2013 Top Prospects

[MarcoPolo]

??

Too good to consider yourself one of us, Marco?

In general, I don't use the board nicknames (unless they're obvious, like 'Vogey' or 'MadBum').

 

[SFGRTB]

Speakin of the devil, AnVill hit a homer tonight in his second game in AA.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Speakin of the devil, AnVill hit a homer tonight in his second game in AA.

But unfortunately that's his ONLY hit in AA. 1-for-8, his line is : .125 .125 .500 .625

 

[SFAnthem]

Kyle Crick Update

Taken from SF Giant Potential blog

If Crick puts on an 18, he could look like a young Cain on the mound. Also, watch his power curve about a minute and a half in..awesome

I really enjoy this guy's blog: gets good video of players and provides a nice summary of the next generation of Giants.

Some good Heath Hembree, Gary Brown and Mac Williamson news too

 

[dubabay]

Kyle Crick threw 5 innings with no hits last week, although he walked 5. Since getting back from DL he has only allowed 3 runs and 11 hits in 25 innings although he keeps walking people, something he has to work.

Edwin Escobar was promoted to AA, had a rough first start but only allowed 1 run and no walks in his second start in 6.2 innings.

Th future for some of this young pitchers look good, Escobar could be fighting for a spot next spring.

 

[Giantsmojo]

Ryder Jones is killing Rookie ball so far. .422/.500/.622

 

[Sandisfan]

I am NEW here

Re-post of introduction: Been a Giants fan since I was about 7 years old (1964). Have been until about 6 or 7 years ago glass half full type...Now I'm a bit cynical... It's funny that I have become more cynical, even though they have won 2 world series... Yeah a bit weird.

I have become a bit cynical about the Giants top prospects. look to next post for reasons.

 

[Sandisfan]

Here is what I posted at another time recently.

A batting coach can only do so much. The Giants need better players. The Giants have not drafted well for over 20 years. When the Giants were bad before Clark , Robby Thompson, Matt Williams. Then they drafted those 3 in a short period when they had high 1st round picks. Clark and Williams were high 1st rounders Thompson I think was a 2nd rounder................ Now think about it since then who besides Sandoval and Posey have they drafted that has been above average as a hitter at their position? Posey was a high 1st rounder so in about 30 to 35 years the only players they have drafted that were above average as hitters for their position that were not high 1st rounders were Robby and Panda...... Better HITTERS IS THE ANSWER......... They only pick up occasionally hitters as free Agents Bonds and a couple of others or by trade but if you almost never draft good above average players in a park that is bad for hitters and discourages free agents or having to way over pay you will be a perennial weak scoring team. Batting average is not an overall performance rating... runs scored is the number that needs to be better.

In response to another poster on another board.

 

[Sandisfan]

Some of my perspective

First of all Double A ball is the most important step because there are many Single A teams so that when a player makes it to Double A that could be considered to be an all-star team of those from Single A.

I think that Single A performances must translate to Double AA and when a player get older that 21 to 23 his level is what it will be for the most part.

When I look at Single A, most of the very good players will not make it in Double AA as above average players at their position. I really don't see anyone as hitters that are close to being above average players anywhere near ready for the Majors. Plus when you take into consideration over the last 20 years plus how many somewhat promising hitters that never made any difference to the Giants at the Big leagues.

The Giants drafted Position players have had a terrible track record for many years.

 

[SFGRTB]

A batting coach can only do so much. The Giants need better players. The Giants have not drafted well for over 20 years. When the Giants were bad before Clark , Robby Thompson, Matt Williams. Then they drafted those 3 in a short period when they had high 1st round picks. Clark and Williams were high 1st rounders Thompson I think was a 2nd rounder................ Now think about it since then who besides Sandoval and Posey have they drafted that has been above average as a hitter at their position? Posey was a high 1st rounder so in about 30 to 35 years the only players they have drafted that were above average as hitters for their position that were not high 1st rounders were Robby and Panda...... Better HITTERS IS THE ANSWER......... They only pick up occasionally hitters as free Agents Bonds and a couple of others or by trade but if you almost never draft good above average players in a park that is bad for hitters and discourages free agents or having to way over pay you will be a perennial weak scoring team. Batting average is not an overall performance rating... runs scored is the number that needs to be better.

In response to another poster on another board.

The answer to what? Drafting pitchers like Tim, Cain, Bumgarner, Wilson, Romo got us 2 World Series Championships.

 

[calsnowskier]

The answer to what? Drafting pitchers like Tim, Cain, Bumgarner, Wilson, Romo got us 2 World Series Championships.

But at least he is a glass-half-full type of guy...

 

[Sandisfan]

It's strange but up until recently I have been a half full

But at least he is a glass-half-full type of guy...

guy. It's weird that for 20 plus years following the Giants prospects as much as I could, it isn't untill they won a world series and then a second that I have become cynical about the Giants Drafting, Developing and signing of young players.

I have been in the "there must be some really good players around the corner" mind set for so long without much in the way of results, (position players) other than when they have drafted high in the 1st round, that it has made me a bit too cynical.

P.S. drafting High in the 1st round means they were terrible for a year or two.

 

[Sandisfan]

By the way drafting very good pitcher can work

As it did for the last few years but they had to fill in the lineup with players who were not overly good players who happened to have very good post seasons... trusting just OK players to come through is at best risky (hey it did work so who knows).
You have to get very good pitchers to make that work if you wiff on a couple more pitchers you could end up with an OK starting pitching staff and a terrible line up.

