Thursday, October 27, 2016

Giants 2017 Depth Chart: First Base

The Giants are well covered at first base at the MLB level as Brandon Belt is in the early stages of a longterm contract with 1B serving as a convenient place for Buster Posey to get some easier innings as a sub and Conor Gillaspie having experience at both 1B and 3B.  There is also a nice progression of prospects in the minors which would fall nicely into place if the Giants feel Chris Shaw is ready to move up to AAA in 2017.

MLB:

Brandon Belt, 29 yo.   .275/.394/.474, 41 2B, 8 3B, 17 HR.  Belt had the 9'th highest OPS of MLB first basemen and the 4'th highest fWAR.

Buster Posey, Conor Gillaspie- stats covered with other positions.

AAA:

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AA:

Chris Shaw, 23 yo.  .246/.309/.414, 16 2B, 4 3B, 5 HR, 232 AB.  Struggled to a .208 BA in the first month after callup to AA, but then slashed .279/.322/.505 in August.  I could see Chris Shaw eventually making Brandon Belt tradable, or he could be trade bait himself.

High A:

Jonah Arenado, 22 yo.  .254/.286/.422, 36 2B, 17 HR, 516 AB.  Arenado was an XBH machine for San Jose, especially after taking over at 1B full-time after Chris Shaw's promotion.  Critics don't like his OBP, but has time to improve his plate discipline.

Low A:

Dillon Dobson, 23 yo.  .273/.328/.465, 27 2B, 5 3B, 13 HR, 396 AB.
Skyler Ewing, 24 yo.  .241/.331/.410, 10 2B, 2 3B, 10 HR, 261 AB.

This was Dobson's first full pro season.  Ewing found some traction in the second half.

SHORT SEASON:

Ryan Kirby, 22 yo.  .265/.345/.397, 16 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 204 AB.  First pro experience after being drafted out of Univ of San Diego.  Seems to have more gap power than dinger power.

ROOKIE AZL:

Beicker Mendoza, 18 yo.  .272/.300/.316, 114 AB.
Robinson Medrano, 21 yo.  .222/289/.352, 108 AB.

Converted OF's from the DSL.  Mendoza is 3 years younger and has room to grow.  Medrano needs to find some traction.

DSL:

Angeddy Almanzar, 18 yo.  .294/.373/.438, 17 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, 235 AB.  Best hitter on the 2016 DSL Giants squad and not close.  Should be ready for an Arizona assignment in 2017.

All of these domino pieces fall into place if the Giants think Chris Shaw is ready to move up to AAA and then everybody else moves up a level.  Nice clean progression of prospects throughout the system.

2 comments:

  1. Conner Gillaspie seemed to become such a force late in the year I think he's a keeper , hopefully he can thrive as a utility man and or take over 3 rd. base outright. It was pretty impressive for him to hit Chapman.

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    1. I agree. The Giants could do a lot worse than make Conor Gillaspie the starting 3B and move Eduardo Nunez to LF. Ideally, you would like more dingers out of your LF, but that would not be a terrible lineup at all.

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