Giants’ prospects part of showcase
The Home Run Derby always has its moments, and there are certain charms to the AllStar Game itself, but Giants fans should be most attuned to the Futures Game when baseball takes its summertime break. It’s time Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos got some national exposure.
The Giants’ top two prospects have been selected to the July 7 game (4 p.m., MLB Network) in Cleveland, featuring an American Leaguevs.National League format after years of pitting the United States’ most heralded young players against an international team.
Is Bart the best catching prospect in the game? A lot of people think so, and although his numbers have tailed off at San Jose (Class A California League) since he returned from a broken hand, he has bigleague attributes on both sides of the ball. He’ll need some seasoning at DoubleA or TripleA before being handed a San Francisco uniform, but the scenario seems inevitable as Giants catcher Buster Posey’s diminished hitting skills take on the look of a longterm issue.
How does that work, exactly? The Giants still place high value on Posey’s catching acumen. A move to first base, even on a parttime basis, would complicate things for Brandon Belt. Perhaps Belt gets traded and the process begins, and it’s all very painful as the organization tries to honor two players so well remembered from the championship years.
The reality is an empty seat. Thousands of them. At Oracle Park, it looked like a typically bleak night in Oakland on Thursday when the Giants opened their fourgame series against Arizona. Even on those tight TV shots, showing only the most cherished fieldlevel seats, there was alarming vacancy. The Giants know they can’t be stuck in the past, and that major transition is coming, which means a ruthless approach to some difficult decisions before the year is out.
If Ramos is for real — and it’s been a fine season at San Jose for the 19yearold outfielder, including nine homers in 45 games entering Friday — the path to San Francisco will be easier. As much as we’re all enjoying the Yaz & Dick show (Mike Yastrzemski and Alex Dickerson), the Giants would find permanence for a young outfielder with legitimate power and star potential.
Look around the game, and you realize the validity of the Giants’ lastplace standing. They can’t come remotely close to matching the talent being unveiled by Atlanta (Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies), Washington (Juan Soto, Victor Robles), Houston (Yordan Alvarez), San Diego (Fernando Tatis Jr.), Toronto (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.), Cleveland (Oscar Mercado), Arizona (Ketel Marte), the Dodgers (Alex Verdugo), the Mets (Pete Alonso) and the White Sox (Eloy Jimenez), among others.
They just keep coming. Somehow, with a bit of good fortune, the Giants can get into that discussion. And don’t forget the A’s solo entry in the Futures Game, shortstop Jorge Mateo, hitting .316 at TripleA Las Vegas with 12 homers, 13 triples and 16 stolen bases in 74 games entering Friday.
There isn’t a whole lot of mystery surrounding the fate of “Triples Alley” at Oracle Park. After Giants second baseman Joe Panik tripled to that distant locale in Wednesday night’s game against Colorado, broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper said, almost in unison, “Next year that’s a home run.” Expect more convenient dimensions in rightcenter field, and most likely a shift of the bullpens away from the foul lines . ... Great moments in fencemoving: In 1940, the Red Sox installed bullpens beyond the Fenway Park fence in rightcenter field, reducing the home run distance from 405 to 382 feet in that area. It was said to be a nod to Ted Williams’ power, and was actually called “Williamsburg” in certain quarters. Williams hit just 23 homers that season, but he wound up leading the AL in homers four times, including 37 in 1941 (the year he hit .406). ... Overwhelming evidence suggests the Dodgers will dominate the NL West right into the postseason. When it really became a lock: They got walkoff homers from rookies Matt Beaty, Verdugo and Will Smith in consecutive games.
Baseball needs to take a serious look at batterumpire relations. Technically, a player can be ejected for arguing balls and strikes, but the good umpires allow for some leeway. Thursday night, with Atlanta’s Brian McCann furious over taking a called third strike, umpire Nic Lentz let him blow off some steam and return to the dugout. Manny Machado’s recent onegame suspension was an entirely different story. After being called out, Machado turned in protest, said a few words to umpire Bill Welke without a hint of negative body language, and got thrown out of the game. Yes, Machado lost his cool after that, making slight and incidental contact with Welke and firing his bat away — but it should never have come to that. Welke decided he’d become the story, for no good reason, and a superstar player was gone. Worse yet, the MLB Umpires Association issued a pathetic tweet in the aftermath, claiming that “violence in the workplace is not tolerated” and “is this truly what MLB wants to teach our youth?” The real lesson was umpiring — specifically, how not to do it. It might not be entirely satisfying when the computerized strike zone becomes reality, but the absence of hothead umpires will be quite welcome.