About an hour after this newsletter goes out, the Giants will start their first game of the 2023 season. They’ll take the field at Yankee Stadium with Blake Sabol in left field and Brandon Crawford at shortstop and Logan Webb pitching and also seven other guys starting. Michael Conforto will be in there somewhere. Joc Pederson will too. I’d guess Mike Yastrzemski will start. Thairo Estrada and David Villar as well, probably. One assumes LaMonte Wade Jr will be at first. Also, there will be a catcher, who may or may not be Joey Bart. It’s all happening.
Which means that we have just one hour to be optimistic about the Giants before reality sets in and something goes wrong. Better get to it!
This is the third part of our Preseason Optimism series. We’ve already looked at the pitchers and the hitters, and now we’re looking at the team as a whole. Why should we feel good about this team? Why should we expect them to be the GREATEST BASEBALL TEAM OF ALL TIME?
Major league depth
The Giants roster is crammed with position players who could be starters. No, you don’t want JD Davis as your primary option at third base, but he could fill in there for a solid couple weeks without a huge dropoff. Wilmer Flores can play three infield positions, as can Thairo Estrada, and David Villar can at least fake it at second base well enough to join their company. With the injuries to Austin Slater and Mitch Haniger, the outfield is a little thinner, but Gabe Kapler can still throw half his roster out there and feel confident he has a productive major league player.
There are no bococks, in other words.
Then you get to the rotation, which currently has six guys slotted in for five spots. Add in Jacob Junis as the long reliever, and you have contingency plans galore. The team is almost certain to need them. Alex Cobb’s knee is iffy. Alex Wood has an injury history. Whenever Ross Stripling comes in from a rainstorm, your house will smell like Dodger for a week. You just have to deal with these issues.
Things go wrong during baseball seasons. That’s really the one constant through all the years, so suck on that, James Earl Jones. The Giants seem to have gotten themselves extremely well positioned to handle what will surely be upcoming adversity, which will be very important all season long.
Minor league depth
But hey, what if the major league depth fails? What if there are multiple injuries that knock guys out, or one big injury and a few more slight, nagging ones that mean that you can’t find anyone to play second base for whatever reason? What if you have multiple ineffective starting pitchers? Then what do you do?
That’s when you tap into your depth. For example, the Giants have strong infield depth at AAA this year, with Isan Diaz and Casey Schmitt knocking on the door of the majors. They can all play multiple positions, and in their minor league careers they’ve all enjoyed significant success. If the Giants have to rely on one of them, well, they could do worse.
The same goes for the starting rotation. Obviously Kyle Harrison gets all the publicity (because he’s very good and whatnot), but the Giants also have Tristan Beck in Sacramento waiting for his shot. They have options. Gone are the days of Robert Coello and Post Peak Kevin Correia. They could actually have some useful arms who could slot into the big league rotation.
The smarypantses in the front office
There were a bunch of major league rule changes this year, and they’ll have significant, unpredictable impacts on in-game strategy. How is a team to cope with this new reality? One strategy would be to amass a collection of bright minds and put them in charge of the team; later, when the rules change, they can figure out how to use these rule changes to their advantage before other teams, this amassing wins
And folks, they have those bright minds. Farhan and Putila and company have likely been hard at work scheming on how to project players when teams can’t overshift against them, and how to create their own within-the-rules shifts, and how to scheme to get more stolen bases. If any team is equipped to maximize its potential in the early going this year, it’s the Giants, which should lead to wins.
The Giants are pure and righteous and good and all pure and righteous and good sports teams always win
Lol, JK. Just seeing if you’re paying attention!
Odd year magic
Even Year Bullshit is out. It’s over. 2016 killed it, buried it, and peed on its corpse. It’s time for a new thing for us to talk about while annoying the entire baseball world. It’s time to bring the magic to odd years.
You might think I don’t have the evidence for this, but it’s really a vibe, right? Like, 2021 was the 2010 of the current run: a spectacular success that you would have been foolish to bet on at the beginning of the year. 2022 was the 2011, in which a team sans Buster Posey isn’t able to ever really get going. 2023, then, will be the 2012, because Buster Posey as an owner will somehow replicate the production of Buster Posey as a catcher, and now that I’m typing that out it seems somewhat implausible.
Look, I don’t have this whole thing worked out, okay?
The point is, the Giants are ready for a new run of success. The fans are ready for a new run of success. Why not here? Why not now? It’s Opening Day. It’s a time for optimism and all being right with the world. I can think of a couple reasons it won’t go well, but that’s true for any team. Why not us? Why not the Giants?
Push those negative thoughts aside for now. They can do it. They will do it. The Giants will be great this year, and it’ll be fun to watch them. Let’s enjoy ourselves. It’s gonna be a good year.