- 9 hours ago
Between Bryce Eldridge, Yaxel Lendeborg and De'Zhaun Stribling, which Bay Area rookie do you have the most faith in?
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00:00I think it's such a fun question because the first thing I want to say is I love all three.
00:07I love all three.
00:09You're liking it early.
00:10I am liking it early.
00:11And it's early.
00:12Yeah.
00:14I don't know why we wouldn't love them.
00:16Nobody's really done necessarily anything wrong yet.
00:19Nobody's done anything to prove that they're going to be a star either.
00:23Although Dave Fleming did say a number of weeks ago, I believe, and Pasta, correct me if I'm wrong,
00:31it was something along the lines of Bryce Eldridge is going to have a chance to be the most feared
00:36hitter in the game.
00:37It was definitely something like that.
00:38Yeah.
00:39The most feared hitter in the game.
00:41And I think his reasoning is sound.
00:44The reasoning behind that is because Bryce already at age, is he 21 yet?
00:5020, 21?
00:51He's 21.
00:52October.
00:53He already has plate discipline.
00:57There's still some, obviously, there's still some swing and miss in his game.
01:00I think there's going to always be some swing and miss in his game.
01:02He's a six foot seven power hitter.
01:07But this guy can already go oppo taco.
01:10This guy can already draw a walk.
01:12He's, I mean, he is easily the best ABS giant.
01:17It's not even close.
01:19No, not even.
01:20Everybody else sucks on it.
01:22I can't imagine how much tougher that is because his strike zone is like a hectare.
01:27So, I mean, your head is so far above where the low strike is.
01:30How do you even see it down there?
01:31But he's got that feel.
01:33Here's Dave Fleming on Bryce Eldridge.
01:35This is back on June 10th of this year.
01:38They have something very special on their hands.
01:41Like, this kid hasn't even begun to tap into all the ability level.
01:45Like, right now, what he's focused on, to my eyes, is the quality of the at-bat, swinging at the
01:51right pitches.
01:51It's amazing the improvements he's made in that regard.
01:54Like, this was a guy who everybody flagged in the minor leagues of, you know, the swing and miss is
01:59going to get him.
02:00He's chasing too much down.
02:01You'd look at those cut-up videos of AAA and the pitchers were junk-balling him down.
02:06And he was chasing a lot of that stuff.
02:08And it's like, man, what's going to happen when he gets to the big leagues?
02:11Well, here's what has happened.
02:12He doesn't swing at those pitches.
02:13He makes them come in the strike zone.
02:15He's giving the Giants the best at-bats on the team.
02:17He's been unbelievably disciplined in the strike zone.
02:20His strikeout rate has plummeted to one of the lowest on the team right now.
02:25The power is, obviously, we've seen glimpses of it.
02:29But the power is going to come way more as he gets even more comfortable with this idea of controlling
02:34the strike zone as a hitter.
02:36Okay, now, since that comment, it has not been quite as sparkly.
02:42But that's okay to me.
02:44He's a rookie.
02:45I didn't expect him to come up.
02:47I mean, his OPS was up over 900 for a while.
02:50That's elite.
02:51That is elite.
02:52That's Otani land.
02:54It was 962 on June 17th.
02:56Do you understand what would happen if he was able to maintain that?
03:00If he was able to maintain that, like, you're talking about, I don't even know what the comp is.
03:07It's a Hall of Famer.
03:08Yeah, exactly.
03:09It's a Hall of Fame level.
03:09And for him to do that as a rookie would be crazy, especially in a lineup that's not offering him
03:15a lot of protection.
03:16So on and so forth.
03:17So I am not discouraged at all by what we've seen from Bryce Eldridge.
03:23And again, the way I would sort of order my excitement level, and maybe that's the wrong word because, I
03:31don't know, baseball is not as exciting as football and basketball, I guess, on the surface, even though I love
03:37it to death.
03:39But if I was to kind of gamble on the future of these three, I would start with Bryce, and
03:46that's only because we've watched him have a measure of success at the professional level already, and we can't really
03:54say that about the other two.
