Alex Pavlovic talks Devers in SF & Giants falling short for Harper

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hopefully they develop a Bryce Eldridge or somebody else down the line who can be the next homegrown star, because those are the guys who bowl has resonated here.

00:00:13
Speaker 2: Alex Pavlovitch joining us right now to talk about the Giants. He covers the team for NBC Sports Bay Area, hosts a Giants Talk podcast, and has a book out now, the franchise San Francisco Giants, a curated history of the Orange and Black. We're going to get into that coming up in a sec. There you go, nice, You can scan that QR code on the screen to go support Alex. And also if you want to learn more about the San Francisco Giants, we're gonna give you a little taste of the book coming up. Alex. First off, great to have you on. Congratulations on putting this book together. And actually, you know what, let's go right into the book. First, best part, juiciest part of the book is.

00:00:52
Speaker 1: Juiciest part, you know, the Giants. I'm sure you guys have talked about this in off season to finish second, over and over for like Harper, Tani Judge. That I think is my favorite chapter was diving into some of that, diving into what happened with Korea, how they tried to get judge and differentiate themselves with Otani, And you know, the Phillies are in town right now, and Bryce is really the one that got away here. They finished second, they were twenty million short, and they felt really strongly about that in twenty nineteen. So I think that was my favorite chapter, just it's more recent and it's it was fun to do the reporting on that one.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: Obviously, we want people to read the book and dive into all of that. But my follow up there was it a money thing? Like if the Giants were the leaders by twenty million, do you think they actually could have brought in Bryce Harper.

00:01:42
Speaker 1: I think usually if someone's the leader by twenty yeah, And I ultimately think this is a money thing. But one thing I have in the book is I talked to Bryce about it and he said, look, I talked to Bruce Bocci and he said he was retiring and that was a big deal. And he called Brandon Crawford the night before he made his decision and he asked, do you know who's going to be the next manager? And the Giants really had no idea what was going to happen. Seven months eight months from then, so there was some uncertainty. I think that certainly didn't help. But in the end they were about twenty million short.

00:02:09
Speaker 3: Anyway, that's crazy, that's crazy. They keep coming up short for all these stars, including Arson, including Arson Judge, who they thought they had for sure, and then he changed his name to Aaron Judge. It didn't show up. So hey, whatever works for the Giants. But the question I have in this book is who has a bigger chapter My Giant's career or Eric Kraftz's Giants career? Which one has? Which one of us has a bigger chapter in this book?

00:02:33
Speaker 1: I have to do the control f and see if I found either one. I will say I thought of Eric last night because I was thinking of crazy walkoffs, and I think he had one in the eighteenth inning when he was a Giants catcher, So you could tell me if that was correct. I remember it was really really late at night that you had a walk off, and we were there was like three people at your walker who were left over.

00:02:53
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, nobody needed to interview me. It was just a standard eighteenth eighteenth inning walkoff, and they were like, why is Buster Posey not playing?

00:03:01
Speaker 1: By Yeah, that was That was memorable.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: Yes, makes sense, makes sense. But my question, my problem is is if I'm not in the book, you can't tell a history of it. Because the Giants did retire my jersey number. So you can't have a book if I'm not in it about the Giants.

00:03:18
Speaker 1: AJ you come up a lot with Giants fans. You still are? They still think about you quite.

00:03:23
Speaker 3: A bit, oh man, as they should, as they should.

00:03:28
Speaker 2: Hey, Alex, I want to get to a chapter that might not be in your book, but maybe he can be part of the sequel situation, the Rafael Devers saga. So I want to work from where we are now and then we can go backwards to how crazy the trade was and how Buster Posey's early tenure has been with San Francisco. What's the word I'm sure that's dominating the radio airwaves out right now in San Francisco about Will Clark trying to work with him and he didn't want to go out there when the Red Sox were in town and be showing off to them, how he's down for taking ground balls at first base and the Giants apologize to Will. What else can you tell us about that little back and forth reality show.

