It's finally baseball season!
Some real baseball was played, then fake baseball was played and now real baseball, again, will be played. That means it's time for an outlook on each of the teams.
This isn't one of those run-of-the-mill wins/losses predictions posts -- those are designed to irritate fans. And don't get me wrong, they make for a great discussion, but we wanted to have some fun with a vision for the upcoming Giants' season by using GIFS (once again, soft "G").
Let's take a look at what to expect from the Orange and Black as they begin the 2019 campaign:
Umm ... OK?
Sports
Why the shrug GIF, Jess? Well, because nobody knows.
Nobody knows what kind of season the Giants are about to have. However, the outside noise toward this team has more of a pessimistic outlook. Now, anything can happen -- baseball is beautifully weird that way. But a few recent back-up catcher additions of Erik Kratz and Tom Murphy. They released veteran catcher Rene Rivera who assumedly had the job of Buster Posey's backup on lock.
So the Giants have a ton of catching:
But they're projected across multiple platforms to finish last in the National League West. Which is fair to a certain extent, but come on.
Look to the young ones
This adorable guy doesn't play for the Giants -- at least not yet, but the president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, did say to pay attention to some of the young guys in the organization.
"From our standpoint, for us to have a successful 2019 season, we're going to need contributions from young players that our fans might not be familiar with right now," Zaidi said in an interview during an A's-Giants spring training game.
Connor Joe is one of the recent newbies to come to the team from the Reds. He's 26, so depending on who you ask, he may be young. He played exceptionally well across two minor league teams last season boasting a .299/.408/.527 line with 17 home runs. Some of these games occurred in the Pacific Coast League which is a hitter's haven, but it appears he would not have any trouble adjusting to big league play.
Michael Reed is also a new-faced 26-year-old coming to the Giants. He boasted a .286/.286/.286 line with eight hits last season across seven games with the Braves.
But his minor league numbers? Whoo boy.
Across two teams in the Double and Triple-A affiliate of the Braves organization, he hit .342/.453/.520 with 11 bombs.
No GIFs for these guys available -- at least not yet.
Joey Bart
There are no Bart GIFs ... yet. He's just a youngin' who has yet to make his Major League debut ... yet. And while I should tell you not to get excited, you should -- the 22-year-old has been impressive and not just to prospect fans, but to Bruce Bochy himself.
"He's an eager learner," Bochy told NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic last month during spring training. "You watch him and he listens and wants to take in everything ... I love the way he's carrying himself."
Bochy also talked about Bart's mechanics and how he's more than confident in Bart's ability to be able to handle the workload behind the plate.
And the power. Oh, that power:
1B Chris Shaw, C Joey Bart, INF Zach Green go back to back to back. @JoeRitzo on the call. pic.twitter.com/OSzdR3k8VA— GPT (@giantsprospects) February 27, 2019
We may not see him in a big league uniform until next season and I just realized I got you too excited for no reason.
My bad.
Pablo pitching again?
You guys -- we might be able to witness the beauty of Pablo Sandoval pitching again.
Which will make us feel like:
But seriously -- this could happen again, and it appeared Bochy was very pro-Pandoval pitching.
Try saying that three times fast.
"He's perfect, and he wants to do it," Bochy said. But ... "I hate to think of him pitching again." But that's mainly around the fact that if there was a scenario that involved the two-time All-Star putting in time on the mound, it's more than likely a situation where the Giants are down -- and by a lot.
No offense, Panda. But at least the option is there. And hey, across one inning he boasts a 0.0 ERA with a 3.16 FIP.
Better numbers than I have.
D-Rod
This guy.
Not only did Dereck Rodriguez put up phenomenal numbers last season, including a very unique stat, but he's added some velocity to his pitches as well.
The Giants' pitching staff make take shape to something we aren't familiar with, but I can almost guarantee a lot of the success will come at the helm of Rodriguez.
Peace out, Boch
Bruce Bochy announced in February he will retire at the end of the 2019 season.
I know. I was sad, too.
"It's time," Bochy said. "It's been an unbelievable ride. There's so much to be grateful for. With the players ... the city ... the fans ..."
He's a probable Hall of Famer already tallying 1,926 wins as he heads into his final season. That's 11th all-time and the 10 managers ahead of him were already selected into Cooperstown.
Baseball will miss you, Boch.
Real baseball for the Orange and Black starts Thursday as the team heads to San Diego -- so at this moment, we don't know what the team will do, and they're also in an interesting National West division that, yeah, will be dominated more than likely by the Dodgers, but you never know.
And as far as starting the season on a good note, just do your best to block out the haters:
