#13 Clayton Blackburn, RHP. 6'3", 220 lbs. BD: 1/6/1993.
Rookie AZL: 3-1, 1.08, 33.1 IP, 3 BB, 30 K, GO/AO= 2.58.
The Giants may have come up with the value pick of the 2011 draft when they selected HS pitcher Clayton Blackburn in the 16'th round. No player, other than possibly Joe Panik, had a better professional debut. BA called him the best late round pick at or below slot and voted his debut as the 3'rd best for HS players behind Dante Bichette, Jr and Trevor Story, both position players.
Blackburn isn't a guy who is going to blow you away with 97 MPH fastballs. What he brings is advanced command of 4 pitches and an apparent advanced feel for pitching for a HS draftee. His strong groundball numbers would indicate his low 90's fastball is a two seamer with lots of sink. That he can put 3 other pitches with it and still only walk a batter every 11 innings is downright startling. In Baggs Q/A for BA he said, "The Giants really like the fact that he's so poised and around the plate with 4 pitches.." John Sickels at minorleagueball.com ranked Blackburn at #11 in the Giants system noting that he showed "excellent command" and "above average velocity." It seems like maybe he just go overlooked coming out of Oklahoma the same year as Dylan Bundy and Archie Bradley.
I was able to find one video on Google which is mostly a postgame interview after he pitched a 1-0 shutout in HS, but it does show some footage. He certainly looks like the prototype of what the Giants seem to look for in RHP's. Yes, he looks a lot like Matt Cain out there. There's also a TwitVid of him crushing a golf ball with a driver. He certainly seems like he isn't going to be shy around the press either.
As a HS draftee, I would expect to see him start the season in Low A and probably stay there all year. I would think with his repertoire the Giants would develop him as a starter.
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Thanks again for your great series! I have really enjoyed learning more about the Giants prospects, like Blackburn.
ReplyDeleteHow does someone as you describe here who is so accomplished, fall to us so late? And why would he sign? Isit the lack of heat? At his size and age, is there any hope of adding a few miles?
Steal indeed. So much time is spent agonizing over what the Giants do wrong, sometimes there isn't enough time spent on what they do right. As we just talked about last post DrB - a proven track record of being able to come up with arms in the later rounds of the draft. Not all make the team, they are also burned off in trades, some that work out and some that don't.
ReplyDeleteWilson, Sanchez and Romo are a helluva three year run for picks in the 20s. You couple this skill at grabbing arms with a better approach to picking and developing hitters and you have a much improved minor league system. Hitters that are superior to the Frandsens and Bowkers of the world, not to mention the Torcatos and Lindens. Sure the stretch between Billy Mueller and Sandoval was rough. But Sandoval has now been raking in the majors for three years. It might be time to let go of the old beefs.
OGC and I were both throwing down about old beefs with some fanatics in Sickels top 20 list. Its pretty funny reading actually. I defended Sabean way more than I usually do, oh well there goes my internet street cred. One thing I don't like about Sabey Sabes is his inattention to Type B manipulation. That might be a little unfair, but the new CBA will take care of that for us. Hopefully the Giants won't have any more supplemental first rounders for a while (locking the core up instead).
On that note, having Coletti outbid on Uribe produces Crick, a pretty nice trade off. Sabean's mistakes are amplified and nitpicked, and the successes are dismissed as dumb luck. There's some dumb luck right there, and we've got a sweet prospect to show for it.
There are a lot of random dumb luck happenings in baseball however. Sabean's had plenty of bad dumb luck with pitching prospects before as well. Having Posey get jacked by a hard nosed rookie (saw that slow mo yet again - he goes diagonal across the plate straight into Posey's right shoulder - what a cheap shot) is bad dumb luck.
Having one bullet to spend on that first round pick has some dumb luck attached as well. You make educated guesses and things hopefully work out. Again, tremendous picking the last few years. If you combine good high picks with value plays and steals such as Blackburn - and I feel comfortable calling him that even though he's barely pitched due to the 10 year track record of pulling this off - and you've got some good stuff going.
Good time to be a Giants fan.
I"ll have to go back and read some of the comments on Sickels Giants top 20. I kept up with it for awhile, then it just made me angry. Maybe yours on OGC'S comments will brighten it up. Kind of reminds me a few years ago I got absolutely roasted on that site for having the temerity to suggest that Nate Schierholtz might be as good a prospect as Ian Stewart. Problem is, but the time you are proven to be right, nobody cares any more so you just have to trust in what you believe in and go on saying it no matter what others may think.
ReplyDeleteThe '11 draft just feels good. Obviously, I've got a bit of proximity excitement going. And it'll take years to know how it all pans out. But, picks like this are damn exciting.
ReplyDeleteOGC,
ReplyDeleteI think that despite all the information out there about prospects and the draft, there are still some players who just get overlooked. The Giants picked up Jacob Dunnington as a non-drafted FA. In retrospect, there is just no explainable reason why he went undrafted except he just go overlooked.
