There R Giants' 2024 Top 50: #9: Mason Black

A second straight step forward has 3rd round pick at Giants' door

Photo Credit: K.A. Fulmore | Richmond Flying Squirrels

So far in the Top 50:

• 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)

• #30-26 (Kai-Wei Teng, Cole Waites, Randy Rodriguez, Maui Ahuna, Liam Simon)

• #25-21 (Gerelmi Maldonado, Carson Seymour, Adrian Sugastey, Onil Perez, Diego Velasquez)

• #20-16 (Heliot Ramos, Trevor McDonald, Landen Roupp, Victor Bericoto, Wade Meckler)

• #15-12 (Tyler Fitzgerald, Joe Whitman, Vaun Brown, Reggie Crawford)

• #11-10 (Aeverson Arteaga, Grant McCray)

The results of the first ever There R Giants’ Reader Poll are in and we now have Aeverson Arteaga officially slotted in as the #11 prospect in the system and Grant McCray at #10 by a surprisingly wide margin. Thank you for your assist in helping me do my job, and congratulations to Mr. McCray on making the top 10!

I must admit that cracking open the list did have something of a Pandora’s Box impact, and I had to fight some urges to jump back in and tinker away. But with that temptation overcome, the list has been sealed back up the way I had it finalized before inviting chaos in, and we will now proceed in an orderly manner through the remainder of our rankings.

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Data is helpful. Data is crucial. Data can point out things we’re missing, clarify what we think we’re seeing, and get us pointed in the right direction more often than not. As my long-time readers well know, I try diligently to bring in as many different types of data points as I can to inform our understanding of players’ progress, be it the old publicly available stuff, the insider info that I troll from some industry contacts, or simply the insights and observations I pick up from conversations with scouts and evaluators.

But under the surface of all of these little glints of gold, there is always a subtext that underlies my view of players, and that is the sense of them that I’m increasingly getting as people, the more I get to interact with them. That almost certainly is why, as I’ve started covering the system as a full-time job, my rankings’ priorities have shifted somewhat towards older, more close-to-ready big league prospects and slightly away from the “shoot the moon” high upside flyers down at the bottom of the system. There’s a form of “regulatory capture” afoot here in that the more I see of players and speak with them and watch the work they’re going through, the more I can visualize a path forward for them. And, more critically, the more I get a sense of that most intangible of tools: makeup.

I don’t talk about it a lot. It’s squishy, it’s easy to shape into the form of my preconceived notions. It’s often something that is applied in retrospect (“I always knew nothing would stop them…..”), and, of course, it can carry a whiff of unintended, but perhaps implicit, criticism for the players I don’t specifically call out.

And yet, makeup is always somewhere floating around in the pool of my thoughts as I build these rankings. There are players who, after you assemble all the Xs and Os, and see how the calculations come out, just get a little thumb on the scale in a squishy attempt to quantify the meaning of makeup. It is a crucial, if ephemeral part of the skillset. Not just the willingness to work hard and sacrifice and put in the sweat equity — all of these guys who reach the upper minors have shown that over time. And it’s not just being a good, supportive, and collaborative teammate, though that is also a key element. Makeup is also the equanimity to deal calmly but decisively with failures, the mental agility to be able to problem solve, and, of course, the mental toughness to compete with whatever degree of problems solved or unsolved that one might have on any given day — the ability to focus whole-heartedly on the precise moment at hand and shut everything else out.

I’m going to talk a lot about Xs and Os today! And, of course, strengths and challenges. But I have to admit that, when it comes to Mason Black, I’ve got a little thumb on the scale. He’s a makeup guy in my mind. And that’s a part of the story.