Baker knew a lot about why Bonds was the way he was. He didn’t consider Bonds a pain in the neck (well, sometimes), but more of a little brother with emotional issues that had no simple solutions. Bonds was in his eighth big-league season in ’93 when Baker became Giants’ manager, and Barry had by far his best season to that point — 46 homers, 123 RBIs, .

Hello and happy Saturday. The 2020 MLB season was weird, which every San Francisco Giants fan can attest to. But while lots changed — a shorter, odder schedule, expanded rosters and postseason, a lack of fans, and much more — what most stood out were the in-game rule changes.

Little is left over from the Giants’ 2020 season with Kevin Gausman, Drew Smyly, Jeff Samardzija and Trevor Cahill eligible for free agency. The only starters under team control for 2021 are Johnny Cueto, Tyler Anderson and Logan Webb, along with Tyler Beede, who’s coming off Tommy John surgery. That’s close to the bare minimum, and Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, probably won’t get help from the farm system because top pitching prospects Sean Hjelle and Seth Corry don’t app...

Evan Longoria missed the start of the season, but once again ended up as an everyday player for the Giants.

The Giants fielded a roster that featured four-to-five players whose best chance to make meaningful contributions appeared to come when they were used as designated hitters, which is why it seems recent news surrounding MLB and the DH could have a negative effect on the team come 2021. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the National League is unlikely to keep the DH for the 2021 season, which would require teams such as the Giants to rethink the way they plan to configure their rosters.

The Giants fielded a roster that featured four-to-five players whose best chance to make meaningful contributions appeared to come when they were used as designated hitters, which is why it seems recent news surrounding MLB and the DH could have a negative effect on the team come 2021. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the National League is unlikely to keep the DH for the 2021 season, which would require teams such as the Giants to rethink the way they plan to configure their rosters.

Hello and happy Friday. Many of the San Francisco Giants prospects are at the Fall Instructional Leagues, getting in important development time. Unfortunately the Giants aren’t providing coverage or video of the Instructional Leagues, so we don’t get to see it.

Brandon Belt opened the 60-game season on the injured list with a heel injury but demonstrated enough top-shelf defense to be named one of three National League first-base finalists for a Gold Glove Award. Belt, who never won a Gold Glove, has been considered a premier first defender through his 10 years as a Giant. The other finalists are Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals and Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs.

The coronavirus may have shortened the 2020 MLB season and thus cost San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt a shot at playing in the All-Star Game, but he’s still getting some much-deserved recognition. On Thursday it was announced that Belt was named a finalist for the National League Gold Glove Award at first base. If Belt were to win, it would give the Giants their first Gold Glove Award since Brandon Crawford won his third straight in 2017.

Let’s workshop some examples: Optimistic point: He was only given 12 plate appearances, so we can’t really judge his lack of performance because the sample size is too small. Pessimistic counterpoint: He was optioned to make room for Steven Duggar, and then he stayed in Sacramento while the team called up Luis Alexander Basabe and Joey Rickard and Basabe again and Duggar again.

When Dusty Baker was diagnosed with prostate cancer during the winter before the 2002 season – his last managing the San Francisco Giants – he had a choice to make regarding treatment: either radiation or an invasive removal procedure known as a prostatectomy. That offseason he traveled to Kauai, the northwestern-most island in the Hawaiian […]

I do not believe this to be a particularly controversial statement. But where will they target — in free agency and in trades — as the area to get better? Hopefully all of them, but one area usually gets targeted more than the others.

It was a promising transition for a rebuilding team, but it doesn’t mean outfield positions are set in 2021 — except, that is, for Mike Yastrzemski. review: The Giants sported an all-Farhan Zaidi outfield by the end of the season, which was no surprise considering the outfielders inherited by the president of baseball operations weren’t exactly getting it done. Yastrzemski in right, Mauricio Dubón in center and an Alex Dickerson/Darin Ruf platoon in left.

In their first full year without Joe Panik, the Giants ended up just fine at second base. Donovan Solano gave them a surprise star at the position.

Up next in our series of San Francisco Giants reviews: right-handed pitcher Johnny Cueto. Season stats 12 games (12 starts), 63.1 innings, 61 hits, 26 walks, 3 hit by pitch, 9 home runs, 56 strikeouts, 1.374 WHIP 5.40 ERA, 4.64 FIP, 0.1 rWAR, 0.5 fWAR Status throughout the season Cueto began the year on the Opening Day roster, and was the starter on Opening Day. He stayed on the roster the entirety of the season.

The Boston Red Sox made a colossal mistake. It didn’t take a heroic performance in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday for Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts to prove the Red Sox were fools for parting with him, but it certainly didn’t help Boston’s case that Betts looked like the best player in the world against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Boston Red Sox made a colossal mistake. It didn’t take a heroic performance in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday for Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts to prove the Red Sox were fools for parting with him, but it certainly didn’t help Boston’s case that Betts looked like the best player in the world against the Tampa Bay Rays.

D.J. Short recaps a third-place finish for rebuilding Giants in the latest Team Roundup. (Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports)

Hello and happy Wednesday. If the San Francisco Giants want to break their four-year drought and return to the postseason in 2021, they may have to do it under the same rules they played with in 2020. In not at all shocking news, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed a desire to keep two key rule changes instituted during the coronavirus-altered season: the expanded postseason, and the automatic runner on second base to start extra innings.

He always considered himself a hitter and outfielder first,” said his coach at St. Mary’s College, Eric Valenzuela. When he was on the mound, it was a hobby. The Dodgers saw it a different way.