San Francisco Giants: 2016 Prospect Season Review
10. Steven Duggar, OF, 2015 Draft Class
Duggar has been relatively interesting. After remaining slightly above average through college, the San Francisco Giants took a flyer on him in the 2015 draft. Duggar is a left handed hitter whose speed is a tremendous asset. He has the tools to play right field at AT&T defensively, it remains to see if his bat will carry over as he graduates to the higher levels of the minor leagues. Duggar’s 2016 was pretty good as he hit .284 and .321 in both San Jose and Richmond. He also had an OPS above .800 in both leagues which is widely impressive. If Duggar can learn to deal with breaking pitches better, he could be a good Hunter Pence replacement in the future.
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9. Jordan Johnson, RHP, 2014 Draft Class
Johnson is a pure strike thrower. That’s been his game since he entered. He had an OK season in San Jose in 2016. In 22 stars, Johnson had a 5.33 ERA and opponents hit .277 off of him. A down year certainly may drop his prospect ranking to start the 2017 season. He might do ok with a push up to Richmond if he has a good spring. Still, he has plenty of work to do before he can even think about being a big leaguer.
8. Andrew Suarez, LHP, 2015 Draft Class
Andrew Suarez and Albert Suarez are not related. Andrew is a 2015 second round pick who has done well in his first full year of professional baseball. Suarez started out in San Jose and ended his season with Richmond. In his 5 games with San Jose, Suarez struck out 35, walked 5, and had a sub 3.00 ERA. In Richmond, Suarez threw 114 innings and had a 3.95 ERA. His K/BB ratio was a little less than 4/1, and he had a WHIP of 1.34. It really isn’t that bad considering it was his first full season of pro-baseball. He’ll probably start in Richmond next year, and if he does well enough he could end his season with Sacramento. Suarez is more of an exciting pitching prospect than Johnson in my mind.
7. Joan Gregorio, RHP, INTL FA (2010) (Pictured Above)
Gregorio is quite the intruiging prospect. He’s 6’7″ and has had some difficulties finding consistency as a pitcher. They moved him to the bullpen in 2015 to start and got good results on his mentality going into an AB. They transitioned him back to a starting role and he did exceptionally well. In his 5 games in Richmond to start the year he had a 2.33 ERA and 30Ks in 27 innings. When moved up to triple AAA, he got hit hard by the jump in quality. Gregorio is still just a little ways off. He needs to find more consistency, not just in his delivery, but in his time on the field. Many injuries have plagued his minor league career. Gregorio is only 24, yet he’s been in the system for 6 years. If he can stay healthy, 2018 or 2019 could be a good ETA for him. Expect him to be in Sacramento next season.
6. Aramis Garcia, C, 2014 Draft Class
Garcia may just be the reason the San Francisco Giants felt OK trading away Susac. Frankly Susac never truly grasped his role as the backup catcher, and Trevor Brown had a decent few months in the role. With Garcia’s promise, it made sense to get rid of him. Garcia has shown a lot of promise, but has yet to put together a full, promising campaign. In San Jose this year, Garcia hit .257 in 140 AB’s. He did have a relatively disciplined approach, with an OBP of .323. He hasn’t showed much power at the plate, but his ability to get on base is a big plus. You probably won’t see him in the bigs for another few years, but he does seem like a good candidate for a backup job in the next couple of years.