03:55Right.
03:56But with that said, I'd go Bryce one, I would go Stripling two, and I'll tell you why in a
04:03second, and Yaxel three, and that is not a slight on Yaxel Lendiborg at all.
04:09Well, somebody has to be third.
04:10Somebody has to be third.
04:11Much like your kids, somebody has to be your third favorite, and you don't have to say it out loud.
04:15You know when I was driving home yesterday listening to the replay of the crossover, and you trying to pin
04:20me and Guru into this thing, I really do reject it.
04:23Yeah, okay.
04:23And I don't reject it for political reasons.
04:26It's not because the kids might be listening to the show because they're not.
04:29None of my kids are.
04:31Yeah, Abe is the only one who might, on an outside chance, be listening to the show, but I really,
04:37truly am like, is he right?
04:39Does every parent have a favorite kid?
04:42And I started to think about it, and I'm just like, I really, I can honestly say no.
04:50I can honestly say I'm sort of built for this.
04:52I don't have a favorite.
04:54They try to do this to me all the time.
04:56If I'm ever alone with any one of them, they're like, I'm your favorite, right?
05:01And I'm like, yeah, absolutely.
05:03Absolutely.
05:03I'm going to say that to all of them.
05:05No!
05:05But they're all so different.
05:07They've all got their strengths, their weaknesses.
05:09You know, if you want to ask me, like, which one do you want to go to golf with?
05:13Which one do you want to go on a long drive with?
05:14Which one do you want to coffee with?
05:16Which one do you trust the most?
05:18Right.
05:18You know, like, which one does the chores the best?
05:22I can answer that crap.
05:23But favorite?
05:25It's early.
05:26You'll get to a spot.
05:27It's not that early.
05:28One of them's leaving tomorrow.
05:30It is early, and I mean, my parents, when they both passed away, Sue and Dwayne, rest
05:35in peace, it was pretty clear at that point, without them saying it, what their power rankings
05:40were.
05:40And it's because one of my siblings was there for them in the last hour, and one of those
05:45siblings was not.
05:46Anyway, it's a little bit like this, where we love all three of them the same.
05:50Guys, Stribbs, and Yaxie, and Brycey Poo, we love you all the same, but my order is different.
05:58I bet it is, and mine also goes into the situation that each of them enter into.
06:04Yaxel is entering into a situation where there are Hall of Fame players on the court with
06:09him.
06:10He's joining an older roster.
06:12I think to be a lottery pick type NBA one or two, which is, I think, what you're looking
06:20for out of a lottery pick, that's maybe the hardest thing to do.
06:26I think baseball is the hardest sport, but I think being, like, how many truly, like,
06:31true NBA ones are out there?
06:34And don't just give me the leading scorer.
06:37There are a lot of guys moonlighting.
06:38You're not an NBA one, but you're the leading scorer because your team doesn't have a one.
06:43There's probably a dozen I think you could look at.
06:45That's probably a good number.
06:47You go to Wemby and Shea, you could go to Kawhi, now in Toronto, he's a one.
06:53Like, the New York Knicks, Jalen Brunson's a one, but they won the whole thing because
06:57they've got one through five.
06:58Like, do the Raptors have a one?
07:00Kawhi.
07:01I'm sorry.
07:02Okay.
07:02If he joins, he's not there yet.
07:04I always, yeah, I'm skipping ahead.
07:06Like, how does that not happen?
07:07Because everybody cheating.
07:10Right.
07:11Giannis is a one, and Steph's a one, and Donovan Mitchell's a one, the Joker's a one.
07:17Do the Bulls have a one?
07:19No.
07:20The Bulls don't have a one.
07:21The Kings don't have a one.
07:22Do the Hawks have a one?
07:23I don't think so.
07:25I know Johnson's on his way.
07:26He's on his way, but has he proven it yet?
07:29Even New Orleans with Zion.
07:31Is he, like, Zion's a one, but they're terrible.
07:33Yeah, no, you're not a successful one.
07:36Right.
