© Orlando Ramirez | 2019 Mar 10
Bart. Ramos. Luciano.
Yeah, I’m talking to you, Giants fans.
If you don’t know those three names above, you may not be the target audience of this week’s Jock Blog.
Bart. Ramos. Luciano.
Or, as I like to call them: Three Fountains of Hope. Or, the Trilogy of Belief. Or, the Trinity of Optimism.
You get my drift.
Since there is never an official “close out” to an era, we can say the closest thing to the end of the Giants’ World Series Era came last September, when Bruce Bochy bid a tearful farewell under the beautiful late afternoon September light hard by the shores of McCovey Cove.
Bochy says goodbye, and Farhan says hello.
Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler are the dudes in the new era, and the first three pegs they hang their “Future Promise” hats on are catcher Joey Bart, outfielder Heliot Ramos and shortstop Marco Luciano, the three-highest rated prospects in a Giants farm system that, all of a sudden, is the darling of Baseball America. After years of dwelling in the cellars of the BA rankings, Farhan’s Farm was rated 10th-best in the 30-team MLB rankings.
And now, more.
Yes, Hunter Bishop, the kid outta Serra High, and last year’s No. 10 overall selection, is another name to know. And Seth Corry, the third-round lefty arm from 2017, too.
But in the past two days, Farhan and scouting director Michael Holmes launched what I would call the most important two days of their regime thus far.
Gifted the No. 13 pick from last year’s 77-win season, and gifted the Nos. 67 and 68 picks as compensation for losing Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith to free agency, Farhan’s mission was clear: build the team of the 2020s, and build it now.
Five of the top 85 picks was the ammunition; seven picks overall, tied for the most in MLB. The results are the names you must commit to memory now:
Bailey. Schmitt. Swiney. Glowenke. Harrison. Dabovich. Murphy.
These guys — NC State catcher Patrick Bailey; San Diego State 3B Casey Schmitt; NC State pitcher Nick Swiney; Dallas Baptist shortstop Jimmy Glowenke; De La Salle (!!) lefty pitcher Kyle Harrison; Arizona State pitcher RJ Dabovich and LeMoyne College pitcher Ryan Murphy — are your new guys.
With Bart/Ramos/Luciano/Bishop/Corry — not to mention others I am leaving out for clarity and space purposes — these seven new Giants prospects gather as the new group; the new guys; the new dudes. In the 1960s, it was Mays/Marichal/McCovey/Cepeda, all homegrown. In the 1970s it was Kingman/Montefusco/J. Clark, all homegrown. In the 1980s, it was Thompson/Williams/W. Clark, all homegrown. In the 1990s and 2000s, it was mostly Brian Sabean and free agent wizardry to land Kent/Schmidt/Bonds. And then, of course, the greatest October era in San Francisco history: Posey/Bumgarner/Cain/Lincecum/Sandoval/Romo/Crawford/Belt, all homegrown.
The line has been drawn. It’s 2020, the dawn of a new decade. The old horses are fading. The rally cry for new blood is here. If you want to pinpoint an exact time, to counter the Bochy farewell, say it was June 10-11, 2020 that the page was turned. Of those seven new players, you’d love to think that four or five of them, plus the big three above, form the nucleus of your next decade of Giants baseball.
We’re two drafts in on the Farhan Era, sports fans. He’s getting his guys. He may have gotten an inadvertent break with the dreadful pandemic, since Giants fans didn’t see a subpar 2020 roster stink up 3rd and King, causing more and more woe and rafts of empty seats. Yes, the prospects are losing development time, but in the bigger picture, the Giants aren’t losing the public.
In fact, you can make an argument that the dearth of on-field games has given Giants fans a break. And now, the seven-player draft has given Giants fans hope.
Hope is a beautiful thing.