Well everyone, another San Francisco Giants season comes to an end and like last year it ends with no trip to the postseason. But the Giants finished with a better record than in 2017 and we had a chance to see some of the kids make the trip from Sacramento. The Giants will have the #10 pick in the 2019 amateur draft. To put that position into some perspective, let's look at some of the names that the Giants have drafted in the 1st round and the overall pick #:
2002 - Matt Cain (#22)
2006 - Tim Lincecum (#10)
2007 - Madison Bumgarner (#10)
2008 - Buster Posey (#5)
2009 - Zack Wheeler (#6)
2011 - Joe Panik (#29)
2012 - Chris Stratton (#20)
2013 - Christian Arroyo (#25)
2014 - Tyler Beede (#14)
2015 - Phil Bickford (#18)
2015 - Chris Shaw (#31)
2017 - Heliot Ramos (#19)
2018 - Joey Bart (#2)
Now some of these players were traded like Wheeler, Arroyo, and Bickford, but you can see that the Giants have had a pretty good track record over the last 2 decades or so. Obviously in this range it would be nice to find a player like a Lincecum or Bumgarner. One early mock draft has the Giants taking Corbin Carroll, an outfielder from Lakeside High School in Seattle, WA. But we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. Let's take a look t the year that was.
I think the first thing we need to look at is the injuries that the Giants have endured. The Giants placed 6 players on the season-ending disabled list, including Buster Posey who underwent hip surgery on August 27 and Brandon belt who underwent knee surgery on September 21. In addition, the list also includes Pablo Sandoval, Ryder Jones, Steven Duggar, and Johnny Cueto. Jeff Samardzija was never placed on the season-ending DL, but did not pitch after July 14. Also missing good chunks of the year were Madison Bumgarner and Evan Longoria. While every team deals with injuries throughout the year, I think it's safe to say that few teams suffered this many injuries to key players. Also, for a team that was toeing so close to the competitive balance tax line, they didn't have the luxury of signing more high-priced talent after other players were lost to injury (see the Dodgers trading for Manny Machado after Corey Seager underwent Tommy John surgery).
Once the last out was recorded in the World Series (congratulations to the Boston Red Sox) the clock started on the offseason and for the first time since Brian Sabean was promoted to General Manager in 1996 the Giants will have a new GM. Before you jump in and say, well Bobby Evans was the GM from 2015 to 2018, Sabean was the Executive VP of Baseball Operations so while he may not have been GM by title the last 3 years he was still heavily involved in the decision making process. On November 6 we kind of found out who that would be. Farhan Zaidi was hired as the Head of Baseball Operations. This does not make him officially the GM, though he was the GM for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2015-2018 and was the Director of Baseball Operations for the Oakland A's in 2013 and 2014 also adding the title of Assistant GM in 2014. While we're still waiting to see if Zaidi will hire an "official" GM, he has made 2 hires to the scouting department bringing in Zack Minasian, formerly of the Milwaukee Brewers, as the new Director of Pro Scouting, and Michael Holmes, formerly of the Oakland A's, as the new Director of Amateur Scouting.
As Giants fans, we finally got to see Zaidi in action during the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas held December 9-13, and honestly the results were a little underwhelming. I'll leave this blog now so as not to write a huge post and my next one (coming soon) will pick up at the Winter Meetings and we'll chat about the moves the Giants have already made and some of the ones that are rumored/possible. Until next time folks, thanks for reading.
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