#7 Andrew Susac, C. 6'1", 200 lbs. BD: 3/22/1990.
College: .298/.429/.525, 9 2B, 4 3B, 5 HR in 141 AB.
Cape Cod League(2010): .290 with 6 2B, 5 HR, 13 BB, 25 K in 100 AB.
Andrew Susac grew up a Giants fan in the Sacramento area. He was drafted out of HS and turned down a $200 K bonus to play for Oregon State. Andrew missed part of his junior season with a hamate fracture but came back to play before the season ended. He was widely seen as a potential first rounder before the injury that probably dropped his stock. Under John Barr, the Giants have made it a strategy to use high non-first round picks on formerly highly ranked players whose stock drops for some reason. Sure enough, when Susac fell to them in round 2, they grabbed him with the #86 overall pick. He signed too late to get into any pro games but Baggs reports that he impressed in instructionals in the fall.
Susac is reportedly a solid all-around defensive catcher who can "shut down a running game." He hits for power using a high leg kick with excellent backspin. He's a puller, so could be vulnerable to good breaking stuff. John Klima was a bit worried about a drop in his hands before starting his swing. Looking at his scouting video myself, I've seen worse hand drops than that, so I don't know how much of a problem that might turn out to be. There are plenty of scouting videos out there on him if you just do a video google. There is one where he really puts a charge into one with a wood bat in the Cape Cod League. Again, there may be a slight hand drop, but it looks to me like it's more of just bringing his hands into a comfortable swinging position rather than any kind of hitch in his swing.
I would project him to be the starting catcher for San Jose in 2012 and we'll see what the Giants have here.
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Finding good young catchers is not easy. Some teams struggle for years looking for a good backstop. The Giants have Buster and three very exciting young cathers developing in the minors - Susac, Joseph and Sanchez.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Sanchez continues to rake in Venezuela with a BA of just under .340 with an OPS around .950.
Injuries happen, and catchers are particularly vulnerable. But, barring any major injuries, the Gmen should be able to fill the catching spot when Posey moves to a less demanding position with a quality two-way player......and have catching assets left to include in a trade to fill a need elsewhere.
It seems to me, after reviewing the info available on the Giants farm system, that while the Giants may not have the deepest pool of talent, the talent they do have is fairly well distributed across the diamond. Not all players develop as projected, but the Giants could have some fallout and still be in good shape going forward.
Note: My brother-in-law just agreed to go to work for the Giants as a floating minor league pitching coach. He pitched for the Pads in the 80's and has spent the last 20+ years as a roving pitching instructor for the Angels and the Padres.
Scott Thompson - congrats to your brother-in-law, that's awesome.
ReplyDeleteI maintain Sanchez has a very good chance of being the backup catcher, 50 starts and a good pinch hitting bat off the bench as opposed to 100-110 minor league games won't hurt his development. If he struggles, they can go back to Stewart or Whiteside.
Very excited to see Susak suit up. Lots of raves about him, and hope the hammate is just like Pablo's and he hits the ground running.
I think our catching prospects are already better than the Yankees, if you allow for Jesus Montero becoming their DH and not a constant trade rumor especially.
Scott,
ReplyDeleteCongrats to your brother-in-law. That is exciting. Best wishes to him for success in his new job, both for him and the Giants prospects he'll be coaching.
I think there are several factors that make the Giants system better than it appears to be on the surface. One of them is it is well positioned to fill areas of need at the MLB level over the next 2-3 years.
We probably have the best catching prospects in baseball. Susac looks exciting because of his defensive skills and he is pretty decent at the plate as well. I am thinking Tommy Joseph is going to be a Mike Napoli type but with better defensive skills. I don't know where he will fit on the major league club if Posey stays behind the plate, but if Posey moves to 1B or 2B, I think he would be a great fit and add some power to the club.
ReplyDeleteCatchers everywhere! You could put Posey at 2nd (maybe a stretch, but he is a good athlete), move Joseph to first, Belt to left and have Susac catch for 120 games, Sanchez for 40 and keep em all!
ReplyDeletePanik plays short. You'd have not as much range up the middle but high baseball IQ players. And some seriously nice bats.
If Joseph is a special player it'd be worth keeping him and playing at 1st. Otherwise he's your best trade chip. I agree with the projection of Susak being the best actual catcher of the three, but I also think people are undervaluing Hector Sanchez' bat right now, as well as his athleticism. He figures out his weight like Pablo, I think he's a really good piece for the Gints.
