Giants Top 50 Prospects #50: Wilber Bucardo

#50 Wilber Bucardo. RHP. BD: 11-20-1987. 6'2", 175 lbs.

2009 Stats- 4-1, 3.02, 56.2 IP, 15 BB, 32 K's, GO/AO= 2.62.

The first benchmark I look for in evaluating a pitching prospect is a K/9 > 9. I will lower that to around 8 for the upper minors, but it's essential in the lower minors. My secondary benchmark, and one that will mitigate a low K/9 is a GO/AO>2. As long as Wilbur Bucardo can maintain his spectacular groundball rates, he's still a prospect in my book. He's a similar pitcher to his bro, Jorge, but Jorge is younger at the same level, and gets more K's, so Jorge is the more likely of the two to succeed at higher levels. Wilber needs to move up. I haven't heard any mention of him going to San Jose, so I presume he will be joining Jorge in the Augusta rotation. Anything less than that, and you can write him off.