 

[calsnowskier]

As it did for the last few years but they had to fill in the lineup with players who were not overly good players who happened to have very good post seasons... trusting just OK players to come through is at best risky (hey it did work so who knows).
You have to get very good pitchers to make that work if you wiff on a couple more pitchers you could end up with an OK starting pitching staff and a terrible line up.

So again, you are looking at the strength (drafting/developing pitchers) and only see that they are close to being bad, if only they whiffed on a few more of them.

If they were to focus on hitters more (which they did this year, by the way), than they run the risk of being pitching poor. You can't have both, without bucking some serious odds.

The 2008 draft is considered an absolute HR for the Giants. Buster Posey and Braden Crawford come from that class. There is still some promise with Surkamp, Perez and Kieshnick, but the class IS Buster and Craw. 2 players out if 50 rounds. The MLB draft is a crapshoot.

 

[SFGRTB]

I think one thing you are looking past is the old way this team used to run itself, in the Bonds era. Since 2006 when it was clear that they had to change philosophies, they started building through the draft. But before that, during most of the Bonds era, this team gave up many draft picks to find veterans who would help this team win with Bonds. They put most of their chips into that pile and invested little in the minor leagues, including the development of players.

Since 2006, the philosophy changed, more money has put into the draft and the development of minor league players (particularly pitchers) and the results came out better than expected. And thanks to those results, the Giants have enough money to still invest in the minors and hang on to these guys when they get expensive.

I understand your point, the hitters have not seen the same success as the pitchers and you would like to see both, but that just doesn't happen. Teams just don't have enough resources to be able to have a fully functioning minor league system that produces great pitchers and hitters and are able to hold on to them. The A's are arguably the closest team to being that way, but they have to clean the house every 3-4 years because they have to keep their payroll low. The Rangers could have done this, but they have made a big trade involving some of their top prospects each of the last 5 years. The Dodgers could arguably have done this (which scares the hell out of me), but for the time being they have decided to buy a team of All-Stars. The Yankees look like they are gearing up for this once the Jeter/Rivera era's are over. The Giants were smart to get ahead of the game.

 

[SFGRTB]

^ I forgot to mention the Cardinals as another team that is able to draft and develop legit minor league players and have the resources to hang onto them. But even their strength has been towards developing hitters as opposed to pitchers, but they've even out in that regard. And when you think about the Cardinals, you don't think about all the superstars they have. Though look where it's gotten them.

 

[calsnowskier]

^ I forgot to mention the Cardinals as another team that is able to draft and develop legit minor league players and have the resources to hang onto them. But even their strength has been towards developing hitters as opposed to pitchers, but they've even out in that regard. And when you think about the Cardinals, you don't think about all the superstars they have. Though look where it's gotten them.

I think the Cards are the poster-child of this philosophy. They have had an elite farm program for generations.

As much hate as the Spanks get, they have traditionally had a VERY strong farm program as well. They have simply been able to hold onto their stars as well as supplement with FAs from outside the org that the farm gets forgotten as the primary source of their prolonged success. (Rivera, Pettite, Jeter, Williams, Cano, Posada, etc)

The Braves have also been a strong team, but certainly below the Spanks and Cards.

 

[MarcoPolo]

A batting coach can only do so much. The Giants need better players. The Giants have not drafted well for over 20 years. When the Giants were bad before Clark , Robby Thompson, Matt Williams. Then they drafted those 3 in a short period when they had high 1st round picks. Clark and Williams were high 1st rounders Thompson I think was a 2nd rounder................ Now think about it since then who besides Sandoval and Posey have they drafted that has been above average as a hitter at their position? Posey was a high 1st rounder so in about 30 to 35 years the only players they have drafted that were above average as hitters for their position that were not high 1st rounders were Robby and Panda...... Better HITTERS IS THE ANSWER......... They only pick up occasionally hitters as free Agents Bonds and a couple of others or by trade but if you almost never draft good above average players in a park that is bad for hitters and discourages free agents or having to way over pay you will be a perennial weak scoring team. Batting average is not an overall performance rating... runs scored is the number that needs to be better.

Sandoval wasn't drafted, he was signed as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela.

And for all the "horrible" drafts the Giants have had in recent years, 4 of the 5 IF slots are manned by guys that came up through the Giants minors : Posey, Belt, Panda, Crawford. And 4 of the 5 starting pitchers were drafted by the Giants (Vogey 15 years ago, but he was drafted and came up through the Giants minors.) Most teams would kill for that.

"Drafting and developing great pitching" has already been addressed here, so I won't belabor the point.

 

[SFGRTB]

Mejia started for Fresno tonight. Wonder what that means? Pitched okay: 5IP, 5H, 2ER, 2BBs, 2Ks, 81 pitches, 50 strikes.

Mejia is a young lefty, strike thrower, mid 90s fastball, work-in-progress off-speed pitches. One of our bright young prospects.

 

[calsnowskier]

Mejia started for Fresno tonight. Wonder what that means? Pitched okay: 5IP, 5H, 2ER, 2BBs, 2Ks, 81 pitches, 50 strikes.

Mejia is a young lefty, strike thrower, mid 90s fastball, work-in-progress off-speed pitches. One of our bright young prospects.

My initial thought is that Fresno needed an arm, and mejia was available. Org shuffling, nothing more.

However, he is one of our top prospects, so a jump is not out of the question.

Remember a few years ago, Adrianza went from Augusta to Fresno for about a week or so. Confused all the prospect hounds.