It was kind of a boring draft if you are someone who likes surprising picks and draft day intrigue with the picks pretty much falling along the MLB Pipeline rankings and Mock Drafts, which means most teams were probably making smart picks. It's pretty obvious now that Farhan Zaidi and the Giants scouting staff prioritized power hitting, selecting big college bats with the #10 and #51 day one picks, which makes a lot of sense for a power-starved organization. Let's break down the picks:
Round 1 #10: Hunter Bishop OF, College(Arizona St). B-L, T-R. 6'5", 210 lbs. .356/.482/.792, 14 2B, 4 3B, 22 HR, 11 SB, 16.73 BB%, 22.31 K%, 251 PA. Bishop grew up a Giants fan attending Junipero Serra HS in San Mateo, the same HS Barry Bonds attended, then played college ball where Bonds played, Arizona St. He is young for a a college junior and won't turn 21 until August. His Brother is Braden Bishop who is a rookie playing for the Seattle Mariners. He is a tremendous athlete for a kid his size with enough speed to handle CF. He was a 2-sport star in HS playing WR on the football team. The rap on him is a high strikeout rate, but he improved his plate discipline this season as well as his power numbers with a simplified, but powerful, swing. Braden Bishop's makeup is reputed to be off the charts and Hunter seems to be cut out of the same cloth. The brothers are advocates for awareness of Alzheimer's Disease through their 4Mom foundation which Braden started because their mother, Suzy, sadly was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease.
I had Hunter Bishop ranked #6 on my Final Draft Board while MLB Pipeline had him at #7, so the Giants appear to get terrific value out of the #10 pick. I am obviously not going to criticize drafting a player I had ranked higher on my draft board. I did rank Bryson Stott at #5 as I liked his greater positional versatility and all around game, but it was very close and Bishop has a significantly higher power ceiling than Stott and is no slouch in the tools department. Hunter comped himself to a couple of pretty good MLB players, Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich. Bellinger is the comp I thought of and a guy I think we would all be deliriously happy to have as a Giants player. Grade A.
Round 2 #51. Logan Wyatt 1B, College(Louisville). B-L, T-R. 6'4", 230 lbs. .309/.481/.515, 11 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR, 8 SB, 23.68 BB%, 14.29 K%, 266 PA. Wyatt is strictly a 1B/DH prospect. While he has a lot of raw power, he is known more as a plate discipline wizard. The obvious comp is Joey Votto, which is, well, it's pretty darn good! Although limited to 1B defensively, he is a solid fielder at the position and fast enough to steal 8 bases with 0 CS. Very solid pick at #51! Grade A.
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I haven't paid too much attention to the Draft to have an opinion on who the Giants should or shouldnt pick, but it seems like they did a good job in going after bats. At first glance of Bishop, I immeditly thought of Bellinger and with Wyatt I though of Belt and Votto. I see I am not the only one and let's hope some of those comps can come true.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I thought of right away is that the Giants must really be thinking of bringinh in the fences in left/left-center to go so strongly with two LH bats..or maybe they just went with their best player? here's hoping for more good players today.
SteveVA
And gloriously Keoni Cavaco didn't fall to the Dredful Dodgers. Twins are looking smart -- they have a good farm, too, are they trade candidates for the Giants? Would Bumgarner anchor this upstart team?
ReplyDeleteWould you rank Bishop 3rd if you were doing a prospect ranking?
ReplyDeleteWhat general range would Wyatt fall in?
Im pretty excited about the Wyatt pick, I feel like he is going to be a fun guy to watch/root for in the minors.
Looks like a Good 1St SF Draft for Z.
ReplyDeleteDon't want to overthink things and maybe too early to discern a pattern or strategy, but my early thoughts: Giants going for hitters with upside and a good hit tool... Looking for hitters early, pitchers later, or maybe this is just a weak year for pitching so they will concentrate on building up the offensive side of the farm first... Not afraid to pick first basemen, or perhaps see enough athleticism for possible moves to other positions... Giants leaning Left despite Oracle Park being difficult for LH hitters not named Bonds- maybe stockpiling lefty hitters for future trade bait? In any case, I like what they've done so far.
ReplyDeleteWell of course they need to draft power bats - SF can't sign any free agent power bats so it's either draft or trade for them. I was counting on Chris Shaw to shine through - maybe not.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding. Really excited about both of these players. Love that the Giants went with what they were confident in and selected BPA regardless of position or pitchers/hitters.
ReplyDeleteNow, time to pull those fences in a bit.....
Interesting 1st draft for Zaidi and the Giants, 9 position players selected out of 1st 10 picks, seems like they went for more athletic kids then in the past, 4 shortstops selected-maybe one can develop into Crawford's replacement? Bart, Ramos, Luciano, Bishop, Wyatt could be nice pieces for a future lineup!
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