2018 MLB Draft: First Taste of What's To Come

It's been a long, sometimes unwatchable season for the San Francisco Giants that started with a walk-off loss and ended with a walk-off victory. September has been a grind for the fans and is a real test of patience and loyalty to the club. Me, I haven't really watched the final month of the season as I'm resting and dedicating myself into my studies.

While plenty are going to be watching the postseason, I'm honestly delighted that this will be the first time in my life as a Giants fan that the club will be picking at the top of the draft. The Pablo walk-off homer might have cost the Giants their first ever first overall selection in the 2018 MLB draft as well as more than $500,000 in bonus pool but with no clear-cut number 1 draft prospect, the Giants is still in a lofty spot to dream big and MASSIVELY (yes, massively) raise the bar of the talent in their pipeline with the first selection (2nd overall pick) almost guaranteeing a spot in the Top 100 prospect list in the mid-season (unless some guy named Heliot will shine even more next year). 

If you're not going to read this, you'll just probably think that draft the best possible guy that the Detroit Tigers will not pick. I can get behind that idea but with the way top teams have been playing the bonus pool game up top in the recent years, it's not a guarantee that the front office will just shell out slot money on their first round selection. 

With that said, here are my thoughts on the best of the best in next year's draft class.

Prospect Reports for the 2017 Giants: Bahr, Howard, Anderson, Genoves

Hello! I know it's still very early in the season but I feel it's time to whip out my full prospect reports for the Giants prospects because I feel I'm going to run out of time while I'm doing my thesis. I have put hundreds of hours watching tons of videos of prospects from various sources, recording MiLB broadcasts from the start of the 2017 season and rewatching it, looking at the finer details, comparing past to current videos. I hope you like reading my reports that I made for you kind reader even though I'm not a real scout. I wish I can do an audio file for a better way to say what I want to say on every prospect but I don't know how to upload one here on this site.

In my second set of reports, I'm going to share my thoughts on 2017 draftee and an inspiring athlete in Jason Bahr, San Jose Giants infielder Ryan Howard, newest addition to the organization righty Shaun Anderson, and top international signee of the organization a few years ago Ricardo Genoves.

FanGraphs profiles will open upon clicking the prospect names.

Prospect Reports for the 2017 Giants: Ramos, Gonzalez, Corry, G. Williams

Hello! I know it's still very early in the season but I feel it's time to whip out my full prospect reports for the Giants prospects because I feel I'm going to run out of time while I'm doing my thesis. I have put hundreds of hours watching tons of videos of prospects from various sources, recording MiLB broadcasts from the start of the 2017 season and rewatching it, looking at the finer details, comparing past to current videos. I hope you like reading my reports that I made for you kind reader even though I'm not a real scout. I wish I can do an audio file for a better way to say what I want to say on every prospect but I don't know how to upload one here on this site.

In my first set of reports, I'm going to start with the top 2017 draftees Heliot Ramos, Jacob Gonzalez, and Seth Corry and the breakout prospect for this season, lefty pitcher Garrett Williams. 

FanGraphs profiles will open upon clicking the prospect names.

Out In Front: Post-Trade Deadline Opinions + Something Extra

For what it's worth, the Giants didn't made any deal at the trade deadline and opting to wait it out and evaluate the waters in the offseason. I think that's pretty fair considering what the Dodgers got for Yu Darvish which is like swapping 75 cents for a dollar. We could've seen some of the core players like Joe Panik, Brandon Belt, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, and Hunter Pence get dealt to playoff contenders but based on the value that the prime cuts of meat received, it's a fair decision to stand pat. But, the Giants did trade one of their decent players in Eduardo Nuñez to the Red Sox for minor leaguers Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos.

Out In Front: Giants Signed Jack Conlon + Something Extra

Hello! In this edition of Out In Front, I'm going to share my opinions on the Jack Conlon signing and some juicy trade deadline stuff in Something Extra.

2017 Mid-Season Special

It's the time of the season where the summer weather is blistering and the Mid-summer Classic, also known as the MLB All-Star Game, was already done and plenty of fun happened. In the Minors however, plenty of ball have already been played and the short season affiliates already played a significant amount of games to evaluate them, especially the 2017 draftees. 

For the Giants, the minor league records of almost every team are disappointing but there are plenty of impressive prospects to get behind on with plenty of great lines and exciting tools. I'm giving you my updated top prospect list with plenty of thoughts on the guys. I didn't put Hwang Jae-gyun because I don't really consider him as a prospect but if he's a prospect, he'll be here. You already know about the Tiers list so I'm cutting out the chit chat and let's get going.

Stats are written by the time I wrote it which is on a day-to-day basis (putting thoughts on 4-7 prospects a day) so plenty might not be updated. Data courtesy of FanGraphs and MiLB.com.

Out In Front: Short Season Prospect Notes

Hello! I'll be back in my blog posting my stuff until some procedures regarding Giants Farm will be sorted out. This time, I'm going to take a look at the debut of prospects in short season ball, the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and the Arizona League Giants. 

GPro's Top 90 Draft Prospects for 2017: 1-30

Welcome to my scouting reports for the Top 90 draft prospects for this year with scouting reports.

1. Hunter Greene  RHP/SS/3B

Greene's a tremendous athlete and it shows on both sides of his game. He's a first round prospect as a hitter with plus raw power and a decent feel to hit, good hands and tremendous arm strength to play on the left side of the infield. 

On the mound however, he's on a different level. He's already hitting 102 MPH on his fastball and when he focuses on pitching full-time, he might be sitting at high-90s as he matures in his frame and with the ability to spot it thanks to his fairly easy mechanics and athleticism. I don't really dig his breaking ball ever since the PG All-American Classic due to its slurvy nature and I project his changeup better than his breaking ball due to his arm action and some late sink. At full maturity, both secondary offerings will be average to solid for him. 

