Photo Credit: Samantha McCloskey | Richmond Flying Squirrels
Top 50 time is here! So far we’ve looked at:
50: Victor Bericoto
49: Chris Wright
48: Sean Roby
47: P.J. Hilson
46: Alexander Suarez
45: Mikell Manzano
44: Diego Velasquez
43: Carson Ragsdale
42: William Kempner
41: Seth Lonsway
40: Shane Matheny
39: Sean Hjelle
38: Brett Auerbach
37: Ricardo Genovés
36: Hunter Bishop
35: Nick Zwack
34: Erik Miller
33: Spencer Miles
32: Manuel Mercedes
31: Trevor McDonald
30: Ryan Reckley
29: Gerelmi Maldonado
28: Will Bednar
27: Ryan Murphy
26: Will Wilson
25: Nick Swiney
24: Jose Cruz
23: R.J. Dabovich
22: Adrian Sugastey
21: Patrick Bailey
I was going to call today’s edition “Send in the Arms, Vol II,” until, upon further review, it caught my eye that there actually is one position player among today’s rash of pitching talent. Don’t know how I missed him! Apparently, this long glut of interesting arms caused me to gloss over the list somewhat. That spoiled my planned bit of noting that the old rule of thumb says that it takes five good pitching prospects to produce one good major league pitcher, and with five good ones in today’s grouping, we should be sure of at least one big leaguer (I’m sure we can round up from four, however, so the bit still works)!
But even with one guy in today’s post who still swings a bat, the larger point stands that the Giants are developing a wave of interesting pitching talent that should be starting to crest onto the beach in the next year or two. We’re currently in a section of my list that includes 15 pitchers in the 20 spots between ranking #35 and #16. Nine or ten of those guys should start the season in the upper minors. Going forward, it’s going to be important to get successful big league production from some of this group to help transition the team into the goal of sustainable competitiveness. Having a deep group of reliable, productive arms who can keep refreshing the big league roster is a must have for any organization that hopes to stay competitive in the modern game. It takes a lot of arms to cover a year’s worth of innings, and you can’t pay market prices for all of them! So here’s hoping that more than one of today’s group ends up paying dividends at Oracle Park soon!
Let’s get to the list. Starting with…..
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