With Opening Day just around the corner, The Athletic dropped their list of the 125 best hitters in MLB on Tuesday, and the Giants’ representation on it will lead to some conversation.
San Francisco had three hitters included on the list: Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt and Mike Yastrzemski. More controversial, however, is the fact that the list didn’t consider any of the three “All-Star caliber” at the plate.
The list was broken into five tiers: franchise player, MVP caliber, All-Star, top starter, above average. A total of 50 players were included in the first three tiers, but no Giants made the cut. First on the list was Brandon Crawford, who was included in Tier 4B, the lowest level of the top starter tier. Next was Brandon Belt in tier 5A, the above average tier. Rounding out the list was Mike Yastrzemski, ranked 125th out of the 125 players.
The Giants don’t exactly have a murderer’s row — especially with the departures of Buster Posey and Kris Bryant — but the rankings of these players do seem a little low. Crawford had the 17th best OPS in baseball last season. Belt would have had the fourth best (.975) in all of baseball had he had enough at-bats to qualify. The fact that both couldn’t make it into at least the All-Star tier is a bit head-scratching.
The Dodgers meanwhile had the most players included on the list with eight: Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, Will Smith, Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, Chris Taylor and Justin Turner.