Sunday, February 21, 2010

Giants Top 50 Prospects #45: Evan Crawford

#45 Evan Crawford. OF. B-R, T-R. BD: 08-05-1988. 6'2", 167 lbs.

2009 Stats: AZL(Rookie)- .273/.324/.318, 9 SB, 0 CS, 66 AB. Salem-Keizer(Short Season)- .316/.375/.447, 5 SB, 2 CS, 114 AB's. Hit .395 over his last 10 games.

Not so long ago, if the Giants had one promising prospect at a given position, you had to pin your hopes on that one player because there weren't any others like him in the system. It's a veritable embarrassment of riches that Evan Crawford has at least 3 CF's ahead of him on the prospect depth chart, Darren Ford, Francisco Peguero and Mike McBryde. Crawford was drafted last June out of Univ. of Indiana where he batted over .300 each of his 3 years there along with 18, 18 and 27 SB's. Some things I like about Crawford: 1. He's a bit young for a 3 year college draftee(he'll play most of this year at age 21). 2. He has room to fill out his frame, so should project for more power. 3. He already has pretty good plate discipline. With Peguero ticketed for San Jose, look for Evan to start the year in Augusta as their starting CF.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Doc, thanks again for the great Giants Blog, really fantastic.

    I found that Evan stood out in the recaps and box scores of MiLB games I followed last year, and he was having huge nights often when others were having trouble knocking out a hit per night. One of my questions about him is how does his speed play in center field?

    It would be great for the Giants to have a Gutierrez type occupying center field in the future, bringing really top defense but also put up respectable numbers at the plate. I feel like perhaps Peguero has this potential but that's what I'm looking for in the Giants future CF. Does Crawford bring have this potential at this stage?

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  2. DrB,

    yeah, good thoiughts on Crawford....and he is the next position player I would have put down also. Now, the next player bettter be Aussie Cameron Lamb!

    Just kidding, but the kid intrigues me...Great last 10 games in AZ last year (except one bomb)..Younger then Concecpcion...Not as good K ratio but still about 1 per inning..Good periphs if a little wild..and good size at 6'4"....have no idea whether he does it by finesse or power,

    SteveVA

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  3. THANKS FOR THE GREAT INFO,SO MUCH BETTER THAN MOST OF THE OTHER GIANT SITES
    GERRYPA

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  4. Dr. B,

    Seems like you are becoming the "go to guy" for Giants fans with college baseball/draft questions! No need to answer right away, but just some names I find interesting from the Cape Cod league, that you might address later as the draft approaches. The Giants front office supposedly places a lot of weight on CCL performance. Scott Woodward and Rico Noel are a couple of speed burners from Coastal Carolina Univ. that may be able to address the Giants need for a lead off hitter. They definitely wouldn't be first round material but I think they could be sleepers for later in the draft. Neither has much pop but both can flat out fly on the bases and Woodward seems to have good discipline and draws a lot of walks - a good thing to see in a speedy player. Woodward bats leadoff for CCU but plays 3B, so that might raise a red flag, while Noel bats second and plays CF. The Giants have dipped into the CCU well a few times in recent drafts in a way that they used to repeated draft from Lewis and Clark College as their small school of choice.
    Thanks in advance for your pre-draft material. Looking forward to reading it.

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  5. Wow! Appreciate all the comments. I'll do my best to keep it interesting and keep it real.

    The first comment got me to thinking about maybe doing some position breakdowns after the Top 50 plus all the honorable mentions and Dominican Dandies are done. With defensive stats being all the rage these days, it wouldn't totally shock me to see a future Giants OF of Ford, Peguero and Crawford, or replace any of the above with Mike McBryde. I absolutely love what we've seen of Evan Crawford so far. I think he is one of the real sleepers in our system right now. The only reason I don't have him ranked above Ford, McBryde and Peguero is those guys have produced at higher levels, but I'm not so sure that Crawford isn't the best of the lot.

    Steve, The Giants farm system is so deep right now that there are over 10 legitimate prospects who I just ran out of room for in the Top 50. Lamb will get a shout out in the Honorable Mention category, but I consider most of the HM's to be interchangeable with Top 50 prospects all the way up to about #25 or so.

    Baseball Junkie, You are right, historically the Giants have put a lot of stock in performance in wood bat leagues. I'm not sure if that is still the case with John Barr in charge of scouting, but a lot of teams scout those leagues pretty intensely, so it's not a bad place to start analyzing the draft. Thanks for the heads up on Woodward and Noel.

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