Buster Posey and Christians, the McDavid-run Oilers and Mike Babcock, Giannis and Jaylen Brown, Shohai Ohtani's 2026, revealing Red Sox stats

Wednesday 6/24/26

I thought Buster Posey would excel in his role of running the San Francisco Giants, but he's not the person for that job. You have these knuckle-dragging athletes refusing to wear a piece of clothing for a Pride night, which is bad enough. It's rare that athletes aren't total morons. Basically illiterate. Clueless about the world. Many of them are going to claim to be "Christians." They'll say it's wrong to be gay, but they'll bang everything that moves on the road despite being married. They couldn't understand a single sentence of the Bible, never mind grasp so much as the concept of symbolism and metaphor. It's not like the people who put Pride nights on are usually any better. Everything is contrived. Goodness basically doesn't exist in people now or in this world. Then you have Posey not issuing a sharp rebuke and pretty much going along with what these players have put out there. It's a horrible look that, if anything, is made more horrible in San Francisco. This is what he said yesterday:

"I understand that there's strong feelings on this topic. There's differing perspectives, and out of respect to everybody involved, it's not something that I'm going to revisit."

Weak. Cowardly. And suggests that he shares their views, or not enough so that he makes that line in the dirt. Also: Maybe learn how is and are work?

Giants manager Tony Vitello is an embarrassment. He has no business being a big league manager. What a foolish hire by Posey. Vitello isn't an adult, even by adult-aged--you have to put it that way--professional sports standards. Hard to see how his success in college had anything to do with him.

Speaking of horrible looks: the Edmonton Oilers--make that Connor McDavid--hired Mike Babcock to be their next head coach. What are you thinking? Why would you do this? Garbage human. You think his X's and O's from twenty-five years ago is going to get you over the hump in the here and now? Maybe get yourselves a goalie and see if that helps? Just a thought. I don't have much respect for McDavid. I think he's a loser. As in, not a winner. I think he's overrated, floats constantly like he's allergic to being in his own zone, isn't what he should be by now as an all-around player, and now I think even less of him. I hope he never wins a Cup and believe there's a good chance he doesn't.

And why was Babcock ever held up as this amazing bench master? He's only won one Cup himself. Bad people almost always remain bad people even when it would be to their own benefit to be less bad. Of course, bad people are rarely held accountable and often get to profit precisely because they're bad people. I doubt Babcock has cleaned up any part of his act or is capable of it or ever had it occur to him. He speaks about himself in the third person. People like that never get it. They're not wired to be able to get it.

Jaylen Brown is staying put in Boston--for now. The Giannis-to-the-Celtics deal never materialized and instead he was dealt to Miami. I think this was a bad move by the Heat. Giannis is done as being "the guy" on a championship team. He way over-bought into himself, way over-bought into having his ass kissed. Sounds like a wretched professional, a me first at the cost of team success kind of guy who produces in-house drama and adds stress on a team, he's injury prone, he's the wrong age...

I'd said before that the Celtics should mix things up, but that was about their mix rather than their talent. They've always had the talent to win these last bunch of years. But they don't have that guy who is the stone cold killer. The clutch guy. The big balls guy. It's isn't Tatum. As I wrote recently, he's going to get his over the course of a season. The numbers will be there. But that's not the same as going out and taking something when you need to take it.

And they play such a stupid brand of basketball too often. You'll watch these Celtics games where they're moving the ball around, taking the open shot, and you ask yourself why it can't always be like that. Then you tune in the next night and it's bombs away from distance and they shoot themselves right into an L. Less so in a game in November or January, but in the playoffs? That'll get you eliminated before what should be your time based on the talent you have.

Still, I'd rather have Brown than Giannis. Brown will be healthy. He'll play most of the games. He's proven that he can work well enough with Tatum and I have no reason to think that Giannis would. I wish the Celtics had a different coach because I consider Mazzulla part of their play style problem. I think he's limited. He's Tatum's guy. He doesn't help you win. This team needs a coach that helps them win. Because the talent is still there. Assuming, that is, that Derrick White's shooting rebounds, Tatum is back to his pre-injury self, and some other guys stay where they were at or show improvement.

