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.

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!

OIF: Tyler Beede Interview

Hello everyone! It's not the even year that Giants fans have been hoping for as the Giants playoff run ended in the NLDS as the Cubs beat them 3-1 highlighted by the Game 4 bullpen collapse that has been the story of the season. I'm not that mad or disappointed as the Giants already had 3 titles in the past 5 years and the remaining teams have been waiting for their taste of the championship as late as more than 100 years. The bullpen issue must be addressed for next season in which I will write up in the offseason.

Meanwhile, I am planning to release my Augusta scouting reports soon but this came fresh from my personal e-mail account today and it's my interview of Tyler Beede. For those who doesn't exactly know him, he's a 2014 1st round draft pick by the Giants and he won the Eastern League ERA title this season. I got the opportunity to interview about stuff his 2016 season and some slice of Beedah. I have copy pasted the contents of the mail but edited some parts for clarity. I hope you enjoy the interview!

Scouting Reports for the 2016 Giants Part 1: Beede, Bickford, Suarez

Welcome to the 2016 Scouting Reports series for the San Francisco Giants prospects! It is another year, another great time to scout prospects. There have been a lot of impressive Giants prospects right now in the system (I'll touch on to them along the way) and I will do my best to deliver good scouting reports for the people to read and enjoy.

In the first part of this year, I'm going to touch on 3 pitchers, Tyler Beede, Phil Bickford, and Andrew Suarez. Possibly the three biggest pitchers in the organization right now, people have been clamoring for information about them as well as videos for the prospects. The grading system is still the same as last year with the addition of current grades of the prospects tools to compare it with the potential of the player. It is still based on a 20-80 scale and I have done my best to deliver the best scouting reports that you will ever find for the the Giants. I hope you enjoy!

Out In Front: Comments on the Prospects on SF-MIL Game

It's the first Out In Front in 2016 and it will feature several comments about the Giants prospects that are tasting playing time in Spring Training. Most of them will be sent down to the Minors for more seasoning but the experience to face hitters or pitchers that they can soon face and learn something from it is incomparable. This will be pretty short as it will be mostly comments on prospects mostly the pitchers in their game versus Milwaukee.

The Top Prospects of the San Francisco Giants in 2015: Tier 1

Welcome to the top prospects of the San Francisco Giants. 

You might notice that I didn't wrote Top 30 or whatever, it's because I hate rankings. I already told before that I really hate ranking prospects and having them organized in a numbered fashion. It just doesn't do them justice for me. Some are going to say that I ranked a guy too high or too low so I will use the idea of tiers. It's not because I'm playing it safe and I don't want criticisms, but this is for you guys to rank them on your own. I prefer a big board of prospects to choose from, given their different tools and talents and some prospects are just so hard to rank so I'll put them on the same tier because there are guys that are just a cut above in terms of ceiling, learning curve, and immediate impact. There might be more than 30 that will have that same impact, there will be less. The point of Tiers is to segregate them with my own judgement.

Instead of generating my own numbers and formulas, I will use the unbelievable amount of information from MiLB.com, FG, BP, and other information sites and together with my own scouting remarks and judgements, I hope I can do justice on why I rank them on the Tier that they truly deserve. I believe that the perfect marriage of scouting and analytics is the best way to run a team. I hope you enjoy reading. 

Out In Front: Wrap-up of Most Things Giants Farm System

It's another grace period from me (another string of holiday and weekend and the quizzes have just passed by) and I think it's time to run another round of Out In Front but this time, I will not talk about a specific thing or two (because Jordan Johnson thing was yesterday (not literally)) and instead, I'll do this new post like it's Something Extra, tidbits of information like you want to make a fruit salad with all of the fruits inside and out the refrigerator but expect that you'll read good thoughts from me in this one. 

