Is catcher Joey Bart the real thing?
Giants prospect off to hot start, but it's still a small sample size
In “The Wolf of Wall Street” Matthew McConaughey's character Mark Hanna rants about stocks during an early scene.
“Nobody knows if a stock is going to go up, down, sideways or in … circles, least of all stockbrokers, right?” Hanna says. “It's all a fugayzi, you know what a fugayzi is?”
“Fugayzi. It's fake,” responds Leonardo DiCaprio's character Jordan Belfort.
Baseball prospects can be like stocks — who knows what direction they are going to go? Players can have an excellent college resume and flame out in the minor leagues. Others can look fine in the minors but can't handle the big leagues. Some lower-regarded players turn out to be better than expected. They might even turn out to be All-Stars.
The Giants got it right on several draft picks, which led to three World Series titles in five years. But over the years, names like Tony Torcato, Gary Brown, Angel Villalona and Lance Niekro never lived up the hype.
So when the Giants' franchise icon Buster Posey announced his retirement last November, the collective San Francisco fan base was concerned. Some groaned.
Even President Farhan Zaidi quipped at Posey's press conference: “Before I got into my remarks, I don't know if this is the right time for it, but I kind of just wanted to ask, is this like a definite, for sure thing? I just had to ask.”
Yes, it was Joey Bart time. Normally, having the No. 2 overall draft selection graduate to the big leagues would be cause for excitement. Bart, however, was underwhelming during a 33game stint in 2020 with 41 strikeouts, three walks and no homers in 103 at-bats.