Depth Charts 2022: 1b

Is there such a thing as a 1b prospect anymore?

Photo Credit: Kirk Nawrotzky | Richmond Flying Squirrels

This is the second of a series of depth charts, taking a comprehensive look at each position across the entire SF Giants’ organization. So far, we’ve looked at:

• Catcher

The plain fact of the matter is, 1b is not a very sexy prospect position. Prospects — real prospects — tend to play up the middle, giving them more flexibility to succeed in a variety of ways. When elite college 1b push their way up to the top of draft boards — as happened recently with the Tigers’ Spencer Torkelson — the question always arises of whether it’s a good value decision to take a 1b at the top of the draft, putting huge amounts of pressure on the bat to succeed (and, indeed, Petaluma’s own Tork has had a rather rough go of it so far in his big league career).

In last year’s Baseball America Top 100 ranking, there were only two 1b only prospects on the entire list: Boston’s Triston Casas and the Rays’ Kyle Manzardo (the A’s Tyler Soderstrom was listed as C/1b) — which is a great illustration of the relatively low value the industry places on the position.

Indeed, watching the Giants the last couple of years, it almost feels as though 1b is going the way of the DH — less of a specific position for a player in the lineup than a way station that various regulars circulate through on a routine basis. Eleven different players started at least one game at the position for the Giants last year — only DH and the eternally cursed LF saw more different starters.