With the playoffs expanded, do these no-name Giants actually have a shot?
It was easy to project. None of it should have come as a surprise. But when the Giants released their 30-man roster for the start of the 2020 season Thursday, I was taken aback.
I know these guys, but I imagine I’m in the strong minority there. Even the most ardent baseball fans would have a hard time recognizing some of these names.
This is the roster that has to take on arguably the toughest schedule in all of baseball?
Even though the season is only 60 games, this could be a long one.
Of course, the Giants are stuck between stations amid their bottom-to-top rebuild, and there’s no better example of that then their quadruple-A-level roster.
So what should we expect from this team?
Given the harsh reality dished out Thursday morning, I think making the playoffs is simply too much to ask of the Giants — even with the newly expanded playoffs (more than half the teams in the league are going to qualify) and a small sample size of a season.
But how about early-season relevance?
Can the Giants tide the Bay Area over until the end of August, when the 49ers — even without preseason games — will surely seize the region’s collective attention?
That’s all we really need here. And I don’t think that’s too tall of an order for the Giants.
(I offer no apologies to the A’s. They’re a much better team — arguably the most entertaining team in baseball and a true World Series contender — but I’m done waiting for them to capture the Bay Area’s attention. They squandered their opportunities.)
Remember, last year the Giants went 16-3 for a stretch in July.
No one is asking for another run like that, but a nice stretch of above .500 play could bring us interesting baseball at Oracle Park (that we’ll watch on TV) for the first few weeks of the season.
It’s not like it’s going to require a great record to be in the running come the unofficial end of summer. The playoff expansion means that eight teams — the top two finishers in each division and the two next-best teams — make the playoffs this year.
I’m not sure even this Giants roster can fall that far behind the pack that fast.
We’ll see. Perhaps we’re in for a wild season in San Francisco — it is an even year, after all.
And maybe — just maybe — with another season with a juiced ball and now a home ballpark that might be a bit juiced too, some of these no-names on the Giants roster could become the next Mike Yastrzemski. They’ll need a couple. A few surprise pitchers might help, too.
Or maybe new manager Gabe Kapler, who was run out of Philadelphia because he was fidgety with the lineup, will properly channel that energy into an elaborate series of platoons, pinch hits, and pitching matchups, manufacturing a few wins in the process.
Or — hear me out — they can call up some of their top prospects to let them get some major league experience, giving Giants fans who have suffered through some terrible baseball the last few years a real reason to get excited about the future, even if those players don’t perform.
There’s a million variables at play and countless ways this wacky season can go.
And while most of those outcomes don’t appear to be favorable to this strange group of players wearing the Giants’ uniform, I can see a scenario where they keep things interesting for a while.
After that, it’s anyone’s guess — good or bad.
I’m just happy baseball is back.