The big news for Giants fans out of the Arizona Fall League is Parks Harber who is absolutely raking with the third best OPS in the league. His batting line is .400/.563/.800, 3 HR, 11 BB, 12 K, 46 PA. Harber came to the Giants from the Yankees in the Camilo Doval trade. He is corner IF who bats right. He's pretty much raked everywhere he's played and posted a .333/454/.644 line with 7 HR in 108 PA's for the A+ Eugene Emeralds after the trade. He was an undrafted free agent signed by the Yankees out of UNC in 2024. It's not clear what kind of future a corner IF has in the Giants organization but he is not eligible for the Rule 5 Draft until December 2027 so no rush to add him to the 40-man roster. Here are some stat lines for other Giants prospects in the AFL:
Maui Ahuna SS: .189/.268/.216.
Walker Martin 3B- .152/.222/.212.
Ryan Murphy RHP: 1-2, 5.40, 10 IP, 8 BB, 8 K.
Ricardo Estrada LHP: 0-0, 2.57, 7 IP, 1 BB, 5 K's.
Juan Sanchez LHP- 2-0, 1.50, 6 IP, 2 BB, 9 K's.
Spencer Miles RHP: 1-0, 0.00, 5 IP, 1 BB, 7 K's.
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I watched the video of Tony Vitello's introductory news conference. He and Buster Posey were asked over and over about whether his managing style will translate from college to MLB. I thought both men answered as best they could. Buster acknowledged there are risks to hiring Tony but rightly pointed out there are risks no matter who you hire and he feels Tony has a chance to be a special manager.
What I found most impressive was how he seems to connect to the people and community around him no matter where he is. Each and every time he mentioned somewhere he has been in his career he connected the experience to specific people and specific characteristics of the community. Based on his friends and family who attended and were acknowledged he maintains connections long after he leaves a situation. For example his host family from when he spent two years in Salinas were his guests at the news conference.
As always and as Buster Posey acknowledged, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak, but based on this small sample, Tony Vitello appears to be a far better communicator than either Gabe Kapler or Bob Melvin. He mostly avoided talking in cliches and when he did, he made an effort to explain what the cliche means to him and to give examples of how he puts it into action. He made it clear he cares about his players as people beyond what they can give on the field and maintains contact with them and cheers for them long after he coached them.
All in all I felt he crushed the news conference and got himself off to a great start as Manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Coaching pre professional boys-to-men has to be the most difficult group from little leaguers to MLB: 17-20 yo's know it all!
ReplyDeleteParks Harber played and raked in the SEC for 3 years at a UTenn competitor (UGA) and his 4th year was with UTenn's neighbor (NC) but somehow went undrafted despite 872 big program PAs slashing .303/.373/.556/.928! His senior year OPS was over 1000 (1.073)!
ReplyDeleteBetcha Tony Vitello knows/knew who he was!
Although the position is inherently different, it seems that a 3Bman can play 2B, like, uh, Casey Schmitt?
24-yo Parks Harber will get his test with Richmond very soon.