The Giants' All-Quarter Century Team: Barry Bonds and the rest of the best since 2000

New York Times

5 days ago

Editor's note: The Athletic is marking 2025 by naming an MLB All-Quarter Century Team, selected by Jayson Stark. We're inviting readers to take our survey and make their picks for the best players at each position since 2000, with the results announced in an upcoming story. Some of our beat writers are picking All-Quarter Century Teams for the teams they cover. Check this page to find all of our All-Quarter Century Team coverage.
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When you see similar stories across The Athletic's team sites, that's usually because people behind the scenes came up with the idea. If my contract were up, I'd describe them as 'smart people,' but it's not, so let's not give them any ideas.
The All-Quarter Century trend that began with Jayson Stark's piece and has been spreading among my colleagues, though, has been totally organic. It's easy to see why. Ranking things is fun. Round numbers are easy to comprehend. Unambiguous beginning and end points keep the debates from being too sprawling. Once upon a time, it was the year 2000. Now it's 2025. Who have the best baseball players been for every franchise during that time?
For the Giants, though, there's an entirely different meaning. The year 2000 is when the Giants moved from the worst stadium in baseball to the best ballpark in the world. In those 25 years, the ballpark has been the setting for the single-season home run record, the all-time home run record, a perfect game, six Most Valuable Player awards and three championship teams. Before the turn of the millennium, the future of San Francisco baseball was uncertain. After 2000, San Francisco baseball finally became permanent. Get out of here, Tampa. Go find another team to play in the centre of your town, Toronto.
Quick ground rules for making the Giants' All-Quarter-Century Team: I'm not going to ignore how many rings every player has, but I'm also not going to give championship seasons as much weight as cumulative value over several seasons. Joe Panik has The Flip, which might make him the most important Giants second baseman of the last 25 years, but it'll be an uphill battle for him to make a list like this.
Bench spots will be filled by bench players, not excellent regulars who didn't make the varsity squad. Same goes with the bullpen: one closer and one closer only.
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I will attempt to keep the capsules short, which means this will be the longest article you've ever opened in your life. Apologies in advance.
With that out of the way, let's dive in.
Just seeing if you're paying attention.
WAR leader: Buster Posey (45.0)
No surprises here. If you want a hagiography of Posey, you can find them, so let's focus on the other catchers over the last 25 seasons. Here's how all the non-Poseys rank by WAR (an admittedly lousy way to evaluate catchers):
2. Benito Santiago (4.6 WAR)
3. Bengie Molina (2.6)
4. (t) Patrick Bailey (2.5)
4. (t) Bobby Estalella (2.5)
6. Yorvit Torrealba (2.4)
7. Curt Casali (2.1)
8. Chris Stewart (2.1)
9. Stephen Vogt (1.1)
10. Doug Mirabelli (0.9)
A.J. Pierzynski was 19th, with 0.3 WAR, in case you were wondering, behind Blake Sabol, Austin Wynns, Eliézer Alfonzo and Todd Greene. Seems high.
WAR leader: Brandon Belt (27.9)
The Giants are an excellent team for this exercise in terms of how important the post-1999 years have been for the franchise. They're a lousy team for this exercise if you like surprises. Of course it's Belt, the Giants' best homegrown first baseman since Will Clark. I'd say that Travis Ishikawa merited a little thought because of his pennant-winning home run, except he did that as a left fielder, not a first baseman. Maybe he'll be the choice when we get to left field. Haven't really thought about that position yet.
J.T. Snow merits a special note, though, for his absurd 2004 season. He missed more than 50 games, yet he still finished with the highest WAR of his career by hitting .327/.429/.529 as a 36-year-old. It's even more absurd when you break it down by half: .261/.351/.400 in the first half, .387/.496/.646 in the second. It was one of the most unexpected and hilarious heaters you'll ever see a player have.
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WAR leader: Jeff Kent (19.5)
I was planning on getting cute and selecting Ray Durham for this spot as a way to celebrate his underrated Giants career. Kent nearly doubled him up on WAR, though, which would be hard to ignore even if Kent didn't also win an MVP and a pennant. Which he did. So it's an obvious choice here, even if it's a begrudging one. If it makes you feel better, he didn't make the Dodgers' version of this exercise. (He wasn't even their WAR leader, finishing behind Gavin Lux.)