Top 30 Prospects of the Giants in 2015

I decided to make the full Top 30 Prospect List for the Giants in lieu to the top 30 prospects made by MLB.com, Cove Chatter, and GiantsProspectTalk on Twitter. I thought that making a full list and not just a Top 10 would be the best way possible to really compare and dictate the prospects because even though the cream of the crop are all set, the rest of the crops are still important and there are possibilities that they are rising in terms of their stock or value. I remember when the farmers here are not wasting anything that they can still harvest even though the monsoon season reek havoc on their crops because they are still important. 

I'll do this Top 30 some sort of a Twitter style. Short, compact but solid thoughts about the prospects that I'll rank. There's a lot of prospects to choose from and I kind of hate ranking prospects because honestly, I would prefer a big board where I'll throw in the prospects that I like in here and you'll be the judge, just like the thought process in terms of the Draft. But I'll do this ranking to help you guys where I project the prospect's value for us. It is separated by tiers so that if you ever have problems with ranking prospects like I do, tiers can really help to differentiate the quality of the prospects and you can ignore the numberings altogether and just rely on the tiers.

I am writing this article actually just before the Trade Deadline and I am ranking Mella as the number 5 prospect and Duvall as the number 21 prospect before being traded. Now that it's now past the Deadline and they are just the prospects who got traded, it made me easier to just move up guys up the list.

I know there will be agreements and disagreements on my rankings but I made this Top 30 with all of the factors (age, floor versus ceiling, development curve, the feel to perform, performance this year) that I consider for ranking prospects. And just like what I always do, FanGraphs profiles will open for most of the prospects and MiLB.com for the select few prospects that I find their FG profiles really shady.

If you want to see who are the prospect risers and fallers this season, come check this really good post from Shankbone's blog and I will move some of the prospects that I listed in the top 10+10 before for the latest update. If you want to see a better introduction or overview of the Top 30, check out Mr. CoveChatter's introduction on his Top 30 before he takes his blog down and return to his original site. If you want day-to-day updates and the daily status of Giants prospects, DrB's everyday blog post is hands down the best in the business.

Finally, here's my ever expanding Scouting Reports series if you want to see my full thoughts on most of the prospects mentioned below and you could see my other previous posts of Something Extra for additional thoughts. 

Part 1 for Arroyo, Beede and Mejia
Part 2 for Mella (now traded), Okert and Santos
Part 3 for Blackburn, Garcia and Tomlinson
Part 4 for Blach, Marshall and Miller
Part 5 for Cole, Fargas and Williamson
Part 6 for Fox
Part 8 for Coonrod, Duvall (now traded), and Webb
Special Part for Crick

Out In Front: Trade Deadline Special + Something Extra

Before I start I have to say that I'm back after almost couple of weeks of inactivity! I've been into stuffs recently. I've been playing MLB 15 The Show a lot and I'm a lefty pitcher with my legit weight and height (you could say I'm as tall and as heavy as Pedro) where I focused on control and pretty much my dream repertoire (4SFB, CH, CUT, CB) and luckily, I got drafted by the Giants and made their team in 2016 where surprise surprise, the Giants won the World Series.Then in the next season, I got traded to the Orioles for Manny Machado and I'm like what the hell man. I'm going to strive to make the Orioles a winner right now and prove to Bobby Evans that I'm not just a control dude and I'm an ace and will be the Steve Carlton for the deprived Orioles squad. Then there's the enrollment period in college. I was actually making this blog post then suddenly, my grandmother passed away so I have to go far away to visit her and spent days there. Now that I'm finally back on the place where the internet's good that I can watch Pedro's HOF speech (big Pedro fan), I can finally write my latest post.

In this edition of Out In Front, I'll talk about the trade deadline that will come on the end of July that I talked about on Twitter, I also will talk about a lot of something extra that I have missed and will be composed of a lot of other topics that I want to talk about. Let's get this thing started.

