Tuesday, January 26, 2016

DrB's 2016 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #34 Ian Gardeck

Ian Gardeck, RHP.  DOB:  11/21/1990.  6'2", 220 lbs.

A+:  3-4, 3.54, 86.1 IP, 10.84 K/9, 2.50 BB/9, GO/AO= 1.81.

The Giants like to draft wild, hard throwing arms and try to get them under control.  Gardeck fits that description to a T as he did not do much in college due to severe wildness and the Giants made him their 16'th round pick in the 2012 draft.  His BB/9's remained above 6 for his first 3 pro campaigns, then something clicked last year in San Jose.  The big velocity and strikeout stuff was still there but the BB's went from being terrible to excellent.  He kept the ball on the ground to boot, which is the pitching version of finding the Holy Grail.  His challenge for 2016 will be to maintain the command he found last year, but at a higher level.  AA seems to be a reasonable 2016 destination.  Barring injury or regression on the command, he should have a long MLB career as a reliever/setup man.  ETA is 2017, but I would not be shocked to see him pitching in a SF Giants uniform sometime this year.

4 comments:

  1. This is some truly incredible depth to the system! The peripheral stats here are fantastic - I wonder what his secondary development has been like. Hopefully the Giants were requiring command/control of the offspeed stuff while teaching control of the FB. These are the fun sleepers that make prospecting such a fun hobby.

    Kid was certainly old for High-A but that almost doesn't matter given the history you've provided (thanks for keeping these excellent stories a part of the scouting report!) If he's mastered his command, like you said: It's plenty time for the kid to move fast now, given the Age vs Level.

    Should be an excellent year to weigh this kid's true ceiling. Hope to see some video of Gardeck this year.

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  2. Gardeck on Doc's Top 50:

    2013: 29
    2014: 34
    2015: --
    2016: 34

    (41 on Cove's 2016)

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  3. I mentioned him at Fansided or Golden Gate Sports as a possible late-season, outside chance call-up and if he holds his control a potential 8/9 type reliever. It was in one of those the usual somebody who doesn't follow the team, has to write something kind of articles. Where this clearly didn't know the Giants farm system and was insisting there's Trouble in River City!

    Ritzo talks a lot about Gardeck in this blog post about the SJ Giants bullpen: http://sjgiants.mlblogs.com/tag/ian-gardeck/

    He also talked about the submariner, Rogers:

    "The results for Rogers last year in San Jose were spectacular. Over 42 games out of the bullpen, he owned an impressive 1.47 ERA – the lowest mark of any reliever on the club. Rogers struck out 86 batters in 79 innings while issuing just 20 walks and holding the opposition to a .202 batting average. Post-All-Star break, Rogers’ ERA was a mind-boggling 1.12, including a 0.40 mark during the month of July."

    He's a guy I kind of follow. I just like guys that are out-side the box with their mechanics & delivery. Rogers. Law. Lincecum.

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  4. Non-Roster invitees: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZrEhpQUcAAGBJl.png Sourced from the Giants' twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SFGiants?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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