Monday BP: What is holding your interest?

The San Francisco Giants season is fast approaching. It doesn’t seem like it’s near, in large part because no one is particularly clamoring to have it arrive.

The Giants were bad in 2019 and, barring something very unexpected, they’ll be bad in 2020. But now they’re not just bad, but controversial and harder to root for, due to the hiring of Gabe Kapler and the loss of Madison Bumgarner.

But chances are you’ll still be watching. That might mean 15 games. It might mean all the weekend games. It might mean 162 (or more!) games.

Whatever it is, you’ll be watching, and for one reason or another.

So what’s your reason?

Here are some pretty decent starting points:

Maybe they’ll win?

Crazy things happen in sports, and far crazier things have happened than the 2020 Giants competing for the playoffs. After all, the 2019 Giants were playing meaningful games well into August. If you’re watching for the off-chance that they actually put their best foot forward, that’s understandable.

The players you love

Buster Posey. Brandon Crawford. Brandon Belt. Johnny Cueto. Those players aren’t who they used to be, but they’re still there, and you still love them.

The continuation of last year’s bright spots

Mike Yastrzemski came out of nowhere. So did Alex Dickerson. Austin Slater was remarkably good. Evan Longoria, when healthy, was one of the team’s best players. Donovan Solano was . . . what the hell?

Will they keep that up? Probably not. But I won’t blame you for watching.

Acceleration of the youngsters

We could end up seeing Joey Bart very early on. Heck, we could end up seeing Heliot Ramos early on as well. That’s exciting.

Furthermore, there will be continued development for Logan Webb, Tyler Beede, Shaun Anderson, Steven Duggar, Mauricio Dubon, and Jaylin Davis, who all saw notable playing time last season, and flashed glimpses at various levels.

Love of the game

I mean, yeah, sure, I guess there’s that, too.

Kruk and Kuip

A perfectly valid reason when a team looks like this.

Masochism and/or self-loathing

Well, yeah, that’s always an option.