and snatch up the talent that other teams bypass due to contract demand worries. The Giants will have some big contracts expire after the ‘09 season, and will hopefully realize an influx of revenue in the future if their proposed development in the current parking lot comes to fruition. The Giants are picking early in each round and have more spending money than the 4 teams preceding them.
That said, try to get Alvarez first, then Smoak if either falls to you. These two are probably the surest locks for future offensive success. Somehow, I don’t think either will be available. Next try to get T. Becks, although he probably won’t be around either. The next player to target should be Eric Hosmer. Spend the money on the advanced HS bat who is probably the surest bet among the preps. I would think about moving Hosmer to LF. It is not like it would be a crash course, since he will have at least a couple of years to hone his skills in the OF in the minors.

For the supplemental round, I would target Conor Gillaspie or James Darnell. In the third round I would look for an OF that may have dropped, perhaps even a project like Kyle Russell.

Have fun!

(im only commenting on first 4 becuase im positive 1 will be avaiable) this is how it should be…...
1. Alvarez- perfect gives us the 3b we desperatley need and provides much needed power and should pu up stat lines that resemble .300 35-40 hr and 100=120 rbi’s sounds delicious
2. Smoak- yes baby v also plays 1b and would create a log jam the giants must take the best hitter they can he should provide gold glove defense .270 35 hr 100 rbi switch hitting 1b also Angel is years away while Smoak is arguably 1
3. Beckham if avaiable would fill a premium position and put up .300 20 hr 30 sb 80 rbi’s? sounds like hanley minus a touch of power
4. Hoesmer yes another slugging first basemen but would be relatively same age as baby v of switch?

at least 1 of these 4 will be aviable which would u take? also supplemental round i like the idea of gambling on issac galloway

Alvarez
T. Beckham
Smoak
Posey
Matusz

I don’t like Hosmer due to contract demands and the Boris connection. I would stay away from G Beckham due to size and questions on defense. Skipworth is intriguing but there are doubts that he can stay at catcher. I could live with Crow but it would be painful to see a pitcher taken here.

The Giants’ attendance is dwindling and likely will take a real hit in 2009. The pressure is on the Giants to draft a player who can make the big club quickly, to make a free agent splash over the winter and to trade prospects for guys who can help the team compete in 2009 in order to help the sagging attendance.

But the baseball-wise, at least, the Giants need to have patience. I see no way the Giants could be a true competitor this time next year, even if they were somehow able to sign Teixeira as a free agent. If Barry Bonds couldn’t make them a contender in 2007, how is Teixeira going to do so in 2009?

In the past week, Angel Villalona has hit two of his three homers on the season, somewhat offsetting his slow start in Low A ball. He may have some problems, but at just 17 years of age he certainly has plenty of time to solve them.

My suggestion to the Giants, as a fan, is to have patience. Draft the prospect at #5 who has the most realizable potential, regardless of position and regardless of whether high school or college player. If that is a first baseman, and he winds up competing or even blocked by Villalona, if he is worthy of the #5 pick, he should fill at least one need via trade.

Great teams have considerable talent, not just a need or two filled. The Giants have so MANY needs that they certainly can’t afford to make a mistake because they chose on need rather than talent. Anyone who can hit, even if he is a pitcher!, can help. And if the best prospect is a pitcher, don’t good, young pitchers have about as much trade value as any other position?

The Giants can draft for need—and likely still have needs five or six years from now. Or they can draft for talent and maybe, just maybe compete for a World Championship in five or six years.

It is easy enough to make a mistake with a high draft choice. There is plenty of precedent for that. Why increase one’s chances or error by drafting for need instead of talent?

I have no idea whom the Giants should draft. Yes, it would be nice if that player were a third baseman, since the Giants have a near vacuum of talent there throughout the organization.

But, hey, a shortstop would be nice too, since the Giants don’t really know if Burriss or Bocock will ever be ready or if Sharlon Schoop or Charlie Culberson can make the long climb to the majors. Second base has Nick Noonan and the injured Kevin Frandsen, but are either of those guys sure things? (I think Nick is fairly close to being sure without actually being so.)

First base has more candidates, but again, there are no guarantees, even with super prospect Villalona, who after all is just 17. The good news is that AnVil is just 17. The bad news is that he is just 17.

Pablo Sandoval surely looks like a greatly-improved prospect behind the plate, and Jackson Williams was thought highly enough of to be a second-round choice despite a bat with holes. But Sandoval is repeating High A ball and has remained there because he purportedly needs a ton of work on his footwork (although he has a very fine arm). Again, where is the sure thing?

The outfield has Freddie Lewis already in the majors, Nate Schierholtz in AAA and first-round pick Wendell Fairley trying to get fairly healthy so that he can begin his career. Any sure stars there?

The Giants’ strength is their young starting pitching. Perhaps they have enough already with Lincecum and Cain in the majors and Henry Sosa, Tim Alderson, Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Tanner on the way. But would it be better to pick a third baseman with a lower ceiling and/or lower probability of reaching that ceiling than a pitcher who is among what is said to be seven or eight sure things in this year’s draft?

The hated Dodgers are an NL West example of an organization that has produced and is about to produce a ton of young talent. Somehow they have fit most of that talent in, even if they don’t play a lot of it often enough. And what they haven’t been able to work in, they have traded or still have available to trade.

Let’s suppose the Giants had two years ago looked ahead and decided (rightly) that they had a paucity of hitting and needed to draft not for position per se, but draft the best available bat. Would they now be happy they passed up Tim Lincecum because their young pitching was much stronger than their hitting?

If they draft a specific position to fill a need rather than taking the best available prospect, there is a good chance that philosophy will leave them with holes to fill year after year. The best way to avoid that problem is to draft and develop so much talent that the holes are few and the trade prospects abound to help fill them.

If you haven’t seen Kevin Goldstein’s latest article at BPro he mentioned that there are rumors that the Giants will select an up the middle player that NO other team has in the first round! My apologies to Giants fans everywhere!

Any ideas who this may be?
I was thinking it might be Jordan Danks.