DrB's 2016 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #19 Chris Stratton

Chris Stratton, RHP.  DOB:  8/22/1990.  6'3", 195 lbs.

AA:  1-5, 4.14, 50 IP, 7.02 K%, 3.96 BB%, GO/AO= 1.12.
AAA:  4-5, 3.86, 98 IP, 6.61 K%, 3.67 BB%, GO/AO= 1.31.

Chris Stratton is a bit of an enigma and was thus one of the hardest prospects to rank in this list.  A former first round draft pick from 2010 at #20 overall, the Giants have steadily promoted him up the organizational ladder despite unexciting stat lines and unenthusiastic scouting reports.  He has not pitched poorly, but he also has never shown any kind of discernible dominance.  The lines you see above are pretty much what he has put up at every level.

The other thing about Stratton is it seems to be difficult to find a definitive scouting report.  That may be due to some inconsistency in velocity readings.  The closest I could come to a precise scouting report was from Kiley McDaniel in last year's Fangraphs Giants Prospect Report.  He reported variability in the FB which sometimes sits in the high 80's and at other times has reached 94 MPH.  Kiley did say that his best and most consistent pitch is the slider with the curveball and changeup lagging behind.

The comp I keep coming back to with Stratton is Brad Hennessey who had a similar scouting profile, had his early development thrown off track by an medical issue and put up similar stat lines in his minor league career, although Stratton's K rate has always been 2-3 K's/9 higher than Hennessey's.  Unless he can consistently hit the low 90's with the velocity and develop a better changeup, I would peg Stratton as a future long/middle reliever, where he could throw mostly sliders for an inning or two at a time and get away with it.  We could see him in SF as early as mid-season 2016, but he's going to have to wait for a need to arise.  Right now, it would seem that Clayton Blackburn and Adalberto Mejia are likely ahead of him on the SP depth chart and there are several bullpen options that would likely be called up for bullpen duty before him.