Shohei Ohtani is usually hyped to the max. I find it revealing that here he is, having his best MLB season, and the hype isn't what it's been in the past. If this guy has a big second half, he could do something nuts, like win the Cy Young and threaten for the top spot in the Triple Crown categories. He could be top five in homers, RBI, and batting average, and be the league's best pitcher. He could also end up with one of those 12 WAR seasons, and rarely have we seen the likes of that in a century and a half of this game.

The Red Sox beat the Rockies last night, which means next to nothing in and of itself, but Sonny Gray went 7, struck out 11, improved to 9-1, and dropped his ERA to 2.95. You know what that means? He's a Cy Young candidate, if not a front runner. You know what's funny? I feel like wins almost count against you now as a pitcher with these things. Having more wins, I mean.

Voters and people who don't know baseball--which is most people who express an interest in baseball--have had their brains reprogrammed, like the robots they are, to only look at certain analytics up on that dashboard, while thinking devaluing others at the same time. You're 9-1 on this garbage team? Yeah, sorry, that's impressive. You couldn't have hoped for this guy to be any better than he's been. Granted, it's all going to waste with this dreadful squad, but it's been impressive nonetheless.

Meanwhile: Jarren Duran went 0-for-5 with 3 more strikeouts. Did you know that he's on pace to strike out 200 times? I know, because I make a point of knowing. We can all know things. You decide to know things, you do what need to do to know them, and then when you say things, you're not just saying things to say them. Whoa. Crazy concept, right? Knowing this kind of thing is about the easiest thing there is to know, but still no one is going to bother, because people won't ever try and know anything on their own.

Duran is hitting .199. Caleb Durbin is now hitting .220. Isn't that nuts? Even Caleb Durbin is hitting 21 point better than this guy. .624 OPS for Duran. You can have that for a slugging percentage. .624. Doesn't bother me that much seeing it go this way for a bad person, save that he's on the team I root for, but, again, that hardly matters this year. When Duran comes up in the ninth inning, with the Sox still within striking distance (we all know how it's going to work out, but play along), it's like a guarantee that he'll whiff. If there are two out and he's your last chance? You can bet your soul that he's going to fan. 100% of the time.

Red Sox fans forget--or didn't know in the first place--that Duran was a useful offensive player last year. (You can stick any metrics up your ass--this guy is terrible in left field. I have eyeballs and I know what I see.) Flawed, definitely. Couldn't hit lefties. But he led the league in triples with 13 and had 41 doubles after leading the league in both categories the year before. That's where Duran's value lies as a hitter--extra base hits. Not homers. Doubles especially, and then triples. This is also a speed thing. He's not a good enough hitter to just be a hitter. His "best" hitting stats will have something to do with his legs.

This year, he's tried to be a slugger. He has a modest uptick in home runs--definitely not enough to make much of a difference--and has 2 triples and 9 doubles. See the problem? He's on pace for like 19 doubles. That's rough. He tries to pull everything. Swings from the ass. He isn't even close to the ball a lot of the times. That guy in the stands who Duran called a "faggot" who said he needs a tennis racket to make contact wasn't, as they used to say, whistling "Dixie."

The Sox were walked off the night before by the Rockies (who may be the better of the two teams), finding a new way to lose--a way, in fact, that no one had lost in twenty years, by surrendering eight straight hits. Garrett Whitlock tried to get the implosion going in the eighth inning, by allowing four hits...but somehow zero runs. How's that possible? A man was thrown out at home, then another at third, and Whitlock got himself a hold for doing nothing but being bad. I'm a bit of tired of this guy. I think you could get someone to overpay for him at the trade deadline.

Aroldis Chapman came in for the ninth in the save situation and lost the game. His ERA went up considerably in doing so. A ball was hit in the left field corner, and it was something watching Jarren Duran try and pick it up. I've never seen a guy try and pick a ball up in the outfield as if he were repeatedly trying to stab it. Duran might as well take his position out there some night wearing a white apron and brandishing a cleaver and doing his best Sam the butcher from The Brady Bunch imitation because that's what he is out in left, a straight up butcher. I have no sympathy for Duran. I think he's a liar, a shitty teammate, and a homophobe. Which brings this entry full circle.