Kuzul

On Saturday, June 25th, Bleacher Report staff spoke with the founder and operator of SFGiantsInsider.com, Michael Manbert.

Michael is a columnist and summer intern here at Bleacher Report, and he also personally maintains SFGiantsInsider.com.

BR: Welcome, Michael! Thanks for joining us.

MM: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

BR: We love the work you’ve done for us. Firstly, though, how exactly did you go about setting up your site, SFGI?

MM: I’ve been a huge reader since I can remember and have always had a natural affinity for writing. After having written about a variety of topics including but not limited to politics, book reviews, health and fitness and sports, I decided it was time to begin working for myself rather than others. I bought the rights to SFGI, designed the site, began writing articles and never looked back.

BR: Awesome! The site looks great. What advice would you give to other young writers who aspire to follow in your footsteps?

MM: My first piece of advice would be to cover something that you’re passionate about. Although I believe that a talented writer can make an interesting read out of any topic, I feel that in order to continually produce high-quality work, one must maintain a passion for their respective subject, whatever it might be.

BR: Wise words. I take it baseball is one of your passions—more specifically, the San Francisco Giants. How long have you been a Giants fan?

MM: Although I was born and raised in Southern California, my father grew up in San Francisco, and his entire side of the family still resides in Northern California. I grew up a San Francisco Giants and 49ers fan, and that’s never changed. It never will!

BR: Loyalty is an honorable trait!

MM: Definitely. I’ve got no respect for bandwagon fans.

BR: Even those who fell in love with the Giants following their World Series victory this past season?

MM: Well.. I suppose I’m alright with them! (laughs)

BR: Back on topic.. How long have you been writing, and do you currently have anything other than SFGI in the works?

MM: As I’m sure you know, (laughs) I am a summer intern at BleacherReport.com and am obviously also a columnist there. I write part-time for TheMuscleFeed.com and do some paid work for Patch.com, covering the Temecula region. Although I’ve been writing high-quality essays and the like in school since I was young, I found that I excelled at the journalistic side of writing/reporting in 2009.

BR: Sounds like you’ve got a fair amount of work on your plate. With that said, let’s get down to business! Would you be so kind as to give us your NL West predictions for the 2011 season?

MM: Absolutely.. I’ve been waiting for you to ask that. Although I am obviously a huge Giants fan, I will give my predictions without bias.

My final NL West standings are as follows:

1. San Francisco Giants – As I said, without bias. Even if I happened to be a Dodgers Fan (God forbid), I just can’t see the Giants not taking the NL West this year. As of today, they’re a 1/2 game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. They’ve done this without Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Freddy Sanchez, Barry Zito, Mike Fontenot and various other players who have been lost to the DL for extended periods of time. Furthermore, their pitchers have yet to throw to their full potential. The fact that the Giants are either in first or within a couple games consistently given the circumstances they’ve faced this year leads me to believe that they will run away with the division when they start playing to their potential.

2. Colorado Rockies – The Rockies in 2nd, rather than the Diamondbacks? That’s right. I feel that Colorado’s offense – anchored by heavyweights Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzales and a resurgent Jason Giambi – will keep them in contention throughout the year, and will eventually lead them to be runners-up in the NL West.

3. Arizona Diamondbacks – I don’t necessarily have any statistics to back this one up. I just feel that the Diamondbacks are barely hanging on at this point. It seems that they’re playing to the best of their potential, while the Giants aren’t playing particularly well and are still taking turns with Arizona as leaders of the NL West. Arizona will eventually show their true colors as a mediocre ball club, in my opinion.

4. Los Angeles Dodgers – The Dodgers’ management situation – highlighted by the infamous McCourt divorce situation – is in shambles. Their team has followed suit. The Dodgers are nine games under .500, and I can’t see them making any waves this year.

5. San Diego Padres – Last and certainly least are the San Diego Padres. As a student at San Diego State, this should pain me to say; it doesn’t. Does the truth hurt, San Diego? The Padres – contenders in 2010 – are nothing without Adrian Gonzales. The Padres will again revert to what they are: basement dwellers.

BR: Wow. An insightful look at the NL West from the brain himself, Michael Manbert. It certainly seems that you have a bright future, Michael. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us!

MM: Of course. Thank you very much for having me.

This interview is copyrighted by Bleacher Report and SFGiantsInsider.com.

Michael Manbert is a reporter for SFGiantsInsider.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The San Francisco Giants heard it throughout 2010.

“Not enough hitting. There’s no way they’ll even make it to the postseason with such a stagnant offense.”

92-70, NL West Champions.

“So what, they made the playoffs. Let’s see them try and score runs against Derek Lowe, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt…”

NLDS: SF – 3, ATL – 1
NLCS: SF – 4, PHI – 2

“Wow, their pitching absolutely carried them to the World Series. Too bad they won’t be able to score against Cliff Lee and C.J. Wilson.”

2010 World Series: SF – 4, TX – 1

Silence.

The Giants ranked in the bottom half of the National League in runs scored in 2010, hitting a modest .257 and stealing an anemic total of 55 bases, which ranked them 15th in the NL.

However, it was, as many Giants skeptics, doubters and haters will eagerly point out, the Giants’ pitching that carried them through the 2010 season, ranking first in the National League in ERA, saves, earned runs, hits and strikeouts.

While the doubters continued to take shots at the Giants’ offense (and rightfully so, at times), the Giants continued to grind out wins, emerging from the wreckage of the NL West with a division title that came on the last day of the regular season after having been down by 7 1/2 games on July 4th. With 52 (yes, 52) one-run games in the book, Giants fans and players alike had become accustomed to their patented “torturous” style of victory.

The torture carried over into the postseason, with every single game of the NLDS and two games in the NLCS coming down to one-run games, with the Giants going 6-1 in the razor-tight contests.

However, come World Series time, the consensus was that the explosive Texas Rangers offense would prove to be too much for the Giants pitching staff, who were expected to get paltry run support from a Giants offense that had squeaked through the playoffs thus far.

I’m sure you can recall how the World Series turned out.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

The Giants amassed twenty runs in the first two games of the World Series to jump out to a 2-0 lead before splitting the first two games in Texas. In a fitting finish to a season filled with torture, Brian Wilson closed out game 5 in Texas, giving the Giants their first World Series victory since 1954, and their first in San Francisco after having made the move to the Golden Gates in 1958.

Come 2011, what are the experts saying?

“Not enough hitting,” says an anonymous NL scout. “I just don’t see their pitching carrying them again this year. I don’t even have the Giants making the playoffs.”

However, the Giants have something to say about that. With an NL second-best twenty two home runs and an influx of first-inning outbursts, the Giants’ offense is showing pop that it notoriously lacked in 2010.

Will it be enough, though?

With a stacked Phillies rotation and a hot-hitting Rockies team that also features a solid pitching staff, many experts and average fans alike don’t even have the Giants winning their division, let alone making a run reminiscent of their 2010 world championship.

Although the Giants rotation is once again stellar and the offense looks to have improved to a degree this year, look for Brian Sabean to be active prior to the trade deadline in search of offensive weapons.

The players that the Giants would possibly pursue include:

Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who is in the last year of his contract and could be dealt by Philadelphia in an attempt to rid themselves of an aging veteran.

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, who is also in the last year of his contract and could take the place of aging (and ailing) Miguel Tejada, who would likely be included in the deal.

And Mets left-fielder Carlos Beltran, who is in the final year of a seven-year, $119 million contract and has surging outfielders ready to overtake him in the Mets’ organization. Look for the Giants to possibly make an offer to the Mets in search of a temporary, one-year lease on an offensive weapon the likes of Beltran.

Michael Manbert is a reporter for SFGiantsInsider.com.

Follow Michael on Twitter at @MichaelManbert!

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has been heralded as a baseball purist. A traditionalist. One who’s primary concern has always been and, as he has put it, “will forever remain,” the integrity of America’s pastime.

Tim Lincecum, on the other hand, is a 26-year-old, two-time Cy Young recipient who sports shoulder-length hair, utilizes what is perhaps the most unconventional pitching delivery in baseball, and has been known to enjoy unwinding late at night.

It’s ironic, then, that it is Selig who is heavily pushing a playoff expansion that would see an extra Wild Card team from each league make the playoffs, bringing the total of teams in the postseason from eight to 10, and it is Lincecum who is adamant about sticking to the traditional method.

You know what they say. Money talks.

“Personally I think it’s kind of funky, just because the game has been this way for so long,” Lincecum said Friday before the Giants‘ series opener against the Atlanta Braves. “Why mess it up, other than for monetary purposes, and that’s probably what he (Selig) is looking at. That’s like, ‘OK, don’t worry about us as human beings or players.'”

“It doesn’t seem very fair, and personally I don’t know where his head is at,” Lincecum said of Selig. “It doesn’t seem right to me.”

One wouldn’t expect such criticism out of the generally mild-mannered Lincecum, who, excluding a misdemeanor that stemmed from possession of 3.3 grams of marijuana in Washington (which would have only constituted a small fine in California), has never made headlines for any reason other than absolute domination on the mound, most famously throughout the 2011 postseason in which he led the Giants to their first World Series title since 1954.

“I don’t know, man. I don’t see why you need to fix something that isn’t broken,” Lincecum continued. “Players like it the way it is. It’s dog-eat-dog. People know they need to win 11 games to win the World Series.”

“Nobody wants to have to worry, ‘Oh (expletive), now I’ve got another (expletive) team in the (expletive) mix. Now we have to worry about what that takes and what they’re going to do.’ What if the (second) wild-card team is not deserving of getting in?”

Lincecum’s points are collectively quite valid.

In a game marred with injury, why increase the workload upon players by adding games? Why change baseball’s traditional postseason format, which has quite literally received zero criticism from fans and players alike? And, lastly, why allow teams that could potentially not deserve postseason berths to play on into October?

Money, of course. Why else? In an era of ever-expanding seasons that further pad the wallets of the powers that be in nearly every sport, professional or collegiate, why would baseball be any different?

Take NCAA football, for example.

Why not submit to the relentless cries for a playoff system at the conclusion of the regular season rather than the current bowl system that unjustly provides only two teams a shot at a national championship?

Such a system would render many regular season games insignificant to fans who already knew their teams would make the playoffs, and, in doing so, would produce lower ratings, which, in turn, means less money earned for the men in suits.

Such is the case in Major League Baseball. At detriment to the players and the tradition of the game, Bud Selig and co. plan to expand the playoffs in the 2012 season.

Lincecum, though, wasn’t the only one who opposed the move.

“I don’t really like it. I like the format now,” catcher Buster Posey said, referring to the suggested expansion, “Baseball is unique because it’s such a long season. The best teams are rewarded for all the effort that goes into that. You lose some of the mystique of the playoffs (with expansion). Like the first round of the NBA playoffs—who cares?”

The player’s union retains the power to veto the expansion prior to its implementation. Expect Lincecum to be a catalyst in the movement should a sufficient number of other players share his feelings.

Michael Manbert is a reporter for SFGiantsInsider.com.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com