San Francisco Giants Draft Review

Parker is a better prospect than Brown. Also, I’m not sure how they are going to utilize Brown and Parker as both should be CF’s in A+ ball (next year). Maybe move Brown back to 2B?

neither is guaranteed to help…until we see if they can handle pro pitching

thanks!!! sounds like Bruce Bochy on Buster Posey, can’t be an MLB catcher until you have MLB catching experience

Everyone has a different definition of the word power. How does John Sickels define the word power? Is it HRs? SLG? What if a player hits a few HRs yet is a doubles machine?

I am no expert, but I feel that the “no walk” haters don’t understand that getting hits are preferable to getting walks overall. Brown was hitting .438. I think I prefer him to hit than take a walk when he’s hitting that well.

And it is not like he’s was always like this. I can understand this stance if all we had to judge him on was just this one season. But he has played three seasons. In his freshman year, his walk rate was 8.5% which is almost double what his walks rate in his junior year, this year. And in that year, his batting average was much lower, meaning he didn’t hit as well against pitchers then, and so he worked more walks instead of swinging and getting a hit.

I don’t think people appreciate that there is a point at which it is much better to swing and get a hit than to take a walk. Particularly if he can hit with some power, his ISO was .257 (or so).

Now, if he can’t translate that into the pros using wood bats, then he’s in trouble, as John says. But he appears to have shown the ability to take walks before, but if you are batting .438 and have an ISO of 257, then I would want him to hit rather than take a walk, any day.

Also, Boras is his agent, and judging from what I’ve seen of Boras, he will tell Brown what he needs to do to make it to the majors and help teach him.

In addition, many Giants fans are not aware that Brown has actually spent more time playing 3B this season than the OF. And yet despite that, he plays defense there very well. According to Fangraphs, he had a +3 run, but if you prorate that out for the games he played at 3B plus the games he missed because of his broken finger, it is close to +10, or a win just on defense. Then he only needs to be +10 on offense in CF in order to be a +2 WAR CF, and, if I understand WAR, that is even before the adjustment for him playing a premium position.

On top of that, he was an infielder for the most part in high school and college, and yet is already superior defensively there in sporadic play. I would think that he would be that much better once he starts playing there every day, plus getting professional instruction on how to play that position.

Not to say that I think he will make the pros, just that it is not as bleak as most experts have made Brown out to be. In any case, most late first round picks normally don’t end up being good players, maybe 1 in 10, and then another 2 might be a useful player, a journeyman type player who can start but is only about average. So it is bleak, even before Brown was selected.

Especially in its obsession with college players in the first 20 rounds. The Giants only drafted 3 HS players in their first 20 rds. (#7, 18, and 19). That’s just unforgiveable when one of the core strengths of the Giants’ farm system is the development of HS pitchers, and this draft was inordinately populated with good to excellent HS pitchers. In fact, the first HS pitcher they drafted was Allen in rd. 18.

That being said, I’m a bit higher on Brown than most others appear to be, I’m lower on Parker than most others appear to be (I’ve seen him play in person and on TV quite a bit the last 2 years and I’m not impressed), and I’m much higher on Rosin than the apparent consensus.

I think Rosin’s major league floor is as an effective closer, his most likely outcome is as a top-tier closer or #5 starter, and his ceiling is as a #2/#3 starter. I hope that the Giants leave him as a starter in the minors to let him try to develop some kind of consistent breaking pitch (slider, curve, or splitter) to complement his current above-average FB and change. However, if they want to fast-track him to the majors, he has enough weapons with his FB and change right now to make it to SF as a 8th-inning setup man (working into the closer’s role) as early as the end of 2012.