For two days, we kind of, almost, just a little bit, had baseball back in our lives.
Sure, it's been three months since players took the field, and sure, the owners and players appear to be as far apart as ever ...
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SIGN UP HERE But the MLB draft provided a brief escape. It was a chance to cover guys who actually will be a big part of the game moving forward, and look back on past successes and failures. If you missed it, here's my story on first-rounder Patrick Bailey, a recap of the six picks made on Day 2, and a look at what's next for the Giants and their scouts.
Before we turn the page and refocus on the phrase "pro rata," here are five final thoughts on this year's draft ...
Did the Giants play it safe?
This was a draft unlike any other, and with two additional picks the Giants had a chance to get really creative if they wanted to. In the end, it seems they were mostly conservative. Six of their seven picks were college players, and none of them stood out for being far off the draft boards set up around the game. The wildest thing about the 2020 Giants class was that they took a catcher first when they did the same two years ago, but even that was fully defensible.
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The Giants took a focused, traditional, best-player-available approach. There's nothing wrong with that, to be clear. This is a farm system that's come a long way, but the Giants still need a couple of quality draft classes to get back into contention consistently. They took kids they had a lot of info on, and this group will further boost the system.
This will be a fascinating class to look back on in five years. Perhaps the Giants will wish they had taken more risks. For now, it looks like a solid group.
A sleeper from the Bay Area?
Opposing scouts liked the pick of Kyle Harrison, a left-handed starter from De La Salle. FanGraphs called him the "icing" on the cake for the Giants, and MLB Pipeline's draft experts rated Harrison as the best Giants pick.
"The best healthy left-hander in the high school crop, Harrison could have landed in the second round but lasted until the third," MLB.com wrote. "Polished and deceptive, he goes after hitters with a low-90s fastball, a nasty slider and an advanced changeup."
Not bad considering he was the fifth player selected by the Giants. Harrison was committed to UCLA, but the Giants -- an organization with a few Bruins on rosters and one serving as GM -- are very confident that they'll convince him to sign.
Some team officials believe they have more pitching depth than they get credit for, but evaluators generally view most of their pitching prospects as more back-end guys. They need someone to pop and turn into a long-term ace, and Harrison looks like he at least has the equipment to take a crack at being that guy.
Never forget about the DH
The universal DH will be in play if the season resumes in 2020, and most within the game believes that'll be a permanent change, or at the very least will become permanent after the next CBA is negotiated in 18 months. Zaidi brought it up when asked about Joey Bart possibly learning a second position.
"Who knows what the future holds in terms of whether we go to a universal DH, but I think it's something that we want all of our catchers to do," he said of versatility.
A DH spot would add another lineup spot for a Bart or Bailey if they're both on the roster in a few years, and if both turn into good big leaguers, it's pretty easy to see how you could play them each 150ish times a year between catcher, DH and first base.
On the other hand, you could argue that both players derive much of their value from being good hitters when compared to catchers. For example, Buster Posey could have benefited from being able to DH last season, but the Giants probably would have looked across the field and seen that most of their opponents still had a better hitter in that spot. It's not ideal long term to have two catchers in the lineup too often, but it is a nice way to make sure Bart and Bailey stay fresh.
[GIANTS INSIDER PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode]
Another catcher
When Bailey was drafted, everyone immediately started thinking about Bart. But I also thought about Ricardo Genoves. The 20-year-old was in camp as an extra catcher this spring and some Giants people really, really like him.
Genoves did a solid job in 19 games in Augusta last year and he's a big, strong catcher who has developing power from the right side. Some of the team's evaluators believe he's also a future big league starter behind the plate, and if he develops like that, it'll be one of the best things to happen to the system. Having three good young catching prospects will allow Zaidi and Scott Harris to go out and fill a hole elsewhere via a trade.
Trend watch
On the night of Round 1, Zaidi said he envisioned a balanced approach to the rest of the draft. The Giants ended up with four pitchers and three position players (one of whom can also pitch). That evens things up a bit after they took position players with nine of their first 10 selections last year.
[RELATED: Ranking Bailey in Giants' system]
Overall, 86 of the 160 players selected by MLB teams were pitchers, with 63 of those being right-handers. Of the position players, there were 28 outfielders selected, 22 shortstops and 10 catchers.
The Giants are still hitter-heavy at the top of their system, but that's a good thing. They've been starving offensively in recent years, and if they can ever figure that part out, it'll be much easier to build out the rest of the team. It has been proven over and over again in recent years that Oracle Park is a draw for free agent pitchers and can help make the ones in-house look a lot better.