Tuesday, January 17, 2017

DrB's 2017 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #45 Jacob Heyward

Note:  For those keeping track, I dropped Nick Hill from #45 to #50 and moved #'s 46-50 up a notch which brings us to Jacob Heyward.

Jacob Heyward, OF.  DOB:  8/1/1995.  B-R, T-R.  6'2", 205 lbs.  Drafted in 2016 Round 18 out of Univ. of Miami.

2016 College:  .242/.403/.372, 10 2B, 6 HR, 7 SB, 48 BB, 52 K, 215 PA.
2016 R:  .327/.488/.579, 10 2B, 5 3B, HR, 10 SB, 19.2 BB%, 24.0 K%, 125 PA.
2016 SS:  .286/.444/.429, 2 2B, SB, 16.7 BB%, 16.7 K%, 18 PA.

As I am sure you all know by now, Jacob Heyward is the younger brother of Jason Heyward.  I loved Jason Heyward before the 2007 draft and am I ever happy to have a Heyward in the Giants organization!  Unlike his older bro who was drafted and signed out of HS, Jacob went the college route where he had an up and down career.  After hitting .327 his sophomore campaign, his BA slumped his junior year which is why he was still there in round 18.  He kind of cuts across the grain of a typical Giants hitter in that he draws a ton of walks, which come with a lot of K's.  Just looking at his stat lines, I'm pretty sure the Giants coaches are urging him to be more aggressive early in the count to stay out of 2-strike counts.

On video, the striking thing about Jacob is his massive shoulders and upper chest.  He is otherwise a well proportioned athlete with 6.80 60 speed.  His arm is below average which means he is probably stuck to either LF or 1B.

Jacob put up terrific numbers in Arizona Rookie League, but a good player from a major college program should dominate rookie ball.  The sample size in Salem-Keizer at the end of the season is too small to judge.  One thing he has going for him is his birthdate which makes 2017 his age 21 season.  I'll guess we seem him start the season in Augusta.  It's hard to call him a sleeper because of the name, but so far the name has not gotten him a ton of respect.  He probably does not have much more physical projection, but he has plenty of muscle on that frame now and just needs to polish his approach at the plate to hit and hit for power at high levels.  A full season in Augusta should tell us a lot about how for real he is.

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