[Mick]

I was looking at the SF Giants schedule for my first game to attend. My parameters are a home, Mon-Thur game not against the Dodgers, but against a decent team. Don’t really want to see the Mets on UC Berkeley night. That leaves the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, 4/24; Tuesday, 4/25 or Wednesday, 4/26 (St. Mary's night, so--not that one). The 4/25 game by total coincidence is Santa Clara University night, so that's the game.
 
In perusing the schedule, just a few quick observations:

1) The Giants' early home schedule is brutal: Mets, Dodgers, Cardinals -- the road schedule is forgiving, the Yankees and a bunch of second division AL clubs.

2) Just as an aside…I’m a little alarmed at how cheap the tickets are on StubHub. Not that I’m against paying lower prices, but that’s an indicator of what season attendance is going to be like. The Giants have had seven consecutive years of declining attendance, in part because they haven’t been a playoff team since 2015, in part because businesses have fled downtown SF because of COVID (less walkup business), in part because SF is such a shithole because of the social issues. 2015 attendance was 3.375 mms., 2022 attendance was 2.482 mms.  I think signing Judge would have cut that in half.
 
3) I know people have been excoriating Farhan, but his winning percentage increased every year until last year -- and how much better off would he have been if Buster Posey played during the 2020/COVID year? The Giants missed the playoffs by a game. The Giants ranked 12th of 15 in WAR at the catcher position that year, Joey Bart’s rookie year with his .609 OPS and his 18% caught stealing rate. If Posey's in, they're in the playoffs.

[Mick]

I was looking at the SF Giants schedule for my first game to attend. My parameters are a home, Mon-Thur game not against the Dodgers, but against a decent team. Don’t really want to see the Mets on UC Berkeley night. That leaves the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, 4/24; Tuesday, 4/25 or Wednesday, 4/26 (St. Mary's night, so--not that one). The 4/25 game by total coincidence is Santa Clara University night, so that's the game.
 
In perusing the schedule, just a few quick observations:

1) The Giants' early home schedule is brutal: Mets, Dodgers, Cardinals -- the road schedule is forgiving, the Yankees and a bunch of second division AL clubs.

2) Just as an aside…I’m a little alarmed at how cheap the tickets are on StubHub. Not that I’m against paying lower prices, but that’s an indicator of what season attendance is going to be like. The Giants have had seven consecutive years of declining attendance, in part because they haven’t been a playoff team since 2015, in part because businesses have fled downtown SF because of COVID (less walkup business), in part because SF is such a shithole because of the social issues. 2015 attendance was 3.375 mms., 2022 attendance was 2.482 mms.  I think signing Judge would have cut that in half.
 
3) I know people have been excoriating Farhan, but his winning percentage increased every year until last year -- and how much better off would he have been if Buster Posey played during the 2020/COVID year? The Giants missed the playoffs by a game. The Giants ranked 12th of 15 in WAR at the catcher position that year, Joey Bart’s rookie year with his .609 OPS and his 18% caught stealing rate. If Posey's in, they're in the playoffs.