The State of The Bay
I figured if the President can do a State of the Union then I could easily do a State of the Bay report. I will break down the last and current season of each team and their respective futures moving forward. Can the San Francisco teams continue their success?Will the Oakland teams get out of their own way? Will the Sharks ever get over the hump? And do I really have to talk about the Warriors? I’m armed with a sixer and hammer just in case the pain and hurt is too much to bear or if the common sense has so escaped some teams it is too ridiculous to take them seriously I can numb myself enough before drilling myself with the hammer to forget. And away we go.
Football
San Francisco 49ers
After a decade long playoff drought, the Niners surprised the NFL and fans alike with a 13-3 finish and a couple miscues from going to the Super Bowl. Led by a stellar defense, great special teams, and a field goal efficient, mistake free offense the Niners were able to finally get over that stench of Loserville and finally turn the corner. The product on the field was not pretty, but neither was the past decade, in terms of the west coast offense of rhythm, timing patterns that led to TD’s. What was pretty was just a beast of a defense that ranked first in the league in stopping the run and put the secondary in a great position to cause turnovers. With a whole offseason for Coach Harbuagh to tweak the offense and sure up the secondary, it would be hard pressed for anyone to say that the Niners future does not look bright.
Future Outlook
The future looks very bright for a great defense and a awesome coaching staff. However, what fans and opponents will come back to is these numbers- 12-26 and 1-13. That was Alex Smith’s passing numbers and the Niners 3rddown conversions. Smith had an effective, albeit managed, career year under Harbaugh. A week after throwing the winning pass to Vernon Davis, Smith threw this clunker of a game out against the Giants. When he needed to make throws they were off the mark or in the ground. Like there brethren up the road, the San Francisco Giants, these Niners relied heavily on defense (Giant pitching) and hoped to squeak out wins (Giants batters) with a timely score and field goals. Well, as both teams have come to find out, you need offense to help pull you through games and not apply so much pressure to the defense to come up with the big play.
Alex Smith signed a one-year contract this last fall. Do the Niners invest another season or even a few seasons with Smith? Do the Niners believe that an offseason with Harbaugh and being under his watch will have the same success that Harbaugh had with Andrew Luck at Stanford? Only a few teams have gotten by on their defense with a average QB and gone on to win a Super Bowl. But as we can see from the last few Super Bowls, it is the teams that have upper echelon type QB’s that make the big game. Do the Niners make a run at Peyton Manning if he is healthy? Manning has the type of pedigree that will instantly make a mediocre offense better with his QB savvy and moxie; Manning can get up to speed quickly with the team and make the receiving corps better. In return the Niners provide him with a chance to win immediately.
Whether it is sticking with Smith and hoping Colin Kaepernick graduates swiftly and with honors from the Harbaugh Academy or picking up Peyton Manning the Niners future will rely heavily on what they do at the QBposition this coming season.
Oakland Raiders
Oakland started the season out strong and seemed like they were going to make it two for two with the Bay Area capturing West Crowns. Then the eventual Raider swoon came roaring in with injuries to Darren McFadden and Jason Campbell. The Jason Campbell injury was the worst thing that could have happened to the team because it exposed a major problem- No backup QB. You would think that a team that has not had steady QB play in recent years and whose starting QB is Jason Campbell would have made an effort to secure a quality backup. Instead, the Raiders had Mr. Carrie Prejean who, when standing in the pocket, looked more like his wife about to answer what should be America’s exit strategy out of the Middle East- confused and stupid.
All of this lead to, what will go down as the worst trade ever and the one-day Cincinnati organization can look back with a shit grin, when the Raiders gave up a first round draft pick for Carson “Tailgating” Palmer. The Raiders gave up not only that first rounder this year, but a second rounder next year for Palmer (add that to the third rounder lost on Terrelle Pryor and now it’s a party), who in his 10 games with Oakland threw like a small child after being spun around with a blindfold on during a game of pin the tail on the donkey- confused and disoriented. Those trades made Kevin Costner’s The Postman and Waterworldlook like great career choices. The Raiders went 4-6 over the last ten games and amazingly still had a shot to go the playoffs with a final regular season game to play. What did they do in that final game? Threw up a stinker against the Chargers at home to eliminate them from playoff contention, all while continuing their strangle hold on penalties in a season with their 327,526; give or take one or two. Typical Raiders.
The Future
It’s hard to have a future when your team has been giving away its draft picks like they were handing out nudey bar invites on the Vegas Strip. The Raiders have nice pieces in the organization, but when you have the constant turnover from year to year(stick with a coach already) it is hard to point the ship in a direction other than down. Both sides of the ball have pieces in place, but not enough impact players, especially at QB and in the secondary, to make a serious run at a playoff spot, let alone a Super Bowl. However, there is a bright side in that the Raiders now have a GM, something they haven’t had in almost a decade, to call the shots. Maybe with Al Davis gone to another realm of being these Raiders will finally have a shot of being relevant again. And not just a punch line.
