My First Giants Game of 2024
It was my first Giants game of 2024. I went with my younger brother as usual and I had gotten a ticket package for my birthday in February so it wasn’t a surprise. My people know that I live for baseball season. The smells and sounds of the ballpark were a welcome change for me. I love baseball season and we had perfect baseball weather. The battle of the bay is always fun, even in the preseason and I was incredibly excited for some 2024 baseball.
The San Francisco Giants were playing the Athletics of Oakland in the second game of a two game exhibition series. The A’s had less of their S squad on the field than the Giants did and yet they still pulled out a win. And now before you judge the Oakland A’s, remember they have Paul Blackburn leading their pitching rotation and they also have Estuiry Ruiz, Brent Rooker, Shea Langeliers, Sean Murphy, Lawrence Butler, Nick Allen and JJ Bleday. It’s a competitive team assuming they don’t trade two or three of their best players mid-season.
San Francisco ended making a lot more off season moves than the fan base ever expected. While many Giants fans assumed their team wouldn’t sign any major free agents, essentially did the opposite.
The Giants not only got a new manager, in Bob Melvin. They have brought back Matt Williams and Dusty Baker on their staff. They have also signed Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, Jordan Hicks, Jung Hoo Lee, Tom Murphy, Jorge Soler and Nick Ahmed. Needless to say, the Giants are no longer rebuilding and that the Giants plan to compete. And they mainly plan to compete with the highly overpaid Dodgers of Los Angeles.
Well my fellow Giants fans needn’t worry and I may be so bold as to say my A’s fans have something to look forward to this year. As usual the Athletics are playing money ball since their ownership would rather the team be located in Las Vegas. But the Giants fans were wrong to assume Farhan Zaidi wouldn’t make moves in the offseason. He has made tons of moves staff-wise and player-wise as well. He even surprised me.
Personally I have a few favorites. My top favorite move of the Giant’s offseason was signing Matt Chapman. And even after watching JD Davis play against us for the A’s, I stand by my opinion. Their second best move was signing Jung Hoo Lee of South Korea. Their third best move was signing Jordan Hicks, but not just signing him. The Giants pitching coaches are currently turning Hicks into an incredibly dominant starting pitcher. Even though he had previously been a reliever. Fourth is signing Tom Murphy who is, by my assessment, a clutch hitter and a solid back up for Patrick Bailey to lean on. Murphy’s experience will help to develop Bailey, if that was by design then the Giants front office has a couple of big baseball brains. My fifth of the top five moves made by the Giants was signing Jorge Soler. Ever since Buster Posey left nobody on the Giants has hit with that same kind of power. Wilmer Flores had an unique year in 2023 and if he can hit 20+ home runs that would be great. But Soler is a 25–30 home run per year type of hitter and when he’s not hitting dingers he is contributing in other ways including leadership. Soler will likely bat fourth and anchor the lineup as I saw him do in the game I attended tonight, the final exhibition game before the 2024 season.
With all those moves being made and a new manager in Bob Melvin, we are likely to see a brand new era of Giants baseball. Ever since 2014 the Giants have been in limbo, with 2021 being their best season in the past ten years. Even that season seemed like a miracle, which is to say, Im certainly not saying it was the coaching. Personally, I think we have much better chances of winning with Melvin at the helm than when Kapler was managing. Plus, we have more talent on the team than we have had in years.
For a year when I thought the Dodgers had already bought the World Series, things are changing quickly. Shohei Ohtani is under investigation and the Giants chances are infinitely better now than they were at the beginning of this past offseason. The Giants will be a force to be reckoned with, especially when Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray come off the disabled list. We have more depth than we have had since the World Series years and I’m personally looking forward to seeing what Bob Melvin can do with this team. Especially having already coached Blake Snell and Matt Chapman, two of the Giants star players. 2024 should be an exciting season to say the least.
By Zachary Casciato 2024