Out In Front: The Giants and Tyler Beede Are A Perfect Match

In this edition of Out In Front, I got a chance to talk with a "source in the industry" about the San Francisco Giants right-handed pitching prospect Tyler Beede, the number 1 prospect in my Top 10+10 Prospects list and as well as other respectable prospect lists. We talked about Beede's baseball life, from being drafted in the 2011 MLB Draft by the Blue Jays and passing it up, to pitching in the powerhouse Vanderbilt University, to being drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 MLB Draft, performance this season and more that you might have never heard before.

Notes before reading my full blog post: My source requests not to be mentioned his name in this blog post to protect my source's privacy and I respect his decision to keep his identity as a secret. I will not also talk about my source in my article and in my comments and instead, I'll focus more on Tyler Beede. I know that I am not a journalist or a reporter to present to you a top-quality article presentation-wise (I'm a chemical engineering student) but I assure you that the information that you'll see here is legitimate and I did my best to deliver the information to the readers of my blog. I edited some of the things the source told me to provide better clarity and is enclosed in a parentheses.

Out In Front: My Franchise Four of the San Francisco Giants + Something Extra

There's two days off after the All-Star Festivities and we need to take some rest off for the big league stuff and some of the Minor League levels are also having their All-Star Festivities but there's some minor league levels are playing and the teams are fighting it all out in their squads. Let's enjoy this break and in this portion of Out In Front, I'll talk about something that's not related to prospecting and the minor leagues.

There's this thing in the All-Star Game called Franchise Four where fans got a chance to vote the four best players for their respective teams, kind of like the Mount Rushmore of different teams and baseball overall. I was one of the fans who vote a bunch of times to vote for my Franchise Four for the San Francisco Giants. I also voted for the greatest Negro League Players where I voted Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and Oscar Charleston and the Greatest Living Players where I voted Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Tom Seaver (I almost voted for Pedro in place of Seaver and maybe I'll vote for Pedro sooner than later). But I will talk about my view on the Franchise Four of the San Francisco Giants where I voted for Willie Mays, Christy Mathewson, Barry Bonds, and Buster Posey. 

Stats that you'll see here are courtesy of FanGraphs.

Out In Front: Takeaways from the 2015 Futures Game

The 2015 Futures Game is now over and I didn't really slept really well before waking up at 3 a.m. to watch the Futures Game in MLB.com live stream because I am so excited maybe or I just don't watch to miss it because it's 3 in the morning. I managed to watch the game until Mella's pitching but I wanted to watch the game until Sean Newcomb but my body is failing me and he wants to rest. It ended up as a commanding victory for the Team USA 10-1.

The Giants have two players that's representing the team for the game and they are Tyler Beede and Keury Mella. I'll write up what I saw on Beede and Mella for the first time live. I will write here also the other performances by the other players that I like.

Scouting Reports For 2015 Giants Part 8: Coonrod, Duvall, Webb

Welcome to the Part 9 of my scouting reports series where I write my thoughts and scouting reports for the different prospects, famous or not or just I want to write something about them, of the San Francisco Giants organization. In this part 9 of the series I'll talk about the 5th round selection last year by the Giants Sam Coonrod, slugger of the year front-runner Adam Duvall, and 4th round selection last year of the Giants Logan Webb. 

FanGraphs profiles are available once you clicked on their names. Enjoy reading!

Out In Front: Breakdown of Tyler Beede's Latest Start + Something Extra

Here on the latest edition of Out In Front, I'll talk about Tyler Beede latest start as I covered him on Twitter last night in America (early morning here). I'll provide an inning-by-inning breakdown about his latest start and probably, his last start before the Futures Game where he's included and together with Keury Mella, they represent the San Francisco Giants in the game full of top prospects and future stars in Cincinnati. Here I go.

Top 10+10 Prospects Post-July 4 Edition

Before I'm going to start this top 10+10, I would like to thank everybody for the warm and really positive remarks on my Lucius Fox blog post as well as in my previous. I thought I am who I am there as I shared my thoughts in a fun but informative manner. Once again, thank you so much for reading my blog and supporting me as I continue to write more things about the Giants!

