San Francisco Giants: Three Bold Predictions for Spring Training

Tyler Beede will Push for Spot in Rotation

Most of the talk about Tyler Beede this offseason has been about the possibility of him being traded, but I think if he gets the spring training invite he could turn some heads.

I’m a little biased towards Beede because I got to watch him play a lot living in SEC country. The Vanderbilt product spent the entire 2016 season at Double-A where he was 8-7 with a 2.81 ERA in 147.1 innings pitched with 135 strikeouts.

Throughout his three minor league seasons he has an ERA of 3.32 with a 7.5 strikeout per nine rate.

During his sophomore season with the Commodores he went 14-1 in 17 starts with a 2.32 ERA and 103 strikeouts in 101 innings pitched. He struggled a bit the following year going 8-8 with a 4.05 ERA in 113.1 innings pitched with 116 strikeouts.

However, you have to remember that he is putting up those numbers in the best baseball conference in the country. And he’s coming from a Vanderbilt program that has been spitting out frontline starting pitchers on a regular basis.

In 2014 he helped lead the Commodores to a national championship, and I happen to love guys who have a championship pedigree.

At 23-years-old he is not exactly a spring chicken, and there is already a lot of mileage on that arm. There is no reason to hold him back. He struggled when he first got to Double-A, but then he clearly figured it out last season.

He mainly works off a three-pitch combination with a two-seam fastball, cutter and a curveball. His two-seamer tops out at about 93-94 MPH. He’s beefed up his size a little bit making his 6-foot-4 frame more durable.

I’m not saying he’ll be a Sonny Gray or David Price, but I think he has a good chance at being a solid middle of the rotation starter for the San Francisco Giants. I doubt he gets the chance to start the season in the rotation, but a good performance this spring will earn him some spot starts throughout the 2017 season.