The 2016 Top Prospects Primer

Welcome to the 2016 top prospects primer! I'll write anything and everything about the top prospects for the upcoming 2016 season from my top prospects list to the possible breakout stars this year. I'll write short 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. 

Farm System Overview

Even though the Giants never had a premier prospect since Buster Posey, the state of the farm system coming to the 2016 season is a positive one. The front office did a very good job on drafting prospects that go to The Giants Way, the coaches did a very good job making the prospects exceed other people's expectations and develop them to solid ballplayers. 

The Giants farm this season is loaded with a lot of solid potential players that can help the big leagues in the very near future. The Giants had one of the drafts last year, giving the farm a vast assortment of prospects from power pitching, power hitting, exciting but raw tools, and solid overall-types. Signing Lucius Fox gives the farm another potential high-ceiling player 3-5 years from now. 

While the Giants seem to develop hitters better than pitchers in very recent memory, the farm is loaded with pitchers more with high-octane relievers on the pen and contact-oriented pitchers on the rotation. The hitting prospects also isn't too shabby, with several high-ceiling and exciting position players, with more pure hitting prospects than power-hitting prospects but also having several players with solid tools across the board. 

All in all, the Giants farm system is in a great state and there should be no initiative to change it because it's proving its worth.

The Top Prospects of the San Francisco Giants in 2015: Tier 4

As I am writing this list, I felt this is the last tier that I will do for this edition of prospects because of the amount of time that has taken me away from writing in my blog especially studying. I felt I have disappointed myself and my readers but I will make a top prospects list to top it all off with a lot of other things at hand.

Welcome to Tier 4! This probably not the best of the best prospects but there are a lot of prospects that I like in this tier and got a good shot at improving and moving up a tier or 2. Several high-ceiling, raw guys on this tier, some pretty disappointing players but still got potential to bounce back and just impressive prospects.

2016 MLB Draft: First Look At The Draft Prospects Part 1

First of all, happy new year to the readers of my blog! Thank you once again for reading and I'm hoping that everyone of you will have a great 2016! 

The 2016 MLB Draft is still 6 months away but hey, I guess it's never too early to talk about it. Unfortunately for the Giants, the team will not have a 1st round pick as they have forfeit it to sign Jeff Samardzija which I think is a really outdated system. So, the Giants will pick from the 2nd round, specifically pick number 58, which is really far if you come to think of it. But if compared to last year's draft crop, this year is deeper and better overall. I'm here to help you look at the draft prospects this year with my thoughts on them and my projections on them. 

In Part 1, I'll help you choose upon the draft prospects that are projected to be close to the Giants pick of number 58. I'm going to use the prospects order of the late Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs (he didn't die, he just got an executive position with the Atlanta Braves). I'll be doing from picks 52-64.

The Top Prospects of the San Francisco Giants in 2015: Tier 3

Welcome to Tier 3 of my top prospects. This is going to be the hardest list that I have ever done. A lot of guys are really eligible to be listed under or over Tier 3 but I am feeling good on this list that I put up. There might be some exclusions that I have forgotten again. This also shows how deep the Giants farm system has become. Not a lot of top-shelf, future franchise-changing prospects, but a lot of contributors that can have a significant impact on the Major League roster.

Note: All of the videos that I have placed on my posts are the videos that the players I feel have the best angle to look at.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone who supported my blog! A deep thank you from me!

Out In Front: Why The Giants Should Take A Shot at Kenta Maeda

He pitched in AT&T Park before in the WBC in 2013. Is there a chance that we'll watch him again on cream & orange home uniforms next year?

                             

Foreword: Finally a blog post!

With Zack Greinke shocking the whole baseball world (including me) as he accepts the Diamondbacks' gargantuan contract offer pending physical, this looks like the time to move on from him and improve the rotation on another way. While some are thinking for the Giants to pursue Mike Leake and Jeff Samardzija up to the point of even pursuing Johnny Cueto, I am thinking that the Giants should consider another direction, coming from the far east.

According to the news, Japanese ace Kenta Maeda is going to be posted this offseason by his team in the NPB. Maeda won the Sawamura Award (NPB's equivalent to Cy Young Award in MLB) in 2015, his second of his decorated career in Japan that I will further talk about later on. Teams who will pursue the right-hander are expected to pay the full posting fee of $20 million to acquire the right to negotiate a contract with Maeda (in which I think is a bad idea, I am more inclined to do a full contract negotiation then pay 35-50% of the contract value to the NPB team as the posting fee). 

A lot of teams that missed on the big ticket pitchers like Greinke and David Price are expected to join the bidding war for Maeda which brings us to this. The Giants have missed on the big ticket guys and should explore other ways to try to improve rotation depth. The Giants have been known to not pursue Japanese pitchers in the past.

The Top Prospects of the San Francisco Giants in 2015: Tier 2

Welcome to the Tier 2 of the top prospects of the San Francisco Giants. Ranking tier 1 is kind of a no-brainer for me as I already have a clear view on who to include because they are just really impressive in my eyes like Beede, Arroyo and Bickford and their ceilings and their learning curves. After tier 1 though, it will going to be much, much harder to decide on who to place on the right tiers because of the seemingly even playing field on a lot of guys. I did my best to place them in the right tier and do justice on why I placed a prospect in the specific tier.