07:36Like, again, you can be a leading scorer.
07:39That doesn't mean...
07:40Luka's a one.
07:41Luka, for sure.
07:42So, anyway, that's kind of what...
07:44There's about a dozen.
07:44And I'm not saying that that's, like, he's unsuccessful if he's not an NBA one, but I
07:49just think, great, he did awesome at Summer League.
07:53I'm very, very high on the kid, but that's going to be, this is a big thing to tackle now.
07:59Join the Golden State Warriors alongside Steph Curry and be awesome and make us think that
08:06you're really living up to your number 11 overall pick.
08:09Stribbling, on the other hand, and you know I have felt that if you're an offensive player
08:14and you get drafted by Kyle Shanahan, well, you just sold under a lucky star.
08:19That's the way I view it.
08:20If you're good enough.
08:21Yes, correct.
08:22Like Joe Williams and, you know, all the other top three round picks that they got to Shanahan
08:28and they were busts.
08:29Which is why, like, they're out of the league.
08:33That's why I don't think you're ever going to see Trey Lance succeed in the NFL.
08:36If you can't do it with Kyle, and now you're not doing it with Jim Harbaugh.
08:41I played last night, he did all right.
08:43I mean, threw the ball right to the other team.
08:45Once?
08:46Yeah.
08:46What about the other 19 passes?
08:48Mark, you out here trying to be a hater?
08:51It's Trey Lance, and he's not that good, and it's okay.
08:56Like, it's okay.
08:58He's better than James Wiseman.
09:00Correct.
09:00His career is more prolonged.
09:03Yeah.
09:04But you get what I'm saying.
09:05I think Stribling, and here's the other thing.
09:08I'll share this quick story.
09:09So, Lovely Christie's brother is a football coach.
09:13He is an offensive assistant at Lehigh University and has been to Vanderbilt.
09:19He's been to a number of places around the country as coaches are in their career.
09:24And they were very, very successful last year.
09:26And I'll never forget this moment because he is like many other coaches.
09:33They do not care what your mock draft is.
09:37Now, he's an assistant at Lehigh, but he's a Bay Area kid and a huge Niner fan and very
09:43much an admirer of Kyle Shanahan, et cetera, et cetera.
09:46So, he was in town visiting right after the draft.
09:50And the discussion went to, hey, everybody's like ripping the Niners for going off the board
09:57and grabbing Dajon Stribling.
10:00And he stopped what he was doing.
10:03He was sitting at a table on his laptop.
10:04And he stopped and he looked up at me and his eyes bugged out of his head.
10:10And he went, he is a dude.
10:15Really?
10:15Like he got fired up.
10:19And this is coming from somebody who makes a living grinding college football offensive tape.
10:27And he's like, you don't even know.
10:30Wait till you see this kid.
10:33Now, other people can have that opinion.
10:35Obviously, the Niners do too.
10:36But there are some characteristics with Stribling that I think we've learned are there.
10:43And now he's flashing them in camp as well.
10:46And if I factor that in now to Kyle's offense and one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL
10:52in Brock Purdy, I would argue that Stribling is set up for a lot of success.
10:57If he does the things that Kyle demands of his receivers.
11:00Absolutely.
11:00I don't think there's any sign.
11:02And again, it's early.
11:03I don't know how many plays he was out there for in the run game where he had to block.
11:07But this offense is predicated on you as a receiver blocking.
11:11And, you know, in the past, it's been a lot of two running backs and one tight end.
11:16The 21 formation.
11:17They're not doing it now because Juszczyk is out with a broken finger and they have no other fullback.
11:22So it's much more of a bland, you know, 11 personnel, one tight end, one running back.
11:28So if you get into three receiver sets, I do think that Stribling has a great chance to be that
11:32third guy with Evans and Debo and then Kirk and Robinson filling in after that.
11:37What's your list?
11:38My list, it is Yaxa Lendeborg, even though he hasn't done it in the pro regular season level, what I
11:46saw in college and what I saw in summer league.
11:49Again, those are tiny drops in a gigantic ocean.
