There R Giants #13: Casey Schmitt

Photo Credit: Michelle Valenzuela | San Jose Giants

We’re into the There R Giants Top 50. Over the winter months, I’ll write a post on each of the fifty players in my rankings, leading us back to the much-needed spring. Our list of previously covered players is getting a little long, so from here on out I’m moving the links for the full list down the bottom of the post.

If Monday’s story was, in some respects, about how low expectations can blinds observers to a player’s actual improvements, today’s story is about how high expectations can sometimes do the same. Expectations distort observation. Casey Schmitt did a lot things well in his first year of pro ball development and should, I think, have stoked more excitement than he did in his debut.

Schmitt is arguably the best defensive player in the Giants’ system — at the very least, he’s in a two-man race with Aeverson Arteaga — skills that are going to get him a lot of looks as he moves forward. And while Schmitt, himself, felt his first year didn’t quite live up to expectations offensively, there were some good things going on under the hood that indicate things should pick up going forward. The elements are in place for a major league starting 3b, and there are good reasons to hope that Schmitt’s second year will produce a great leap forward in his development.