means only one thing for Alex Smith - the heat is on for him to perform this season. That's not to say that there wasn't an expectation for him to excel anyway, but with Johnson in a quarterback competition with him right out of training camp, preseason just got a little more interesting in the Bay Area.

49ers Fan-tasies

When it comes to the position of quarterback and 49ers fans, there's always a more desirable option sitting on the bench. Last year was the first in several seasons that there wasn't a fan favorite holding a clipboard for the 49ers; and by “fan favorite” I mean a quarterback not named Smith. For one reason or another, fans never really clamored for Kaepernick to replace Smith at any point in 2011. Perhaps it was because Smith never truly threw up on himself on the playing field last year. Maybe it's because fans finally figured out - by watching Smith fail and a well-groomed Aaron Rodgers succeed - that slow and steady wins the race when it comes to developing a quarterback.

The prior couple years, however, were not so easy on the Smith-fan relationship.

First they called for JT O'Sullivan, the supposed answer at quarterback after one good serving of preseason performances, and they got him. He could throw the deep ball, but his hands were about as suspect as Kyle Williams’s knees, so he fizzled out quickly.

Then they called for Shaun Hill, and again they got their wish. It didn't make it any easier on Smith that Hill was basically Tim Tebow sans the maniacal religiosity. He didn't have the most incredible arm by any stretch of the imagination, but he had enough intangibles to win games for the 49ers, all the way until those intangibles simply weren't enough anymore - though I suspect there are still fans out there who would prefer Hill over Smith.

Then they cried for David Carr simply because he was the “next best” thing. Then it was Troy Smith. And let's not forget the cult pundit of Nate Davis fans - like Ron Paul supporters - who chanted "Start Nate Davis!" on every comment section of every 49ers blog ever in existence.

Now 49ers fans have Josh Johnson in their periphery, a guy that they clamored for even while he was playing for another team. They dream of an Andrew Luck-type presence at the helm, even without ever having seen Johnson take a snap, simply because they know that Harbaugh once coached him. "We want Johnson" will be locked and loaded on the tip of every tongue should Smith go three and out more than once in a game at Candlestick. Yeesh - so fickle.

If this roster move proves anything, it's that the 49ers are even less settled at the position of quarterback than they were 48 hours ago. The idea that the 49ers would ride the Alex Smith train for two more stops before transferring onto the Kaepernick train has now been complicated. Will the Smith train break down, only to have the passengers pile onto to the Johnson express instead? Will any of these three trains even get us to the ultimate destination? Only time will tell, but it wouldn't be Alex Smith's 49ers without a controversy at quarterback. Until he proves his worth, the grass will always be greener by the Gatorade.

Alex's new deal - what it means for the future of the 49ers

2012-03-21T09:38:00.001-07:00

According to Janie McCauley of the Associated Press, Alex Smith's new deal is for 3 years, worth 8M per year with 16.5M guaranteed and can max out at 33M.

What do these numbers mean? Basically, it means that the 49ers are committed to Alex Smith for at least the next two years. Should they decide to cut bait on Alex and go forward with Colin Kaepernick after next season, they will have paid him 16.5M for one year -- near the tops in the league for quarterback’s salary.

Should the 49ers go with Alex for all three years of his deal, they'll pay him close to their original offer -- 24M over three, or 8M per. The extra 9M, which rounds out the 33M max, is in incentives, which one would hope that he earns. This may be perceived as pricey, but fans should keep in mind the contracts being given to players like Matt Flynn and Mark Sanchez. Flynn, who is going to earn 6.5M less in guaranteed money, remains a complete unknown. Mark Sanchez’s contract is the equivalent of the 49ers giving Alex Smith a hefty raise in 2008, as Sanchez fell flat on his face this season and certainly wasn’t paid accordingly.

But what's more significant is how this final agreement differs from what the 49ers were originally offering. The contract on the table for Alex over the last few weeks was reported to be for 3 years, 24M with 10M guaranteed. The biggest change lies in the guaranteed money, now up 6.5M from what was originally reported.

49ers GM Trent Baalke, becoming infamous for his ability to keep from blinking in a contract staring contest, appears to have caved when it comes to Alex Smith. As much as the 49ers wanted to make it seem that they could move forward without Smith, they proved that they weren't so confident in Colin Kaepernick after all. Without this deal, Alex would have walked, but this deal ensures that they now have a veteran quarterback presence skippering their offense for at least the next year.

