A Look at the San Francisco Giants Last Five First Round Draft Picks

With the first round of the NFL Draft complete, we’ll take a look back at some of the San Francisco Giants latest first round draft picks and how they’re doing now.

The NFL Draft and the MLB Draft are about as different as something in sports can be. When you draft a player in the first round in the NFL you expect an immediate impact.

However, in baseball you may not see your first round draft pick for four to five years. If they’re a college player there’s a chance you could see them in two years.

There have been cases recently where a college pitcher has come up the same year he was drafted, but that’s very rare.

Still, the baseball draft is just as exciting to me if you do your research. It’s harder to project high school players, but you still get an idea of their potential.

We’re still over a month away from the June draft for Major League Baseball where the San Francisco Giants have the 19th pick in the first round.

Trying to predict the NFL Draft is certainly a difficult task, but trying to predict the MLB Draft is near impossible.

The Giants didn’t have a first round pick last year, but they had two in 2015 so we’ll take a look at the last five.

Chris Stratton 

With the 20th overall pick of the 2012 MLB Draft, the San Francisco Giants selected Chris Stratton out of Mississippi State.

In his last year with the Bulldogs he threw 109.2 innings and had a 2.38 ERA with a record of 11-2 and 127 strikeouts.

Some projections at that time had Stratton as a potential number three starter in the big leagues. Many scouts thought he had the best breaking pitch in the 2012 draft with his devastating slider.

He began his pro career at Low-A where he had a 2.76 ERA in 16.1 innings with 16 strikeouts. The next season he started 22 games and went 9-3 with a 3.27 ERA in 132 innings with 123 strikeouts.

He split time between High-A and Double-A in 2014 and saw his ERA jump up to 4.80 in 122 innings with 120 strikeouts.

Things got a little better in 2015 when he had a 3.95 ERA in 148 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, but his K/9 dropped significantly.

Last year he had a 3.87 ERA in 125.2 innings at Triple-A before getting his first taste of the big leagues. He pitched 7 innings for the San Francisco Giants — all out of the bullpen — with a 3.60 ERA and 6 strikeouts.

He began this season at Triple-A where he made two starts, which were both rough. He then was re-called to the big leagues where he tossed three perfect innings in relief on April 22 against the Colorado Rockies.

He enters the year as the Giants 23rd best prospect according to MLB.com. I think Stratton has the ability to be a back-of-the-rotation starter. But if not, he should be a solid arm out of the bullpen for a while with the Giants.

Christian Arroyo 

Maybe the most least talked about prospect lately is former first round pick Christian Arroyo… yeah right!

The 21-year-old third baseman was recently called up to the big leagues this week and has given the Giants a shot in the arm. He got his first hit off Clayton Kershaw, hit a big home run to help beat the Dodgers and has been spectacular at third base.

Now looking back, the San Francisco Giants selected Arroyo with the 25th pick in the 2013 MLB Draft out of Hernando High School in Brooksville, Fla.

The pick was a bit questionable at the time as many scouts thought the Giants reached to take Arroyo that early, but apparently they saw something special in this kid.

He hit .326 in 184 at-bats after getting drafted. Then in 2014 he hit .291 between Low-A and A-Ball.

Arroyo spent all of 2015 at High-A where he hit .304 with a .344 on-base-percentage and 10 home runs. That fall he hit .308 in the Arizona Fall League.

He played 119 games in Double-A last year and racked up 474 at-bats — the most in his career — hitting .274.

That was considered a down year for Arroyo who fell in the prospect rankings a bit. Before the 2016 season he was ranked as the 82nd best prospect by MLB.com, but he fell to 89 before this season.

After hitting .446  in 65 at-bats for Triple-A to start 2017, the Giants were forced to call him up.

I don’t know whether or not Arroyo is up for good, but I like what I’ve seen so far. I don’t think this kid will be a superstar by any means, but he does the things you have to do in order to win.

Chris Shaw

With the 31st pick in the 2015 MLB Draft the San Francisco Giants took first baseman Chris Shaw from Boston College.

Shaw was originally drafted by the New York Mets with the 26th pick in the 2012 MLB Draft out of Lexington High School in Lexington, Mass. He obviously declined and decided to play college baseball first.

In his junior season at Boston College he hit .319 with 11 home runs and 43 RBI, while playing in the ACC.

He played in the outfield for the Eagles, but it was clear when the Giants drafted him that he would play first base. Shaw also had a hamate bone injury in his last year at Boston College that limited his playing time, but it hasn’t seemed to affect him since.

He was immediately sent to Low-A where he hit .287 in 178 at-bats with 12 home runs and 30 RBI and a .360 on-base-percentage.

He spent time between High-A and Double-A last year where he hit a combined .267 with 21 home runs and 85 RBI.

The 23-year-old began this season back at Double-A where he’s hitting .283 with a .386 on-base-percentage and 3 home runs with 14 RBI.

The Giants are in no rush to bring him up to the big leagues with Brandon Belt currently holding first base. I think that’s why the Giants are moving him back to the outfield this year.

He’s played 11 games at first base this year, but he’s also played five games in left field. That’s pretty interesting considering the Giants desperately need a left fielder.

If he continues to hit 20-plus home runs in the minors it will be hard to hold Shaw back. My guess is that he spends all of 2017 in the minors and then gets an invite to spring training next year with a chance to make the team.

Phil Bickford 

Phil Bickford was actually selected in the first round twice. Back in 2013 the Toronto Blue Jays took him with the 10th pick in the MLB Draft out of Oaks Christian High School in Westlake, Calif.

Two years later the San Francisco Giants took him with the 18th pick in the 2015 MLB Draft out of the College of Southern Nevada.

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Bickford tossed 22.1 innings at the rookie level after being drafted in 2015 and struck out 32 batters with a 2.01 ERA.

He spent time with the Giants in A-Ball and High-A in 2016 where he threw 93 innings with a 2.71 ERA and 105 strikeouts.

The San Francisco Giants then traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers at the deadline last year for relief pitcher Will Smith.

Bickford wasn’t quite as sharp after being traded to the Brewers with a 3.67 ERA in 27 innings with 30 strikeouts at the High-A level.

Then this past offseason he was suspended 50 games for his second positive test for an abusive drug. He has yet to pitch in 2017 for the Brewers.

Some still think Bickford can become a starter at the major league level, but many think he’ll ultimately stick in the bullpen.

With that strikeout ratio, I think Bickford could be a shutdown closer for the Brewers in the future.

As for the Giants, Will Smith was great for them down the stretch last year. But an injury this spring led to him needing Tommy John surgery and missing all of 2017.

The San Francisco Giants are hopeful he’ll be back by May of next season.

Next: Possible Draft Targets for the San Francisco Giants

As you can see, the Giants have done very well with their first round picks in the past. Let’s hope that continues this year as they decide who to draft at 19 overall.