Will the Giants ever look like a competent offensive team again? Since they've been bad for a week, we can definitively say no. They won't. Sorry.
When News Is Noise: Explaining Baseball’s Biggest Breakouts
It's easy to read off-day pieces about players having a good year and think, "Now that he's fixed his mechanics, he'll really take off" or "Since that lingering injury is healed, he should be an All-Star!" But how often is that kind of thing really borne out over the rest of the season? Well, uh, not that often, unfortunately. Turns out that, on average, the best way to predict what a player does over the rest of the season is the boring look-at-career-stats look-at-prediction-systems stuff, which is probably what we all thought anyway in the back of our minds, but now there's a bunch of data backing it up. In conclusion, stories are meaningless, magic is fictional, and your dreams are dead.
The Cut4 trade deadline primer: All your questions, answered!
You hear a lot about the trade deadline: What players will be traded, what prospects will come back, and what GMs of teams you root for are incompetent boobs who do everything wrong and why is life so painful? But the one question no one answers is what IS the trade deadline, anyway? What is a trade, even? Let's learn, with this primer from Cut4. It's the best we've got, at least until Vox comes through with the definitive explainer. Get on it, Ezra.
Clayton Kershaw on Trash Talk and Giants Fans
You know who's great? Giants fans, that's who! I've been saying that for a while, and now I'm being backed up by Clayton Kershaw, who is a very good pitcher, and therefore has a lot of credibility. He's especially impressed by the heckling at AT&T, but I'm not. I mean, has it worked? Has Kershaw been reduced into a blubbering mass of insecurity that smells like cheese? No, he hasn't. So our work isn't done.
Major League Baseball Embroiled in Explosive Legal War Over TV Deals
Way back in 2005, while Miss Congeniality 2 was making moviegoers everywhere chuckle heartily at the ludicrous prospect of an FBI agent having redeeming qualities, MLB cut a deal with the Orioles to allow the Nationals to move into their territory. For several years, the Nationals would be shown (for a significantly reduced fee) on a TV network owned by the Orioles. Well, those several years are up, the teams are arguing about money, and it's getting ugly. It's so bad, in fact, that Bud Selig has declared himself to be "saddened." Poor guy. Let's all pour one out for Bud's emotions.
Oakland Raiders owner in talks with San Antonio to relocate NFL team
Ever since he took over the Raiders, Mark Davis has been a shockingly normal NFL owner. So good on him for channeling Al and take meetings to get the hell out of Oakland. It's what the old man would do!