1st January 1889
The fans of the Giants were slightly happier with their teams performance last year but were still looking for a strong off season to improve the side. The Owner was also happywith the improvements made last year and left the front office alone to get on with the work of building the squad for next year.
There was a surprise at the NL awards Dinner as Pitcher James Burke won the big prize of the NL Pitcher of the Year Award.
There was also a Golden Glove for Sam Barkley.
The only changes to the existing squad were retirements. This included four players hanging up their cleats.
Only one of these players made any major contribution to the big leagues. This player was Right Fielder George Fields. Fields spent 16 years playing professional baseball and managed to earn 3 golden glove and 4 All Star appearances in that time with both Cleveland and New York. He played in 625 games, starting 552 of those. He hit 562 times and scored 318 runs with 237 RBI's for an average of .244 (Real life stats 18 games, 21 hits, 16 runs, 9 RBI's for an average of .241)
Of the other 3 players retiring only Horace Phillips played any games in the Majors. He managed 5 appearances with 1 hit, 1 run and an average of .250 (Real life stats 0 games). The other 2 players were Frank Berkelbach and Pat Carroll who both failed to make it to the big time. Berkelbach (Real life stats 6 games, 6 hits, 3 runs, 3 RBI's for an average of .240) and Carroll (Real life stats 16 games, 16 hits, 5 runs, .235 average)
The team were given 6 draft selections this year and used all of the during the First Year Player Draft. The team used their first selection to get Pitcher Jack Stivetts. The full draft log is given below.
All draftees signed by the deadline.