Madison Bumgarner’s injury could mark the end of an era for the Giants, Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News writes. The short-term implications of the injury are clear — Bumgarner’s dirt bike crash will make it that much harder for the Giants to climb out of the 6-11 hole they’ve already dug. But Kawakami doesn’t suggest the injury even extinguishes the Giants’ playoff hopes. Rather, he thinks the rather silly cause of the injury upends Bumgarner’s nearly mythical status — Kawakami compares the old Bumgarner, the one who helped the Giants to three World Series wins and carried the team on his back in 2014, to Paul Bunyan. It also suggests that the Giants as a team no longer warrant the presumption that they’ll win just because they’ve done so in the past. Here’s more from the West divisions.
- Athletics prospect Daulton Jefferies will undergo Tommy John surgery, Scout.com’s Melissa Lockard writes. Jeffries was the 37th overall pick in last year’s draft out of UC-Berkeley despite missing part of the 2016 season due to a shoulder injury. The righty made five brief starts in rookie ball last year and had made two appearances with Class A+ Stockton this season. MLB.com currently rates him at the Athletics’ No. 8 prospect, praising his athleticism and delivery and noting he could eventually become a No. 4-type starter in the big leagues.
- Yesterday, the Athletics promoted 1B/OF Matt Olson and optioned righty Cesar Valdez to the minors, MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweeted. Olson gives the A’s an extra bench option, with Valdez heading to the minors after a spot start Thursday (a start that was, remarkably, his first big-league action since he was with Arizona in 2010). Once one of the Athletics’ top prospects, Olson’s stock has fallen somewhat as he’s risen through the system, but he still has an impressive 105 career minor-league home runs, and his abilities to play first and right field, and perhaps third base in a pinch, could help the A’s.
- Before last night’s game, the Mariners announced that they recalled righty Chase De Jong from Triple-A Tacoma and optioned righty Dan Altavilla to Tacoma. Altavilla had allowed three runs the previous night against the A’s, and De Jong had fared well in two Triple-A starts. The Mariners acquired De Jong from the Dodgers near the beginning of Spring Training, and he figured to contribute to their starting depth after pitching 147 innings with a 2.82 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in a strong 2016 season in the high minors of the Dodgers’ system.
Didn’t Griffey once get his balls squished twice by his cup and miss a few games? I’m just saying there have been stupider injuries than Bumgardners. And yea, the end of the Giants “Era” has been over since like 2015 due to the rise of other teams in their division. 2016 was a decent year for them with a struggling bullpen. But now they have to compete with the Rockies, Dodgers and (somewhat) the Diamondbacks for playoff spots with no offense, a crap bullpen and a below average rotation after Shark and Cheri. Gone are the days where it was just the Giants and the Dodgers mopping up playoff appearances.
Sammy Sosa’s sneeze…anyone remember that?
And hurt his back
It’s “dumber”, not ‘stupider’ as that isn’t a real word.
Says the guy who can only say one word.
I haven’t been kicked in the head by a delusional Sox fan yet, so my vocabulary remains intact. Unless you meant you were able to read only one word I said… hrm.
He’s talking about Hodor
I thought the years Giants won the World Series, they won the division once on the last day, and the wild card the twobother times. They weren’t exactly mopping up anything.
There are two teams that never seem to be particularly great on paper that just win and win and win: The Giants and the Cardinals.
And this year, whatever wells of organizational magic (“The Cardinal Way”, etc) they had seem to have run dry.
the way of cheating!
Oh wow, I’ve never heard that joke before. Like every other organization doesn’t bend rules as well
The butt hurt
Another team that has repeatedly demonstrated the disparity between so-called expert opinions/predictions and success over the last five years is the Baltimore Orioles.
Baltimore has finished first once in the past 5 years…
John Smoltz once missed time due to ironing the shirt he was wearing…no joke.
Stupidest injury ever.
Makes Bummer look like a Rhodes scholar
That is a urban tale and Smoltzie denied it in many interviews!
Clint Barmes falling down the stairs while carrying deer meat was a unique injury.
Yeah and yet Bumgarner is getting ripped to shreds because of it. Sports media at its finest
Didn’t Kevin Mitchell go in the DL for a chipped tooth after eating some ice?
I think Barmes went on dl for carrying in groceries
Madbum though surely was doing something that his contract prohibits
The strangest excuse will always be the Blue Jays outfielder who injured himself after a dream about spiders all over him.
Kawakami must have splinters in his butt from sitting on the fence in that article. Maybe Bumgarner won’t come back, maybe he will. Maybe it’s the end of an era, maybe it isn’t. Maybe it will rain today… maybe it won’t.
Heard many rumors over the years about how Bumgarner was a million dollar arm with a 10 cent brain, finally seeing it play out to hilarious effect.
Knowing their luck, the Giants will probably just put Ty Blach there and he’ll put up Cy Young level numbers out of nowhere, because of course that what happens.
It’s bad sportsmanship to gloat about any injury, even when it’s to someone on the hated Giants, but this has to be the ultimate baseball face palm moment. Thought nobody would ever top Joe Beimel cutting his hand on the eve of the NLCS in New York, first claiming it happened in his hotel room and later admitting it actually happened at a bar at 2AM. Believe it or not, man-child, they do pay you to think.
Just another fan hit the nail on the head….the team that won 3 WS in 5 years and 2 of those years they were wild card winner and the other year they backed into the playoffs on last day….they were and always will be known as underdogs in each playoff matchup during their run….but they find ways to win….fan said they will just call up Blach who will turn out to be cy young level pitcher….I can see that with their luck….luckiest team in professional sports….Phillies….Rangers and Tigers all favored but the Giants won each series and let’s not forget about the series with the Reds when the Giants were on brink of elimination and came back to win the series….or the Cardinals series they won on bad calls like the infield fly that landed halfway into the outfield….they called infield fly when it technically should have been the game as the Cardinals runner scored….nope it was called back in the Giants favor….
Wade Boggs missed a week when he lost his balance putting on his cowboy boots and fell into a couch.