Sickels put out a "please be polite" note the day after the Giants list came out. It might have been from his yankees list that did it as well as the Giants one. There was some carry over petty arguments from there that ended up in the Giants chat. Yet another problem with Saber guys is they are always trying to prove how smart they are. Then again, the MCC thousand comments a post usually has a 10 to 1 ratio of filler to baseball so there's that too. The Giants/Yankees posts went into the hundreds of comments, Sickels usually averages about 40-50.
ReplyDeleteThat issue you bring up with the Schierholtz/Stewart roast is a big deal to me. Nobody cares, moved on already to the next thing. No accountability on the interwebz! I said it before - that's why I like Sickels, he goes over his stuff and examines where he's been right and wrong. Like to see Keith Law do that.
Its very easy to tear players apart, put others views down, and let negativity rule. I have no idea why its so popular with Giants fans. Every teams fans bitch a little, its part of the fun. But not like Giants fans. We have a cast of straight up hero's right now. I think it will continue for a good while, but even if it doesn't I'd rather enjoy the now instead of whining about what we don't have or what we might lose in the future.
This kid excites me. The age level + command + control + pitching IQ seems like a good formula for success. Only real question in my mind is, what do you think his ceiling is? Good control #4/#5 or could he add MPH and reach #2/#3? How does his frame project to add more power? Going to be very interesting to follow Blackburn over his first full season and get some answers.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Blackburn still has some things to learn. What I like is almost every report I've read has him with good command of 4 pitches although it seems like his two main ones are a heavy sinking fastball and a sweeping curveball.
ReplyDeleteToo many GB/sinkerball pitchers just pound the zone with the one pitch and live and die by contact/BABIP. After awhile, hitters figure out how to force them to elevate their pitches and they get hammered. If they have a couple of other pitches to keep the hitters off balance, it gives them better chances for strikeouts and keeps hitters from controlling the strike zone.
Shankbone,
ReplyDeleteI went back and read through the comments for Sickels Giants top 20. I thought both your comments and OGC's were surprisingly well taken considering the history of the site. John stuck up for Sabes just a bit too and King Billy Royal, who is usually pretty outspoken made some strong points in his favor too.
The silliest argument had nothing to do with the Giants and revolved around some guy with an ax to grind about Sickels doing most of his work from home.
I think Sickels' home life sometimes interferes with his site, but my gosh! If you don't like it, you don't have to read the site! He does seem to maintain contacts in the industry and he certainly knows his stats. Sickels used to work with Bill James and made his name by using stats to evaluate prospects. Gotta hand it to him for that.
I thought his evaluation of the Giants system was actually pretty accurate, especially after he clarified in his comments that they have a lot of guys with potentially high ceilings in the lower minors.
I have a little inside info on Blackburn. We live in Edmond,OK where Blackburn pitched or class 6A Edmond Santa Fe. My son, now a SR is one of the top 5A pitchers in OK and will be the clean-up hitter for Bishop McGuinness HS this year. Last year as a JR he hit out of the 5 hole and went 0-2 with 2K's against Blackburn. I think Blackburn can get into the mid-90's as he ages. Here is my write-up on Blackburn for another site.
ReplyDelete17. Clayton Blackburn-RHP-1-6-93, 6'3, 220 lbs, Signed out of HS in the 16th rd, from Edmond, Oklahoma where I now live. Was signed to play for the University of Oklahoma. A little more background, My son, now a senior, is one of the top pitchers in class 5A and is the clean-up hitter for Bishop McGuinness HS, last year as a JR he faced Blackburn and K'ed in both AB's. Blackburn is out of Edmond Santa Fe HS, a 6A power in the state, he is built like Matt Cain and although he doesn't yet throw over 90 he is polished with 4 pitches that he knows how to use well. He went 10-1 with a 1.37 era his sr year with 106 SO in 66 inn. In the AZ rookie league this summer he went 3-1, with a 1.08 era over 33 inn, 30 k's/3 BB in that 33 innings makes me not feel so bad that he schooled my son last year.
RBJ - congrats to your son on becoming a 2-way player, that's good stuff. Bishop McGuinness looks like a great school for athletics. Andrew Head seems to be getting some national attention.
ReplyDeleteSo is Ty Hensley attending the same school as Blackburn? Santa Fe? Lots of attention to OK HS these days with Bundy and Bradley. Good luck to your son for the coming season.
Thank Shankbone.
ReplyDeleteHensley was a team-mate with Blackburn at Santa Fe. Another kid from Edmond Deer Creek Micheal Fulmer was probably the best pitcher in the state last year. He was picked 44 overall by the Mets and signed a letter of intent to go to Arkansas with Bundy and Bradley.
Andrew Head is my son's catcher at McGuinness. He is probably going to Cornell, Columbia or the U of Chicago to play baseball.
My kid is a late bloomer but has finally grown up. He is now 6' 215 and has gotten a few looks mainly by the JC's in Kansas, Oklahoma City University (Freddy Sanchez's Alma mater), Southern Nazarene, and University of Oklahoma. He will probably attend Oklahoma City U where his sister is an all conference cross country runner.
RBJ,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that. It's always great to get a firsthand account in addition to the usual scouting reports and analysts out there. Best wishes to your son. I wish him success.
Best of luck to your son!!! Give us updates if you can, I will root for him!
ReplyDelete