Folks, welcome to baseball season. I, for one, couldn’t be more excited.
Pitchers and catchers are officially reporting to spring training this week, with the A’s and Giants arriving at camp on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
We are only a matter of days away from games featuring never-to-be-heard-from-again players wearing Nos. 83 and 67. That’s the good stuff. It’s also when the reality that the 2023 season is truly upon us will hit.
In the meantime, let’s celebrate the fact that two offseasons from hell in the Bay are over. Let’s lean into this optimism a bit.
It can’t hurt, right?
I’m excited for so many things this spring. Here are just a few of them:
The new face of the franchise
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We’re now nine years separated from the Giants’ last World Series win.
Yes, Brandon Crawford is still at shortstop, but Brandon Belt is a Blue Jay, Buster Posey is a part-owner, Hunter Pence is in the broadcast booth, Madison Bumgarner is hanging with his horses (I suppose he also pitches for the Diamondbacks), and no one can really tell us where Tim Lincecum is.
Also, the baseball is no longer dead, pitchers don’t hit anymore, the Padres spend money, and the Giants will open up the 2023 season in New York… against the Yankees.
Some things have changed, my friends. It was time to emotionally move on from that era of greatness a long time ago, but that transition finally feels like it is here, in no small part because the team has a new lead voice.
Logan Webb didn’t grow up a Giants fan in the Sacramento area, but he has become the face of a team that desperately needed one. More importantly, he’s become the guy who tells it like it is, and whose words actually carry some weight in the public sphere.
It’s hardly a coincidence that he’s also the team’s best player.
At least we think.
I’m excited to see what Webb does as his role unambiguously transitions from being a guy to “the guy” on the Giants. I’m interested in seeing if his game can transform the same way.
Webb was excellent last year — certainly worthy of a Cy Young award vote or two — but one could view his 2022 as a bit of a regression. Strikeouts were down, hits allowed were (slightly) up.
But a monster season from Webb — one where he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball from Opening Day onwards — could go a long way for this team in more than the obvious ways.
Webb represents the new guard. He wasn’t drafted by Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, but his ascent to the big leagues and a big role aligns with the Zaidi era.
Can Webb take that next step? Can he go from an unquestionably good pitcher — one any team would take — to a great one?
If he can, the Giants might just come along with him and surprise a few people in the process.
The A’s new market inefficiency?
The A’s stuck with their plan to pawn off an entire baseball organization, one piece at a time, this offseason. Alas, major league rules demand they must field a team.
And while I certainly don’t expect the A’s to do anything interesting in the American League West, there are some players on this roster that make me wonder if they might just be better than last year. It’s not a high bar.
Shintaro Fujinami is a few years removed from being a hot shot in Japan, but the big right handler still has some strikeouts in that three-quarters delivery, the A’s reckon. He’s on a one-year deal and Oakland looks like it’ll give him every opportunity to pitch a ton of big-league innings. I’m excited to see what those look like.
I also love the fit of Jesús Aguilar — a perennially underrated first baseman — in the cavernous Coliseum. I know we’re playing in the launch-angle era, but doubles are pretty effective ways to score runs, too.
The A’s also brought in Trevor May to close games. That’s a nice signing. And while I don’t know much about Esteury Ruiz and JJ Bleday (OK, I didn’t know anything about them) the A’s seem pretty confident in both, and I can imagine a world where one of them breaks out in a big way.
Maybe the A’s have found a new market inefficiency. The new Moneyball is old guys, Japanese guys looking to prove a point, and former top prospects who are still young.
OK, that seems a lot like old Moneyball.
It’s also the plot of Major League. (Please, no one create a cut-out of John Fisher.)
At the very worst, the A’s will have young catcher Shea Langeliers in the lineup – he has a chance to be special. And who knows, maybe they’ll officially start building that new ballpark in Oakland this season. Now that would be something to celebrate.
Rules changes
This is what really has me amped for the 2023 Major League Baseball season: The game is changing for the better.
The shift is dead. Thank heavens. The worst play in baseball was a groundout to right field.
The bases are bigger — “pizza box” big, per Red Sox manager Alex Cora. That could create more baserunners and actual running of the bases. Pickoff attempts will be limited as well. Someone might actually steal a base this season.
Pitch clocks are in, too. Pitchers now have 15 seconds to throw the ball when there’s no one on base and 20 seconds with runners. Umpires are on the watch for balks. (Good luck to Mr. Kevin Gausman and other mound bouncers.)
Tradition? That’s just an excuse for slowly dying. Did anyone complain about tradition when baseball lowered the mound after 1968? (Don’t answer that question.)
Major League Baseball had become unrelenting slogs of fly balls, strikeouts, and guys standing around for a minute between pitches.
Now there’s a chance for stolen bases, directional hitting, and highlight plays in the field — all happening at a steady, brisk pace.
Tradition? Anyone who watched baseball in the 1970s or 1980s will feel right at home.
It’ll be a different game in 2023. I think it’ll be a better game. And I’m so excited to see that come to fruition.