San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Giants Predicted to Sign Japanese Star Roki Sasaki
The San Francisco Giants have a lot of work to do this winter on multiple fronts. However, with an expected budget that won’t rival the top spenders in Major League Baseball, the Giants might have a tough time signing any of the top players available.
Nearly every big-name free agent is expected to land a multi-year contract with a high AAV.
And then there’s Roki Sasaki.
Sasaki will be posted in the new year and can’t sign a big deal due to international rules. Japanese players have been attracted to the West Coast in recent offseasons, making this a potential pairing.
That doesn’t mean Sasaki will be like the rest and sign with a California team, but it’s been a selling point for teams on the West Coast.
There’s reason to believe he could want to play in San Francisco, too. The Giants are one of the most prominent brands in Major League Baseball, they seem to want to improve after the front-office moves they made, and Oracle Park is heaven for a pitcher.
Andrew Tredinnick of NorthJersey.com believes it’s a real possibility he ends up in San Francisco. He predicted the right-hander would sign with them over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who some have considered the favorites in the Sasaki sweepstakes.
“The Dodgers already made a splash to bring in Blake Snell, so Sasaki goes to the pitcher’s park to the north in California,” he wrote.
The Giants will have some work to do to persuade him. This free agency isn’t as easy as handing him a $300 million deal and walking away. Sasaki will have every other factor, aside from money, to help him decide.
There’s optimism when it comes to Oracle Park and it’s something San Francisco needs to sell. If he wants to eventually be paid like one of the top pitchers in Major League Baseball, having elite numbers at Oracle would help him with that.
Sasaki is good enough to come in and dominate, no matter where he plays, but his numbers could be drastically different depending on the park.
As of now, it remains uncertain where he’ll go. Grant Brisbee of The Athletic believes the Giants have a chance, although he added that others could have a better chance.
“A better chance than some. A much worse chance than some of the other teams who will pursue him, though. It’s easy to look at this as a Dodgers-Padres battle, but there are plenty of teams that might appeal to him,” he wrote.
Given San Francisco’s budget, he’s the top target this winter. Landing him as an international free agent would require a quality sales job by new president of baseball operations Buster Posey. But it would also be a coup for his new regime in his first offseason running the front office.
San Francisco, CA
Sea lion pup found in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset malnourished but ‘feisty’
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
San Francisco, CA
Giants Head Home to San Francisco After Shutout Loss
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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San Francisco, CA
Why do gray whales keep dying in San Francisco’s waters?
The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
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