TortureCast (SF Giants Podcast)

The 2026 season for the San Francisco Giants has mercifully come to an end, but it did so with a wet thump. After losing 8 of their last 9 games, including two sweeps at the hands of the hated Dodgers, the Giants finished with their third worst record in SF history at 65-97. We also said goodbye to Mike Krukow, the beloved broadcaster and 20-game winner. Although I grew up with broadcasters before him, he was there for the longest duration of my Giants fandom. His euphemisms, stories, and insight will truly be missed. Eric and Chad break down this disappointing season, what went wrong, what management recognizes as the priorities to fix, and to be frank, how we are in one of the worst doldrums and periods of Giants' history. But, we are still here. We are still fans. We are still doing this for the listeners and it's cathartic and good therapy. We give our playoff predictions and briefly discuss if think there will even be a 2027 season with an impending lockout. But, that's for another episode.

Thanks for listening all year, you guys are the best!

-Chad

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Well, Rafael Devers has finally been consistently putting up the power numbers Giants fans were hoping for. He's up to 35 bombs and right at his career OPS, and that's after a very poor April. In fact, he's in the top three in homers, RBI, walks, and OPS since May 1. Unfortunately, most of the other regulars are on the IL and not with him. Instead, he's leading a rag tag team of quad A and triple A players out to the field every night. To be honest, the Giants' offense hasn't been too bad, mostly because of the Devers-Eldrige duo (which could be a promising duo), but the pitching and specifically the bullpen has been historically bad. The Giants even blew a 6-run ninth inning lead to the Reds, their biggest ninth inning collapse in their 145 year franchise history. It really was an exclamation point and message sent to Buster and Giants' ownership: fix this next year. At least the good news is it's unlikely the Giants will lose 100 games. They need only four wins in their remaining 18 games to avoid that horror. The three amigos are back to talk about Giants baseball, including Jeff Kent's HOF and number retirement, Doug Eddings hat tilt fiasco, and the horrible Kalshi sponsorship deal with the Giants. As Eric put it, the Giants have just been tone deaf in 2026.

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The Giants pulled in a haul of prospects just before the trade deadline, but parted ways with six, yes SIX players on their major league roster. Buster Posey and management gave a clear sign that they were willing to do a near full rebuild. I mean, they still have talent on their roster, but they have waved the white flag for this season, and probably next season. We break down all five trades and pretty much don't talk about baseball ON the field this episode. We dabble in a little Schmitt injury and close it out with the sad-but-true Bader drunken scooter meets firetruck accident. There's nothing like it!

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The Giants entered the All Star Break with their 6th-worst record in San Francisco history at 41-55 and the third worst team in the National League. Where do they go from here? Clearly not the playoffs. Who will they trade, who would you miss in a trade? Chad and Eric catch up to break down the Giants biggest flaws of the season, try to predict the trade chips, discuss the HR derby and All-Star game, our MVPs and LVPs, and quickly review the Giants draft picks.

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Normally, we don't get political, although we believe the Pride Night fiasco is actually not political, but about human dignity, decency and acceptance. Although we spend the first 20 minutes talking about Giants' baseball on the field, we do reserve the last half+ to talk about the way the Giants handled Pride Night. We understand if you don't want to listen to it, for whatever reason, so feel free to stop the podcast at the point. Otherwise, we hope you enjoy the discussion, and, thanks for listening!

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The Giants took two of three from the Cubs over the weekend, but it should have been a sweep. After clobbering seven homeruns in an 18-3 drubbing of the Cubs in game one, they traded extra-inning wins in the 10th. The second game was painful, as PCA hit the game-tying homer with two outs in the ninth. The Giants offense has exploded over the last 30 days, a stretch where they are the best in the majors for batting average, runs per game, doubles, OPS, and slugging, and second in homeruns. Almost comically, their walk rate still ranked at the bottom of the league. So, why did they have a losing month with such prodigious numbers? Well, many runs and hits were concentrated across just three games, and their pitching took a dive, being at or near the bottom in every statistical category. We'll be back in two weeks!

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The Giants have the third worst 63-game start in franchise history (1902 and 1943) and the worst in San Francisco history at 25-38, tied with the 1985 100-loss and 2017 98-loss teams. Despite the doom and gloom, the offense has come around as of late. Luis Arraez and Jung Hoo Lee have the third (.325) and fourth (.322) best batting averages in baseball, and as a team, are fourth in batting average (.256). They lead the league in doubles and grand slams, and Bryce Eldridge is flirting with .300. Casey Schmidt is looking like an All-Star, smacking his 13th homer (a new career high...in June) today. And, Logan Webb carried a no-hitter into the 7th in a 1-0 victory over the Brewers. That said, how will the Giants sell at the deadline? What can Buster Posey do at this point to improve the DNA of this team, especially as much of the team is now under his mold?

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It's definitely not Razing Arizona, it's the other way around. The Giants have lost all 6 games against the Diamondbacks this year and 9 in a row, extending from last year. Their record stands at 22-34, the third worst record after 56 games in the 140 years of this franchise, and we are more than one-third into the season. The other Giants teams that were at or below the current record did not finish well. We are absolutely looking at a team that could lose 100 games for only the second time in franchise history. Who's to blame? Do the fans care? Should they break it down and rebuild? These are questions we didn't think we would ask. But, here we are. The TortureCast three break down their opinions of this club and what they should do going forward. 

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Willie Dills graces the mic to recap the last several series of Giants baseball. This team has been testing our patience, and when they perform well (like, vs LA and Oakland), we think maybe they're coming out of it, but then they fall back into their regular pattern of no offense and soul-crushing endings like last night's 2-out walk off vs Arizona. Willie covers a bit of the trade of Patrick Bailey to the Guardians, Rafael Devers struggles, Adames underperformance, and the fact that Casey Schmitt is the Giants best player. Maybe baseball in the 1880s is more entertaining than Giants baseball right now. They are 6-6 in their last 12, but that's not going to pull them out of their hole in the National League, sitting at 20-29 with the 4th-worst record in MLB. Listen and commiserate with Willie.

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The title is vocalized by Chandler's character from "Friends," FYI. Anyway, could they be any worse? Well, the only time they were after 37 games was in 2017...by one game. So, this is their second-worst 37 games start in franchise history. Eric and Chad dive into the desert that is the Giants offense and try to understand what could be causing it. Pitching has been statistically average, but they have had three dramatic late-inning failures in the last week, fueling eight losses in nine games. One one direction they can go: up! Who are we kidding, down is still possible...

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