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The 4th of July is over and after all of the fireworks, the backyard boozing and barbecue, the oozing patriotism, and some of the worst Independence Day uniforms I have ever seen, it is time for another Top 10+10 Prospect list. I have made a previous top 10+10 prospect list last month to highlight the prospects that are with us before the Giants' draft picks had signed. Now that all of the top 10 rounds selections had signed and are now playing in either AZL or in Salem-Keizer, and we signed one of the top July 2 prospects in Lucius Fox for $6,000,000 (but I bet for Bruce Wayne and him, it's just nothing), I feel that it is the right time to update my Top 10+10 Prospects list as you'll see the new guys in the list. 

This Top 10+10 list is not related to any of the Top 10 lists did by other people and dogs that are in front of the computer screen. I based the rankings on their performances, their age, their talent level, their development or the learning curve so to speak, as I did my best to balance those things out. The other 10 that you're going to see after the top 10 are the prospects that I personally like and there might be some bias from yours truly in terms of the other 10 but I am sure that those will be the guys that you'll love if you take a look at it. Just like the previous posts, you can see the FanGraphs profiles of the players when you clicked on their name. Less talk and more work, let's get this going. 

Scouting Reports for 2015 Giants Part 5: Cole, Fargas, Williamson + Something Extra

After a pretty brief rest, I am now going to continue the series with part 5 of my scouting reports for the Giants this year. It will now feature the breakout candidate Hunter Cole, the best name in the Giants system in Johneshwy Fargas, and the toolsy OF Mac Williamson. As for the other series,  FanGraphs profiles will be shown when you click on their names. Enjoy!

Scouting Reports for 2015 Giants Part 2: Mella, Okert, Santos + Something Extra

    Welcome to part 2 of my scouting reports for the Giants top prospects! This part will cover Keury Mella, Steven Okert, and Michael Santos. I'll not add additional introduction and get this thing started. Player profiles courtesy of FanGraphs.

Scouting Reports for 2015 Giants Prospects Part 1: Arroyo, Beede, Mejia

    We are now on the heat of the 2015 season and a lot of the best prospects in baseball have been promoted to the Show and are living up to the expectations and the hype so far. For the Giants, there are prospects that are contributing well so far. Hunter Strickland, Matt Duffy, Andrew Susac, and Chris Heston are all doing well this year. So much for the consensus saying that the Giants have a barren farm system. It is a great organization for developing prospects and once they reached the Majors, they are performing better than what everyone expected. 

      In this series of scouting reports, I'll scout the top prospects of the Giants until the end of the season. I'll point out their mechanics, my grades for their tools and my ceiling and floor of the prospects just like the scouting reports that I wrote for Phil Bickford, Chris Shaw, and Andrew Suarez. The grades might change either be better or worse in the future (as soon as the end of the season.) The player's stats are going to show when you click on their name and courtesy of FanGraphs.

MLB: Giants Top 10+10 Prospects Post-Draft Edition

     With the 2015 MLB Draft now finished and more than 1,000 players selected by the 30 MLB clubs, the final hurdle for the clubs is the signing deadline for the draft selections. For the Giants, all the players selected in the draft in the first 10 rounds have a good chance of signing but I want to exclude them from this top 10 prospect list until they are officially signed. This top 10 prospect list is based on the performance and my own personal judgement on the development of the Giants prospects so far this season.

Note: I didn't include Andrew Susac, Chris Heston, Matt Duffy and Hunter Strickland because I feel they have graduated the minors already. Once the top 10 draft picks of the Giants have signed and how they perform there, I'll make another top 10 prospect list.

The player's FanGraphs articles are going to open when you click on the player's name in bold with their stats and advanced metrics. The stats that you see throughout are accurate as of June 10, 2015 if you're living in the US. Here's my top 10.