There were no Giants affiliated minor league teams in action today.
Exciting news that Bo Davidson OF and Scott Bandura OF were promoted from A+ Eugene to AA Richmond and Jakob Christian OF/1B was promoted from A San Jose to A+ Eugene.
Davidson and Bandura are both feel-good stories for different reasons. Bo was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after a Giants scout discovered him while scouting another player at tiny Caldwell Community College and Technical Institutes in North Carolina. He has performed well at every pro assignment so far. He batted .286/397/.469 in the ACL in 2023. Then .328/.438/.608 for A San Jose in 2024. I saw him play for San Jose and he more than passed the eye test for a legit MLB prospect: Almost ideal size, athleticism, easy fluidity to his movements and absolutely barreled up everything the times I saw him. He was rewarded with a Arizona Fall League assignment and slashed .283/.362/.433 there. He continued to mash in A+ ball this season with a .309/.412/.507, 6 triples, 10 HR, 12 SB in 335 PA. He's shown tremendous plate discipline with a 14.6 BB% while keeping his K% reasonable at 22%. Talk about The Natural! This guy has made it look easy so far with solid analytical numbers to back it up. AA in general and the Eastern League in particular is a major challenge. At the least, he's getting a preview and head start on his expected level for next season.
Once upon a time, Scott Bandura was the little league catcher for Mo' ne Davis, the sensational girl pitcher of Little League World Series fame. In fact, it was Scott's father, Steve Bandura, who discovered Mo'ne's unusual athletic prowess at the Marian Anderson Recreation Center where he was the manager of the center's youth baseball team and saw her throwing a football in a tight spiral. After the Little League World Series experience, Scott Bandura eventually found his way to Princeton U where he played collegiate baseball. Scott says his goal was always to play professional baseball but chose Princeton because it offered the best back up plan if baseball didn't work out.
Scott was drafted in the 7'th round of the 2023 draft by the Giants. After 15 AB's in he ACL he quickly moved up to A San Jose and put up a line of .241/.364/.405. He returned to San Jose in 2024 and batted .276/.389/.362. I saw him play for San Jose that season. He is a little taller, but leaner than Bo Davidson with maybe less fluidity to his movement. Still, he looked athletic and with a projectable frame. He moved up to A+ Eugene in 2024 with a .227/.332/374 line but with 6 HR and 19 SB. Back in Eugene for 2025 he improved on those numbers significantly with a .307/.399/.439 with 7 HR and 30 SB. So both his power and speed are developing. It's a great opportunity for him to also get a head start on his expected 2025 AA assignment.
Jakob Christian was drafted by the Giants in the 5'th round of last year's draft out of University of San Diego. He is a tall, rawboned OF/1B who physically reminds me of Giants hitting coach and former player, Pat "The Bat" Burrell. Christian got into just 9 games with San Jose after the draft last season and batted .267 with a HR. This season he has performed consistently with a .272/.355/.460, 10 HR, 12 SB. He certainly has the raw tools to be an impact hitter if he continues to develop.
No Dakota Jordan promotion? Seems weird to promote Christian but not Jordan
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to the players on well deserved promotions. With Bandura and Davidson being east coast guys their families can watch them play at Richmond.
ReplyDeleteDakota Jordan last played for San Jose on Saturday, July 12. He left the game early and missed Sunday's game.
I'm wondering if injury prevented him from being promoted to Eugene with Christian?
Have you watched Even Year Dynasty Show on Youtube? Another good source on Giants baseball.
ReplyDeletestarting to look like to me, Farhan Zaidi knew what he was doing picking new talent if nothing else.
ReplyDeleteI've always said Farhan left the farm system in better shape than he found it despite all the failed first round draft prospects. That was the one point I had in favor of not firing him.
DeleteFInally on Bandura and Davison! Good for them to get a half year challenge in RIC...Same with Chrisitian and whoever else (GUITEREREZ especially. Sio, Jordan) they move up to EUGENE
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
Gutierrez is on the IL and Dakota Jordan appeared to pull up while chasing a flyball just before the break, came out of the game and did not play in the next game.
DeleteRichmond has played 86 games, they have 52 left.
DeleteWho is Darien Smith? Who found him?
ReplyDelete25 yo, he was never drafted, sort of found @ 25 yo pitching in the NAIA, signed and placed in San Jose, has kinda dominated, and is 6-0 with an 1.66 ERA and a 1.079 WHIP.
He's 3 years too old for A ball — shouldn't he be moved up and tested?
Yes, he probably should but there are a finite number of roster spots at each level.
DeleteToo many good/promising pitchers?
DeleteIs it possible that the Giants would "jump" an older player?
Not sure what you mean my "jump" here. If you mean jump to the next level, sure, they can jump anyone they want, but always to a higher level that has it's own roster crunch problem so they then have to decide who to release to make room and that goes all the way to the MLB level.
DeleteGood answer to a vague question, but it meant to mean applied to Smith: when he's moved up, should he skip a level to get close to an age-appropriate team?
DeleteIf a level is skipped, given the toughness of AA, would A+ ever be skipped?
This is kinda stupid, but are levels ever skipped?
Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum never played AA ball, but they are unusual cases. Most of the time organizations will want to see players master each level before promotion. There may be some temporary skipping around due to organizational needs but most organizations try to use "organizational" players for that.
DeleteCrawford had an interesting progression:
DeleteRookie: 4 games
A-: 1 game
A+: 44 games
AA: 189 games
AAA: 31 games, 29 games with Fresno, then brought to SF
Obviously other things were going on with Vaun Brown...and I know he never was a blue chip prospect. But the crash from High A to AA was so catastrophic. He was never the same. Makes me want to unfairly vilify Richmond somehow.
ReplyDeleteBad juju has always awaited Giants hitting prospect in the Eastern League going back to Norwich CT days. I know the horrific weather in Norwich was a factor and the warmer climes of Richmond would be friendlier to the hitters but hitting success there proved to be elusive.
Delete