And this is how it should be. The 49ers and Alex Smith need each other. Alex's success in the NFL has so far been predicated by the careful handling of a coach who had worn his brand of work boots before, and few coaches can say they have like Jim Harbaugh.

Conversely, the 49ers whiffed in their pursuit of Peyton Manning and have no better option than Alex Smith at this point. Kaepernick is talented but unfinished. Scott Tolzien is unproven and won't get a chance this year at 3rd on the depth chart either. The options around the rest of the NFL are all downgrades from Smith (anyone interested in trading for Tebow?). No other quarterback has the chemistry with the 49ers that Alex has and it's clear that he provides the 49ers the best chance to win, at least while Kaepernick works towards being NFL ready.

If this money doesn't heal Smith's "Manning Watch" wound, I suspect that time will, and all will be well when the 49ers take the field in August.

Alex Smith has no one to blame but himself... and his agent

2012-03-19T19:13:00.001-07:00

Alex Smith finally came limping back to Santa Clara this afternoon – beaten down, tuck-tailed and egg-faced. Matt Maiocco reported that Alex and Jim Harbaugh have been talking, and now that the Dolphins have signed David Garrard, Alex’s leverage in contract negotiations is all but gone.

Other than the man who is about to be the next topic du jour, Tim Tebow, Smith appears to be the biggest loser in this Peyton Manning fiasco. The Titans still have their quarterbacks in Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker. The Broncos got their man. The Dolphins are, well, the Dolphins, and the 49ers now occupy the driver’s seat in their contract talks with Alex. Perhaps he could find a contract as a back-up quarterback, but he is looking for more money than Matt Flynn received – most likely along the lines of Mark Sanchez’s contract, and no team is interested in Smith at that price. The 49ers aren’t going to budge, especially now that Smith is out of options.

The 49er-Smith Rift

Things have certainly soured between the 49ers and Smith. It has been reported that Alex Smith is upset with the 49ers – that it wasn’t about length of the deal or price, but loyalty and respect. One can’t help but feel for Smith – he watched a beautiful relationship grow with his coach after years of mismanagement. He formed a bond with Harbaugh that was almost paternal; he spent time with Harbaugh, he accepted an award for Harbaugh. He had a great 2011 season and believed he should be awarded as such.

The 49ers put a contract out on the table early for Smith. Perhaps it wasn’t fair value in Smith’s eyes, but it WAS correct market value. If he wanted to base his worth on the contracts given to Matt Flynn and Mark Sanchez then he was destined for disappointment. The 49ers are not in the business of overpaying for risks. They set a price on a player and they never waiver. Alex has spent enough time around Trent Baalke to know that by now.

His gamble, flirting with the Dolphins, blew up in his face in disastrous fashion now that David Garrard signed with Miami. At this point it’s clear that he will accept the deal that the 49ers had out for him all along. All of this trouble and all of the embarrassment is essentially of his own making – had he accepted the 49ers offer originally, the 49ers would not have existed in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes.

Show me the money

I don’t think, however, that Alex Smith was the sole proprietor of this stalemate gone wrong: This has Smith’s agent, Tom Condon, written all over it. You can’t blame Condon for trying to milk his client’s worth for an extra couple pennies – Alex Smith did have a great season in 2011. But six prior seasons of mediocrity show that Alex still has much to prove if he wants to get paid elite quarterback money.

It isn’t surprising to see that other teams found very little value in Alex. Smith needs a special kind of coach, a special kind of attention and an extended learning curve in order to have a chance at excelling. His history has proven that his confidence is fragile, and though he’s highly intelligent, he’s not the fastest learner. No team in the league would have been willing to shell out more than what the 49ers were offering for a quarterback like Smith. Condon should have known as much and kept his client’s best interests in mind before he went off trying to hustle him for an extra buck.

Of course it’s human nature for Alex to be dejected by this whole fiasco. He can’t just unfeel the betrayal that he’s experienced, but it’s the National Football League – it’s a cutthroat business where there’s almost always something better out there. He has to move past his pride and get on board with the 49ers. His best chance to win is San Francisco – this is where he belongs. The hope will be that this puts a chip on his shoulder. Perhaps he will come out stronger in 2012 and he will prove his worth. Perhaps he can show that he’s worth his salt. Perhaps he can show that he’s worth a bigger deal.

In the meantime, Alex has a self-inflicted mess to clean up. He has a contract to sign and it’s time to make that happen. But after that’s done, there’s still one thing left for Smith to do before he gets back to playing football – he has an agent that needs to be fired.