Giants take Georgia Tech catcher Joey Bart with the #2 overall pick

At the end of the day, the Giants kicked the tires of the consensus top prospects and decided that their best bet was on the the best hitting college catcher available. Joey Bart won’t be taking Buster Posey’s place in the lineup or our hearts anytime soon and that was never really the thinking behind this pick. Brian Sabean is not an idiot. With the #2 overall pick, the mission statement was “Don’t screw this up”, and given the caliber of player we know Bart to be, there’s no question that the front office accomplished their mission.

You might hear the word scarcity when it comes to Bart, and that’s because it’s rare when one of the best hitters in a given draft is a catcher. As you’ll hear below in Jonathan Mayo’s analysis, Bart gets compared to Matt Wieters more often than not, and that’s probably because both of them went to Georgia Tech.

That lazy comp aside, how about this lazy analysis: the Giants drafted who they believe to be the best hitting college catcher since Buster Posey. I’m writing this post right around the time the Giants might actually release a public comment about their pick, and so maybe I’m parroting something they’e already said. The numbers don’t actually support the equivalency (I’m not going to compare Bart and Posey’s junior year numbers because that’s not important right now), but again I return to the word scarcity.

There aren’t many great hitting catchers on planet Earth, and few of them are available in a draft. There’s the old saying to “draft the best player available and not the player who most fills your need(s).” Well, Joey Bart is a quality player. A consensus “everybody would be thrilled to have him in their organization” guy, and for a team that needs a little flash and dynamism, the Giants made a very solid choice.

Here’s some video:

And here’s what 2080 Baseball had to say about him:

A power-hitting catcher who will remain at the position, Bart is seen by many as the early-season favorite to be the first catcher off the board in June. His ceiling is that of an everyday catcher at the big league level with solid catch and throw tools, 15-to-20 home run power, and a healthy dose of strikeouts.

Roger, Kevin, and Doug will have more on Joey Bart and the other picks in the coming days, so I’ll just end this post with why I think this pick will pay huge dividends: the promotional possibilities. Think about it:

• BART ads: Joey Bart is a call to civic responsibility through public transit
• Friends nostalgia night at the park: Joey “Tribbiani” Bart
• Simpsons series finale crossovers: Bart meets other famous Barts throughout history
• San Francisco Giants-themed Joey “St. Bart’s” travel packages

Congratulations to Joey Bart for achieving a part of your dream to play Major League Baseball, and welcome to the San Francisco Giants. Yes, we are as weird as you’ve heard.