Comcast SportsNet, part of the NBC Sports Group and the online and on-air home of "Authentic Bay Area Sports," today announced that former San Jose Mercury News reporter Andrew Baggarly has joined the network. In his new role as "Giants Insider," Baggarly will provide coverage across the network’s growing list of multiplatform outlets including CSNBayArea.com’s GiantsTalk page, and for SportsNet Central, Chronicle Live, Giants Pregame Live and Giants Postgame Live.

Baggs is an absolute must w/my morning coffee, so I'll follow him pretty much anywhere. I'll miss the quick/dirty Mercury News website.

Due diligence pennants available at the dugout store!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- San Francisco Giants Managing General Partner and CEO Bill Neukom today announced that the team has exercised its options for Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean and Field Manager Bruce Bochy for the 2012 campaign. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

There were times over the holiday break when Buster Posey quietly slipped into his living room and watched parts of San Francisco's playoff run and World Series title on the team's commemorative DVDs.

This image appears in the Chronicle's article online this morning: Warriors' Monta Ellis barely a blip on NBA's radar

We've all expected so much out of Monta throughout his career with the dubs, but this year it seems he's really elevated his play to super stardom. A lot is made about how he hasn't been elected an all-star, but all you need to do is look at this chart of the fan voting. Breaking news: fans are idiots. Monta probably picks up that list, sees Vince Carter on it, and LOLs over his morning coffee.

That being said, what kind of effort are the dubs front office putting in as far as a balloting campaign on his behalf? The Giants across the bay made a big Panda push in 09, and I'm wondering if there's been any kind of push like that in Oakland. They may not be the most organized team in the NBA, but this one really seems like a no-brainer: simultaneously support your franchise player & promote your team.

One of the Warriors' lead owners, Peter Guber, had this to tweet this morning:

... in case anyone was worried that previous owner Chris Cohan might somehow end up with the team again.

I never get tired of seeing this. The Warriors are dead. Long live the Warriors.

Great post by Bruce Jenkins (seriously).

Make sure to read the whole thing to hear the rest of Kruk's take, but here's a snippet:

When Raul Ibanez tripled off reliever Jeremy Affeldt in the seventh inning last night, scoring Chase Utley from second base for a 6-2 lead, Mike Krukow told his audience that "Posey tipped that pitch." You don't hear such things from other analysts, particularly the shameless "homers" befouling so many broadcast booths, but Krukow is a former catcher who plays it straight, and he can't stand to watch shoddy fundamentals.

"What happened there," Krukow said this morning in Philadelphia, "it was a 3-2 count, and Posey shook his head as Affeldt looked in for the sign. When a catcher does that, he's not shaking off a pitch. He just wants to have the pitcher shake HIS head -- like he's going to get inside the hitter's head. Well, 99 times out of 100, a fastball is coming. We (in the booth) figured Utley relayed the pitch to Ibanez. He'd been late on Affeldt's fastball the whole at-bat, but he jumped all over that one."

Cool story about a kid's first giants game. Loved the Renteria part.

I wish I could remember my first gmen game, though I think nowadays you can get a certificate or something at the park?

Great article. Would love to hear his profane Vin Scully impression.

The Rangers have closed their clubhouse to the media for a team media and announced a 5 pm press conference today for a "major announcement", the latest sign that they have traded with Seattle for 2008 Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee. National reports started to circulate about 4 p.m. that the club had agreed to send 1B Justin Smoak and three others to Seattle for Lee and reliever Mark Lowe

"A source close to Vladimir Guerrero says the 34-year-old is nearing a one-year deal with the Rangers, according to Jim Bowden of FoxSports.com. ESPN Deportes' Enrique Rojas reports the deal is valued at $7 million."

I thought I saw the words "time machine" and "giants" in there but no dice.

From Adam Laurdisen's article on the Merc's website, he tries to sober up the masses in anticipation of the season getting underway. I love the dubs, but this team is about 2 guys and 2 years away from being anything but an also-ran. Come to terms with the inevitable now, and save yourself some time and money.