I don't know if it's worthwhile to rank the runners up for every position, but this one gets that treatment because it's a great way to remember some guys:
2. Ray Durham (10.5)
3. Joe Panik (7.0)
4. Thairo Estrada (4.5)
5. Donovan Solano (4.1)
6. Marco Scutaro (4.0)
7. Freddy Sánchez (2.9)
8. Kelby Tomlinson (1.6)
9. Brandon Hicks (0.6)
10. Christian Koss (0.5)
Kelby Tomlinson is an optometrist now, and he played on the 2015 Giants with Dr. Justin Maxwell, DDS. Is there any other team in baseball history that's had two future doctors on the same team? I'm desperately hoping that Marlon Byrd is an ornithologist now, and I'm not even going to look it up. I'm just going to will it into existence.
WAR leader: Brandon Crawford (29.7)
Rich Aurilia had one of the greatest seasons from any shortstop in baseball history (2001), but here's another position that could have been selected without a second of additional research. Of course it's Crawford.
The Giants have had such amazing longevity and stability at shortstop in the last quarter-century that Dixon Machado sneaks into the top 10 with the 0.1 WAR he accumulated over five games. If you're a member of Machado's immediate family, and you're reading this, that's right: He was on the Giants.
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Willy Adames is currently behind Machado, Tomás de la Rosa, Johan Camargo, Cody Ransom and Luis Figueroa. Hopefully that changes over the next several seasons, both for your sake and his.
WAR leader: Pablo Sandoval (20.8)
The young pitching gets the lion's share of the credit for the championship era, and rightfully so. But don't overlook that Sandoval went from being unranked in the Baseball America Giants' top-30 prospect list to the majors in 2008. He was blocked by Bengie Molina behind the plate, so the Giants asked him to move to third base, even though he'd played only 21 games there in the minors, and he was immediately a solid defender. It's one of the most unusual developmental stories you'll ever see, and it helped the Giants win three World Series.
Sandoval has six home runs and a .464 slugging percentage for the Staten Island FerryHawks right now, in case you were wondering. He's teammates with former Giants prospect Adalberto Mejía, who was once traded for Eduardo Nuñéz, who was traded for Shaun Anderson, who was traded for LaMonte Wade, Jr.
WAR leader: Travis Ishikawa (one pennant)
Again, just seeing if you're paying attention. We're not even a third of the way done. Keep your focus.
WAR leader: Barry Bonds (59.0)
In second place in WAR for left fielders is Melky Cabrera, but he is DISQUALIFIED for using performance-enhancing drugs. We simply don't abide by that sort of tomfoolery around these parts. So let's celebrate Bonds instead.
If you were there, you'll never be able to explain it properly. If you weren't there, you'll never understand. Bonds' on-base percentage in those eight seasons was .517, which seems low. Pat Burrell and Alex Dickerson both hit 23 home runs as a Giants left fielder this millennium, which is the second-highest total after Bonds, who hit 37 home runs in 114 games against the Padres alone.
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WAR leader: Andrés Torres (7.8)
Finally, a tough decision! Torres' WAR total is mostly inflated by his incredible 2010 season, so Pagán gets the tiebreaker because of longevity. And because this is one of the greatest regular-season moments in the ballpark:
It wouldn't take long for Jung Hoo Lee to claim this spot. Check back in the year 2050*.
(* Just kidding. There isn't going to be a 2050.)
WAR leader: Mike Yastrzemski (15.4)
Unlike some of the other positions, you have to scroll a while in right field to get to the players you don't remember. It doesn't take that long to start remembering some guys — Ryan McKenna, Ka'ai Tom and Francisco Santos round out the top 20, which is a combination of words that might make you think I used Chat GPT to write this whole thing — but the top five is a heckuva group: Yastrzemski, Randy Winn, Hunter Pence, Ellis Burks and Moises Alou. All of them have arguments for a spot on the team, depending on what's important to you.
If you're counting championship rings and popularity, it's Pence all the way. The WAR gap (Pence had 9.9) is hard to ignore, though, and when you dig into the traditional numbers, it's still Yastrzemski, who has more homers, more doubles and a higher OBP and SLG. He'll probably catch Pence in games played and runs scored before the end of this season, too. There won't be a lot of recent Giants who make this team, so take a minute to appreciate how good Yastrzemski has been over the last few years.
