San Francisco Giants’ 2017 Draft Picks Rounds 2-10

Here’s a quick rundown of the Giants’ Day 2 draft selections:

2nd Round (58th Overall).  Jacob Gonzalez, 3B, age 19.  Gonzalez is a high school 3Bman, who is the son of former MLB star Luis Gonzalez.  He has power potential and has committed to Texas Christian Univ.

3rd Round (96).  Seth Corry, LHP, 18.  A high school lefty from Utah, he had a 1.90 ERA and 97 Ks in 52 innings pitched as a senior.  He’s committed to BYU.

4th Round (126).  Garrett Cave, RHP, 20.  A junior out of the University of Tampa, Cave has a live arm but command issues.

5th Round (156).  Jason Bahr, RHP, 22.  Another college pitcher from Florida, Bahr appears to have missed 2016 with some kind of injury, but he was very good in 2017, posting a pitching line of 60.2 IP, 42 hits, seven HRs and 15 BBs and 98 Ks.  I assume he wasn’t drafted higher because of his age and possible past injury.

6th Round (186).  Bryce Johnson, CF, 21.  Johnson slashed .350/.453/.433 and stole 33 bases in 40 attempts as a college junior.  He’s shown steady improvement in the three years of his college career.  He hit only three home runs in his college career, so his feet and glove are probably the keys to any professional success.

7th Round (216).  Logan Haresta, RHP, 20.  As the University of Buffalo’s closer this year, Haresta had a 3.63 ERA and struck out 50 batters, but walked 26, in 34.2 IP.  He looks like a project.

8th Round (246). John Gavin LHP, 21.  A pitcher originally from the South Bay, Gavin had a very successful career at Cal State Fullerton, but probably doesn’t have major league stuff (216 Ks in 273 college innings pitched), unless he can match his low college home run rates in his professional career.

9th Round (276).  Aaron Phillips, RHP, 20.  Phillips was a two-way player in college, but didn’t hit enough to be drafted.  He had a 3.04 ERA as a junior with 90 Ks in 100.2 IP.

10th Round (306).  Rob Calabrese, C, 21.  As a junior for the University of Illinois at Chicago, Calabrese slashed .353/.425/.583 in 56 games, after not playing much his freshman or sophomore seasons.  Seems like a reasonable pick for this late in the Draft.

 

San Francisco Giants Select High School OF Heliot Ramos in 1st Round

With the 19th pick of the 2016 MLB Draft, the Giants selected high school outfielder Heliot Ramos.  Once again, the Giants drafted a player higher than others had him rated, but perhaps not as dramatically so as Joe Panik and Christian Arroyo in years past.

MLB.com had Ramos rated 40th overall and Baseball America had him at 30 in their list of the top 500 (but had the Orioles selecting him with the 21st pick this morning).

Ramos is widely regarded as the best player out of Puerto Rico this draft season.  He’s about 6’1″ and 190″, which is big for 17 years old, and mlb.com at least regards him as “toolsy,” in his case, meaning he’s fast and has power potential.

Not surprisingly, he plays center field now, but is projected to end up in left field (not quite center fielder’s range, not quite right fielder’s arm).  He’ll have to hit to make the majors as a left fielder.

Clearly, the Giants’ scouts like him more than other teams did, and their recent track record can’t be discounted.  mlb.com’s report describes him as a “project” with “high upside.”  We will find out in five to seven years.

Another Day, Another Drubbing

I’m starting to strongly suspect that I will be adding Buster Posey‘s 2017 to my list of great seasons for terrible teams.  Buster’s home run today was the only thing that saved the San Francisco Giants from consecutive shutouts.

The 2017 Giants are dreadful, and I don’t think it’s too early to write off this season and say wait ’til next year.  It’s hard to believe a team could play this badly through 34 games and not really be  a bad team.  In my mind the only question is how many losses between 85 and 105 they’ll record this season.

Changes are in order, and I don’t see any benefit at this point of waiting to see if the veterans can somehow right the ship.  It’s time to bring up Joan Gregorio and Tyler Beede and plug them into the starting rotation.  Even if they get bombed, they’ll get some valuable major league experience, and it’s doubtful they’ll do any worse than whomever they replace (take your pick).

Dump has-been Justin Ruggiano and demote Gorkys Hernandez, who has proved he hasn’t got it, and bring up two of Carlos Moncrief, Orlando Calixte and Austin Slater.  They may not be any better, but at least they’re younger and might possibly have better seasons in the future.  Use the AAA roster spaces created to promote Chris Shaw and Miguel Gomez from AA Richmond.

It’s definitely time for some heads to roll.

What’s Become of Tim Lincecum?

Is Tim Lincecum‘s baseball career over?  Probably, but who knows?

