MLB '24 Regular Season Thread

His name was Bart. Of course he was an underachiever.

 

He's leavin' (leavin') on that Midnight BART to Sacramento.

 

Not shocking at all except Farhan knew this was always going to happen. Why don’t trade him? Someone is going to find a way to use Bart, why not get something in return?

Maybe teams knew something but I feel like Farhan held on to him on purpose. And he traded for AJ Pollock for God’s sakes. There was nothing they could have gotten last July?

That said, Bart got hammered with a double whammy. He was drafted when Posey had a bunch in the tank and was expected to develop. Then Posey took the COVID year off and Bart was called up before he was ready. That tanked his confidence. Then when Posey hangs it up, he got edged out by Patrick Bailey who really left no doubt who should have that job. He was in the conversation for a gold glove last year.

 

Bart had the longest loopiest swing. Nice glove, good guy.

 

Which I feel like with the right support can be corrected. Dude had a swing hole the size of the Grand Canyon, but someone has to say, dude, shorten up. But Farhan and Gabe were all about the analytics and not really about fixing things.

 

All about analytics and not fixing things? Analytics means you don’t have a hitting coach?

 

Who apparently couldn’t get Bart’s swing corrected soooooooo….

 

Young catchers will always get second (and third and fourth and fifth) chances, especially a guy with Bart's draft pedigree. Look at Travis d'Arnaud. Almost a decade after he was the next big thing, he was racing to embrace Will Smith to start the Braves' 2021 World Series-winning dogpile.

 

Do you think they are the only analytical team?

Maybe just maybe the player sucks.

 

I don’t know what this means. The only choices are he sucks or there are other teams that use analytics? Or he sucks or Gabe and Farhan are the only ones on the Giants to use analytics?

I said in my original post that Bart’s development was messed up by the fact they called him up too soon because Posey took 2020 off then he got beat out by Patrick Bailey who as a rookie nearly won a gold glove.

My complaint about Farhan and Gabe was they tried to use analytics at the expense of the team. Yes you use analytics and everyone does. But the next team to win a World Series using openers four or five times a week and platooning the entire lineup will be the first team to do it. They used the numbers to a fault. At some point you need to actually look at what is going on during games. That tandem couldn’t do it. It makes me wonder what else they are getting wrong in terms of player development. Somewhere there is going to be a team that needs a catcher who will pick up Bart and fix that swing. Or maybe he does suck. But clearly the Giants weren’t the team to help him. If he goes to Texas (hypothetically, not saying he will), I’d be curious what Bochy (and his team of coaches) can do for him. Yes that’s what Bart had at first but I’d still be curious what could be done given both have new environments.

 

And BTW the Giants had so many coaches under Gabe they had specialists helping players take a dump. And yet that couldn’t help

 

Very unique to the Giants.

This debate feels like it’s right out of 2004.