Down on the Farm: DrB's 2011 Giants Top 50 Prospects- #36 Roger Kieschnick #37 Clayton Tanner

#36 Roger Kieschnick, OF. BD: 1/21/1987. 6'3", 215 lb. B-L, T- R.

AA: .251/.305/.368, 4 HR in 223 AB.

Roger Kieschnick had a terrific season for San Jose in 2009, but like so many other position prospects over the years he struggled at AA. The season was complicated by back problems and he shut it down after the July 3 game. Prior to that, he had hit .317 over the prior 10 games. At this point, I'm not sure what to make of him. His first task is to prove he can stay healthy. Back problems tend to be chronic and recurrent. After that, he'll have to compete in a much more crowded OF picture. He still has serious power potential as well as the ability to hit for average as well as the speed and arm to play RF, so it's way too early to count him out. He just needs to get healthy and stay healthy or the herd will go thundering on past him.

#37 Clayton Tanner, LHP. BD: 12/5/1987. 6'2", 210 lbs. B-L, T-L.

AA: 9-9, 3.68, 149 IP, 64 BB, 79 K, GO/AO= 1.79.

Clayton Tanner didn't pitch badly for AA Richmond last year, but those K and BB numbers are horrific. He partially makes up for it with a GB tendency, but 1.79 isn't all that for a minor leaguer. I'd be willing to bet that major league hitters would elevate a lot of those GB's. Those are Jeff Suppan numbers except at AA instead of the majors! It's probably time to advance Clayton to AAA and let him sink or swim, but I'm afraid those numbers translate into batting practice for the other team in the PCL. The one mitigating factor is that Giants pitching prospects have tended to have a strange drop in their K rates at AA lately. It didn't seem to mean much for Madison Bumgarner, but it heralded disaster for Tim Alderson. We'll see how Tanner's story turns out soon enough.