Dave Cameron just can't lay off (from his chat today on fangraphs): Guy asks about Rich Harden to the Gints, Cameron: HR prone right-hander going to SF? Yes, that makes a lot of sense. If he drinks whatever Kool-Aid Righetti passes out to his pitchers, he could really thrive there.
ReplyDeleteI think Cameron is really jealous of the Giants. His team has good pitchers, an offensively challenging ballpark and a bad offense as well. That's the only thing I can think of for little weird digs like this.
If pitching is your best asset/strength, then having a great catcher/in-game manager becomes a key complementary strength. Like that the Giants have bulked up on catchers to backstop their terrific staff. Agree with others here that Susac has a solid projectable future and Sanchez could be an athletic Panda II if his hitting carries over from Venezuela winter ball. Could see Joseph as a very valuable trade chip to strengthen another position.
ReplyDeleteAll good for to the Giants future.
Shark,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. Pitching is our best asset/strength. However, in 2010 we averaged a HR's/game which is not too bad. That year the offense was much better than average. 2011 was pretty pathetic and we only hit 121 HR's. Hopefully we can do a lot better offensively so our pitching staff does not have to save us every game. Also, when we are scoring more runs the games are much more fun to watch. I cannot wait to see Posey and Franchez back and also to see if Melky can duplicate his numbers from last year. If we can get our offense to where we were in 2010, then I think we have a good shot at the playoffs. If we repeat 2011's numbers, it will be a long year. The only good thing that can come out of us having a horrible year is hoping that they drop Zito and use his roster spot on a player who can make a difference.
I think most sabermetricians hate the Giants. At least it seems that way, particularly BP.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, the Giants are the best example of the results of the study BP did in their book, in terms of constructing a team for maximizing success in the playoffs. Instead, BP prefers to ream Sabean in their annuals, asking the Giants to fire him in the 2010 edition (ironic, huh?).
I like having strength up the middle. Catchers are good because, as we saw last season, their shelflife can be damaged by an idiot. Plus, I have seen a lot of good hitting catchers move on to other positions, like 1B, 3B, 2B, LF, so they can be versatile at times. In addition, Posey just looks like a candidate to move to either 2B or 3B in the future, once he gets nicked up a bit more. And I have to think Bochy wants an on-field mini-me at some point, so the Giants could be looking for someone to fill that role, assuming Posey does move on to another position.
CF has always been an all-defense, no offense hole for Giants prospects, so it is nice to see a few promising players there in Brown and the ones I've seen listed in the comments.
2B and SS has been worse, but I think that is more because it is so hard to find players for those positions. I think Crawford will be good enough offensively to stick at SS, which would push Panik to 2B. I think Ehire might become a good utility MI guy, since he has the defense plus has shown some offensive skills, just not enough. I also still have hopes for Noonan, he's still young, just is too old to be a good player, but our team could still use average starters to fill out the roster, plus he could also be a nice bench player as well.
Haven't seen the Cameron chat. I have to say I don't have a lot of respect for the guy. He might be the snarkiest guy on the internet, but he can't take it coming back. He's actually threatened to ban me from his site just for pointing out inconsistencies in the interpretation of stats and for proposing reasons why certain outlying stats make sense if you understand what's happening on the field instead of just chalking it up to dumb luck or scratching your head and thinking it might be due to some magic dust in the air in San Francisco.....so now it's the Kool Aid Rags gets them to drink?
ReplyDeleteDO NOT LOOK AT THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
ReplyDeleteSome sabers think that some things are written into stone, like DIPS, even though it has been proven long ago that it does not apply to a good number of pitchers. And not just pitchers, but good pitchers.
They can not change with the latest findings, they are stuck in their ways, which is ironic because that is what they say about the people who still clings to BA and wins.
DrB - check out Dane Phillips. He's in mlbdraftguide. He lead the Cape Cod in hitting and Ribeyes this past year. He played for OK St, but DH'd, caught a couple games. Apparently played the OF in the CC. Lefty bat, he transferred to Arkansas, obviously there's some defensive warts going on, but .349 BA in the Cape is good after struggling mightily in 2010 there. Hit in the 330s at OK State with gap power. Sort of an interesting sleeper.
ReplyDeleteThis guy Phillips is from Belt's hometown, he's actually less than 2 years younger than Belt so age might knock him down even further (2 strikes!).
ReplyDeleteReading an old profile on baseball beginnings on the Gints 09 draft, Giants scouting director Doug Mapson said this (about Belt but also in general): He’s a good example of the kind of scouting we talked about earlier, where you say, ‘don’t look at a guy and pick him apart so much that you miss what he can do.’