11:53But his age, his skill set, his fit, his self-confidence, I've got him at number one.
11:59For me, number two is Bryce Eldridge because he's gone out there and he's done it.
12:03He's young and he has really thrived and now he's having a little bit of a tough spot.
12:09But he's somebody who has already gotten a legitimate, healthy taste of it.
12:14And I got Dejan Stribling at number three.
12:16Again, not that I don't think that he's going to be a good player and have a good year,
12:20but football can be so fickle if he has, you know, a little annoying injury, misses games,
12:27or if he's not necessarily up to par with Kyle Shanahan's offense right away.
12:32We know that Kyle Shanahan has got a pretty demanding threshold for rookies, especially wide receivers.
12:38So I think Stribling will be good, but in a tough contest, I've got him third.
12:44Well, I guess there's also the question of speed.
12:48Speed, and I don't mean running speed.
12:52These guys need to be what we're talking about for you to feel good about it.
12:58That's the other thing.
12:59So Bryce Eldridge right now is in the midst of, hey, like, this year sucks.
13:04And so that's actually kind of a good thing.
13:07He's in a little bit of a snuggie with his stats because I don't think anybody really cares.
13:12We're not watching Bryce Eldridge strike out at a little bit too high of a rate in the middle of
13:17games that everybody really, really wants to win.
13:20It's just kind of, I mean, when I turn Giants games on right now, to be honest with you,
13:24Bryce Eldridge's at-bats are some of the only things that make me stop and watch.
13:28I don't really care what the final score is.
13:30This season has gone completely off of the rails.
13:33So that's kind of easy for him.
13:37Now, Stribling, in theory, is going to be learning in the midst of what we sit here today and hope
13:45is a playoff run.
13:47Yaxel is somewhere in between.
13:49We certainly hope the Warriors are going to be a playoff team.
13:52There's the pressure of Steph's clock is ticking.
13:55But I also don't feel like the fan base's expectations are through the roof right now,
14:01at least not until the Warriors either get Jimmy back or make some sort of a big swing and a
14:07move to make it feel like they're competitive and a contender again.
14:11So all three of them, for me, like, in general, you kind of get your rookie year to make some
14:19mistakes and not be great yet.
14:22I think Peyton Manning led the league in interceptions as a rookie.
14:25I'll have to look that up, but that sounds familiar.
14:27For example.
14:28Yes.
14:28Do you know what I mean?
14:29I think that Stribling has less room to make those mistakes because of the expectations.
14:35Football is so fickle.
14:36And you've got two or three other receivers who are probably right there with you fighting for playing time.
14:42So Yaxel, I think, gets a little bit more room to maneuver because they don't have a lot of bodies.
14:47They need fresh bodies in October, November, and December.
14:50And he's a young guy.
14:51And if he's healthy, he's going to get minutes just based on the fact that you don't have gym.
14:55And you don't have Moses and the road schedule early and no back-to-backs for some guys.
15:00So I think he gets more room to air.
15:03And the Bryce one is a great call because between now and the end of the year, it's like 40
15:09or so games.
15:10I want him playing in 38 of them and doing everything that he can do to succeed or fail or
15:16whatnot.
15:16I don't like that you saw him twice.
15:18I mean, maybe there's a game where, you know.
15:20He's just 21 years old.
15:22Yeah.
15:22Play 40.
15:24I mean.
15:24Play 40.
15:25It's possible that he could be hungover, you know.
15:28He's 21, right?
15:29I don't think you get hangovers when you're 21, do you?
15:33Boy.
15:33I mean, you're not supposed to.
15:35I remember.
15:37Boy, I was hungover the day after my 21st birthday.
15:40Boy.
15:40Big time.
15:41Yeah.
15:42What?
15:42No, I went out with my brother.
15:44They crushed me, my friend.
15:45Mikey 1.0.
15:47Well, sure.
15:47And, yeah, crushed.
15:50Oh, rushed.
15:51Right.
15:52And that was the rite of passage back then.
