Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Giants Depth Charts: Catcher

I temporarily forgot that I had promised awhile back to write up my impression of the Giants organizational/positional depth charts.  Just to be clear, this is my opinion of what I think the hierarchy is.  We'll start with the catcher position.

MLB

1.  Buster Posey
2.  Andrew Susac
3.  Hector Sanchez
4.  Trevor Brown

Posey is the clear #1 and probably will be for at least another 2-3 seasons.  Susac will continue to be #2 as long as he recovers from his wrist surgery.  Sanchez' future is very uncertain as he continues to suffer multiple injuries including concussions behind the plate.  Trevor Brown could easily move up to #3 as he demonstrated both defensive potential and surprising offense in a September trial.

AAA

Ben Turner

I've always liked Turner's bat due to terrific K and BB rates, but Brown has obviously jumped ahead of him in the eyes of the Giants management probably due to defense.

AA

Nobody home here, unless you see Eliezer Zambrano as a prospect.

HIGH A

Aramis Garcia
Ty Ross

Garcia is the fast riser here.  He got a later season callup to San Jose and struggled, but hit well in the Cal League playoffs.  I'll guess he starts 2016 in San Jose.  Ty Ross is a defense first catcher who hits at times.  He will probably start out 2016 in Richmond.

LOW A

Jared Deacon
Matt Pare

Neither of these guys seem to be more than organizational players at this point.

Short Season

Miguel Gomez
Fernando Pujadas
Matt Winn

One of my white whales is the concept of a reserve catcher who can play multiple other positions which would open the way for rostering 3 catchers which gives the manager an additional order of magnitude flexibility.  Gomez may be that guy and he's a switch-hitter to boot.  Whether his primary position ends up being catcher or somewhere else, the bat looks good enough to play.  Pujadas has been around awhile but may be a sleeper.  Matt Winn may be a sleeper from the 2015 draft.

ROOKIE AZL

Zach Bowers
Cody Brickhouse
Kleiber Rivas

Don't know much about Bowers.  Brickhouse was a HS draftee from 2015 and is obviously a project.  Rivas has missed some time with injuries, but seems to have a high ceiling.  He is a LH batter to boot.

DSL

Andres Angulo
Mecky Coronado
Jesus Tona

Angulo and Tona put up promising numbers at young ages.  I only list Coronado because he is listed as a catcher on the roster but he has actually played mostly DH and LF.  He seems to be quite the hitter, though.

NEW SIGNEE

Ricardo Genovese

Don't know much about this Venezuelan signee, but the Giants paid him a healthy 6 figure signing bonus.

Summary:  The Giants have excellent depth at the MLB level, assuming Susac comes back from his wrist injury.  They also have an impressive line of succession set up in the minors and seem to be intent on continuing to add on.  There is a bit of a break between the MLB level and high A so if Susac and Sanchez both can't go, they would probably need to bring in a journeyman backup catcher or two until Garcia and Ty Ross are ready.  Maybe bring back Jackson Williams on a minor league/spring training deal?

6 comments:

  1. Didn't really follow the system as much this season, what happened to John Riley? Has the bonus baby really fallen that much? Makes me think of all the Sturm and Drang that befell a certain segment of the Giants fandom when the Giants didn't do any of the draft tricks to spend big on a draftee later, I think in the first draft after the new CBA, and I was ripped a new one for thinking that those tricks would not add up to much in the long run and not really caring that they didn't join along in the reindeer games.

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    1. He started in Augusta then went down to the S-K Volcanoes. He's also a first baseman now.

      http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=t578

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    2. John Riley is indeed a first baseman now. I would not give up on him just yet. He actually finished the season quite strongly at S-K. Will cover him in the 1B depth chart. I also would not refer to moving from Augusta to S-K as moving "down". S-K is a friendlier hitting environment than Augusta, but the average age of the players in the NWL is almost exactly the same as in the SAL.

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  2. Replies
    1. Jeff Arnold has been hurt a lot. He only played in a handful of game in 2015 and is not currently listed on any rosters.

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