San Francisco Giants are presenting a new model for baseball
The San Francisco Giants, expected to have a down year by many, have stumbled into contention — are they showing MLB a better way of doing business?
The San Francisco Giants — against all odds — have stumbled into relevancy, and as it so happens, this is being written in the middle of July.
This is significant for a number of reasons that people who have watched the game of baseball the past two years will know all too well. Especially Giants fans.
Major League Baseball, much like the NBA, has had to deal with the problem of tanking. We have seen this reach new levels of absurdity this past offseason with the Miami Marlins’ well-documented exploits
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The thought seems to be, if we can’t win a World Series, or even a division title now, what is the point of spending money on a team?
Why do this when you can save money and invest in the future? Why not move toward underpaid minor-league players? Or test the international markets?
Of course, as we have seen — this is problematic. Why, as fans, would we continue to purchase tickets to see a losing team, let alone turn on the TV to watch it?
On top of that, many fans feel betrayed by franchises that don’t seem to have any interest in succeeding.
And yet, the model works. Look at the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and now, the Atlanta Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies. The success of this model suggests an inevitable outcome for fans.
Your team though, will more likely than not deliberately fail at some point. And you are just going to have to deal with that and wait for the future draft picks.
There can be only one World Series winner, however, and this presents another problem. Not every team’s rebuilding efforts will be successful. Some teams will go through a lengthy process of rebuilding and ultimately fail.
At that point, the team owners will then have to break up the band again, all while alienating a fanbase that simply just wants to watch good baseball.
As a fan, you can only hope there is another way to do baseball.
Enter the San Francisco Giants of 2018.
Don’t misunderstand what’s being written here. It is absurd to consider the Giants to be in the same conversations people are having about elite teams like the Yankees or The Astros.
It is undeniable, however, the Giants have done something even their own fans didn’t expect: they have made baseball fun to watch, and furthermore — they are contending.
Gone is the dominant 2012 World Series Champion Giants of yesterday. Gone is a similar Giants team of 2014. These teams were unique, and ultimately, the perfect storm of success.
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Also gone, however, are the San Francisco Giants of 2017.
No, these 2018 Giants are different. They are presenting a model for success, fan appreciation, and for that matter, hope for contention that moves past the binary system of either tanking or “going for it.”
What makes it remarkable is that all of this current production and hope for the future comes at the margins of the Giants core.
We haven’t even mentioned Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, or the Brandons — Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford.
We also haven’t even discussed the relatively slow and perhaps sketchy production of Giants’ primary offseason additions, Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria.
The point of this, however, is the fact that sometimes things can click just enough to provide the tease of something more. Or perhaps, some more even year luck.
Next: Giants Minor League Major Performances 7-9-18
Maybe the league can learn something from this, or maybe this is something that is only really possible for the Giants. Maybe the Giants will sell off the team before the trade deadline.
Or maybe, the Giants are setting an example for how a franchise could possibly have its cake and eat it too.