by
Greek Giant
Ok, I am not lying when I write you that I honestly thought the Giants had a legitimate shot at making the World Series this year (sniff, Sniff). Tonight the 2021 World Series begins with two teams that in many ways are surprise champions of their respective leagues.
As Giants fans it is our duty to be clear on which team we want to win the World Series or which team we DO NOT want to win the World Series. The Braves are National Leaguers and they have done us no harm recently. That is enough to say Chop, Chop. But the Astros have Dusty Baker, a great former Giant Manager.
The Braves
Out of the five National League teams to make the postseason this year one could easily assert that the Braves would have been the last team to reach the Fall Classic. But the truth is they were always a very good team. The got hot at the right time and those trade deadline moves by Alex Anthopoulos (a fellow Greek Canadian) were a ballsy stroke of genius. To reach the World Series after you lose Ronald Acuna Jr. is just a fantastic feat no matter what happens. To oust the Bums makes the Braves our friends.
The Astros
Ok, no way you slice it the Astros players and their organization will be tainted with the “cheater” tag for this generation. What happened in 2017 should be wiped off the books. The entire team should have been suspended without pay for a year. But, and this is a big but, they re-tooled, they are presumably playing by the rules and they have some exciting new players to pick up the slack of losing Justin Verlander and George Springer. This is a very good Astros team, one that has shown surprising depth and just enough starting pitching to send a powerful Red Sox team home packing. Lastly, their Manager is Dusty Baker. I have no love for the Astros but more than a little for Dusty. I will be happy for him if he finally wins a ring.
My Pick: Astros in six.
The Giants Coaching Staff Is Hot Property
There are musings around baseball that many teams are interested in a variety of Giants coaches after a sensational season. This is to be expected. When your team wins 107 and you have one of the top farm systems in baseball, you cannot expect to retain your entire staff.
I’m hearing the Giants are getting inundated with permission requests to interview their coaches/staff for openings, which was anticipated. They don’t expect to retain everyone, but they also are confident they’ve created an environment where people feel incentivized to stay.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) October 25, 2021
Brian Sabean to the Mets?
Since it has been a few slow news days since anything happen the baseball world is reporting that Brian Sabean is bored in his honorary Giants role and is coveting the Mets GM job. Insiders say Sabean wants one more challenge and would be thrilled to return to the Big Apple where he got his start in a baseball front office with the Yankees.