There R Giants Top 50: 16-20

Guess what? More pitchers!

Photo Credit: Samantha McCloskey | Richmond Flying Squirrels

Top 50 time is here! So far we’ve looked at:

• Just Missed

• #50-46

  • 50: Victor Bericoto

  • 49: Chris Wright

  • 48: Sean Roby

  • 47: P.J. Hilson

  • 46: Alexander Suarez

• #41-45

  • 45: Mikell Manzano

  • 44: Diego Velasquez

  • 43: Carson Ragsdale

  • 42: William Kempner

  • 41: Seth Lonsway

• #36-40

  • 40: Shane Matheny

  • 39: Sean Hjelle

  • 38: Brett Auerbach

  • 37: Ricardo Genovés

  • 36: Hunter Bishop

• #31-35

  • 35: Nick Zwack

  • 34: Erik Miller

  • 33: Spencer Miles

  • 32: Manuel Mercedes

  • 31: Trevor McDonald

• #26-30

  • 30: Ryan Reckley

  • 29: Gerelmi Maldonado

  • 28: Will Bednar

  • 27: Ryan Murphy

  • 26: Will Wilson

• #21-25

  • 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…..