00:04:08
Speaker 1: Yet, Yeah, I think it was a juicier story in Boston yesterday. I'm sure there was some talk radio stuff here, but most Giants fans I saw on most people at the ballpark were just kind of annoyed by it because it Giants fans are extremely extremely happy to have Devs here. They don't care about what happened over there. And I'll go back to that chapter. Look, they finished second over and over and over again. And he's not Judge, he's not Otani, but he's a star, and he's a guy who's going to be here for a long time now and he has a huge contract. So Giants fans are just like overwhelmingly positive about this. And I think the main takeaway yesterday and talking to some people, and he did talk to the media yesterday. We talked to Bob Melvin was asked about it is he's dealing with the groin injury that he had when he came here and the last few days there's been some backtight in this. So he just hasn't done a lot of work period. He's doing early VP and he's taken some grounders over there, but they don't feel like he's going to be ready at least for another week plus two weeks to potentially be out there. He's been out there every single day. Is the DH since they got him? And he if you watch him run, he looks like someone who probably needs ten days off. But they're appreciative of that, and I think they don't really care much about the other stuff because they got him to be their DH and they'll figure it out at first base as they go.

00:05:22
Speaker 4: Is he the star? Is he the star though that they were looking for because they have finished second all the time? I get it Raviie Devers, you know, is an elite superstar. But does do the Giants need a star that's more outgoing more or do they need a second star to be able to turn this thing back into what it was in ten, twelve and fourteen.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he's definitely not the guy who's going to be doing all the media, who's going to be doing the post game show all the time. We haven't, frankly, talked to him a whole lot. I mean, he did a lot the first week, but since then, he's not that guy. But I think Willie Domas is going to be that guy. Matt Chapman's going to be that guy. And one thing out here is like Logan is extremely popular. Logan is the face of the franchise. Now, he's never changed. He does all the media, he does all the appearances, he signs all the autographs. He's the All Star, he's the syed On candidate. I think he'll take care of some of that. It is a good point. At some point, you know they're waiting for the next Buster Posey, the next Brandon Crawford, and they're hopeful that Bryce Elder two is their top prospect, can be that guy. I don't think Raffi will ever be that guy. They just need someone in the middle of this lineup, and someone who look at people don't come here in free agency, they don't want to hit here. I'll go back to Bryce. I mean, he says he likes the ballpark and he loves the fan base, but he's never hit at Oracle Park, so if he looks at his numbers, it's not a place he probably wanted to spend the rest of his career. But the fact that they were able to get Devers and not have to convince him to come play at Oracle, he just has to come do it for potentially eight years. That's really important to them and it'llow them to not have to worry about the free agency route and hopefully they develop a Bryce Eldridge or somebody else down the line who can be the next home grown star, because those are the guys who bowl has resonated.

00:07:09
Speaker 2: Here Crabs, we talk about Hello Fresh a lot, but in the same fam is another option for you. If you're looking to go on your little wellness journey, or you're very picky in terms of what you're looking for ingredients wise, you can go Green Chef this summer and.

00:07:24
Speaker 4: I can heat and eat because this summer I've got like three days where I'm not doing anything. I'm sure those are going to get scheduled with something. Let's give me something super quick that I can heat up. The whole families eating healthy and.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: They're full menus change Weekly eighty plus Dietician improved weekly meal options. Green Chef makes it easy to find those meals to fit your lifestyle, so go check it out ft fam. There is an exclusive offer make this summer your healthiest yet with Green Chef. Head to green chef dot com, slash fifty territory and use code five zero territory to get fifty percent off first month, then twenty percent off for two months with free shipping. That's code fifty territory at greenshep dot com Slash five zero territory.

00:08:11
Speaker 4: Alex.

