Down on the Farm: #12 Ricky Oropesa

#12 Ricky Oropesa, 1B. 6'3", 225 lbs. BD: 12/15/1989. B-L, T-R.

2011 College(USC): .322/.402/.481, 7 HR, 29 BB, 46 K in 208 AB.

2010 College(USC): .353/.434/.711, 20 HR, 7 SB, 33 BB, 51 K in 235 AB.

2009 College(USC): .314/.385/.578, 13 HR, 23 BB, 46 K in 185 AB.a

2010 Cape Cod League: .222 with 7 HR's, 24 BB, 52 K's in 153 AB's.

I've said it several times before, but I'll say it again here. I work with Ricky's mom and have been a huge fan since he was a junior in HS, so I am definitely not unbiased here. Ricky comes from an athletic family. His dad stands 6'5" and played some football at UCLA. His paternal grandfather ran track in Cuba. His maternal grandfather was a boxer in the Philippines.

I don't remember exactly how I first learned of Ricky's baseball prowess. Somehow I got to talking to his mom about local HS baseball and mentioned that I had read about Isaac Galloway as a highly rated local player. She told me she knew Isaac and his family and told me about her son who played in the same HS league. I looked up Ricky's stats and was immediately impressed by his combination of BA/OBP and power. I told his mom that the scouts might be in love with Isaac's speed but I though Ricky looked like a better prospect based on his stats. She seemed to know the families of quite a few southern California prospects, Galloway, Matt Dominguez, Mike Moustakas, Gerrit Cole, Aaron Hicks. We started comparing scouting reports and other bits of information we picked up as Ricky's career progressed.

Ricky chose to accept his scholarship to USC rather than signing with the Red Sox as a 24'th round pick back in 2008. He almost immediately became the best hitter on a rather weak SC team. He had a huge breakout his sophomore campaign hitting 20 HR's. He then led the Cape Cod League in HR's although he struggled to a .222 BA and struck out at about a 30% clip. He was poised to be a late first round draft pick and it was not unthinkable that he might break Mark McGwire's USC career HR record going into his junior year.

It's easy to dismiss Ricky's dropoff in power his junior year to the BBCOR bats. There is more to the story though. There was no BBCOR bat available in Ricky's preferred size of 35" for the first several weeks of the season. In addition, USC had a new head coach who wanted Ricky to take more of a level, line drive swing than the uppercut he was used to. The result was some decent numbers, but disappointing in light of his huge junior season.

Ricky and his family knew the Giants were interested. I am told that the Giants Scouting Director(I assume John Barr, although I haven't heard his name specifically) was in attendance when Ricky took Gerrit Cole deep late in the season. Ricky was alerted by Scott Boras that he might get a call from the Giants in the second round. The Giants went with Andrew Susac when he became available in round 2, but then Ricky was still on the board in round 3 and the Giants grabbed him. The pick continued the Giants trend of using the single digit non-first round picks on formerly highly ranked players whose stock dropped for whatever reason.

Ricky has a strong throwing arm and pitched some in HS and as a freshman in college. He is not going to steal bases but neither is he a slow runner. There have been several half-hearted attempts to move him to 3B and even the OF, but he's always ended up back at 1B. I think he has to tools to be a 3B or corner OF, but we need to consider him a first baseman for now. I am so darn excited to see him start his professional career in the Giants organization. I'm hoping they start him out in San Jose where he would be part of a "murderer's row" lineup with Panik, Susac and Duvall.