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KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME
  • 2 days ago
Transcript
00:00This is a Giants game tonight, and Justin's going to get his first win,
00:05and he can celebrate it with his new son.
00:08That's the plan, and I'm going over to the game to make sure that they do this right.
00:13Yeah.
00:13Okay?
00:14Bring home a win, Mark.
00:16This is on me tonight.
00:17No doubt.
00:18Yeah.
00:18I promise you.
00:20This I promise you, and I also promise you,
00:22they're about to have a conversation with the person who is going to analyze this game,
00:26both before it starts and after it ends on NBC Sports Bay Area.
00:30That is none other than former Giant reliever George Contos joining us on the River Islands guest line.
00:36Don't you feel it, George?
00:37Tonight's Justin's night, don't you think?
00:40You sold me.
00:41Listening to that, I'm all on board with all the things that you just said,
00:44other than the fact that Cal Quantrill, who went to Stanford,
00:47might have a little bit of extra energy pitching in front of a home crowd for him, so to speak.
00:51Yeah.
00:51Does extra energy, you tell me, does that make you pitch better?
00:54Like, that dude is getting hit all over the yard for two years running now.
01:00You know, I'll tell you what, every time that we would go to Chicago,
01:03I always felt like I had better stuff just because I knew I had family, friends, you know, teachers,
01:09anybody that had ever really rooted me on that was either watching the game or at the game.
01:13So I always had a little bit of extra stuff.
01:15But I agree, Cal Quantrill is going to get smoked tonight.
01:18Yeah, and the only bummer for the Giants is that they had an off day when you're coming off a game
01:22where you just lit up the Boston Red Sox.
01:25How tough is that to go from, you know, swinging a hot bat to having a day off at home
01:30and getting back up on the horse today?
01:32I just think off days are momentum killers.
01:35You played a really good second and third game against the Red Sox,
01:39and then you just run right into this off day.
01:41But, you know, this is the way the schedule falls.
01:44And like you mentioned, we got Justin Verlander on the mound tonight.
01:47I think he's going to get his first win, the offense that was just over at the ballpark.
01:50Some of the boys were doing some early hitting, Flo, Willie, Rafi.
01:55They were all out there smoking the ball all over the yard.
01:57So I think everyone's in good spirits today with the Marlins coming into town.
02:01George Contos joining us on Weatherton Debs.
02:03All right, one week into the Rafi Devers experience, how does the lineup look different to you?
02:09It just looks deeper, you know, and we're looking at this lineup right now without Matt Chapman in it.
02:14So that's a huge omission from what I think is a really long, deep, powerful lineup.
02:21I mean, he likes hitting in the two hole.
02:23So you'll have Elliott Ramos probably hitting three or Willie Adamas hitting three.
02:27And then you got Elliott, Chappie, Flo.
02:30I mean, there's so many guys in that lineup.
02:32And what it's going to really do is, regardless of where you're at,
02:36you're not going to really want to give Rafi Devers too good of pitches to hit.
02:40So he's going to get better pitches to be seen by whoever's hitting in front of him,
02:44Yastrzemski, whoever's sitting behind him, Willie or Chappie.
02:47It just gives everybody a chance to hit better pitches and to drive in more damage.
02:52What are you seeing from Willie not only since Devers came, but over the last couple of weeks?
02:56Are you starting to see him turn the corner and be more like the hitter we remember from him previous years?
03:02I think so.
03:03I mean, he just looks like he's having a good time again, not pressing as much.
03:06He was doing some of that stuff while he was working on his timing, working on his leg kick.
03:10And I think some of that has finally started to kick in.
03:13So what you're going to see out of him is just a guy who, again,
03:15he's going to get better pitches to hit with Rafi Devers in that lineup.
03:19And once he comes around and he's the guy that we heard Bob Melvin talk about it just in his postgame interview.
03:25I want to say it was two days ago on Sunday.
03:28You know, he's not doing what he expects of himself or what kind of the expectation was
03:34when you look at the back of his baseball card.
03:36And he's a guy who's working really hard.
03:38And I think that he's going to really hit his stride here in the second half.
03:41And this offense is going to get going to complement the good pitching that this team has.
03:45George, let's talk about this pitching staff a little bit because they've had a wonderful first half.
03:50And the bullpen is among the absolute best in baseball.
03:54To what degree do you feel like that is fully sustainable?
03:59Or have they just had some things go their way so far?
04:02I mean, you're talking to a guy who I think the bullpen pitching staff in general was definitely our strength
04:11when I played for this organization 12 through 17.
04:15So do I think it's sustainable?
04:16Absolutely.
04:17I mean, you have several guys down there who are well deserving of being all-stars
04:22in Randy Rodriguez and Tyler Rodgers and Camilo Doval.
04:25They've all pitched incredibly well.
04:27Eric Miller has been doing a great job from the left-hand side.
04:31You know, Ryan Walker, I was just with him this morning over at the ballpark.
04:34And he's in a really great frame of mind.
04:36I expect a big second half out of him.
04:38You know, the only thing that you're going to want to try and do,
04:40and obviously it's hard to do until you lock up a postseason spot,
04:43is try to get these guys a breather because I expect this team to make a deep run in October this year.