Greene is first overall pick worthy with his potential to have an 80 fastball with above average command of it in the starting rotation but there are some concerns with his offspeed pitches that needs attention and the obvious risk of taking a HS pitcher in the early going.

Grades (Hitter): Hit 50 | Power 60 | Speed 50 | Arm 65 | Glove 50

Grades (Pitcher): FB 75 | SL 50+ | CH 50+ | CMD 55

GPro's Top 90 Draft Prospects for 2017: 31-60

31. Tristen Lutz  OF

Lutz stock has been up and down but he has the potential to be a Round 1 draft pick.

Lutz is big and the frame has some serious raw power in it but he maintains his above average athleticism on it. Lutz has potential to hit well for average and power. His swing looked better than ever this season as he positioned his hands higher in his stance resulting to being short on the swing. He also reduced his crouch that helped him increase the leverage in his swing. He has above average bat speed, ability to hit to all fields, solid approach from a prep player, and he proved he can hit well with wood bats with power. His power has potential to play anywhere as he matures in his frame. He only got average speed but he hustles well on the bases. His arm is a fit anywhere in the outfield as it is strong and accurate. He's improving his routes in the outfield and has the makeup to think he'll be above average in all three spots.

While he's not the five-tool player that teams dream, Lutz can impact on both offense and defense with his power bat and impressive defense.

Grades: Hit 50+ | Power 55 | Speed 50 | Arm 60 | Glove 50

GPro's Top 90 Draft Prospects for 2017: 61-90 Plus 2

61. M.J. Melendez  C

Even though Melendez might not be the first prep catcher to be taken in this year's draft, he got the highest chance of sticking at the premium position at the end of the road.

Melendez has all the tools to stick at catcher throughout his career. He has superb athleticism behind the dish with plus lateral quickness, developing receiving with good hands, loose actions, tremendous reflexes, plus arm strength and good pop times. He tends to throw from his knees which affects the accuracy of his throws. He has considerable projection in his lean frame that projects above average to plus raw power. The biggest question mark for him is his ability to hit. I don't like how he swings the bat with bat wrap, a sloppy leg kick and a hacker mentality. The thing that he got is the exceptional bat speed which is plus-plus once he get his mechanics cleaned up. He got plus power potential to his left side with natural loft but his approach is very raw at this stage of his career.

Melendez has huge concerns with how much he'll hit for average and how much will he tap on his raw power but he got a big chance to reach the Majors with his defensive potential.

Grades: Hit 40 | Power 55 | Speed 35 | Arm 60 | Glove 55

2017 Giants Draft Prospects Database

Here is the database for all of the draft prospects that I scouted so far with updated grades and short description on them and future reports will be in this database as well. In case you are going to read the prospects that I wrote here in more detail, you can visit my works here and here in my blog as well as here, here and here in my work at Scout. Enjoy!

2017 MLB Draft: First Look At The Draft Prospects Part 2

Welcome to the long awaited part 2 of my 2017 draft scouting reports. This will be exclusively posted in my blog since it's all pure scouting reports and not a lot of topic conversation. There are some prospects that are in the hunt while some are what I really want. Enjoy this one folks!

Scouting Reports for the 2016 Giants: Sacramento River Cats Prospects

Hello! I'm going to finish up my scouting reports series for this season with my scouting reports of the Sacramento River Cats. I'm going to try to mix it up for this year and do my scouting reports more descriptively rather than the more nitpicking reports of old. I feel that I deliver the reports better in description based on my own review of my own writings. I hope you enjoy this one.

Spring Training Opinions Part 1

Hello! It's been a bit since I have posted. I have been particularly been busy watching the draft prospect performances online as well as WBC in my free time so I haven't really take a real deep look at the Spring Training games until lately. Here are my first opinions on the recent prospect performances in Spring.

2017 MLB Draft Big Board 1.0

Welcome to part 2 of my early draft special! Here I will talk about other draft prospects that should be on the Giants radar for this year's draft.

2017 Top Prospects Primer

Welcome to the 2017 top prospects primer! I'll write anything and everything about the top prospects for the upcoming 2017 season from my top prospects list to the possible breakout stars this year. I'll write thoughts about the guys on every list and I'll be as fair as I can and do as much justice in regards to ranking the prospects. 

Important Announcement

Hello, kind reader! I will be joining the Scout.com's Giants Farm for the 2017 season and hopefully beyond, covering prospects and sorts. I will be posting my Offseason Primer there and more. You can catch me on the site with the other great people that will join me (looks like I'm the first guy accepted in their vacancy) on the team along with Jason Burke. 

You might be worried about the future of this blog. Don't worry good friend, I'll still be around here as I will post a copy of my Scout content here in my blog as well as other posts that I might want to post that I personally want to post here. I will still be active here. I'll just going to be like trying to balance two things. This blog served me well thanks to you kind people. I hope that you patronize the content that I will post at Scout just like how you patronize my content here for more than a year! 

Scouting Reports for the 2016 Giants: Richmond Flying Squirrels Prospects

Hello everyone! I'm slowly closing in on the prospect reports as after this, it will be the Sacto reports and that should be it. I'll deliver the Draft part 2 after the reports and the offseason primer should be the last one for the offseason as I will be focused once again on studies. 

Richmond is a very talented team as some of the very best prospects in the organization are in this team and I know you readers will love it. I think there are some prospects that I missed that are not registered in the MiLB.com roster so if you notice someone missing, I hope you can comment it. You might see that Dan Slania will be on the list ebcause the last time I checked, his latest pitching performance is at Sacramento. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the report!