Kurtenbach: The SF Giants are a .500 team again. But this year, that record feels different

After years of mercenary, unathletic teams, the 2023 Giants are anything but boring.

Now 50 games into the season, the San Francisco Giants have the record we all expected: 25-25. Perfectly average, just like last year.

But this .500 record feels nothing like last year’s 81-81 campaign.

No, last year’s Giants were a team devoid of both identity and direction — a team of mercenaries that coasted through the season, not making a single wave.

Or, to put it in blunt terms: they were boring.

Perhaps it’s recency bias — the Giants have been playing good ball as of late to even their record at this juncture — but the 2023 edition of the black and orange is not boring.

This squad’s record might be mediocre, but for the first time in a long time, it feels like the Giants are building toward something.

An identity is starting to take form.

So even if the Giants’ record never improves from the .500 mark, this season should provide hope that the best is yet to come for San Francisco. Hope is a powerful thing, and it’s been a while since we felt it around these parts.

Never forget, sports are entertainment, and these days, I see parallels between baseball and the movie industry.

There are two ways to put butts in seats at home or the theatre/stadium.

One way is to give audiences the tried and true. Big names, big explosions — rinse and repeat. Blockbuster movies have big budgets and make big money — their fans are deeply devoted.

This is the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and Padres’ brand of team building. It’s good for revenue, but it’s won one World Series since 2000. (No, the Dodgers’ shortened-season World Series doesn’t count.) You can’t buy a title these days.

The other way to engage an audience is to be young and flashy. In that case, the franchise and the audience grow together. The trick is that when you do build a young, lovable, winning core, you can’t go full A’s and decide to cut it down after only a few years.

This is the path of the Braves, the Blue Jays, the Orioles, and the Diamondbacks.

This is the way the Giants won three World Series last decade.

Now, the Giants wanted to be the blockbuster kind of team — at least, that was their public position. I’ll admit, I wanted that for the Giants, too.

But that’s because I didn’t see the possibility of being the second kind of team.

I see it now. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that I couldn’t see it for so long.

Casey Schmitt might be morally opposed to ball four (through Thursday’s game, he’s yet to take a walk in his Major League career), but he sure can smack the ball around the yard and is impressive with the glove. He’s someone you want to watch every night.

Patrick Bailey has only been in the Majors for a few days, but he has been so impressive, it’s hard to imagine him ever returning to the minors. He’s 23 years old, going on 35 behind the plate — masterfully stealing strikes for his pitchers and intimidating runners of all speeds. With a bat in his hands, he’s clean and professional with plenty of pop.

I’m not saying he’s the second coming of Buster Posey — I’d like to keep whatever credibility I have. But it has to be noted that Bailey is doing some of the same things that made Posey an immediate success upon his call-up — the same things that made him, eventually, a Hall of Fame player.

The Giants’ revamped farm system has fallen out of favor with evaluators in recent years, but these two prospects have proven worth the wait.

These are two everyday players that the Giants can build around.

Add in Thairo Estrada — one of baseball’s best second basemen — the recently extended Logan Webb as your No. 1 starter, and Camilo Doval as your shut-down closer, and the Giants are starting to form the basis of a core.

And it’s a core that’s 27 years old or younger (much younger, in some cases.) It’s a core that’s winning as of late.

Perhaps this is just a mirage — a regression to the mean. The league will figure out that Schmitt doesn’t walk, or the Giants’ roster log jam at catcher will force Bailey back down to Triple-A. I’m not naive enough to think that these two future mainstays are guaranteed to be current mainstays.

But I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that once Schmitt arrived in the Majors, the Giants have the second-most wins in baseball.

These Giants might have started slowly, but now they look young, athletic, pragmatic, and selfless.

Pair that with a bullpen that has been lights out as of late and a couple of good top-line starting pitchers next to Webb, and you have a team worthy of nightly viewing.

You might even have a team with shades of the 2021 Giants, who won 107 games and were defined by their pragmatism and selflessness.

A fat win number like that isn’t in the cards for the Giants this year. Still, now that they’re back at .500, they’re in a position to compete come September and to keep us engaged and interested the whole way. And more attention-worthy prospects possibly joining this young core in the months to come: RHP Kyle Harrison (21 years old), OF Luis Matos (21), and perhaps even SS Marco Luciano (21) are poised to make their big-league debuts this season.

Something is developing for this Giants franchise, and it’s bigger than just the team’s record.

This is a whole different type of .500.

This feels like something significant that will stick around for years to come.

And that’s anything but boring.