04:47Do you think they need another lefty down in the pen,
04:50or can they do it with the staff that they have out of the bullpen?
04:54Well, they've been doing it with that staff.
04:56And, you know, Eric Miller is doing a great job, but you have some of those right-handed guys.
05:02You know, Randy Rodriguez is one of them.
05:04He's an absolute weapon.
05:05He can get lefties or righties out with the way that his stuff works.
05:08He's got that breaking ball.
05:09That's a really good change playing slider to complement that 100-mile-an-hour fastball, 98-100.
05:15So, obviously, look, you'd want to have another lefty, if really need be,
05:19if some of these splits from the righties got a little bit worse against the left-handed batters.
05:25But I think this bullpen has been doing such a great job,
05:28and I don't see that subsiding anytime soon.
05:30George, I also wonder, speaking of pitchers and whether or not anybody needs to be added,
05:35you know, Verlander went through an injury and the Giants had Kyle Harrison.
05:39Well, they don't have that kind of depth anymore.
05:41Like, from bullpen options to AAA, what do the Giants do if there's another injury in the rotation?
05:51Well, first and foremost, you cross your fingers that there's not, obviously.
05:54But, you know, Landon Roof's done a great job.
05:56Obviously, he threw that rubber match the other day, did a great job.
05:59Hayden Birdsong, I've always really, really liked how he went about his business.
06:04Everything revolves around him with just his fastball command and being able to get ahead of hitters.
06:09And then, you know, you have Wisenhunt that's non-at-the-bit, a good lefty that has the ability to,
06:16I know he's never pitched in the big leagues before, but from what I've seen from him and his numbers
06:19and his video out in AAA, he's an absolute stud with that fastball-changeup combination.
06:25So, I know that bringing him up, starting his clock would be one of those things that, you know,
06:31unless it was absolutely necessary where you had to fill a hole.
06:33I think they are just fine, though.
06:36Jelly can start.
06:38Tristan Beck can start if you needed a guy to fill into that five hole.
06:41So, you're not really in dire straits, God forbid, somebody would go down out of the rotation.
06:46Is there any concern about innings limits for Roop and Birdsong?
06:50Certainly guys who, by the time you get to August and September, might be in uncharted territory with innings.
06:58You know, that's always a concern, especially with young pitchers.
07:02I mean, you want to see guys not really exceed their innings limits from the year before by more than about 50.
07:09But there are ways that you can start kind of combating that.
07:11You can really not let the innings creep up, even in an efficient start.
07:17You have the pitching depth on the bullpen side with guys who can eat up innings,
07:21where you can curtail some of those innings a little bit.
07:24But, you know, this is what you need to do at the major league level.
07:27You know, we knew in spring training that these guys were going to be fighting for spots in that rotation.
07:31And the expectation is that they can go out and they can compete and pitch a full season.
07:36George Contos with us, Willard and Dibbs, 95-7 the game.
07:40George, especially since you were over there at the ballpark taking a look at things,
07:44where's everybody taking ground balls?
07:47Like, have you watched Rafi Devers over there at first base yet?
07:51And what kind of timeline do you think they're working on there?
07:53You know, look, I think that they want to get him as comfortable as possible at first base
07:59to get him out there as soon as they can.
08:01But as we've heard him say, we've heard Bommel say, we've heard everyone talk about it,
08:05they are not going to put him at first base until he feels comfortable with that new position.
08:10Now, as a pitcher, I've never really had to go learn that.
08:12But, you know, the spin coming off the ball, all of that sort of thing is opposite of what it was always like for him at third base.
08:20So until he gets the hang of that, I definitely don't think that they're going to rush him over there.
08:24It'd be nice to have him have the ability to play some first base,
08:28but I think that that'll probably start sometime in the second half after the All-Star break,
08:32once they've felt that he has had some ample reps
08:35and he's not overthinking and putting pressure on himself over at first base.
08:40And then, look, I mean, obviously we just saw the move with Tyler Fitzgerald getting optioned.
08:44I think that it's pretty telling, at least in my opinion, of what happens when Chappie comes back.
08:49You slide Casey Schmidt probably right over there to second base.
08:52He's done a great job. The bat is absolutely on fire right now.
08:56And the kid's just an athletic guy that he can play anywhere.
08:59So it really gives you the ability and the freedom and breathing room to try some new things
09:04with being able to put him at second base.
09:06No doubt, and like you said, he's been hitting it so well of late.
09:10You've got to have the bat in the lineup.
09:12Patrick Bailey not having the kind of offensive year that people would want.
09:16How important is what he's doing behind the plate to justify him being below 200 with the bat?
09:24Well, look, I mean, the pitching staff has done what they've done, obviously,
09:27and you give them a significant majority of the credit.
09:30But, you know, Patrick Bailey has done a really good job of working with those guys
09:34and making them feel comfortable when they're on the mound.
09:36And look, we saw it with Buster for a very long time.
09:39The pitcher-catcher relationship is incredibly important.