That could also refer to Dominguez as well.
And because I'm doing my best attempt at Bill Murray in Caddyshack (In order to conquer the animal, I have to learn to think like an animal) I got another semi-sleeper: Matt Boyd, Oregon State - LHP, 6'3, used to be a 2-way player, team USA, Cape Cod League, from Bellevue WA... Won't be 1st round material but I'll bet good money the Giants have scoped him, they've been very active at Oregon State. This guy has Giants 2nd/3rd/4th round written all over him to me.
ReplyDeleteOne more and I'll stop. Actually 2. First is Jesmuel Valentin who I've mentioned before, PR academy SS and son of Juan V, don't know if the Giants could grab him in the 2nd and keep him away from college but I bet they could. Second is this guy Alex Bregman. First youth player to be named USA player of the year, switching off shortstop where he played prep for catcher as he profiles better there. Hmmm... Sounds exactly like Buster Posey. Both these guys are commits to LSU. I'd like the Tigers to cry this summer.
ReplyDeleteNow everybody can go all humbug on me and say the Giants don't like HS players, they need arms, blah blah. Both those guys look pretty sweet though.
I thought both Cain and Bumgarner worked out well...
ReplyDeleteI do not know where you got that the Giants hate HS players, but they have drafted a lot of them over the years. The As however did have such a rep before, days of money ball, not sure about lately.
If you look past the first round of the draft, the Giants have been gradually shifting their focus to taking more signable HS kids and have gradually build up a stockpile of them in the lower minors. Now, all we need is for 1 or 2 of those to break out big time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, in the late night I didn't spell it out so well. I was thinking about top of the draft, and position players. There are some trends developing, but I think its worth noting the Giants are often unpredictable and I bet they will go with the BPA or a player they like for a skill set over some set draft mindset. Its fun to try and think like them though.
ReplyDelete2011: 10 HS players drafted, 6 signed, Crick in the 1st, Delgado in the 8th, Diaz in the 11th.
2010: 9 HS players drafted, 3 signed, Chuckie Jones in the 7th.
2009: 10 HS players drafted, 5 signed, Wheeler in the 1st, Joseph in the 2nd, Graham in the 6th, Benusa in the 8th.
2008: 15 HS players drafted, 5 signed, Ryan O'Sullivan in the 10th who was unsigned.
That 2008 skews it a lot, but they're roughly around 20% HS guys for the draft, and signing about half of those. The actual numbers are 44 drafted in 4 years, average of 11, so 22%. 19 of the 44 signed, so we're at about 43% on that, but the 2008 year skews it. Last year was quite good in that matter, the only top half guy they missed was the CA prepster Tyler Leslie at 15.
In the past 4 years, for position players, we're talking Joseph, Chuckie Jones and the PR Academy guys this year for the first (and most important) part of the draft. While I agree with your conclusion about a stockpile growing DrB, I'd have to say they aren't very aggressive about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they change direction, especially if teams are gobbling up college players in the 3-10 rounds. The Giants seem to love being contrarians. The guys I pointed out look like gamers with pedigrees.
The Giants aren't as aggressive with HS players as some other teams, but compared to how they used to draft, they've gone hog wild since 2006. 2006 and before you would be lucky to find 2 or 3 HS guys on their draft list and the ones they drafted later usually didn't sign. Of course they've always taken their share of HS pitchers in the first round: Jerome Williams, Boof, Matt Cain, Craig Whitaker, more recently, Bum, Alderson, Wheeler, Crick.
ReplyDeleteReally excited about Susac, it seems like he could be an all around above average catcher, much like Posey. What do you think that Susac's upside would be DRB?
ReplyDeleteNo comment on the college tendency, it makes sense given there win now attitude.
Hiro
I've got a fair amount of historical data that I go over from time to time. I'm going to do a 15 year analysis of Sabey Sabes' drafting. One theory I have is they did everything right in 1998, especially loading up on early picks and it was a pretty big bust. I think that cooled his enthusiasm for a few years. The 98 draft is hilarious in its coincidences - Pat the Bat, Warrior Spirit, Torres, Lopez, Huff were all in the first 5 rounds, as was young Ryan Vogelsong.
ReplyDeleteI'll check it but one thing I remember is that the G's have very good success with college guys signing, so they tend to stick to that. HS guys later in the draft for sure.
Susac's upside? Well, from everything I've read, I think he can be an above average starting catcher in MLB. I'm gonna say a .260-.280 BA with 20-25 HR's.
ReplyDelete