I was wondering what Timmy has been up to today, but I can’t find any information since a February 23 mlbtraderumors.com post saying that he was planning a show case for scouts.  After that, nothing.  I don’t even know if the showcase happened, but I’d guess not.

Tim turns 33 in June, so he’s certainly at an age where retirement seems likely if his body isn’t healthy and pain free.  He’s made plenty of money playing baseball, which may mean that he has no incentive to play in the minors again, unless he’s really burning to keep playing baseball simply because he enjoys it.

Tim wanted to continue being a starter, and his options there are few, although an Indy-A Atlantic League team would have snapped him up in a New York second and put him into the starting rotation if he were willing to play at this level.

If he was willing to pitch out of the bullpen, then I’d have to think at least one MLB organization would have signed him, if he were healthy enough to pitch.

It’s still early May, so we can’t completely write off Tim taking another stab at professional baseball.  However, the silence is deafening and surely is not a good sign.

Last Place Blues

As of this moment, every team in the San Francisco Giants’ organization is in last place in its respective division in its respective league.  The major league club is 11-18; the AAA Sacramento River Cats are 9-17; the AA Richmond Flying Squirrels are 9-14; the A+ San Jose Giants are 12-15; and the Class A Augusta GreenJackets are 10-16.  Yeesh!

If the major league team doesn’t start to turn things around right quick, it would behoove the organization to be trade deadline sellers this year.  Years as contenders and buyers has left the organization with what appears to be a major talent deficit.  A new infusion of talent looks sorely needed.

San Francisco Giants Promote Christian Arroyo

I was wrong about the Giants giving Christian Arroyo at least another 15 games before promoting him to the Show.  The Giants gave Arroyo two more games in which he went 5-for-9, and they wasted no time in calling him up.

Given the recent news out of San Francisco, promoting Arroyo this soon contains a whiff of desperation, as the team tries to shake things up a bit, and gives its first hint that the team already sees 2017 as a rebuilding year.

Current word is that Arroyo will be giving a chance to start at 3B, with Eduardo Nunez presumably moving to LF.  I’m still a bit concerned with how little Arroyo walks, and if it had been up to me, I’d have left him at AAA Sacramento for that 15 or 16 games I’d previously written about.

Still, Arroyo is hot and can clearly hit, and we’ll see how long it takes before National League pitchers can figure out how to make him hit their pitch, since he isn’t yet disposed to take walks.  NL pitchers might not figure that out until 2018.

Baltimore Orioles Shuffle Pitchers on their 40-man Roster

The Baltimore Orioles made a flurry of moves today, mostly involving minor league pitchers and international draft slots.  It seems clear that the Orioles are making a calculated gamble that the best 16 and 17 year old Latin American players aren’t worth the risk.

The O’s obtained Damien Magnifico from the Brewers and Paul Fry from the Mariners for respectively, the 15th overall international draft slot (worth $885,000) and the 105th international draft slot worth $198,000.  Meanwhile, Baltimore designated Jason Garcia and Parker Bridwell for assignment and traded Oliver Drake to the Brewers for cash or the infamous player to be named later.  Phew, that’s a busy day!

I suspect that, while the Magnifico and Drake deals were announced separatedly one day apart, they are closely connected.

Ben Badler criticized the Orioles yesterday for not spending more money on international players the last few years.  The O’s have spent only $260,000 on five prospects in the 2016-2017 signing period, one of whom received $150,000.  According to Badler, the most expensive Orioles international signing of the last three years is the mere $350,000 given to 3Bman Jomar Reyes, who at least looks like a good return on that money so far.

I have to agree with Badler: it might have made sense not to take a high risk, high reward strategy in recent years when signing bonuses were high for the best players, as at least five or six teams flouted the rules each signing period and elected to sign as many good players for as much money as it took in exchange for losing big money signings for the next year or two.  But now that there is effectively a draft with capped bonus pools, it seems crazy to me not to participate fully.

The Orioles have obviously decided they are still going to go with players closer to the majors than tender-aged international prospects, as they have now traded away what would be their 1st and 4th round international picks in the first international draft.

Looking at what the Orioles netted today, it seems highly likely that they’d have been better off with the two international slots.  Magnifico and Fry are obvious improvements over the two pitchers designated for assignment to make space on the 40-man roster.  Both look to have major league stuff as bullpen pitchers, are still looking for their command, and are young enough they may yet find it.

However, Oliver Drakes, although already 30, has even better stuff than Magnifico or Fry, and has the same command issues.  Drake may yet be as effective a major league reliever as either Magnifico or Fry going forward, despite a a poor start (in only three AAA relief appearances) this year.

This doesn’t look like a worthy trade for 1st and 4th round international slots, unless the aforementioned player to be named later turns out to be great.