San Francisco Giants Link Dump, 8/7

This thing where I insult Kirk Gibson every day is fun.

Assessing Adam Dunn’s Pitching Ability
Isn't it a little more special when Adam Dunn pitches than when Daniel Descalso or some other position player does? He's got the big ol' galoot thing going, and he's been around forever, and you couldn't possibly think he'd be any good at it. He's just a big dude having a good time, like Brad Penny at TheLetter2's house.

MLB Telecasts On Regional Sports Networks Dominate Prime Time TV
Occasionally you'll hear talk about how low ratings for national games or the World Series are portents of an economic catastrophe, as if all the money local broadcasts are making doesn't matter because nobody wants to watch Harold Reynolds call a game. Well, now that there's data about just how popular those local broadcasts are, they'll change their tune, right? Because if there's one thing the sports media would never do, it's come up with a narrative, and then stick with it for years despite any evidence to the contrary.

A's approach architect about building a new ballpark in Oakland
As an East Bay resident, I never understood why A's fans were so mad at the Giants for blocking the move to San Jose. Yeah, the Giants are doing that for selfish reasons, but think about it. If the A's moved to San Jose, the proposed site wouldn't be near any public transit to the East Bay, so A's fans would have to drive there. Specifically, they would have to drive on 880, often at rush hour, which is like trying to push a shopping cart through a cement wall. If anything, A's fans should be sending Larry Baer flowers and gift baskets for preventing that.

Late Run in the Race for Commissioner
Who will be baseball's next commissioner? Will it be current MLB COO Rob Manfred, who has spent years being considered the frontrunner? Will it be Tom Werner, current part owner of the Red Sox whose main qualification seems to be that Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't want Manfred in charge? Or will it be top business official Tom Brosnan, who it won't be?

We've got three good candidates here about whom we're all pretty much totally uninformed, so let's draw lots, get assigned someone to support purely by chance, and start yelling at each other about this. It's the Internet Way!

Analysis of Andrew McCutchen's injury
Now that we've moved past blaming Kirk Gibson for this injury and are simply blaming him for being a terrible, petty, small person, let's look at just what is going on with Andrew McCutchen. And what's going on is . . . unusual. It's an injury that the panel of experts ESPN asked had never seen before, which is not generally a good sign. Meanwhile, the Pirates are going to delay putting McCutchen on the DL in the almost certainly vain hope that he'll play soon, which is clear-cut plagiarism. The Giants should sue.