The San Francisco Giants took an approach at the deadline that saw them buy and sell.

While it might’ve been a better idea to go heavy on one of those sides, they decided to go somewhere right in the middle. With starting pitchers getting healthy for this ball club, there’s a chance this could work out for them in the near future.

However, there are still multiple holes they’re going to have to fill in the offseason, most importantly at shortstop.

Since Brandon Crawford has left the organization, the Giants have had a tough time finding his replacement. It’s not easy finding a player of his caliber, and the chances of ever doing so in the next few seasons seem unlikely.

Still, there’s a massive need for adding a shortstop this winter, and there will be one who’s available who could help this team in a big way.

Willy Adames of the Milwaukee Brewers hits free agency in the offseason, and Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report predicted he’s going to land with San Francisco on a six-year, $140 million deal.

“Adames got tied to the Giants when they were looking for a shortstop last winter, and it’s reasonable to think that search will be back on this winter. That’s unless they want to trust in Tyler Fitzgerald’s recent breakout, which they shouldn’t.”

Finding a shortstop was considered a need for the front office during the trade deadline, but not many impact ones were on the market.

Throughout the past few campaigns, there haven’t been many in baseball better than Adames.

The right-handed slugger is one of the best hitting shortstops in Major League Baseball and has once again impressed at the plate this year. In 412 at-bats, he’s currently slashing .248/.331/.432 with 17 home runs.

Surprisingly not named an All-Star once in his career, Adames has multiple seasons with 20-plus home runs, including in 2022 when he hit 31.

If they could lock him up for the next six years at $140 million, this seems like a favorable deal for multiple reasons.

The Giants clearly need to find somebody who can play the position, and at only 28 years old, they’d have him for much of his prime.

SAN FRANCISCO – In another way to revitalize downtown San Francisco as a 24/7 neighborhood, the city is launching “Bricks at Embarcadero Plaza,” an event series packed with activities for the public to enjoy at no cost.

The series officially begins on Aug. 7 and will run til the end of October as a pilot program. Attendees can expect DJs, live music, arts activities and displays, and lunchtime professional networking and panel discussions to grow your circle for Friday happy hours.

Saturdays will also be the event’s family days, where the Children’s Creativity Museum will host drop-in free play and workshops. Other weekly activities include trivia nights with rating themes and guest hosts, and tango dance lessons.

“Downtown is the beating heart of our City and oftentimes the first stop for tourists from around the world and visitors here for work…Bricks at Embarcadero Plaza is the perfect complement to a suite of events and activations happening throughout Downtown,” Mayor London Breed said of the new event series.

The event is supported by San Francisco’s Office of Economic Workforce Development and Recreation and Parks departments. 

“Our goal is to make Downtown not just a place where people have to be, but a place people want to be,” Sarah Dennis-Phillips, the OEWD executive director said.  “Bricks is another exciting addition to the menu that allows the public to engage with one of the City’s most spectacular and iconic locations in a fresh way and paves the path for this space to be a more everyday part of the Downtown experience.”

Event officials said they expect Bricks to bring a much-wanted boost to local businesses and could serve as an economic boost to the city.

More information is available here.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — For thousands of Bay Area runners, this year’s San Francisco Marathon has been a massive disappointment.

On Tuesday, participants received an email stating that a mistake had caused organizers to miscalculate one of the half marathon courses.

Instead of being 13.1 miles, the course through the city was actually only 12.6 miles.

Radhika Bhalla was one of the marathon’s participants. She says she figured out something was off while she was running and looking the mile markers.

“It was confusing in the beginning. There’s a little bit of like, maybe over time someone made a mistake, the next mile will be longer, we’ll make up for it,” Bhalla said.

Bhalla says while she just took up running this year, she’s come to love the sport. She tells me Sunday’s mix-up makes her feel like she’s been cheated.

“I got cheated from that experience because I did spend a couple of miles just mentally being like, what’s going on, who do I listen to, what pace do I have to follow, do I look at my watch?” said Bhalla.

Similar feelings were shared by Jack Leng. Leng says the weekend’s experience has left him with an especially bad impression – not least of all because he says this isn’t the first San Francisco Marathon he’s done that’s had problems.

“To have two bad experiences, I’m like, damn what new mess up are they going to come up with when I do it for a third time?” Leng said.

ABC7 News reached out to marathon officials to get their response on what went wrong.

In a statement, they said, in part:

“We know how disappointed the second-half marathon runners are, and we are as well. Unfortunately, the course route was measured correctly, but the certification map was drawn incorrectly. Mile markers are added based on the map, thus causing the distance calculation error.”

Organizers have updated the race times for participants since discovering the mistake.

But for many runners, they think more needs to be done and they’re asking for some form of compensation.

“Some people flew in from across the country. This is one of the most expensive races out there, it’s like $230 to just register for it. So I think the consternation is definitely justified,” said Leng.

In total, around 3,700 people participated in the miscalculated half-marathon.