The San Francisco Giants' organization has had quite a a rollercoaster ride over the past couple of days. Over the course of three days, the big league club rattled off three consecutive victories, the organization's top two prospects are together in San Jose once again, and Farhan Zaidi (president of baseball operations) completed the first two days (10 selections) of his inaugural Giants' MLB Draft.
Bochy's reaches 1000 career wins w/Giants
First things first: Beloved manager Bruce Bochy tallied his 1,000th career win, as manager of the Giants, with Tuesday's 9-3 comeback victory over the New York Mets. The club's third win in a row, and fourth out of the past five games, began as a star-studded pitching matchup between Madison Bumgarner and Noah "Thor" Syndergaard.
Both Mad Bum and Thor pitched valiantly, giving up three earned runs each, through 6 and 6.2 innings pitched, respectively. Bumgarner finished with the following line: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 5 K. Syndergaard matched Madison, going: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 4 K. The Mets and Giants remained scoreless until San Francisco's recently "en fuego" offense finally awakened in the top of the 10th inning. The G-Men batted around in the inning, scoring six runs, getting doubles from Steven Duggar, Pablo Sandoval, and Stephen Vogt, along with an RBI-single off the bat of rookie Mike Yastrzemski. New York went quietly in the bottom of the frame, giving the Giants the 9-3 win.
Bart and Ramos shine in San Jose
San Francisco's farm system is reasonably weak, considering how often the big league club returned to its well of talent to dole-out to other teams in exchange for the missing pieces to championship teams. With that said, there is a pair of encouraging young talented studs, who recently returned to the San Jose Giants (Class-A Advanced) from injuries.
Heliot Ramos (Giants' no. 2 prospect) has already been back with the minor league club for about a week, and has since picked up right where he left off before his injury. In the seven games Ramos has played in since returning from the injured list, the young outfield prospect has put up impressive numbers: 12-for 26 (.462 AVG), 2 HR, 5 RBI, 6 R.
Last year's no. 2 overall draft pick, Joey Bart (Giants' no. 1 prospect), was activated before Tuesday's game after completing his six-week stint on the injured list (broken hand). He is widely considered the organization's best power-hitting prospect, and he did not disappoint. In just his second plate appearance, fresh off the IL, Bart blasted his third homerun of his injury-shortened 2019 season. On the night, Joey went 2-for-3 with 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R.
Zaidi's first MLB draft w/Giants
The Giants' new president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, took part in her first MLB Draft as a member of the San Francisco front office. On Monday, day one of the draft (first two rounds), the Giants took Arizona State University-product Hunter Bishop – a power-hitting outfielder, who compares himself to LA's Cody Bellinger and Milwaukee's Christian Yelich ('18 NL MVP). The 10th overall pick in the '19 draft grew up in northern California and was a huge Giants and Barry Bonds fan, as a kid. Bishop was lucky enough to get a chance to meet Bonds in college, as Bonds is an ex-ASU Sun Devil.
With the remaining nine picks from days one and two, San Francisco's selections were noticeably heavy on position players:
2nd round, pick 51: 1B Logan Wyatt, Louisville
3rd round, pick 87: CF Grant McCray, Lakewood Ranch High School
4th round, pick 116: SS Tyler Fitzgerald, Louisville
5th round, pick 146: 1B Garrett Frechette, Orange Lutheran High School
6th round, pick 176: SS Dilan Rosario, Colegio Marista High School (Puerto Rico)
7th round, pick 206: OF Armani Smith, UC Santa Barbara
8th round, pick 236: P Caleb Kilian, Texas Tech
9th round, pick 266: Simon Whiteman, Yale
10th round, pick 296: Jeff Houghtby, University of San Diego
The 2019 MLB first-year player draft continues today, picking back up with the 11th round.
Photo: SD Dirk / Wikimedia