2025 Depth Charts: 1b

Look which Depth Chart is SOOOO back!

Photo Credit: Mick Anders | Richmond Flying Squirrels

So far in this year’s Depth Charts series, we’ve looked at:

• Shortstop

Now we’re talking! For years, my Depth Charts series have received one seemingly perpetual complaint from readers of a certain vintage: “where is the heir to Willie McCovey’s hallowed throne?”

That vintage, by the by, is the same one that poured out your humble narrator, who, as a wee child, would bombard my Dad as soon as he came home from work with queries of ‘how did ‘Covey do today?’. A slightly younger generation of readers had the same thought, but subbed in Will Clark’s name for Stretch’s. But no matter how the question was phrased, I never really had a satisfactory answer. In my very first Depth Chart series back in the spring of 2021, my top 1b prospects were: 1) Garrett Frechette; 2) Logan Wyatt; and 3) Conner Cannon, and the entire system, as far as I could reckon it at the time, looked like this:

Folks, it does not get much uglier than that! When Justin Bour is the first line of defense, things have truly reached rock bottom. And while LaMonte Wade, Jr. has certainly turned out to have extraordinary value from his spot on the pole (and David Villar hasn’t done badly either), this was certainly not a Chart that was going to raise the spirits of my Stretch-loving community.

But for those of you who have swallowed years of frustration over the threadbare spreadsheets I’ve had to share on this position, let me finally say this:

THIS IS YOUR YEAR, BABY! THE THRILL IS BACK!!

Not the literal Thrill (though he’s important to this tale, too, in a mentor’s role), but the feeling of Thrilldom is definitely returning to the first sack station in Giantsland, and it’s returning with a vengeance. So hop aboard, as we enjoy what may truly be, the greatest 1b Depth Chart in There R Giants’ history!

Before we cross the jump, ‘tis the season to give the Giants’ fan in your life a subscription to There R Giants, so they can keep up with all the news on the farm.