Minor League Season Reviews: DSL

The Giants fielded two DSL teams neither of which made the postseason although the Black team had strong W-L record.  What as exciting about this DSL season was the large number of players signed in 2024 who performed like true prospects and likely well enough to earn a promotion to the ACL next season.  The young performers were mostly from the positional side while most of the top pitching performers were older prospects.  Let's break it down(we will limit the lists to first year players with at least 100 PA's):  

BA:  

.363 Santiago Camacho C.

.300 Oliver Tejada OF

.290 Evan Estevez(16 yo) OF

.279 Anthony Marquez IF

.275 Jhonny Level SS

HR:

10 Jhonny Level

5  Oliver Tejada

2  Santiago Camacho

2  Evan Estevez

Triples: 

3 Oliver Tejada

2 Juan Colorado

2 Evan Estevez

2 Anthony Marquez

Doubles:

12 Albert Jimenez

11 Santiago Camacho

11 Jhonny Level

11 Oliver Tejada

SB:  

18 Jhonny Level

13 Oliver Tejada

10 Anthony Marquez

6  Evan Estevez.

Also worth mentioning is Jesus Alexander C/1B who broke out in his second DSL season at age 18 with a .381 BA.  We should see his name in the ACL boxscores next season.  Also Yohendry Sanchez was a bonus baby catcher who only got 45 PA and hit for just .241 but with as many walks as K's.  

On the pitching side the top performers were older prospects which may not be a big a factor for pitchers but still tends to devalue their performance at this level:

Ricardo Estrada LHP(22):  5-0, 1.22, 44.1 IP, 14 BB, 53 K.

Marlon Franco RHP(21):  3-1, 1.65, 49.0 IP, 5 BB, 46 K.

Brayan Narvaez RHP(19):  3-0, 3.92, 43.2 IP, 10 BB, 45 K.

Best first year performer was Argenis Cayama RHP, 6/1", 180 lbs:  0-1, 2.59, 24.1 IP, 9 BB, 29 K.

Top prospect is Jhonny Level by a pretty big margin.  We should see his name in the ACL boxscores next season and will eagerly look for them.

Thoughts On Farhan Zaidi and Buster Posey

 Hey team!  I am back and what a breaking story I missed!  I go back a long way in Giants history.  There have been some momentous changes in the front office but this one may be the biggest watershed moment of them all.  Tom Haller, Al Rosen, Brian Sabean, FZ himself.  All were major changes but this is the first time a future Hall of Fame Giants player, one who spent his entire career with the team took to reins of the team and in quite dramatic fashion.  Turns out Baggs had it right and Buster's involvement in the Matt Chapman negotiations was an ominous sign for FZ's future with the team.  While that and other flags made Farhan's firing less than unexpected, the announcement that Buster would be the new POBO came as an almost complete shock.

I already reviewed the pros and cons of FZ's career with the Giants so won't rehash that.  IMO, if you look at the youth of the current roster and the state of the farm system is the organization is better positioned for the future than when FZ took over, but maybe only marginally so and the last 6 years have been a litany of frustrations that apparently extended to ownership who finally had enough.  FZ's 6 year tenure was an experiment on what would happen if an analytics oriented POBO was given free reign to institute and control that approach through every level of the organization.  The results were less than compelling.

So what does Buster Posey bring to the table?  He clearly has a keen baseball mind and the adoration of the fanbase.  When Buster Posey speaks, people listen.  While I am sure he understands analytics and will make use of them he will almost certainly also bring the perspective of a recent player who had to absorb that data and put it into action on the field.  He has a unique perspective on how the analytical approach is perceived by players, what works and what doesn't from their perspective.  It's interesting that his first move as POBO was a rather emphatic reassignment of GM Pete Putila who himself came from another analytics oriented program.  Buster also pointedly emphasized that he will promote prospects like Bryce Eldridge when he thinks they are ready and will not let team needs dictate that timing which could be a shot at Putila's approach as his area of expertise was player development and the rather frantic promotion of prospects started after his arrival.  

It will be interesting to see who Buster brings in to assist him but all indications are he will bring a much more traditional approach to roster building and the types of players he thinks will help the team become the perennial postseason powerhouse it should be.

I am sure we all wish him the greatest success.