00:08:11
Speaker 3: Is this Buster Posey's new way to do things. They've tried free agency. Now they just said, you know what, we're not messing around for agency. We're just gonna go trade for devers. And is this gonna be his legacy because he's from the Brian Sabian mold of Hey, we have a chance to win, We're going all in every time we have that opportunity. Is that gonna be the way? Because before we're far on and Gabe, oh well, we got a platoon and we got to make sure every piece fits perfectly. It seems like to me, Buster Posey's like, all right, this guy's a pretty good player. This guy's good. He can help us. Let's all bring him together and we'll figure that out later.

00:08:43
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think Busters, You know, there are executives who are probably thinking six seven years down the line. He's not. He's not worried about what this contract's going to look like at the end. What a Dominis's contract is going to look like. I mean, the quote that always gets brought up here is when he got introduced in October, he said, we're in the memory making business. I think he had gotten tired of watching. Look, they had forty thousand last night. They've sold out almost as many games as they did, Like it's been you have to go back like six or seven years to find this many sellouts. And we're in July. It's been a long time since they've had this kind of buzz in the Bay Area. And night's like last night, which continued to build this and I think he's just trying to bring that back. And we'll see where this all goes long term, and we'll see how long he wants to do this and what their roster looks like. I have some long term concerns about the fit with some of these guys as they get older. But right now, he wants to win, and he wants to kind of bring the excitement back, and that meant going out and getting a Domis when nobody expected them to really spend that much in the offseason. That meant convincing ownership, which he is part of, to go and get Devers. And I don't know how much powder they have left for the deadline. But I think they will try to help this team because they feel really good about a potential playoff run if they can put Web and Ray at the top and with that bullpen in a short playoff series. So he's going all in, I think, and there's no more kind of waiting around. There's that they gave up a couple really good prospects in that Devs trade, and they think really highly of Kyle Harrison and gave up their first round pick last year. But yeah, this is Buster being competitive and saying why not, Like you know, I think he probably hasn't given up on the Division at this point even, but why not just go get a wild card spot and see what you can do in October.

00:10:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is so refreshing. That is so refreshing in San Francisco too, because the fans come out, like you said, forty thousand a night, forty thousand a day in the day games too, Like it's refreshing. I think San Francisco needs to be a team that is there and competitive year in and year out, and I love that Busters doing that. But you have to tell us what they need because to me, their areas of need. You talked about Robbie Ray Logan Web and that strong bullpen. Their areas of need may not be able to be sufficed in one move or even in like two little moves. So what is the where will they most likely target?

00:11:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if they can just generally pitching. They've had a really good the bullpen's been the best in baseball. They've they've had a good starting staff for most of the year. But it's been rough for Rowlander. We'll see what he does today, but it just hasn't kind of been what anyone expected, and he's really searching the last few weeks to find some fixes. Hayden bird Song is really really talented, but it goes off the rails at times with him, and there's some inconsistency there. Landon Roop's done a really nice job, but he's a young guy. He's on pace to pass his innings total last year about like ninety. So I think generally, if they could get some pitching, and Kyle Harrison was the next line of defense and he's gone, and the bullpen as good as it has been, like, there are some guys who you just worry about a little bit. So if they could get a starter and maybe move a guy to the bullpen, or if they could get a reliever and have a little bit more depth there. I think that would be the way they should go in the next few weeks. It sounds strange because the pitching has carried him and they have three All Stars and could have more who are consideration, But I think right now that's probably where they're gonna be a little short in the second half.

00:12:03
Speaker 2: Alex really appreciate the time, and we definitely want to bump the book on the way out here. So any final words while we show the book QR code for everyone that wants to get a piece of the franchise.

00:12:15
Speaker 1: No, I'm just really appreciative of you guys having me on and I hope people enjoy it. And if there's a sequel, I promise to get both these catchers in there.

00:12:23
Speaker 2: Ooh, I like that guarantee. That's great right now there.

00:12:28
Speaker 4: Right now, don't waste your time.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: I'm sure he does.

00:12:36
Speaker 2: He does. Alex, thank you, really appreciate it.

00:12:39
Speaker 1: Thanks guys,