BASEBALL
San Francisco Giants
A year removed from a World Series championship would get most teams that have not won a championship in 58 years a reprieve from its fans, right? Well, the Giants are not the Marlins and the fans of San Francisco want to build upon the team’s success. Yeah, the vibes of the championship season still lingered with the fans, but it also lingered with the players for the better part of the season, as well. This most recent edition of the Giants did the unthinkable when it set the team back offensively to back around the dead ball area of baseball. The Giants batted .242, had an OBP of .303, and OBSP of .671. Those numbers and 571 runs scored caused a serious Black Out at AT&T Park. Even the arrival of Carlos Beltran could not help the anemic offense to turnaround, as Beltran became injured- huge surprise there- once he entered the Giants lineup.
The starting staff was lights out as we have come to expect, and was met with the emergence of Ryan Voglesong into the starting rotation when Zito got injured. Vogleson made it possible for the Giants to trade the talented, but erratic head case that was and is Jonathan Sanchez to the Royals for Melky Cabrera. The bullpen took a slight step back last season and were not the dominant, save your ass group they had been the season before. They were good, but when the time called for it they were not always up to the challenge.
The Future
As long as the staff stays healthy and intact then the Giants always have a punchers chance like they did in 2010. The problem is getting enough timely hits to produce runs. With so much pressure put upon the pitchers and bullpen to be perfect each day, it becomes difficult to pitch knowing that you cannot give up a run or your team will lose. Never ones to be big offseason spenders, especially when they are committing 40 million to Lincecum and trying to get a long term contract done with Matt Cain, the Giants went out and got Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera to add, hopefully, some offense to the lineup. That is Sabeanmetrics- Add small, quality players to the team and hope they produce a big season (ie Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell). During the course of the season the Giants will evaluate the team and tweak the roster as they see fit. But how many times will sticking bubble gum wads into watermelon type holes will allow the team to flourish? With a payroll of 126 million, with Zito getting paid 19 million to suck and Rowand getting 12 million no to play- Ouch, the Giants need to hope for a big season from their new additions, an Aubrey Huff “on year”, more plate appearances for Brandon Belt, the return of Buster Posey, and the continued success of the staff (Lock Down Cain! He is a Beast!) before opening the wallets for a cash cow next off season.
Oakland A’s
A team many expert and pundits predicted to make it to the playoffs last year fell miles from that feat. As in Sun to Neptune far away. When the best thing to happen to you in the last decade is the motion picture hit Moneyball then you have some problems. Those problems happen to be the lack of offense, lack of a crowd, and your stadium. The offense was down right awful. Not Giants awful, but pretty awful with the lone bright spot being Jemele Weeks hitting .303 and having 22 stolen bases in his rookie year. Other than the Rook no one else in the lineup did much of anything except for whiff and roll over. No doubt that Weeks has superstar written all over him, which means that he will be traded or signed by the Yankees in 4 years. The pitching was good, but injuries derailed the staff a bit in the form of a Dallas Braden shoulder injury and Brett Anderson Tommy John Surgery that sidelined them for the season in May. The A’s were out of the race before Memorial Day.
The Future
It’s in the South Bay. The A’s and their fans are hoping to get approval on moving the team from the Coliseum, home of the Raiders and an awful facility, to a new destination in Fremont. The answer on whether they can move cannot come fast enough and in all honesty MLB needs to stop dragging this out and get off the pot already so the A’s know if they will be a player or a farm club to big league teams. By moving, the A’s are hoping to attract the closer San Jose fans and create an actual home field advantage in the process for their minor league like team. The A’s have a good pitching staff that will be headed up by Gio Gonzalez who had a phenomenal year last year and the return of some key starters. However, much like the Giants the offense in Oakland will be the concern. With that offense in the top heavy AL West with the Angels and Rangers, the A’s seem to be bringing a water gun to a nuclear missile fight. The addition of Johnny Gomes is a big yawner and thetalk of bringing in Manny Ramirez is downright frightening. The A’s have great prospects in the minors that need to grow up quick to make big league impact. The A’s also need to stay patient and not out Moneyball themselves in their attempt to move out of the Al West cellar and Oakland.
Hockey
San Jose Sharks
It is just another good season for our good old San Jose Sharks. Which means we have seen this movie before where it ends with a 2nd round loss to a hot goaltender and a tougher team that will coincide with the question of should the Sharks blow it up and are the Sharks star players really star players questions. The Sharks are currently first in the Pacific and 3rd in the West, which is pretty standard for this team that has talent, but has always been missing that one player that will push them over the top. It goes like this with the Sharks- When they get on a power play I am just as nervous as I am excited that they will give up a shorthanded goal as they will score a power play goal. Neither one surprises me, especially if they give up a shorthanded goal. And God bless the fans that support the hell out of these guys, hoping beyond hope that they will, just one time, get to the Promised Land.
