Thursday BP, 6/28/18

Here are a few stories and highlights you might have missed in the last week:

• ESPN had a piece this week about Madison Bumgarner’s distaste for the DH and other changes to the game.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23911179/madison-bumgarner-san-francisco-giants-says-rule-changes-hand

• MLB had a piece about the Junior Giants’ attempt to increase participation in their softball league from roughly a third of their total participants to half by the year 2020. I’m a bit conflicted about this, because I personally would prefer co-ed baseball at a young age to give girls a real chance to develop at the same level as their male counterparts before shuffling them off into a separate version of the sport with few career opportunities, but this is still a nice effort to try to get equal participation.

https://www.mlb.com/giants/news/giants-play-ball-promote-softball-league/c-282789532

• The San Francisco Examiner had an interesting piece on a small, but seemingly effective change that Derek Holland made after his losing bid to Los Angeles. Holland had his best start of the season thus far this week.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/derek-hollands-progression-good-sign-beleaguered-san-francisco-giants-rotation/

• The San Francisco Chronicle had a piece by Ann Killion discussing how the return of Pablo Sandoval has proven to be somewhat of a great move by the Giants.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Sandoval-s-return-to-Giants-From-sentimental-13018440.php

• Kerry Crowley of The Mercury News had a piece about how Reyes Moronta joined the organization, shortly before the 2010 World Series, how he got to the big leagues and what his future could hold with the team.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/25/giants-can-thank-mother-nature-for-landing-potential-closer-of-the-future/

• Evan Longoria took a trip to The French Laundry and it was as fancy as one would expect.

• Brandon Belt, Derek Holland and Chris Stratton took a trip to Marine World Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, where Holland got up close and personal with a giraffe. No word on whether it was Belt’s giraffe counterpart.