How things would have been
The Giants season would have been almost three weeks old by now. The team would have played its 16th game on Sunday against the Padres — 10% of the season gone already. We would have already seen if Yolmer Sanchez’s offseason work paid dividends, or if Darin Ruf set the world on fire in the majors like he did in Korea or Spring Training, or if Darin Ruf made the roster at all.
We would have seen Logan Webb, presumably, try to make a name for himself in the Giants rotation. We would have seen if the team kept Dany Jimenez around and what kind of arm he has, and whether Trevor Gott could maintain his strong, injury shortened 2019, and we’d have seen reliever come out of nowhere with electric stuff and convince us, after way too small of a sample, that maybe this guy could be around for years to come.
We would have seen guys we already like too. We would have seen Buster Posey’s swing, and Brandon Belt take a 3-2 pitch that was 5/8 of an inch inside, and Brandon Crawford smoothly backhand a ball and throw across his body like it was nothing, and Johnny Cueto shimmy, reverse, and shimmy again to throw off the hitter’s timing.
We would have seen Tyler Rogers pitch, which is cool because Tyler Rogers is cool.
Buster Posey would have already faced Madison Bumgarner, probably in two different games, and the second one would have come in San Francisco, where Bumgarner would have received a huge ovation. Brandon Belt would have tried to bunt for a hit against Bumgarner, bunted it foul, and gotten a fastball thrown behind him for his trouble.
You would have watched at least one Giants game in Petco last weekend that made you extremely dispirited. You would have idly wondered, not for the first time, why you even like this stupid sport. Then you would have watched the next game.
The minor league season would have been underway too, and that would have filled you with anticipation. Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos would have already taken at bats, of course, but you would have also seen Seth Corry and Logan Wyatt and Melvin Adon and Jalen Miller try to live up to their potential.
You would have closely followed Hunter Bishop, gotten extremely excited about him going 2-3 with a double and a walk against one of the Rockies’ top pitching prospects, only to then see him go 0-for-his-next-9 with 6 strikeouts and remind yourself that these things take time.
River Cats Media Day would have been Monday of last week, and I would have gotten to stand there while Joey Bart gave pat non-answers to questions about his present and future, and perhaps, if I thought it would be interesting, I would have asked a question that got a pat non-answer from Joey Bart. I also would have talked to Chris Shaw, and seen just how professional he could be when hiding his disappointment that the organization is not inclined to give him a chance in the majors.
The River Cats home opener would have been tonight. Bart definitely would have been in it, and it’s possible Ramos would have been too; he didn’t do quite as well at Richmond last year as Bart did, and he suffered an injury in Spring Training that would have meant he had some catching up to do.
The River Cats would have had a lineup that was at least half minor league veterans, trying to push through and get to the majors like Mike Yastrzemski did last year. A couple of them would have been immediately interesting, but, not knowing their faces offhand, I would have had to wait for other media members to start talking to them so I would know who I was talking to.
The River Cats game that would have taken place tonight would have been fun, and hopefully exciting — you never really know in advance — and it’s not particularly likely that I would have been able to remember the final score a week later. The next day, I would have woken up and packed a lunch and gone to work, and then I would have come home, or possibly I would have gone to that evening’s River Cats game.
I would have written a different newsletter Monday night that you would be reading right now. I would have been writing different newsletters for weeks. This baseball newsletter would have been about baseball the entire time.
Life would have gone on, in those familiar, pleasant patterns that we take for granted while we’re in the middle of them.
Oh well.