Future
We are getting to our bleakest team outlook in the next paragraph, but with the Sharks it is hard to watch and stomach without wanting to drive a fork into my temple repeatedly. How many opportunities will management give to these guys before they pull the plug? Do they not understand that the fans will come out and support this team no matter what? What else do we do in San Jose besides cheer on our sports teams? If a team can’t get over the hump and you tinker around with it enough, but the house still doesn’t stand; well it means we need a new architect and workers to replace the house and not allow the same crew to build it only for the house to have mold, floor damage, faulty foundation, and no roof. It’s the old square peg into a round hole problem that has led to great regular season play, but to the same old ending where the nice guy loses out to the bad ass ex-boyfriend on prom night.
Basketball
The Warriors
Will the Warriors ever be relevant? Will the Warriors ever win a championship? Will the Warriors ever get a big man? Not in this writers lifetime. I will always pull and cheer for the 6-11, 13th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference, but only 4 games back of 8th. This is me sitting here trying to think of the We Believe days, which feel like a decade ago, not getting my hopes up. The Warriors have a great fantasy numbers team with Ellis, Curry, Lee, and Wright in the three’s department. If numbers counted, like they do in Fantasy basketball, I am sure the Warriors would be at the top of the heap. Sadly, we have to play for something called wins. Wins have not come enough in a season, but have come just enough to not land us a high draft pick. Do you know the last player the Warriors drafted and went on to become an All Star was Gilbert Arenas in 2001. AND HE WASN’T EVEN AN ALL STAR FOR US!!! Latrell Sprewell was the last Warrior All Star that the club drafted and actually played for the team and that was back in 1997- 15 YEARS AGO!!! Are you kidding me! That is an atrocious record and why the Warriors have been so supremely awful/mediocre the last decade plus. Here are some other Warrior draft picks over the years- Cliff Rozier, Joe Smith, Todd “I will Sprewell you if I ever meet you” Fuller, Adonal Foyle (who my cousin likes as a person, but not a basketball player), and the great Patrick “I love baking” O’Bryant. When you shoot yourself in the face then it is no wonder that thebig name players of the league do not want to play for you.
The complete ineptitude of the front office the last 20 or so years has put this franchise in a hole that would need a Michael Bay type of implausible plot to get them out of such as this- Say the Warriors are really a secret society of bad ass Ninjas that only use basketball as a cover and a way to move around the country more easily to stop evildoers. However, the Warrior Ninjas were killed in a double cross by David Stern when he found out that Chris Paul was about to join the team and killed off all the Warriors basketball players to prevent a mega badass Ninja society from occurring. Older brothers of the fraternity of Warrior Ninjas- Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, and Mitch Richmond- begin to recruit the likes of LeBron, Durant, Kevin Love, and Derrick Rose to become Warriors where they lead the team to titles, all while stopping Stern and The Union from Global Domination.
See the lengths that the Warriors drive me too. I need to be committed.
Note-Notice how I did not list Dwight Howard in the Ninja Society because I have been brainwashed to think undersized front court. Damn you Warriors!)
The Future
I really wish I could reference the Timbuk 3 lyrics- The futures so bright that I gotta wear shades. Alas, the Warriors need some major help and a super duperstar on the roster. With the construction of the team, the superstar will not come from the draft unless he falls into their laps. That means the front office needs to change the culture and get creative. If they move the team to San Francisco that is fine as long as they do not lose the amazing crowd that goes to every Warriors home game. The crowd is great for momentum shifts, energy, and most of the homewins(The Warriors biggest wins against Chicago, New York, and Miami have all come at home). But maybe to change the luck of the franchise the team needs to get out of Oakland and into a new state of the art arena. But to get the clout of fans and a city to do it then the Warriors front office have to remake the image of the franchise and convince a very good player to come and help cultivate a new brand. I feel good with the front office in the hands of Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. Their enthusiasm and love of the game surely is a good start from the finish off a bottle of Makers Mark to forget about Chris Cohan days. But with the current state of the NBA and players still controlling their own fates on where they want to play; it seems like only a handful of teams matter and one of those teams is not the Warriors. Professional Basketball is the toughest of all the sports to come back from bad when you make terrible mistakes because a missed draft pick, or twenty, bad free agent signings, and trades result in a lack of size and too many guard/tweeners that play hard, but are sorely overmatched. In basketball it is about the size and talent of the dog in the fight even more so than the fight that is in the dog. Here is hoping the Warriors get some talented and very large sized dogs in the future. Or some badass Ninjas. Either way.
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