There R Giants Top 50 Graduate: David Villar

Let's celebrate the guy who's missing from this year's list for all the right reasons!

Photo Credit: Kirk Nawrotzky | Richmond Flying Squirrels

We’ve reached the top of the mountain! After a long winter’s march, this year’s There R Giants’ Top 50 is behind us and wrapped up and it’s time to take a breath and enjoy the view from atop Mt. Prospect. Ah…..nice up here!

It’s Brewin’ at McEwen (USF⚾️) @USFBaseballFans

#ProBull David Villar goes DEEP off of Clayton Kershaw.

Hey! What’s that I see? It’s my 2022 prospect crush David Villar establishing a beach head in the big leagues with a big showing in September. Villar isn’t on the Top 50 this year — sparing me from having to figure out how exactly to weigh his potential future contributions against the likes of Casey Schmitt, Aeverson Arteaga, or Grant McCray.

But unlike some players whose years went the wrong direction, Villar played his way off the Top 50 the good way! He blasted his way into a big league call up, and, with that strong September push in which he posted an .897 OPS, just barely exhausted his rookie eligibility — and thus his prospect eligibility. Whether people call a player a “prospect” or not isn’t terribly important, of course. But being called an “incumbent” big league starter — as Villar has been this spring by no less an expert than President of Baseball Operations, Farhan Zaidi — is very VERY important.

So let us now praise famous men — or at least the man who is famously missing from this year’s list …. for all the right reasons!

KNBR @KNBR

Listen to the great Dave Flemming call David Villar's spectacular walk-off base hit.