Here are some interesting stats and quotes from the article:
- Barr: "the position players that were there had value, and Panik is a guy we've seen a lot. ... We see him as a player who can stay up the middle and be an offensive player." Also noted that pick did not reflect in any way on Brandon Crawford. Sees Panik ideally developing into #2 hitter.
- Breakdown: Giants selected 51 players (50 rounds plus one supplemental pick awarded for losing Uribe). They normally select the 50 rounds that are planned for - some teams end early, some go far beyond 50. They selected 29 pitchers - remember, they usually pick more pitchers than position players, despite fact that the roster normally has more position players - 21 RHP and 8 LHP. Out of the 22 position players, 11 were infielders, 7 were outfielders, and 4 were catchers. (50% INF, 32% OF, 18% C vs. 50% INF, 38% OF, 13% C in starting lineup and overall around 46% INF, 38% OF, 15% of the 13 position players on the 25 man roster; obviously varies depending on composition of bench, but roughly this). 35 played in college, 6 in junior college, and only 10 were out of high school. That's the composition of a playoff contending team looking to get players that might contribute sooner than later.
- Barr: "I won't ever speculate on how far a player is. Everybody goes through it at their own pace, so I think the first thing we do is we get him out, we get him into the system and we'll see how it works out. When he's ready to develop and come on up here into the big leagues will be when he gets here." Apparently this is another key part of the Giants Draft philosophy, either under Barr or under Neukom, as both Sabean and Tidrow said that Bumgarner should be up in two seasons (and he was, roughly).
- Barr on speculation Giants draft C due to Posey: Barr denied those rumors, saying Posey's situation "was never under a discussion," nor do the Giants consider any players on the disabled list when making their selections. Instead, they strictly adhere to a best-player-available philosophy -- pick their highest-rated player, no matter the experience level or position.
"You still have to end up accumulating talent. That's the key," Barr said. "You're accumulating talent within your Minor Leagues so you give your general manager, Brian Sabean, the flexibility to either bring somebody up or use them as trades to fill in spots. It's not so much, 'What do we need today?' It's really, you're bringing talent into the organization, and the greater the talent you have in your Minor Leagues, the better your big league team will be." - Author notes "Panik's potent bat and solid defensive ability at the middle-infield spots" and Susac, "who is more renowned for his defense behind the plate than his productivity as a hitter."
- No celebrities of any sort in this draft, though they used one of their last picks to select the younger brother of the agent of the Runner who ended Posey's season.
As I've noted in places, great draft for the Giants. They ended up with three players who were forecasted by some mocks to be selected around the end of the first round: Joe Panik, Andrew Susac, and Josh Osich. In fact, a number of mocks had the Giants selecting Osich with their 29th pick. In addition, they got Ricky Oropesa, who most draft experts saw as a round 2 pick, maybe supplemental first (Ricky's mom, coincidentally, works with DrB, so he knew all about him for a long time already). I will try to find some evaluations of the draft from other sources to see who else are considered good picks for the Giants, but just from this handful, I think they were very successful, in effect ending up with up to 3-4 first round picks-worthy talents.
I just to ask and Frank Viola, here it is: http://www.minorleagueball.com/2011/6/9/2216383/2011-mlb-draft-san-francisco-giants-review
ReplyDeleteJohn Sickels is out with his review of the Giants draft and he likes it.
Panik is one of his "favorite players in the draft, due to on-base skills and excellent plate discipline, gap power, outstanding work ethic, and a chance to stick at shortstop due to his polish." He thinks Panik will "have a better career than some guys picked ahead of him."
He likes Susac's "upside on both offense and defense."
Think's Osich is a steal if he is healthy, because he has plus stuff when healthy.
Sounds like the Giants got a lot of big, hard throwers, in the mode that Tidrow likes. Also picked up some guys with power, noting 3B Garrett Buechele, who has a good glove and power but scouts downplay him for some reason. Also noted RHP Andrew Triggs (also USC) who says gets "incredible movement on his fastball and slider".
I think it's pretty obvious that Barr is an offense first guy and as scouting director, he has a lot of influence, especially at the top of the draft. I think it was a good draft, although I still think the Giants might have missed an opportunity to beef up the pitching side of the organization at the top of the draft. Can't say there were any pitchers I absolutely had to have at #29 though.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look at organizational needs in baseball with respect to the draft, you don't look at what the MLB club needs so much as what's already in the farm system. From that standpoint, I still think they are thin in pitching, especially high-ceiling starting pitching.
Panik has signed! Per Hank Schulman, no $, but have to think it was for around slot, probably under, seems like they already had a pre-draft agreement for maybe supplemental money? Even if not, I think it is worth it to get him into our system immediately and see what he can do. Who knows, we have a slot open at 2B and batting second right now with Franchez out...
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments DrB. Always appreciated! I think your assessment is spot on. It is just like I've been saying about the draft, you cannot really cover everything immediately, so the Giants first focused on getting great pitching, then switched focus on getting our lineup squared away, which results in less top line pitching in the pipeline. However, with Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Bumgarner in there for at least two more seasons, knock on wood, and we have Wheeler and Surkamp looking pretty good coming up, and Crick really looks nice, though so did Craig/Roger what's his name who we drafted in supplemental but who has never been able to figure it out.
With those two in the system and probably a year or two away, we should be OK in backup starters for next couple of seasons.
We had a gap this season, but with Vogelsong's emergence, that is covered nicely. Who would think one of our more dominant pitchers right now would be Vogelsong and not Lincecum?