WAR leader: Hard to say. Austin Slater had the best OPS (.869) when he didn't start the game, but they don't give WAR totals in those same splits. If you don't care about plate appearances, note that Scott Munter has the best OPS among all reserves, with a 3.000 OPS (one double and one sac bunt in two plate appearances).
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It's tricky to figure out where the starters end and the reserves begin. Wilmer Flores would make it, but he's started too much. Same goes with a lot of other players.
Torrealba faced stiff competition from Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, Willie Mac Award winner Nick Hundley and Doug Mirabelli, but he did the job — and did it well — for so long, that he didn't just lead backup catchers in WAR. He led them by a hefty amount. If the Giants trusted him to be a starter behind the plate, they don't make the A.J. Pierzynski trade. Sounds great, but then Francisco Liriano gives up three earned runs in Game 1 of the 2010 NLDS and Tim Lincecum gets drafted by the Diamondbacks. Be careful what you wish for.
Hands up if you can't say Arías' full name without adding 'FROM DEEP THIRRRRRD' afterward. This will continue for the rest of your lives, and you're better for it. And as long as we're referencing the announcers' part in these memories, listen to the mirth in Mike Krukow's voice here:
I'd wager that Blanco might have a chance to be on the all-2000s bench if you widen the pool to include all 30 teams. We're talking dedicated reserves, not younger players trying to win a starting job one day, and not declining name-brand veterans. He was the platonic ideal of an extra outfielder. Played all three positions, did a ton well. The Giants probably have one championship without him.
Slater is healthy again and has two home runs for this year's White Sox team. You'll never believe it, but both of the homers came against left-handers.
WAR leaders: See above
Some writers will have to make tough decisions for their team's list. The Giants did not make it very difficult. Without Webb, it would have been Ryan Vogelsong, most likely, although Johnny Cueto had the highest WAR among runners-up.
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The WAR ranking has Bumgarner first, followed by Cain, Schmidt, Lincecum and Webb, in that order. Webb has a shot to move into third place by the end of the season, though. Mostly, I just want a time machine, some robot parts and Tim Lincecum's trust. We'll get him fixed up in short order.
WAR leader: Sergio Romo (9.2)
Again, we're trying to put these pitchers in the roles they were actually in for the Giants. So while we can't use Casilla's time as middle reliever to support his case as the quarter-century closer, we can definitely use it to point out that he was one of the better middle relievers on the team for quite a while. For a couple seasons, his role was comparable to what Randy Rodríguez is doing for this year's team, and a funny aside is that Casilla has just 3 1/3 career innings in the World Series, despite being a healthy, effective reliever in the 16 World Series games his team played in. There will be multiple high-leverage relievers who get that in this year's NLDS alone, I'll wager.
Kontos might be a surprise, but I'm defining the role as someone who you felt comfortable getting up in the fifth inning, but typically came into the sixth or seventh of a normal game. Nobody filled that role better than Kontos over the years.
The biggest snub is Robb Nen, who was brilliant when healthy and almost helped pitch the Giants to a championship with a shoulder that was filled with spiders and molten pain. He had a legitimate argument over Wilson, who had only three full seasons as the closer.
How many games would these players win if they were on the same team? Probably none. Galarraga is 63 years old, fer cryin' out loud. Bonds is 60, and it would be hard to expect anything better than a .380 OBP and 25 homers out of him now.
It sure is an impressive collection of players, though, and there weren't a lot of tough choices or unfortunate snubs. The quarter-century Giants team is filled with a lot of obvious selections, which goes quite a ways toward explaining why most of the last 25 seasons were so much fun. Would I trade it all for my youth and a chance to relive those 25 years? Of course not. I'd do that only if it were possible. And it's not possible. Right? Seems like it's not a real thing. But if it is, please reach out. I would definitely trade everything for it. My heavens, I was young once. You should have seen my head of hair and boundless youthful energy. It was glorious.
At least the Giants made it fun while it lasted. And, considering there of a couple players up there on this year's team, some of that fun can still be had today.
(Top photo of Bonds: Jon Soohoo / Getty Images)