Friday, December 31, 2010

Down on the Farm: 2010 Giants Top 50 Prospect Review- #35 Kyle Nicholson #36 Eric Surkamp #37 Ari Ronick #38 Josh Mazzola

#35 Kyle Nicholson, RHP. A+: 7-9, 6.13, 119 IP, 19 BB, 85 K's, GO/AO= 1.58.

Nicholson got knocked around pretty good in the Cal League. He's a pretty standard sinker-slider guy with FB topping out at 90 MPH in a couple of games I saw him pitch. While his K, BB and groundball stats aren't terrible, it's pretty tough to project a MLB career for him based on this performance and what I saw. Might be worth seeing what he does in a more pitcher-friendly league in AA.

#36 Eric Surkamp, LHP. A+: 4-2, 3.11, 101.1 IP, 22 BB, 108 K, GO/AO- 0.87.

Surkamp put up very nice looking numbers for San Jose before going down with a hip injury. He reportedly recently underwent arthroscopic hip surgery and should be ready for spring training. He's a 3 pitch pitcher with a deceptive high 80's fastball, a biting curveball that is his best pitch, and an average changeup according to last year's BA scouting report. Hopefully he's healthy and ready to move up to AA in 2011. Ceiling is probably a #3 starter, on an average team, #5 in the current Giants rotation.

#37 Ari Ronick, LHP. A+: 0-2, 10.80, 8.1 IP, 7 BB, 6 K's.

Ronick's season was ended by an elbow injury. I haven't seen word of any surgery, but it wouldn't surprise me if he had TJ an will be out until about mid-season. One factoid I ran across while trying to find more info about the injury is that Ronick is a nephew of Laker's coach Phil Jackson.

#38 Josh Mazzola, 3B/1B. DNP. Mazzola went down with an injury after being assigned to San Jose's roster out of spring training but before the season started. I don't know more than that, but he missed the entire season. He was an undrafted FA and was already old for his levels, so this has to be a major blow to his future.

6 comments:

  1. Pretty much almost any other pitcher is a #5 on the current Giants rotation, eh, DrB? Much more joy for us!!! :^)

    Surkamp is only 23 for 2011, which is not that old for AA, and he strikes out a lot of batters while not walking that many. Yeah, potential to be mid-rotation guy for most teams, should be ready by 2013-2014 when decisions will be made about retaining our top pitchers.

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  2. Happy New Year Doc (and you other readers/posters here).

    Now Doc, as much as I love reading your blog, you have a daughter and a wife. SPEND SOME TIME WITH THEM!!!!

    :)

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  3. Thanks, CSS. I do spend time with them. My wife and I went out to eat last night then stopped by my mom's to watch the ball drop on CNN. We're not partiers. We watched a little TV and went to bed at about 10:30. One daughter is over in Europe. She rang in the New Year with a friend in Paris. The other daughter spent the night at a friend's house. I'm a pretty good family man, actually. I usually am on the internets for awhile in the mornings and later in the evening. I'll check back a couple of times during the day if I'm home and not doing anything else, but I do spend time on other things.

    I stopped regularly watching football a few years ago. For one thing, the Niners have been terrible for a long time and I got tired of watching all the concussions. I found myself dwelling on the future problems those players will have in life.

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  4. Hello DrB,

    Happy new year to you and everybody else, hopefully 2011 will be the second year of the Giant's domination of the major league baseball.

    Your daughter is in Paris DrB !!! I hope she enjoys it, the city is beautifull right now.

    GIP

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  5. OK, I apologize...

    I was just trying to act like I wanted you to spend time with your fam. I didnt really want you to discover that the "real" world is more rewarding than the inter-webs...

    Please come back, Doc. We miss you!!

    ;)

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  6. NM, I never updated my bookmark :(

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