After playing his first years in the Majors with the Cleveland Spiders, George Davis was traded to New York in a pre-season 1893 trade that proved beneficial to the Giants.

A versatile player who started multiple games at Shortstop, Third Base, and the Outfield, Davis' hitting flourished under the new rules of the pushed back Pitcher's mound.  Davis batted over 300 over the next nine seasons, three of which saw him exceed .350.  He collected over 100 RBIs three times, including a league-leading 135 in 1897.  Like many of the other players of his era, Davis was an excellent base stealer, swiping 357 bags of his 619 as a Giant.

Davis would jump to the Chicago White Sox of the American League before the 1902 Season, playing there a season before being forced to return in 1903 to New York, but that was a brief four Games before he was sent to the White Sox, where he closed out his career.

With New York, Davis batted .332 with 1,432 Hits.

Davis was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 when he was elected by the Veteran's Committee.

Madison Bumgarner was the tenth pick of the 2007 Amateur Draft, and two years later, he made his debut for the Giants.

Bumgarner would entrench himself in the Giants rotation the year after in June and became a big part of San Francisco's World Series win that year.  Year by year, Bumgarner took over as the ace of San Francisco's staff and played a more prominent role in the Giants' 2012 World Series win. 

From 2013 to 2016, Bumgarner was named to the All-Star Game, finished every year with an ERA under three, and had at least 199 Strikeouts.  Bumgarner was in the top ten in Cy Young voting in all of those seasons, and his hitting gained him two Silver Sluggers. 

What will forever keep Bumgarner in the Giants zeitgeist was his spectacular performance in the 2014 playoffs, where he won the NLCS MVP and World Series MVP, the latter seeing him allow only one over 21 Innings.  It is arguably the best performance by any Giants hurler in the post-season.

Bumgarner left San Francisco as a Free Agent for the Diamondbacks, leaving the Bay Area with a record of 119-92 with 1,794 Strikeouts.

Travis Jackson played his entire career with the New York Giants (1922-36), where he was one of the best defensive players in franchise history.

Jackson played mostly at Shortstop but easily subbed in at Third Base when needed.  Leading the National League three times in Defensive bWAR and finishing second three times, Jackson earned the nickname "Stonewall" for his ability to stop ground balls.  While many defensive stars those days were soft with the bat, Jackson was a decent hitter, who had a lifetime Batting Average of .291, and hit 135 Home Runs.  Jackson, who had four top-ten MVP finishes, helped New York win the World Series in 1933 and enabled them to appear in three more.

An underappreciated player in the history of the Giants when they were in New York, George Burns was a Catcher-turned-Outfielder who made ripples with his bat and glove for the Giants in the 1910s.

Burns was first called up in 1911 and was a regular in 1913, a season where he helped New York win the Pennant and established himself as a capable leadoff man.  One of four players to lead the league in Runs five times and Walks five times, Burns also led the NL in Stolen Bases twice (1914 & 1919) and would steal 334 bags in total as a Giant.  Collecting 1,541 Hits and batting .290 for New York, Burns appeared in the World Series three times, winning a title in 1921.

Following New York’s ’21 Title, Burns was traded to Cincinnati, ending his run in New York, but never in the conversation about who was the Giants' best leadoff hitter ever.