Adam stops short of calling 09-10 a bust before it even starts, but I'm going to take his ideas to their logical conclusion and call 09-10 yet another rebuilding period. I'll enjoy watching the kids grow, but I won't expect wins. I certainly will not participate in irresponsible "playoff" talks. That's not fair to the team and unfair to place those expectations on the kids. Where's Jim Mora when you need him?

In most Warriors’ seasons, there’s almost always a "business as usual" moment when the optimism of the early year, the fresh faces added to the mix, and the talk of new strategies all fall away — to be replaced by the largely hopeless, listless, and/or undisciplined basketball we’ve suffered through for most of the last decade and a half. Usually that moment comes in January, with a long road trip, an injury, or the cumulative weight of stubborn reliance on unproductive rotations. It’s far too early to predict business as usual again this year — there are still wide-open questions about who will play what, when, and for how long — but you’d be forgiven for getting a sinking feeling in your stomach following this weekend’s loss against the Kings.

Edit: blockquote fail correction

From the article's intro:

He calls himself "the pebble that started the avalanche," the man who taught baseball analysis to Billy Beane. Gandhi, someone wrote, sparking MLK's revolution. Today, Moneyball remains a hotly debated phenomenon. Eric Walker is a footnote. Here's the footnote's story.

This is a two-parter. The first discusses Walker's stint as a consultant with the Giants (more than 20 years before Bill James would secure similar work with the Red Sox). The second, which will run this afternoon, will look at Walker's time with the A's and the evolution and distortions of what's come to be known as moneyball.

Good read. My favorite part:

"At any rate, there I was, finally on contract with a major-league ball club, the Giants, but in a dubious situation. The GM, Tom Haller, was, ah (let us not speak ill of the dead), not a progressive thinker, and the rest of the team's Brain Trust was of the same vintage."

From MLB.com, they gave up two prospects: Josh Bell and Steve Johnson.

Reynolds blog post on how lame OPS is cuz its dumb lol. Excerpt below:

"But what I've been witnessing while I've been a broadcaster is everyone using these stats to try and explain the game of baseball. Not all statistics work. Some do, some don't. And one of the stats that has become real popular is OPS. On-base plus slugging. All of a sudden, it's this stat that defines whether a guy is a good ball player or not. And the fact of the matter is, if you're a power hitter then the situation will dictate what a pitcher does with you - either walk you or pitch you real careful. So more than likely you're going to end up on base and therefore your on-base percentage goes up. This in my mind has become the stat the everyone thinks is the be all and end all. It is not. If you have a ball club that's a great offensive team then that changes everything. But if you have a guy like Adrian Gonzalez, for example, his OPS is going to be high - he's got a lot of home runs and walks a lot...because you're not going to pitch to him. Power guys like Giambi and Dunn have always had high OPS because no one wants to pitch to them. But it takes two hits to score them from first.

This is how the game has changed. Dick Williams is pulling his hair out. This is not something people have reinvented in the game. You can go all the way back to Dave Kingman. When Kingman was hot, you didn't pitch to him. If he wasn't hot, you pitched to him. Big power hitters swing and miss and strikeout. Or they hit home runs and walk. And at the end of the year their OBP is always going to be higher than most of the other guys on the team because they clog the bases."

Read the story URL for some more Reynolds gold.

Fangraphs takes a look at our resident Panda. Flooding their comments with "ginats brassss" is optional.

From the LA times article "Disillusioned in Mannywood," comes an interview with a fan in the left field area of the same name.

Once you get past the shock (LOLDGER fans are human, have thoughts)...dude makes a lot of sense. Really speaks to the realization that a lot of fans are now coming to. It wasn't just Barry, it was everybody. Sure, many fans are late to the party...but they're here now.

I'd love for Manny, BLB, etc...to step up and respond to THIS fan, face to face, instead of hiding behind a press conference, released statements, and other lame duck attempts at "apologizing." Where is the no-tolerance policy that this sport needs? The PSAs? Is MLB really just pretending this is a non-issue still? rant rant rant

Really? I mean, I know we have like 40 outfielders...but dude would instantly be the best hitter in our lineup. For 5mm. I suppose age is a concern...and maybe his defense is atrocious...but, 5 million for some much needed pop in the lineup is sort of worth it.