Friday, January 3, 2020
DrB's 2020 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #14 Sean Hjelle
Sean Hjelle RHP. DOB: 5/7/1997. 6'11", 225 lbs.
Low A: 1-2, 2.66, 40.2 IP, 9.74 K/9, 1.99 BB/9, GB/FB= 2.64.
A+: 5-5, 2.78, 77.2 IP, 8.59 K/9, 2.20 BB/9, GB/FB= 4.06.
AA: 1-2, 6.04, 25.1 IP, 7.46 K/9, 3.20 BB/9, GB/FB= 2.05.
Sean Hjelle is a very tall pitcher. So tall, I believe if he becomes a starting pitcher in the major leagues, which looks fairly likely, he will be the tallest in history(Jon Rauch, who is also listed at 6'11", was strictly a reliever). Tall pitchers have built in advantages including the ability to release the ball closer to home plate and a natural steep downhill plane on their pitches. The usual disadvantages include difficulty repeating their delivery, slowness to the plate with runners on base and difficulty getting themselves unwound to field bunts and cover first base. Those disadvantages don't apply to Sean Hjelle as he displays surprisingly athletic movements and is actually more of a control pitcher than one who will blow you away with stuff.
I'm not sure what the Giants were thinking when they assigned Hjelle to Augusta to begin 2019, but that is too low for a high round college draftee who pitched in an elite conference. He quickly earned a promotion to the much more challenging Cal League and succeeded there. The K numbers were not quite dominant, but the GB rate was and he showed excellent command. He kind of hit a wall after a late season promotion to AA, although his FIP and xFIP were about the same as his Cal League numbers. I probably should rank him higher on my list, but I think recency bias may have made me knock him down a notch or two.
We should see him back in Richmond to start 2020, but if he gets off to a strong start there, I could see a scenario where he goes to Sacramento in May or June and makes his MBL debut later in the season.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jelly Man! I can see the fan head gear already.
ReplyDeleteI'll miss this sight it was always informative on not only @ the Giants MLB Level , but , for the players @ the Minor League Level who had a chance to reach the MLB and now I'll have to change my allegiance to the San Diego Padres who've signed Chase Johnson . Never could understand how the Giants ( I get it he's now 28 ) wouldn't even make a qualifying offer ? Everyone on this Blog should see his 2015 results and in 2017 he was on the AAA club and was the One to be the Closer on the MLB Club , but , as it's well documented in 2017 after the first month @ Sacramento his arm gave out and he underwent TJ surgery , the Giants brought him around slowly in 2018 and in 2019 took him off the 40 man and pretty much let him tread water in AA . Question I have is his arm is fresh and in fact when he was called up to AAA for the playoffs in 2019 he not only pitched well , but , got the Rivercats to the AAA Championship with his performance in the PCL Playoffs . Mind Boggling ?
ReplyDeleteJellyman! https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t3dnvB7DP20S4bof8wbrhDM6cEzGpI7P
ReplyDelete