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"SF Giants Prospects"
In case you missed it, here’s part one. Tomorrow, I’ll post honorable mentions — prospects that just missed the list. Moving on…
10. Ehire Adrianza, age 22, SS
Plus defensive shortstop, and as such, the bar for his offense is set pretty low. Showed glimpses of potential for reaching that bar (.300/.375/.470 at San Jose).
9. Heath Hembree, age 22, RHP
Hesitant to rank him higher because of the walks and the fact that he’s a reliever, but his stuff is legit.
8. Francisco Peguero, age 23, OF
High ceiling, but the lack of plate discipline is a major issue (five walks in 296 PAs at Richmond)
7. Tommy Joseph, age 20, C
Age and positional value work to his favor, and he saw tremendous improvement (defensively and offensively) as the year went on. Plate discipline, however, is not his strong suit.
6. Hector Sanchez, age 21, C
Fairly advanced for his age, and he has quality defensive tools (as well as good power potential at the plate). That said, his conditioning could be a major roadblock in his development.
5. Eric Surkamp, age 24, LHP
He dominated Double-A, but was quite underwhelming in six starts in the majors. A low-ceiling arm, but I think he could still develop into a useful back-end starter.
4. Kyle Crick, age 18, RHP
Ace potential, but very raw at this point.
3. Andrew Susac, age 21, C
Above-average defensive catcher with on-base skills; a pretty polished product.
2. Joe Panik, age 21, SS/2B
Either he stays at shortstop, where he could be as good as average defensively, or he moves to second-base where he projects as an above-average defender. In any event, his bat plays well for a middle-infielder — good contact/on-base skills.
1. Gary Brown, age 23, CF
Legitimate all-star potential: plus defensive outfielder with speed on the basepaths, and a quality bat (especially from an up-the-middle position). Hopefully he’ll do well in his transition to Double-A Richmond (a notoriously pitcher-friendly environment).
After a lot of work and deliberation, here are my Giants prospect rankings for 2012. These are based on a number of factors (scouting reports, tools, age relative to league, polish, upside, positional value, etc.), with performance and potential weighted similarly. I decided to arbitrarily go with a top-20, and I’ll break it up into two parts. Chances are I’ll post some honorable mentions as well. Anyway, here goes…
20. Clayton Blackburn, age 18, RHP
Blackburn was a steal as the Giants’ 16th-round pick this year, and he dominated the Arizona League in a limited sample (10.00 K/BB, 0.570 WHIP, 1.08 ERA in 33 innings). Baseball America had him as the best late round pick at or below slot in the entire draft.
19. Chris Dominguez, age 24, 3B
I have a hard time even ranking him this high…the 9/78 BB/K in Double-A Richmond is quite rough, but he’s a 3B with a lot of power.
18. Charlie Culberson, age 22, 2B
Another guy with disappointing numbers in Richmond (22/129 BB/K), but age works in his favor.
17. Jake Dunning, age 23, RHP
Another sleeper, Dunning was drafted as a shortstop and has only been pitching for two years. He thrived after converting to a relief role earlier in the year (43/10 K/BB in 42 IP).
16. Brett Bochy, age 24, RHP
A bit of an aggressive ranking, particularly for a reliever of his age and level, but he’s a late-round guy (2010, 20th round) who had tons of success out of the ‘pen in Augusta. 1.90 FIP, 0.769 WHIP, 1.38 ERA
15. Joshua Osich, age 23, LHP
A first-round talent that dropped all the way to round six this year due to injury concerns. If he stays healthy, he’ll move up fast through these rankings.
14. Chuckie Jones, age 19, OF
I’ve always liked him as a sleeper. Didn’t impress in 41 games at Salem-Keizer this year (.636 OPS), but he’s just 19 years old.
13. Adam Duvall, age 23, 3B
Raked in Augusta to the tune of .285/.385/.527
12. Mike Kickham, age 22, LHP
One of the Giants’ better starting pitching prospects, Kickham was solid in his first full season of professional ball (3.81 FIP in 111.2 innings in Augusta).
11. Jarrett Parker, age 22, OF
Toolsy guy who can draw walks (.360 OBP). He strikes out too much, though.
In case you missed it, today was the AFL Rising Stars game, and Joe Panik — playing second base — got a couple ABs (0 for 2, 1 K).
Adam Foster of Project Prospect posted some scouting notes afterwards, wherein he raved about Panik:
I really liked Joe Panik’s approach. He looks like he’s ready to do damage to pitches and he doesn’t expand the zone. If the Giants start him in High-A next year, he could make a push for a Double-A promotion come midseason and maybe even a September call-up. He has a chance to quickly reach the bigs as an up-the-middle defender who makes a lot of contact and has some power.
A while back, Prospect Insider wrote about Panik and his approach, and wasn’t too impressed: in particular, they said that he doesn’t get enough leverage/loft on his swing, and that they had expected to see better plate discipline/mechanics. That was pretty much the extent I’d read about Panik’s plate approach as a member of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, so it’s nice to finally hear such positive things about Panik. I’m still working on ranking the Giants’ prospects (I’ve done a lot of shifting around with specific prospects), but I’m pretty sold on Panik — I think he’s definitely one of the Giants’ top three (or perhaps even two) prospects.
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