The NOR CAL Report: July, 2011: Episode 1 (with Matt Cain, San Francisco Giants)

THE NOR CAL REPORT

July, 2011: Episode 1 (with Matt Cain, San Francisco Giants)

With more than 50,000 downloads, The NOR CAL Report the best portable show in Northern California! Subscribe on iTunes, like us on Facebook, and follow @jzitrin on Twitter. Keep bringing the comments, the love, and the downloads. Jess & Lex will be there with the insights, the info, and the one-of-a-kind interviews you love!

Welcome to an all-new NOR CAL Report! This week, it's a baseball bonanza, as we check in with "the gerber baby" himself Matt Cain.

The Giants are on a roll winning 7 of 8 getting great pitching performances from Ryan Voglesong and the rest of the Giants stud rotation. The biggest surprise so far is the return of the 126 million dollar man Barry Zito have they rebuilt him? Sure appears that way.

The Oakland Athletics pitching staff remains strong and will get a lift as one time ace Rich Harden prepares to make his first MLB start of the season. The brittle Canuck has been pitching well in the minors will that translate to the bigs? Can he stay healthy the rest of the way? The Athleticos are finally getting some production from Bob Melvin's reshuffled lineup, but the green and gold are still anemic at the plate as they continue to reside in the AL West basement.
BREAKING NEWS:
After we posted this weeks show the A's announced that they have traded Mark Ellis to the Colorado Rockies for minor league right-hander Bruce Billings, and the always popular "a player to be named later". The last remnant of Oakland's most recent playoff run, an AL championship series in 2006 is GONE.... Oakland fans will miss Mark Ellis and remember him as an Athletic who loved the fans, and appreciated the fact that he got to play a game for a living. Which in today's game is something that that is a rare commodity.

The Sharks make a big trade on draft day, sending Devin Setoguchi and some draft picks to Minnesota for another offensive defensemen. Is this the piece Team Teal has been missing in the quest to spend the summer with Lord Stanley?

And the Quakes continue to shake things up in the MLS playing to a draw against arch rival LA as they continue to climb up the MLS rankings.

Played: 222 | Download | Duration: 00:38:10

The NOR CAL Blog:

All the latest info, anecdotes and opinions from the Report's own Jess Zitrin and Lex Gopnik.

If science repeats failures to back up its own hypotheses, when does that become evidence against the science? In baseball, the numbers guys say play reverts to the mean — over a full season, for example, a team's record should work out to roughly the sum of its offensive and defensive rankings.

In 1997, the Giants made the playoffs — despite being outscored over the 162 game regular season. How rare is that? Pretty rare, says ESPN's Jonah Keri (Insider only). Still, the Giants defied expert analysis again last season by winning the lion's share of one-run games. (Shocked, the experts pointed to "pitching, pitching, pitching" — ignoring that the Giants modest offense had clearly developed into a clutch unit that knew how to win.)

When science hates outliers, but the outliers keep coming — like this year, when the undermanned G-Men are once again steaming toward contention — you look at the human element. Although certain SABR psuedoscientists have been heard to say that "you can't prove clutch performance, therefore it does not exist," most smart folks know that you can't analyze a situation with a predetermined favorite — i.e., your statistics over my "clutch" — already in mind.

Listen to our interviews for yourself. My (unscientific) theory is, these guys are just loose enough, focused enough, individual enough, or team enough, to rise above the sum of their parts.

This week's guest, Matt Cain, knows by now what to look for in my old 'hood, Noe Valley. In case you don't, though, here's the lowdown. Yes, these claims are funny, but quite serious!

What do you do with confiscated ripoff Giants World Series gear? Send it to Haiti, where it can do some real good...

The A's All-Star representative this month could very well be underrated starter Gio Gonzalez. Among his many other recent feats, Gio has slogged through three rain-delayed starts. In those, he's somehow given up a total of just one run. With that kind of focus, plus the big curveball from the left side and a knack for getting away with high walk totals, Gio is starting to remind some locals of a star-crossed rival: the Giants' Barry Zito...

Also check out this This article about how badly the A's organization has fallen since the Hass family ran the A's as one of the best organizations in all of pro sports!!! Andy Dolich, an A's marketing executive from 1980-95 and part of the famed "Billy Ball" ad campaign breaks down what needs to be done for the Athletics to succeed in Oakland.

Footie fans: impressed by Earthquakes star Chris Wondolowski? Support him in his quest for an ESPY! He's up against some stiff competition...

In basketball, the Warriors somehow managed to land two of their top coaching candidates — the inexperienced former player and analyst, and the experienced assistant coach. What a lot of people don't realize is the Jackson-Malone fit is a natural; these guys have a long relationship and were plotting a union for years.

The Warriors' new ownership group continues to plan for the future, as the Wa's have purchased their own D-League team. What this means for the future of Monta Ellis, of course, no one knows.

Finally here are the stats for The San Jose Sharks newest man on the blue line Brent Burns.

We're always looking to the future — on The NOR CAL Report!