Here's a draft prospect to warm Shankbone's heart. Josh Hart is a toolsy HS OF who has been hovering on the fringes of the first round in early mock drafts. He's got nice size at 6'3", 190 lbs(Minor League Ball has him at 6'2", 180 lbs) with some room to fill out his frame. He bat and throws lefty. Right now his plus tools are hit, run catch. His arm is average to slightly above and he has power potential. Perfect Game radar has him at 83 of the mound and 89 on a throw from the OF. John Klima of Baseball Prospect Report thought he looked better at the plate in real games than in batting practice and laid a Andrew McCutchen comp on him. Minor League ball had him more as Denard Span which I think is more realistic. He is a bit old for his HS draft class at age 18.8 on draft day.
BA has him ranked at #44 in their HS Top 100 and has him at 6'0", 180 lbs. Draft Site has him ranked #95 in their top 200 draft prospects. Big League Futures has him ranked higher at #42.
While I like him as a player, I would stay away from him in the first round. He could just as easily end up like Wendell Fairley as Denard Span and I think the McCutchen comp is unrealistic. Would make a nice flyer in round 3 and who are we kidding here? He's not coming to the Giants!
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A couple of nice articles to check out here. Hardball Times, which is now part of Fangraphs, has an analysis of how well managers handle bullpens. Bochy comes out ranked #7 for 2012. Interesting how the rankings fit my impressions from watching games with Buck Showalter and Bob Melvin ranked #1 and #2 as well as Mike Scioscia and Bud Black ranked #4 and 5. Not hard to guess that Don Mattingly ranked # 28, Kirk Gibson ranked #25 and Charlie Manuel at #26. The big surprise for me was Davey Johnson ranked dead last! Maybe that meltdown in NLDS game 5 wasn't an accident. I know I had serious questions about his management of the bullpen in that game, although it did not appear he had all that many options.
High Heat Stats has a nice article looking at the historical significance of Buster Posey's MVP season. Now THAT is chicken soup for any Giants fan's soul on Black Friday! I just can't get enough of Buster being compared to the great Johnny Bench who was probably the greatest catcher to ever play the game. And when you look at Buster's WAR numbers so far and realize they accumulated with him missing over 2/3 of one season, well, that's pretty awesome too!
PS: 1. There are a few video clips of Josh Hart on Youtube and one at BPR. 2. There's a funny video clip over on sfgiants.com of Giants players impersonating Rev. Hunter Pence's postseason pregame speeches. I bet when these guys are 80 yo and telling their grandchildren and great-grandchildren about the World Series they won, those speeches will be what they remember most!
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I gotta think the best way to end any argument about a toolsy HS guy is to throw up the Fairley comp. Sabean goes running for the hills every time. You just can't trust the low level of competition. Then again, them there showcases... But Fairley, Chuckie Jones, RafRod, you can't say the Giants haven't tried to get on board the raw young speedster train. We do have Gustavo now.
ReplyDeleteI like Hart a bunch. His teammate Travis Demeritte needs a big look. BA has him at #17 HS right now, and he's getting beat up for a bad showcase. But who are we kidding? Dreaming on HS hitters is a bad bet for Los Gigantes prospect hounds. But while we're at it... I looked at Ryan Boldt (Red Wing MN! and #8BA HS), I think the poor man's David Dahl labels are selling the lad short.
The pitchers are where its at. There is a run of LHP in the BA list - Kaminsky, Gonsalves, Clarkin that look very interesting. BA is way down on Jonah Wesely, but I really liked the video I saw of that guy, plus reports of him being a bulldog and spotting his fastball. Then there is also Garrett Williams, who won't be drafted as a pitcher, but is listed as a LHP. I bet he gets too much hype. Like these SS's. But somebody has to drop!
Yeah, you could probably throw a Wendell Fairley comp on most toolsy HS OF prospects so that might be hitting below the belt. In this case, I fear it's a distinct possibility, though.
DeleteOh, and the monks of baseball signed up two mid 90s RH RP. Fabio Castillo from the Rangers, he looks very interesting. Willy Lebron looks like a checkered project for the ages, but he has missed bats from time to time.
ReplyDeleteNoticed that. I'll check 'em out.
DeleteYeah, Castillo looks very interesting. Excellent groundball tendency to go with solid K rates. BB rate is a bit on the high side but not impossibly so.
DeleteWilly Lebron looks like he's been around the block a few too many times.
Castillo looks wild but young, 93-97 sounds good. I see a Casilla comp in there. He throws a Rob Nen type sinking slider. I like the Giants trolling for big arms, good start to a slow offseason.
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