Bryce Eldridge Closes Down Complex with a Boom!

SF Giants Minor Lines, August 22, 2023

…..meanwhile, back on the farm…..

not a whole lot happened, to be honest with you! As if unwilling to steal the luster away from their former teammate or orgmate, the rest of the Giants’ farm went through the paces of remarkably quiet night down under.

In Philadelphia, however, spirits were high and the scene was festive. I had a great chat with Kyle Harrison’s Dad, Chris, who was, of course, equal parts excited, proud, nervous, and exhausted. I caught up with the Flying Squirrels’ clubbies, who had come up for the game and were enjoying the view from a major league dugout. John Barr was in the house. Even half of the Cespedes Family BBQ gang was there to take in the moment.

And, though Harrison naturally couldn’t stretch out much further than the 60 pitches we saw from him in his last minor league game, he certainly showed the primary skill which has made the reports on him so breathless over the last three years — lefties who throw fastballs past hitters make a good, long living in this game of baseball. Relying primarily on the heater, which he threw over 70% of the time last night, Harrison got Phillies to whiff on ol’ #1 a staggering 48% of the time (11 whiffs on 23 swings).

Andrew Baggarly, in The Athletic, dug up some numbers this morning to help put that in perspective: the top fastball whiff rate in baseball this season belongs to Luis Castillo, at 33.5%. The top fastball whiff rate across baseball over the last five seasons came from Brandon Crawford’s brother-in-law, Gerrit Cole, who got whiffs on the heater 37.5% of the time in 2019 (not to take anything away from the fantastically talented Cole, but the sticky stuff concoction that former Astros’ pitching coach Brent Strom had brewing in his office is, at this point, a well-reported aspect of the Houston scene, circa 2019). Of course, those are season long rates, not the product of 3.1 innings and less than two times through a single major league batting order.

Still, it was easy to see why the excitement around Harrison exists — apart from his beyond-his-age maturity, emotionally, mentally, and physically. It was equally easy to see what still needs to be polished up. The slider hasn’t really had the same bite on it this year, and I’ve been noting since April that it hasn’t been getting either swing throughs or chases. That continues to be an issue that Harrison will need to figure out — something shorter and sharper is likely going to need to come. It was good to see Patrick Bailey call for a couple of changeups the second time through. I still see that as a weapon that can help Harrison as he progresses.

Today, though, it was enough to be getting on with. Three members of the Giants’ shortened 2020 draft took the field together for the first time as big leaguers. They were joined awhile later by a member of the renowned 2018 J2 class. These kids have much to prove and improve to get to where they want to be. But for one night, it was enough.

(Yes, we’ll just lightly skip over some of the unpleasantness that came later on in the evening, and which seems to be something of a daily occurrence lately).

HITTER of the NIGHT: Bryce Eldridge (ACLGO), 1 for 3, HR (5), 2 RBI
PITCHER of the NIGHT: Kyle Harrison (SF) 3.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR

(I know Harrison doesn’t really qualify for our daily prospect honorific, but, honestly, take a look at these box scores from last night — there weren’t a whole lot of guys distinguishing themselves at other levels. So, let’s keep the spotlight where it belongs, on the young man we’ve been following every step of the way for three years now.)