Way Too Early Roster Preview: San Jose Giants

Photo Credit: Bill Mitchell | Baseball America

It comes and goes fast, don’t it? It seems like no time at all ago that I was writing about Buster in something very similar to this — peering into his performance in the short-lived Hawaiian Winter League (he won a title there, too) and his legendary Florida State career and wondering where it would all lead (it led to a title the next year in San Jose…and more after that!). It comes and goes too darned fast. The wonder of it is that it comes at all I suppose and if you, like me, watched yesterday’s presser with some measure of inspira-sadness, then you, like me, know that what is precious to us passes out of our grasp when we most want to hold it tightly. That that freshed-faced young man would bring such triumphs and emotional treasures to all of us is incredible. That he was able to prove to himself he was still capable of greatness was uplifting. That he can walk away on his own terms is inspiring. That he’ll always be a part of the Giants family is our consolation for how very much we will miss him. He started a Giant and he was never anything else but a Giant — in every possible way.

I sure could use a hug about now…

Michael @Shhhmichael

Buster finally gets to be a Full Time Dad, thank you for everything.

As always, here at There R Giants, we heal by looking towards the future. The Giants family will continue to expand with time. There are more Giants coming. Soon, perhaps. And, with luck, we’ll get to repeat this story all over again, or some variation of it. The time has come to turn our eyes towards 2022. And that means it’s time, once again, for one of my more ways of making a public fool of myself, the “Way Too Early” roster previews! Let’s try to play amateur Farm Director while lacking all of the key information that will ultimately go into these decisions, and without the benefit of seeing winter work or spring camp. Sounds easy, right? Ok, let’s build ourselves some rosters.

As we did last year, we’ll start at the bottom and build our way up through the full season affiliates. Up first, we’ll take a look at the defending Low-A West Champion San Jose Giants. Last year, I feel like I did pretty well with this preview as 18 of the players I predicted did, indeed, end up on San Jose’s opening roster, including seven members of the starting lineup on Opening Night. Some others (Grant McCray, Jairo Pomares, Ghordy Santos) were felled by injuries in the spring and showed up later (not to mention Carson Ragsdale, who wasn’t yet in the Giants organization).

I’m not sure if I can repeat that performance, but we’ll see what we can do. This year’s squad will have a lot to live up to to match the 2021 Championship team which is in the argument for best San Jose team of all time. But one thing they might have going for them — I suspect quite a few players who take the field at Excite Ballpark next April will have been veterans of the championship series last September. Let’s take a look: