All I Want for Christmas is Some Good Prospects

Published by on December 16, 2007 | 2 Responses

Baseball America has just recently released their Top-10 Prospects list for the Giants. You can find it here.

Here’s what the list looks like:

1. Angel Villalona, 3b
2. Tim Alderson, rhp
3. Madison Bumgarner, lhp
4. Nate Schierholtz, of
5. Henry Sosa, rhp
6. Nick Noonan, 2b/ss
7. Eugenio Velez, of/2b
8. Wendell Fairley, of
9. John Bowker, of
10. Emmanuel Burriss, ss

It’s no shock that Angel is the #1 prospect according to BA, he’s got the potential to be the first impact bat the Giants have developed since Will Clark. No pressure, kid. Looking at the list, it’s really apparent how much the 2007 draft has helped the Giants farm system. 4 of the top 10 players listed are from that draft (Alderson, Bumgarner, Noonan, and Fairely). Another odd thing about this particular list is that the usual pitching-heavy Giants have only 3 pitchers in the top-10 compared to 7 position players.

I don’t have many arguments with the list. I think Velez is a little high, I’m not convinced that he’ll hit enough in the majors to be more than a pinch-runner but some scouts love his package of speed and gap power. His ceiling seems to range between Chone Figgins and a bench player, I’m not sure that he’ll ever be as useful as Figgins has been but I would love for him to develop into a Figgins-lite. Burris is another guy on the list who confuses me. He’s never going to hit for power but BA dubbed him as the “fastest runner” in the organization. He’s smooth enough with the glove that he should be able to stick at shortstop but his 2007 was a tale of two seasons. He started this year in A+ San Jose but struggled and was sent back to A-ball in Augusta and had a pretty nice season hitting (.321/.374/.381) and stealing 51 bases out of 66 attempts. He’ll turn 23 in January and the Giants have to hope that he’ll be able to conquer A+ ball next year and maybe even move into AA, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if he just held his own in A+ next year.

John Bowker made his name relevant again with a terrific 2007 in the Eastern League, notorious for being tough on hitters. The Giants are stacked with outfielders on the current major league roster so the team might not rush him to the big leagues. I could see them leaving him in AAA for the year and hope that he continues to hit the ball like he did in ’07. I think one of the more intriguing guys on this list is Wendell Fairley. He’s going to be a very raw player to begin with because he got into baseball lately but scouts love his terrific batspeed and he’s good enough defensively, arm-wise and glove-wise, to play in center field. He could hit some bumps initially but he could also take off, no one is really sure what he’s gong to do yet but his athleticism is huge.

Looking outside of the top-10, I think the Giants have a large amount of potential relief talent. Guys like Sergio Romo, Steve Edlefsen, Adam Cowart, Jessie English, Billy Sadler, Erick Threets, Kevlin Pichardo, and Brian Anderson could all find their way into the bullpen in 1-2 years. You’ve also got some mid-to-back of the rotation talent like Clayton Tanner, Kevin Pucetas, Ben Snyder, Nick Pereira, Joe Martinez, and Paul Oseguera that might come into play in a couple of years. Don’t let the top-10 list fool you, the Giants are still a very pitching-centric farm system.

The farm system still isn’t a top-15 system but I think it’s moving in the right direction. For 2007 BA ranked the Giants system as the 20th best in baseball, mostly on the ability to count Lincecum as a prospect before he shot to the majors, and I could see the system taking a few baby steps forward by the next ranking. Having the #5 pick in the 2008 draft will help the cause as well.

—

Non-Tender Rumors: The Giants and Marlins are rumored to be looking at former Angels prospect 1B/3B Dallas McPherson. The 27-year-old McPherson has always had power potential (he’s slugged 108 HR’s in his minor league career) but he’s had injury troubles and his minor league success has never translated to the big leagues. He’s coming off back surgery, but if he’s healthy he could be an intriguing option for the Giants who still have major openings at both 1B and 3B. I’d still like to see the Giants “kick the tires” on Morgan Ensberg, who the Padres non-tendered.

