There R Giants 2024 Top 50: #26-30

Questions, questions, and more questions...

Photo Credit: Richmond Flying Squirrels

• Just Missed List

• #50-46 (Lisbel Diaz, Hayden Wynja, Alix Hernandez, Carson Ragsdale, Ben Madison)

• #45-41 (Jose Cruz, Tyler Myrick, Eric Silva, Nick Zwack, Josh Bostick)

• #40-36 (William Kempner, R.J. Dabovich, Scott Bandura, Cole Foster, Nick Avila)

• #35-31 (Jairo Pomares, Manuel Mercedes, Ryan Murphy, Erik Miller, Spencer Miles)

Today we break into the Top 30. And, as we work our way through another pitcher-heavy batch, we’ll have more opportunities to try to wrap our minds around ideas like “availability” and “proximity.” These were topics we had to try to weigh in our last edition as well, and one of my faithful readers responded with some surprise that I had Erik Miller ranked as low as I did, given the open freeway he has to a playing opportunity. We’ll have another such player in today’s group, and that balance between proximity and opportunity on the one hand, and ultimate upside possibility on the other will be raised again.

While last time out we considered the consequences of players coming off of lost seasons, today we’ll cast our injury tolerance towards the future and deal with players who are heading into lost or restricted seasons. It’s all a puzzlement. How do you value upside vs certainty? Quantity vs quality? Starting time vs complementary roles? These are the quandaries of prospect ranking. I try not to get too far out on a limb on either side, but the result could be that without prioritizing something, I end up in a muddle.

Well, we’ll try to muddle our way through as we deal with players on the precipice of a major league debut (or even past that landmark) and others who have a long journey ahead of them.