Your 2018 Giants Draft Pick: Names to Dream on For Now

As we all know, the Giants have the #2 pick overall in the draft this season.  BA recently published a list of their Top 200 MLB Draft Prospects (top 30 available), so I thought it would be interesting to run through a handful or two of the names that are in play, at least right now, if we are to get a starting pitcher, which is probably our greatest need right now, prospect-wise for the the future.

ogc thoughts

Of course, getting the best player available is generally the goal, and yet somehow, over the years, the Giants had mostly picked pitchers with their first round pick.  Though, to be fair, it has been more of a toss-up since John Barr took over our draft, starting with Buster Posey and ending with Heliot Ramos, with Brown, Panik, and Arroyo in between (I don't count Shaw because his pick came because we lost Sandoval).  But there has been Wheeler, Stratton, Beede, and Bickford as well.  And we really need a pitcher for the NextGen Dynasty Giants.  Bumgarner and Beede are not going to cut it right now.

Following are the top pitchers on the list, most are college pitchers with HS noted:

• #1:  RHP Brady Singer
• #2:  RHP Ethan Hawkins, HS
• #3:  LHP Shane McClanahan
• #4:  RHP Casey Mize
• #8:  RHP Jackson Kowar
• #9:  LHP Matthew Liberatore, HS
• #11:  LHP Ryan Robison
• #13:  RHP Kumar Rocker, HS
• #14:  RHP Logan Gilbert

Of course, the Giants like to zag when you expect them to zig, so you never know.  And, even more so, the Top Prospect list always change almost entirely by the time you get to the actual draft.  One year, we had the #10 pick, and the #10 player on that BA list was new Giant Evan Longoria.  He hit so well that he rose all the way up to the #3 pick.  Instead, we had Tim Lincecum fall all the way to us at the #10 pick (he had a draft day deal to sign with the Rays, had Longoria not fallen to them).  So you never know.

Still, it's fun to follow along, and with the Giants owning the #41 pick overall (for now, unless some teams sign QO free agents and lose their pick), as well, some of these names might fall to us at that pick as well.  Just part of the fun of following amateur prospects along the way leading up to the draft in early June.