Baseball is back, so here’s a mailbag

More attempts at avoiding answering questions.

Spring Training is here! San Francisco Giants baseball has returned!

So here’s a mailbag. Thanks for the questions.

I would certainly expect that the Giants are done with trades, at least notable ones. But you just never know. The Giants have a huge cast of intriguing young starting pitchers, and you never know when a team might be approaching Opening Day in dire need of an arm or two. I don’t think the Giants are actively looking to make a trade, but it only takes one team and one phone call to find yourself engaged in a deal you just can’t refuse … just ask the Los Angeles Lakers!

As for Camilo Doval, I think he’s very likable! He’s just likable in a Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford way, not a Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson way. Ultimately, his job is to get outs, and whatever his natural personality is, well … that’s fine by me.

Absolutely! Baseball is baseball, and one of the only things more joyous than baseball is Giants baseball.

Just think of last year. It was one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory, and yet think of all the joy you got to experience watching it. You got 162 games of baseball to watch! More than 100 games of listening to Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow. Sunshine! Glove pops! Bat cracks!

More importantly, Heliot Ramos and Tyler Fitzgerald broke out and became must-watch success stories. Fitzgerald and Luis Matos had two of the best individual weeks you’ll ever see from a Giants hitter. Ramos hit the first right-handed Splash Hit in Oracle Park history. Blake Snell threw a no-hitter. Hayden Birdsong announced his presence. Matt Chapman stole your heart, made a defensive play you’ll remember for decades, and then told you he was sticking around for the next six years.

And so on and so forth. Giants baseball is arriving, and just in time. The world may be falling apart, and the team may be .500, but they’ll still be there on your TV every night, giving you dozens of reasons to watch … and even more reasons to smile.

You know … the LA Clippers debuted a new arena this season. It has a feature behind the hoop called “The Wall,” which is meant to mimic the feel of a college student section. The hope is that both the bizarre visual combined with excited fans will make it hard for opposing teams to shoot free throws late in games.

And you know what they do? They vet the fans before selling the tickets, to make sure there are only Clippers fans there.

That said, I think the best method would be for the Giants to become good enough that their own fans come to the games more reliably than opposing fans do.

There is definitely a difference between the two, but I want to start by throwing some cold water on the question.

While the Dodgers have perennially had a system that ranks very highly, they really haven’t actually had that result in much production. If you go through the youngsters that the Dodgers have developed since, say, 2018 — when Farhan Zaidi joined the Giants — you’ll find that there’s not a lot going on there. Their farm system ranking has been propped up in large part because of players like Gavin Lux and Diego Cartaya, who never actually developed into quality Major Leaguers (though they still might … just for other teams). And of course, the Dodgers have benefitted from Rōki Sasaki this year, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto last year technically counting as prospects.

But there are some differences, of course. The Dodgers have targeted standout athletes, frequently acquiring young hitters who are exceedingly fast and powerful, and imposing pitchers with loads of velocity.

That said, the answer to these questions is usually the most simple and least satisfying option: they’ve simply drafted better players, and developed them more successfully.

I don’t think the Giants will do any waiting with Bryce Eldridge. He’s simply too good of a prospect to wait on.

There’s certainly a chance he doesn’t play this year. He could hit a developmental roadblock and struggle. He could get injured. He could play well but not well enough to force the issue, while the Giants get good contributions at first base.

But if he is deserving of a spot in the Majors (critically, on both offense and defense), the Giants will give it to him. And I very much expect that to happen this year.

Since 2010, the Giants lead the Majors in championships. Since 2004, the Golden State Warriors lead the NBA in championships. So … I would assume that.

LaMonte Wade Jr. and Wilmer Flores certainly appear to be the plan. If that’s not the plan, then Wade and Jerar Encarnación would become the plan.

Is it ideal? No. But it’s also much better than people seem to give it credit for. Wade is a perpetually-underrated player, and the emergence of Ramos and Fitzgerald — plus the addition of Willy Adames — gives the Giants a little boost of power that makes Wade’s OBP-heavy profile more palatable. And Flores is just one year removed from being one of the better hitters in baseball.

It’s easy to envision a world in which Wade and Flores give the Giants above-average performance at the position. It’s also easy to envision a world in which Eldridge destroys the Pacific Coast League and is starting in San Francisco by June.

Then again, it’s also easy to envision a world in which Wade can’t stay healthy, Flores can’t hit, and the Giants spend the year with Encarnación hitting .210 and striking out 35% of the time.

I’m inclined to say because they don’t have as much talent as the Dodgers, Padres, or Diamondbacks, but have more talent than the Rockies.

I do think there are some legitimate baseball reasons for passing on a lot of the big bats this offseason, but it’s impossible to answer your question without bringing up the bad news that the Giants have, unfortunately, admitted in recent years: the owners view the Giants as a business, and the business just happens to be baseball.

That said, that’s how pretty much all owners view their teams.

I trend towards optimism, so I’ll give them a 30% chance. I think they’re firmly on the list of teams that should have their sights on the Wild Card, but, on paper, not one of the six best teams in the National League.

I was hoping Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but the reality of these things is that it’s usually players that are valued more by players than by management.

I would assume the tepidness on the trade market was largely due to not having many tradable assets with value other than the essentially-untouchable Eldridge.

As for free agency … they signed Adames to the largest contract in franchise history, so I’m not sure tepid is the word I would use. But they did weirdly fall into the middle ground. Starting with that boom raised expectations that the organization simply didn’t meet. Suddenly everyone expected them to sign Corbin Burnes, yet it seems they had no interest in approaching the (team-friendly) contract that he ultimately signed. It seems they were never in on any free agents other than Adames, Justin Verlander, and the league-minimum Sasaki.

The “why” is a bit of a head scratcher. I would assume the team’s plans are to build something of a foundation with a few trusted veterans and their youth, and hope they build something that can be sustainable long-term.

I find it an exceptionally difficult offseason to grade, because I’m not sure how much to fault the front office for the frugality of the organization.

If Buster Posey and Zack Minasian were given $35 million to spend this offseason, then adding Adames and Verlander and subtracting $6 million by trading Taylor Rogers is a very impressive winter. Good grade! But if they were given the goal of returning the Giants to contention, whatever the cost? Pretty big failure, and a pretty poor grade.

There’s no good reason why a team with the finances and market size of the Giants didn’t even try to make a run at Juan Soto. There’s no good reason why a team with the finances and market size of the Giants, sitting a clear fourth in their division but with an equally clear path to second, should be spooked by the contract that Burnes or Blake Snell got.

That’s probably on ownership though, not on the front office.

Though I will say … while I like the moves that Posey and Minasian made, the moves they didn’t make really stand out. How are the Giants entering Spring Training without a single addition to the outfield? The first Cactus League game is in nine days and Grant McCray — who desperately needs to be back in the Minors — is 50% of the players in camp who are capable of playing center field.

I’m really excited about Adames and Verlander, disappointed that they didn’t chase another big free agent or make a trade, and completely dumbfounded as to why no low-cost veterans have been brought in to solidify the backup positions. I’m just not entirely sure where to allocate that blame.

Playoffs!

That’s really it, for me. A good season would be playoffs. A great season would be playoffs and the emergence of a young core worth building around.

This is the beauty of baseball. We’ll soon get to find out! For the next six or seven months, you’ll get to see if your favorite team breaks even.

And that’s what it’s all about.