15:54Well, the crappy thing is, is they ruin your birthday.
15:58And the day after.
15:59But that is the day after.
16:02The takeout at midnight on your 21st birthday, the day before, if you will, because your ID
16:08suddenly gets you in at midnight, and then you go into the bar, and you get absolutely
16:13crushed, and then you can't wake up the next day.
16:16You're like, it's my birthday, and I'm barfing.
16:18Right, or you pass out on the dance floor, and you get hoisted up by two bouncers and
16:23shown the door.
16:24That sounds like an actual story, rather than a hypothetical.
16:29It's a hypothetical, and then it comes true.
16:32I can't remember the name of the place, but it was in San Rafael on Francisco Boulevard
16:37West.
16:37Oh, damn.
16:38Exactly.
16:39Just down from that Burger King.
16:41My brother was, he was authoring the evening.
16:44But that was you, not him, right?
16:47Well, that was me getting carried out.
16:48Yeah.
16:49Carried you out?
16:50One with the legs, and one with the arms, and they didn't do the one, two, three into
16:56the garbage cans.
16:57No, what did they do?
16:58They kind of just showed me the door.
17:00My brother got me to the car.
17:01The guy is drunk.
17:02Yeah.
17:03Yeah.
17:03He's drunk at the 20.
17:05Mine was Bulls Tavern, San Luis Obispo, where they have something called a bull's sweat.
17:12Oh.
17:13You don't want one of those.
17:14Yeah.
17:15It's kind of like, you ever have leftovers after a night of some cooking, and the next
17:23day, instead of doing it the same way you did it that night, you just dump everything
17:28all on the plate?
17:29Gotcha.
17:29Yeah.
17:30My dad used to call it glop.
17:32He loves glop.
17:33He just put all, he puts the potatoes, and the rice, and the meat, and the sauce, and
17:36just corn, and just glop.
17:39Yeah.
17:39Just glop it all together and eat it.
17:41That's kind of what Bulls does with the alcohol behind the bar there.
17:46Right.
17:46Or in the tray, the runner.
17:49So you go ahead and you lift up that rubber thing.
17:51The trough.
17:52Yes.
17:53Yeah.
17:54The trough.
17:54You get one of those.
17:56Yeah.
17:56I was so hungover that I didn't actually come out of my apartment until dinner time the
18:03next day.
18:04Wow.
18:05And they took me to dinner.
18:07Wow.
18:08Wow.
18:08They took me to dinner, and they're like, okay, let's start drinking again.
18:12And I'm like, we're not doing that.
18:14And they're like, sure you are.
18:15You're doing that.
18:16They're like, we'll start you with something easy.
18:17Here's a kamikaze shot.
18:19Yeah.
18:20So I was at a Mexican restaurant, and they put a kamikaze shot in front of me.
18:24And I'm in college, so you do what you're told.
18:27I mean, you're just going to get made fun of, or you're going to drink the shot.
18:33So I'm going to drink the shot.
18:35Just the mere movement of shooting the head back straight to the restroom.
18:41Right back to it.
18:43Adios, my breakfast.
18:45Let's go to JT in San Jose.
18:49Hi, JT.
18:50Thanks for calling.
18:53Hey, hey, hey.
18:53How's it going, guys?
18:54Yeah, I mean, I think we all watched the same game, right?
18:57I feel like we're trotting out the Warriors, because we have the same veterans on the field.
19:02And what's going to happen?
19:03Trent's going to be hurt throughout the year.
19:04Kittle's going to get hurt.
19:06Devo's going to get hurt.
19:07And yesterday is a good example of what your backups are going to look like.
19:10So that's kind of like what my season's going to look like.
19:13The same thing for the Warriors.
19:14So I'm picking like eight, nine wins at most.
19:18It's hard to see that we haven't structured that line better.
19:21You know, deep at the line, there's not enough rotation.
19:24Off at the line, you're not going to run the ball.
19:26Well, you sound like a ton of fun to watch a game with.
19:32Hey, I can tell you this.
19:34My partner, she's a big Raider fan.
