We begin our Saturday edition of Odds & Ends with the story of Giants ace Madison Bumgarner injuring his throwing shoulder and ribs following an accident on a dirt bike in Denver on Thursday,the Giants’ off day. He was placed on the 10-day disabled list and could miss two months,maybe even longer with the injury.

This spells bad news for the Giants,who are 6-11 to start the year and not playing very good baseball. While Bumgarner hasn’t netted a win in 2017, he had been pitching well despite the lack of run support for his bid to get a win on his record this season. Ty Blach will likely fill his spot in the rotation and Chris Stratton has been called up from Sacramento.

Giants fans,this is bad news. It’s bad enough that the team has been struggling and struggling pretty bad, but not only do you lose your ace pitcher for a significant amount of time,but also a quality hitter in the lineup on game day. I also think it puts a dash on their playoff hopes during the season ahead. They’re in last place and not getting any better at all and it seems like the front office doesn’t have a plan in place to fix any of this whatsoever. In any case, it’s going to be a long season in 2017 for fans who were hoping that it would go much differently than 2016 did.

As for what Bumgarner did, have we learned nothing from the Jeff Kent incident? I get that it was his off day and he wanted to go have some fun, we all do,but something this dangerous should be a big no-no, and it should be a stern one from the people who pay you to perform on game day, and now he won’t be available for much of the year,and by then it could be too little,too late to make a playoff push. Some think it already is.

The Oakland A’s have announced that there will be an announcement regarding a future site for a new stadium later this year on Twitter on Friday.

The stadium tease is the latest of developments in the team getting a new stadium,something they’ve long needed for years to replace the terrible and dilapidated Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the one stadium the A’s have called home since arriving from Kansas City in 1968. They are the only North American sports team that still shares a stadium with an NFL team.

In recent years, the team has flirted with moving to Fremont, San Jose,and were even rumored to have thought about Sacramento as a possible future home. A move to San Jose was blocked in part due to the Giants having territorial rights to the South Bay.

Here’s my question, why not announce it now? If you have the site and it’s a confirmed one, why not give the fans something to be excited about now? Look, I’m pretty sure you’re going to build at the Howard terminal site, it’s probably the best site for the team to build. Or they’re probably going to wait until the Warriors get lost and tear down Oracle Arena and put a new stadium up at that site.

In any case,if I knew where the new place was going to be and it’s confirmed, I wouldn’t wait. Tell the people now!

David Desharnais and Leon Draisaitl celebrate after the former’s goal wins it for the Oilers in overtime 4-3 on Thursday,Apr. 20

Moving on to hockey and the San Jose Sharks/Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup playoff series and what a series it is and has been for both teams. Edmonton leads the series 3-2 and could clinch it tonight with a win in Game 6 at SAP Center. With a win, the Oilers would move onto the second round to face the Anaheim Ducks. If San Jose wins,Game 7 takes place at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday.

The Oilers left that arena after a 7-0 loss in Game 4 on Tuesday only to win a thrilling Game 5 4-3 in overtime on Thursday night. The game winning goal coming from the stick of David Desharnais with less than two minutes to go in the extra period.

Many Sharks fans I’ve seen online think that the series is over and while I myself picked Edmonton to win in six, it’s still not decided just yet. I would not be surprised if the Sharks won tonight,but am hoping my Oilers close it out. I think the Oilers got that sour taste of Game 4 out of their mouths on Thursday night and showed that they are tough enough and strong enough to keep up with long established playoff teams like the Sharks and that they’re on their same level. While Martin Jones has been stellar in front of the net, the Oilers’ skaters are fast and physical. I have the Oilers winning 4-2 tonight.

Go Oilers Go!

Finally this week,the surprise team of these playoffs has to be the Nashville Predators.

Ryan Johansen produced big time during the Predators’ first round sweep of the Chicago Blackhawks.

The team that was the last one to clinch a playoff spot did the unthinkable,they not only won their series against the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks, they swept them.
Carrying the Predators to the second round was the stellar goaltending of Pekka Rinne,who stopped 123 of 126 shots in the first round. When you have that kind of performance from your netminder, you’re going to do great things in the rounds ahead.

The defense has also been stellar, with guys like P.K. Subban,Ryan Ellis,and Mattias Ekholm. Those guys are a part of a group that led a lot of analysts to predict great things for the team before the season began. While Chicago did average 31 shots for the series, the Predators did their job to make sure the opposition’s attack was kept at the perimeter. Combine the defensive play with the offensive output from Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen,and Viktor Arvidsson,and you’ve got a team that can feast on the opposition’s goaltender at will.

Nashville awaits the winner of the Blues-Wild series.

Special programming note: You can catch me on SportsTalk 916 tomorrow night with
the great Greg Boehl. The show starts at 8pm Pacific and you can listen on the Mixlr app and we’ll also be on Facebook Live as well.

Also,my NFL Draft Preview comes out this Tuesday.

That’s all for Odds & Ends for this Saturday,we’ll see you next time!