I’ve written a few times over the years that the Giants’ International Free Agent class of 2018 could well be remembered in the same terms that the 2008 draft class (Buster/BCraw) is in terms of epochal moments in the franchise’s history. If that ultimately becomes true, then yesterday will be a milestone moment: the big league debut of Luis Matos, something akin to the night that 20-year-old Matt Cain stepped into Kirk Rueter’s spot in the rotation and engaged in an epic battle with Todd Helton. Or the day Buster Posey came up (for real this time) and had six hits and four RBI in his first two games. It feels like just yesterday that I was chronicling Matos’ daily 2 for 4 with a double as a 17-year-old in the DSL (back on that other site). Now he’s a big leaguer — with a big league average.
And let’s also give a shout out to Giants’ Venezuelan Cross Checker Edgar Fernandez, who gets the honor of putting one more big league signing on his professional resume. Debut Day is a celebratory occasion for the scouts, too, and for Joe Salermo and his entire International Scouting Department. It’s a happy day for everyone in the organization (made even happier by a guy who played more than twice as many minor league games than Matos, old vet Mike Yastrzemski!).
If you listened to yesterday’s pod, I think that Cory Elasik’s comments on both Matos and Patrick Bailey are worth listening to again. It wasn’t inevitable that those players would respond to their difficult 2022 seasons in the ways that they did. It wasn’t inevitable that they would turn themselves into big leaguers (let alone at the speed they did). It was the lessons that they absorbed from failure, and the determination not to suffer those lessons again (at least not at low levels), that drove them to the work and the adjustments they’ve made over the last eight months. As Yaz himself knows, it’s never too late to change one’s stars!
A lesson for us all!
HITTER of the NIGHT: Marco Luciano (Rich), 4 for 6, HR (9), 2b (7), 2 R, 2 RBI, BB
PITCHER of the NIGHT: Gerelmi Maldonado (SJ), 4.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 8 K, 1 HR
But, given our prospect beat here at There R Giants, perhaps Matos isn’t the member of the 2018 IFA class we should be focussing on today, so let’s turn our attention elsewhere for now, because great googily moogily, was Marco Luciano showing off some power!
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