Well, we are 41 games into this strange, short, 60 game mini-season. One of the great mysteries of 2020 is how teams are going to evaluate what happens this year. 60 games is not nothing, but it is also a far cry from the normal 162 games worth of data points. In addition, the minor leagues are not happening in the same way, which makes everything even more difficult.
So, for example, does Farman Zaidi and the Giants’ brain trust look at the first 41 games of 2020 and say: this team is good, and it is getting better every day. More specifically, do they look at Brandon Belt, who is on fire right now, and say: we fixed him! Or do they say: this worked out well, let’s trade him while his value is high?
Then there’s the issue of how other teams will value these games. Back to the Belt example: do they see this as a short season fluke, so no thanks to the $17.5 million price tag? Or do they see the opportunity to get a cost-controlled first basemen for a year?
Those are questions for another day, so back to our present moment: what do we make of the Giants so far? I’ve delved into this a bit in the last few weeks, but today I have a very important announcement to make:
Who cares how “good” this team. This team is fun.
Which, all things considered, is about all we could ask for from 2020. Is this team perfect? Nope. Is this team dominant? Not really. Do I worry a lot about the state of the pitching, especially the bullpen? Oh yes, yes indeed.
But they are so fun.
And really, that was my one great concern about the “new” Giants. That any joy and fun would get buried underneath all the analysis and data. Nope, this team is fun.
A short list of fun things:
- Donavan Solano playing like an all-star is fun
- Johnny Cueto shimmying and yelling about bases loaded strikeouts is fun
- Brandon Belt playing with big time Swag is fun
- Alex Dickerson trying to knock out the cardboard cut outs is fun
- Winning is fun =)
baseballmonk 