Wacky Moments from the 2008 San Jose Giants Team Set

I was happy to be able to pick up a 2008 Pablo Sandoval minor league card I needed the other day by buying an entire 2008 Grandstand San Jose Giants team set. This is the single-A team an hour to the south of San Francisco; they're currently "Low-A", but often times you'll see top prospects stashed there for a while, just because it's so easy for them to be evaluated by the local club. (SF's AAA team is in Sacramento, a mere 90-100 minutes away, as well).

So yeah, it was really only that Sandoval card I was after, but I was left with another 34 cards in the 2008 set as well. Some of them are ringers! We all love a good mascot card, and what's better than this one of Gigante, the lovable monkey (?) who is still the mascot of the team to this day. Back of his card says "Gigante demonstrated his gift of baseball at an early age, throwing coconuts and using bananas to hit it out of the park....If baseball does not work out, he still has his modeling career to pursue." Outstanding humor writing there!

Speaking of humor, how about Tyler LaTorre? Now this dude really showed up for picture day. He's now the pitching coach at Sacramento State University.

Likewise, Craig Whitaker's a good-time, partyin' rocknroller who loves to make it with the ladies!

Tim Alderson never ended up making it to the bigs, but he was a really highly-touted prospect around this time. In mid-2009, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2nd baseman (and three-time All-Star) Freddy Sanchez, who'd go on to very much help San Francisco win our first world series the next year. At the time, though, there was this Giants blog I used to follow closely (I've forgotten the name) that was always SUPER gloomy about anything the Giants did - especially trading away prospects. The blog was incredibly upset about this deal, and blamed GM Brian Sabean: "Damn you Sabean, damn you, you're ruining the team. FIRE SABEAN NOW!!" etc etc. 

Again: Tim Alderson, like many prospects, never made the major leagues. Freddy Sanchez was a 3-time All-Star who was a leader on the team that won the 2010 World Series.

Here are a few other fellas of note, all of whom would eventually make the majors, or, in Steve Decker's case, already had: