Carson Whisenhunt makes pro debut

SF Giants Minor Lines, August 18, 2022

This is a brilliant illustration of what kind of athlete the Giants took with their top draft pick this year:

KNBR @KNBR

Reggie Crawford is about the same size as George Kittle

But can George Kittle do this?

SFGProspects @SFGProspects

Reggie Crawford was 1 for 1 with his first professional hit and two walks in Tuesday’s ACL victory over the Diamondbacks Red

Reggie Crawford, by the way, was inserted by Baseball America into the Giants’ list as their #4 prospect (somewhat oddly, BA has the Giants’ 2nd round pick, Carson Whisenhunt, ranked above Crawford at #3). Speaking of BA, they also came out with their mid-season Organizational Rankings yesterday, taking into account graduations, draft classes, and, of course, the season that is finishing up in the next month. Not surprisingly, given some of the issues the Giants have had on the farm this year (and their position in the back of this year’s draft), the Giants have moved down the org rankings, falling to the #18 slot. BA was actually low man of the prospect world on the Giants’ system going into the year, placing them at #17 in the winter, so this doesn’t actually represent a big drop for them. It does represent a failure to move forward, however. I think for those reading the daily There R Giants posts this summer, that’s probably not too unexpected. Boat loads of injuries and more disappointing seasons than we would have hoped have stymied forward progress this summer overall — though it’s important to remember that we’ve seen a good number of exciting developments this year, as well.

Perhaps more disturbingly, though, the Giants’ direct competition is currently being judged to be in much better shape. Three of the other teams in the NL West are in BA’s mid-season Top 10, including the Damned Dodgers player development machine ranking #2, and the “coming on strong” Diamondbacks ranking #4. The Giants faced Colorado’s affiliates in league championships in both of the A ball leagues last year, and those groups of talent have generally really progressed this year (Ezequiel Tovar, who played in Fresno against Marco Luciano and Luis Matos last year is one of the premier players in the Double A Eastern League this season). So it’s not a big surprise to see Colorado at #10 on these rankings. Only the Padres, who just dropped a huge load of prospects on DC at the trade deadline (just the latest prospects for vets deals they transacted the last couple of seasons), sits behind the Giants on BA’s current org talent lists (Pads are at #23).

There’s a steep challenge ahead.

Baseball America @BaseballAmerica

Things are good in #Birdland The @Orioles lead our August update of our midseason farm system talent rankings.

baseballamerica.com2022 MLB Midseason Organization Talent RankingsRanking every farm system in baseball after the 2022 MLB Draft and in-season promotions and trades.

Last night saw two more members of the Giants’ latest draft class take their first steps on their own personal journeys, as both Whisenhunt and 3rd rounder William Kempner made their pro debuts. There were also bodies moving all over the system yesterday — we’ll catch up to all of that along the way. Let’s get started on the lines.

Oh, and let’s not forget this stunning note:

Alex Pavlovic @PavlovicNBCS

Heliot Ramos is here and will go to Denver with Giants.

HITTER of the Night: Anyesber Sivira (SJ), 3 for 3, HR (4), 3b, 3 R, 3 RBI
PITCHER of the Night: Gerelmi Maldonado (AGB), 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9 K