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Chris
Chris

Thanks for the typo point out, I added an extra "h" that didn't need to be there. I keep hoping to see the headline that reads "Feliz signs 3 year deal with Not-the-Giants" so that we can get some sweet, sweet, draft pick compensation. Pucetas was just one of many on an excellent Green Jackets rotation last year, I'd love to see him, Tanner, and Snyder all take steps forward with wherever their promotions send them next year. None of them throw particularly hard but Tanner and Snyder both have the advantage of being left-handed. I keep hearing that the team likes Villalona's arm strength from third and that he definitely has the arm to the play the position. I think they are worried the most about how much weight he's going to pack on over the next 2-3 years, he's only 17 so he should continue to fill out. The team seems to understand that he's a potential 1B in waiting but I like that they haven't moved him off of third base yet. I've heard he's also working with JT Snow on the first base position, not a bad mentor to have. If his bat develops like everyone hopes it will, he can easily hit enough for either position.

obsessivegiantscompulsive
obsessivegiantscompulsive

I think the name is Kevin Pucetas, for those keeping a scorebook, who, by the by, was declared the "most spectacular pitcher" of 2007 (he merely had the lowest ERA in the minors). Yeah, good point about the position heavy top 10, that's mainly a function of so many of the top pitchers graduating to the majors in 2007, Lincecum, Sanchez, Wilson (or rather that they finally didn't qualify anymore for the prospect list) and only Henry Sosa had an outstanding enough season in 2007 (the other guys - Cowart, Pucetas, et al - had great seasons but don't have the velocity so they will have to prove themselves at every level before they make lists like this. Like Misch, I would have included him on my top 10 list, but he's like Lowry, only seemingly better with a dominating year where he struck out over 9 K/9). I would put Synder, Tanner, Waldis Joaquin, maybe Dan Griffin, Cowart, Pucetas, on the watch list for the next generation of starters, including, of course, Alderson and Bumgarner. I wouldn't get down about the farm system, it hasn't rated highly in BA's rankings for years, but the Giants have rebuilt their pitching staff from the farm system so they must be doing something well. And, as you note, it should only get better after we get a #5 pick in 2008. FYI, the last top 5 pick the Giants have had was Will "the Thrill", they have rarely been that bad since those sad mid-80's teams. It's like I've been saying, the best and fastest way to rebuild is to make the team bad enough to get a couple (or three) Top 5 picks (and live with the lumps) while preparing for the next round of success, much like how the Tigers have done it with their team once Dombrowski took over. That's why I want to play all the prospects in 2008, get another good pick in 2009, then pursue success in earnest in 2010. Teams should really emulate what Dombrowski has done, he did it with the Expos, building up their early Felipe Alou teams, he did it with the Florida Marlins, and now he's doing it with the Tigers. Crash and burn, build the farm system with Top 5 picks, and of course, do good scouting otherwise plus pick up good players internationally (he's been mainly a Carribean guy). For Detroit in particular, he started with pitching, Bonderman, and has built upon that with Verlander, Miller, and Porcello in the drafts. Hopefully the Giants saw what they did with Porcello in 2007, and use their pick (hopefully) from Feliz signing with another team, to pick some player who fell and pay them above slot to join the Giants. Of course, that would involve saving some money from the budget for this. Exciting stuff on Villalona, he's looking like he could be a special one from his performance thus far, obviously his high bonus set expectations high, but it's good to see performance to back that up. He could be ready for us by 2010, maybe even 2009 if he really pushes things in 2008. But 2010 would be great. Any word on whether he's 3B worthy still, there's been fear before about his weight? Velez has been old for his league much of the time he's been with us, so caution is the way to go with him until he proves otherwise. He could be our utility guy if Frandsen does end up playing a lot of 3B (or even 2B), but he has exciting speed, we could be like the Cards of the 80's if Velez, Burriss, McBryde, Richardson all come up and contribute to the team.