09:41When you're on the mound, you have to have a lot of confidence in the pitch calling
09:46and the ability to block, keep the ball in front of you, catch and throw,
09:50all of that stuff that Patrick Bailey does, you know, really, really well.
09:53So you'd like in the second half, starting today, ideally, for that bat to come alive
09:58and for him to have some more production with the bat in his hand.
10:02But it's really hard to think of what he does, like what he brings to the table from the catching side
10:10if the team didn't have that right now.
10:12Yeah, you know, listen, I'd love to explore this a little bit more, George,
10:16because just coming from sort of a layperson standpoint, we hear from Giants fans all the time,
10:23and there is a lot of frustration with regard to the offensive side for Patrick Bailey.
10:30I know the team's stance, which is that this job is, it's kind of like having two jobs,
10:36and the more important one is kind of controlling the pitching staff.
10:39But to what level is that sort of taking him away from maybe the offensive work that he needs to do?
10:45Like, what do you see, how do you see this whole picture?
10:49I mean, look, I can't disagree.
10:51I think that when you've seen what he's capable of, when he first came up his first couple years,
10:56the bat was a plus.
10:57It was definitely a con.
10:58And he handled it well.
11:00You know, I think, look, when, to your point, he has to do two jobs.
11:04He's got to focus on his ability to hit and be productive at the plate.
11:07And then he also has to do the pitcher's meetings and the starting pitcher and the strategy for the game.
11:12And he's going to work on his catching stuff because he has to do that behind the plate
11:16when you're involved in every pitch thrown in the game.
11:19So I totally agree.
11:20I definitely don't think that the bat is something to ignore.
11:22He definitely, over the last few weeks, I know he's worked a little bit with Will Clark because I've talked to Will about it.
11:29And they've had some conversations.
11:31And he's gone out and done early hitting.
11:34And I know that he's done a lot of these things to try and get himself back on track.
11:37And he's definitely a guy that if they can get his bat rolling again, it just makes the lineup that much deeper.
11:43And a lot of it has to do with confidence.
11:47You know, when you're not rolling well, it can take a toll on you.
11:50The guy's putting in the work.
11:52He's getting the things that he needs to do done before the game to prepare.
11:56And it's just a matter of him having a good couple games or a good series to get that confidence back
12:02because this game is a lot in between the ears.
12:04And when you're rolling well and you believe that you're going to get hits, those hits start to fall.
12:08Is it made even more difficult, the fact that he is a switch hitter?
12:13So not only do you have to try to maintain one swing from one side of the plate and run the pitching staff,
12:19but now you've got to try to deal with two different swings?
12:23I think that he's just been doing it for so long.
12:25I wouldn't call it a burden.
12:27I think it's definitely extra reps that you have to take because you have to keep yourself fresh from both sides of the plate.
12:34I definitely wouldn't call it an extra workload on him
12:38because he's been doing it for such a long time.
12:40But yet again, it's one of those things where when you're rolling right
12:43and you have that confidence and you have just a bloop fall
12:46or you hit a game winner or you drive a couple in,
12:49you go to the plate at the plate at bat next time,
12:53and the ball doesn't quite seem like a golf ball coming in.
12:57It might seem a little bit bigger with that confidence rolling a little bit better.
13:00George Contos with us, Willard and Dibbs.
13:02All right, I'm going to ask this one because of a couple things going on with the team right now.
13:08And I wonder to what level you can relate.
13:11Justin Verlander just had a baby over the weekend.
13:16Sean Jelly has an off-the-field situation, family-related,
13:20that I think some Giants fans know about, and they're all dealing with that.
13:25My question to you, George, is this, which is when stuff is going on off of the field,
13:30whether it's positive or negative, how does that affect the game that's going on that night?
13:39You know, it's interesting.
13:40I think that this is one of the greatest things about playing a team sport
13:44is that whenever you have something going on, whether it's positive or negative, off the field,
13:51you get to go to the ballpark and you get to walk into that clubhouse, which is the sanctuary.
13:56You know, you have 26, 25 other guys that are around you that can help take your mind off of whatever it is
14:02that's going on and help you focus on your casket hand.
14:05And obviously, sometimes it's more difficult than other times,
14:08but you have the support system of all the people that are in there with you
14:12pulling in the same direction for that day and that season and whatever it may be.
14:16So obviously, look, there are things that are intangible that absolutely have an effect
14:23on how you perform day in and day out.
14:26But the one thing that I can say is whenever a guy's going through something positively or negatively,
14:30you do have the support system of the other guys, whether it's the little nook where your locker is,
14:35whether it's pre-game conversations that help take your mind off of whatever it is.
14:39So I don't think that it affects the team.
14:42I think that, you know, everybody, for whoever it is, has something going on usually.
14:47But when you walk in the doors of that clubhouse and you have the support system of your teammates
14:50and the guys that you spend a significant amount of time with throughout the course of a season and a year,
14:56it can make things a little bit better.
14:57George, great stuff, man.
14:59We'll be watching for you both before and after the game tonight.
15:03And we thank you so much for jumping on with us today.
15:06Thanks for having me, guys.
15:07Okay, there it is.
15:08George Conto.