A Minor Review of 2018: San Francisco Giants
Welcome back to my annual off-season series that has a quick-and-dirty review of all 30 minor league systems around baseball. This feature began way back in 2008.
If you had been perusing this series last year you would have read:
The Draft Pick: Heliot Ramos, OF: On the surface, Ramos’ numbers look pretty frickin’ fantastic. Dig a little deeper, though, there are signs of issues to come. The good: impressive power for a 17-year-old with a .297 ISO. The bad: a 32% strikeout rate and… an almost unheard of BABIP of .500 in 151 plate appearances. He’s likely going to be a long-term project despite what the surface numbers say but the ceiling — power, speed, defence — is exciting. Look for Ramos to need some more time in extended spring training in 2018 before heading back to short-season ball. The system is loaded with outfield prospects so there is no need to rush Ramos.
Now on to the new stuff:
First Taste of The Show: Andrew Suarez, LHP: The Giants relied heavily on young arms in 2018 and received significant innings from the pair of Dereck Rodriguez and Suarez, a former second round pick. The latter pitcher showed the ability to induce a high number of ground-ball outs while filling up the strike zone with his four-pitch mix. His stuff plays up a bit because he keeps his arm hidden behind his back during his delivery. He doesn’t have a huge margin for error and is prone to the home run when the ball is hit into the air. I’d like to see him polish his changeup as he needs another reliable weapon against right-handed hitters.
