San Francisco Giants 2019 MLB All-Star weekend recap

With the 2019 MLB All-Star break now in the rearview, let’s take a look back at how the San Francisco Giants representatives fared during All-Star weekend.

The eyes of San Francisco Giants fans and the baseball world alike have been focused on Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio for the past several days for all the sights and sounds of All-Star weekend.

The Giants were represented by closer Will Smith in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, while top prospects Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos took the field for the Futures Game last Sunday.

We’ll start with the All-Star Game.

With the NL trailing 3-1, Smith came on to pitch with two outs in the seventh inning in relief of Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff.

His greeting was an unkind one. The first pitch he threw was crushed into the right-field seats by Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo, giving the AL squad a 4-1 lead. The game ended 4-3, so that proved to be the deciding run.

He avoided further damage by inducing a groundout to third base from Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor, and that was the end of his night.

Another instance of a San Francisco Giants pitcher struggling in the All-Star Game, though not on the same level Atlee Hammaker in 1983 or Johnny Cueto in 2016.

Seeing as Smith will almost certainly be traded at some point before the July 31 trade deadline, let’s turn our attention to two players who San Francisco Giants fans hope will be a big part of the clubs’ future success.

Catcher Joey Bart was extremely impressive during spring training, leading some to believe that he could make his MLB debut at some point in 2019. However, he broke his left hand after getting hit by a pitch in April, and that cost him some developmental time.

He’s returned to action at the beginning of June after missing six weeks, and he’s hitting just .242/.301/.432 with 12 extra-base hits in 143 plate appearances on the year.

The middling offensive production is to be expected for someone coming off a hand fracture, but it’s still an unfortunate setback. His struggles at the plate were reflected in his Futures Game performance, as he went 0-for-2 with a strikeout.

However, he did show off his strong arm, throwing out Tampa Bay Rays prospect Wander Franco—who has 60-grade speed according to MLB.com and 17 steals on the year—trying to swipe second base.

Heliot Ramos is having a much better season at the plate despite missing some time with an injury of his own. He’s hitting .292/.374/.487 with 11 doubles and nine home runs as a 19-year-old at the High-A level.

He singled up the middle in his lone plate appearance.

All in all, a forgettable few days from the San Francisco Giants contingent at All-Star weekend.

Still, fans can look forward to the progression of Bart and Ramos as they make their way toward the majors, while also being thankful for the time Smith spent closing out games. Who knows, maybe one of the prospects the team inevitably gets in exchange for Smith will be playing in the Futures Game for the Giants next year.