19:36I don't break down a lot of the stuff that's on there.
19:38You know, I used to watch tape, and it's really tough.
19:40I mean, there was a couple of good things.
19:42I think Grayson was a good thing moving forward.
19:44But you can't hold on to these little things like that because you don't have any backups.
19:48You're only as good as your second and third strings are in your rotation.
19:51Our division's too strong.
19:53They're just already there.
19:55We're a couple years away from you.
19:56JT, I love you for listening and calling.
19:59Boy, I just could not see one thing the same way that you do.
20:03And I don't know how the hell your partner is a Raider fan, and you're the pessimistic one.
20:08Like, why don't you talk to her about what the hell is going on here?
20:14You live with a Raider fan, and you think this looks like bad football?
20:20Oh, no, though.
20:21She already knows what's to come.
20:22I enjoy watching her because we have two TVs set up, so she's able to see her game.
20:27I'm able to see my game.
20:28I already know that the outcome's going to be in that game.
20:31Man.
20:32I just sit there and not say nothing because you know how that goes.
20:35JT, you are always invited to call this show, but you are never invited to my house to watch a
20:3949er game.
20:40No watch party, Willard.
20:41Good Lord.
20:42I mean, you already know everybody's going to be hurt.
20:44You already know all these people that we just met who we haven't even seen play yet, and some of
20:47them look really good.
20:48You know that they suck, too, so you're only as good as your second and your third string, and we
20:51don't even know who that is yet.
20:52But we already know they're going to suck because they're definitely going to suck, and the guys in front of
20:56them are totally going to be hurt.
20:57So what the hell are we even doing here?
20:58So you've got hurt, and they're backed up by suck, and the third string would be hurt and suck?
21:04Correct.
21:04Even though we haven't seen any of them play yet, we don't know who they are yet, but this is
21:07what this whole week is about.
21:08It's trying to find out who these people are, and some of them look really good last night, but that's
21:11not going to work because nothing works in life.
21:13I think it just depends on your...
21:14What the hell are we doing?
21:15Well, it depends on what position you're looking at because if you look at the defensive line, that looks to
21:20be pretty deep and pretty good.
21:22The linebackers are interesting.
21:24I think when you start to look at the secondary, do they have enough there?
21:28If you're a wide receiver, it seems like you have five or six guys that you kind of like.
21:32But they're all going to be hurt, Dips.
21:33They're all going to be hurt.
21:34But if they are hurt, then you've got backups, and I don't think that the backups suck.
21:38No, but they do.
21:39Well...
21:39I mean, you can't be watching the preseason game and thinking that anything good happened, even though some good things
21:44happened.
21:44Well, they lost.
21:45Like, Sala came to town and took your lunch money.
21:49Bob.
21:50Bob got you, Kyle.
21:51Boosh.
21:52Yep.
21:53Should have gone...
21:54You know what they should have done last night?
21:56Kyle Shanahan should have...
21:58He should have reenacted the Liam Cohn thing with Robert Sala on the way off the field.
22:05Hey, you keep my name out your bleeping mouth.
22:07Oh, it's so funny.
22:08We tried to.
22:09It was pretty warm in the postgame, which I loved it.
22:12Like, everyone's, you know, glad-handing and hugging it out.
22:15Fred comes out and McCaffrey and all the rest of it.
22:17It was good.
22:17They're FaceTiming each other all week, lying to each other, but then telling each other,
22:22yeah, this player looked good.
22:23And, I mean, hilarious.
22:25Anyway, we're brought to you by Fremont Bank, here for you, here for good.
22:28David Lombardi in 20 minutes.
22:30More of your phone calls for sure.
22:32Plus, there was a big announcement about the future of Bay Area sports this morning we want
22:36to tell you about.
22:38The future!
22:38Yeah, we'll get to that.
22:40And the near future, by the way.
22:41Willard and Dibbs.
22:42Cab off your summer at the Good Guys 39th West Coast Nationals.
22:47Over 3,000 of the country's baddest hot rods, muscle cars, customers.
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