San Francisco Giants: Early Mock Drafts A Mixed Bag

MLB.com’s most recent Mock Draft is actually from December. MLBPipeline.com’s prospect gurus, Jim Callis and Jonathon Mayo put together this “Top 10-picks” mock, and have yet to release a full mock draft. Here is what they had:

• Jim Callis: Ethan Hankins
• Jonathon Mayo: Nander de Sedas

Let’s take a look at Ethan Hankins first. Hankins is a right handed, high school pitcher from Georgia. He’s 6’6″, 200lbs, and has a college commitment to Vanderbilt University. His fastball received an 80 grade from MLBPipeline’s evaluation and he sits as their number two overall draft prospect.

Hankins might be a large flamethrower like Bumgarner, but according to their scouting report, he probably has more Johnny Cueto in him.

To become a front-of-the-rotation starter, Hankins must come up with a reliable breaking pitch. His hard curveball showed improvement during the summer and he also began trying a slider, though both continue to lag behind his changeup. He repeats his low-effort delivery well and will vary its tempo, at times adding a Johnny Cueto-esque shimmy to add deception.

The best news about a guy like this is that his large frame, combined with an easy throwing delivery like a Cueto, is that for the most part he should be able to reduce the stress on his arm, while being able to keep the power on his fastball for quite some time.

The Giants lack a true ace quality pitcher anywhere in their farm-system, and haven’t really had one since Zach Wheeler. Wheeler had the potential, but you know what happens with the Met’s and their misuse of pitchers. Anyways.

Hankins would be a good pick, but what about this Nander de Sedas guy?

Nander de Sedas is a super “toolsy” short-stop who plays at the Montverde Academy in Florida. The switch-hitting infielder is the sixth overall draft prospect according to MLBPipeline, and committed to Florida State as well. He’s projected as average or above average in all areas except speed, which some have used as an opportunity to signal a future move to third. But the prevailing thought is his bat would fit the profile there as well, according to their scouting report on him. He even draws small comparisons to his Montverde predecessor, Francisco Lindor.

The Giants infield is getting older though, and it may behove them to go for an older, college infielder that’s a little more polished. But, de Sedas still isn’t a bad pick. Although, I might like this pick if the Giants were say, picking tenth overall and not second.

The Next Mock Draft comes to us from 247sports.com, an extension of CBS Sports. This Mock-Draft comes to us from Jeff Ellis at CBS, and was done on March 5th. This mock Draft actually has a different number one pick. Early on, the consensus number one pick had been Brady Singer of University of Florida. But Ellis, has Singer going second to the San Francisco Giants.

Singer is the number one overall pitching prospect according to MLBPipeline, but has seen a major dip in recent weeks, falling out of most people’s top ten prospects. Singer is more of a Giants’ type pitcher, as he does everything really well. His lowest pitch grade is a 50 on his changeup.

In nine outings so far on the 2018 Collegiate season, Singer has a 2.79 ERA and a 4.5/1 strikeout to walk ratio. Here is what Ellis has to say for his reasoning on this pick:

Singer is a player who has divided the community and it is rare to see such a player go even this high. If a player divides the community, then they typically also divide draft rooms. The Giants drafted Bickford and Beede, another two former Blue Jays picks who divided the community before. They did go with ceiling players a year ago, so this pick could end up being Matt Liberatore or another high ceiling bat or arm.

Weirdly enough, this sounds like a Giants type pick. But yet again, this sounds like a Giants type pick when they’re picking towards the back of the first round, or even in the competitive balance round or second round. Not the second overall pick. Plus, it is a newer group in charge of the Giants farm system. So who really knows?

Up next is the Fangraphs mock draft from Eric LongenHagen, and Kiley McDaniel. This Mock Draft actually just came out today, with a much more updated look at prospect trends as they updated their prospect rankings yesterday.

The Fangraphs Mock draft has the Giants selecting 3B Alec Bohm, from Wichita State University. Bohm has shot up the boards recently thanks to a solid stretch over the last two or three years. Here is their reasoning for linking the Giants and Bohm:

This pick is a mystery to the industry, and it appears to be in part because the Giants have bigger problems than the draft right now. The club moved their chips into the middle of the table for the 2018 season but have just a 7-10 start to show for it and all three of Madison Bumgarner, Mark Melancon, and Jeff Samardzija on the DL. The Giants are casting a wide net, taking a long look at Arizona prep 3B Nolan Gorman, Florida prep RHP Carter Stewart, and Georgia Tech C Joey Bart, along with the players projected to go in this area. We’re told they will not take Oregon State 2B Nick Madrigal, but the expectation is they will go for a college player given what the organizational direction is at this point. Bohm makes the most sense given all these factors.

The second tid-bit is the most interesting thing to me, that the Giants don’t feel like they need Nick Madrigal. Madrigal is a Jose Altuve look alike as a short (like one inch taller than Altuve short), middle infielder. The other idea that is prevailing from their take is that they’re likely to go for a college player.

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This would eliminate Hankins or De Sedas from their picking options, and give us a few good looks. But let’s take a closer look at Alec Bohm.

Bohm plays at Wichita state, which a few years ago might have been something to scoff at. It probably was back when Conor Gillaspie was playing there.

They’re against much stiffer competition this year than they were in the Missouri Valley Conference, as they made the jump up to the American Conference. A jump in competition level, and a jump in production probably means really good things for Bohm.

Since his freshman year, his walk rate has jumped from 4.71% to 17%, and his strikeout percentage has gone from 13% to 8.84%. Throw in the fact that he’s hitting homers at an every 15 at bat rate, and the fact that he’s hitting .350, he’s going to draw some eyes.

Another thing is that his glove, hands, and footwork all are good enough to play third in his career. Kiley McDaniel, who pitched in to this mock pick of Bohm, wrote this in a write up about her first-hand look at the slugging third baseman:

Bohm was seen by most scouts before the season as a first-rounder but also the second-best prospect on his own team behind Greyson Jenista (below). This spring, Bohm has clearly overtaken his teammate and had some scouts whispering that he did some things like Kris Bryant the night I saw him against ECU. To be clear, Bohm isn’t seen as that level of a prospect just yet, but he isn’t as far away as you may think. He has 70 raw power and, even at 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, does a great job at the plate keeping his hands tucked in and limiting his hand load to keep his stroke short. Even with with that, he still can do things like hit an opposite-field home run with a flick of the wrist, as you can see in the above video.

Here is a quick link to that video McDaniel mentions

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Overall, I like the Bohm pick. If they feel like Jacob Gonzalez defensively needs to move to a first, Bohm could be a good replacement. If they choose to go for a college bat, I would expect it to come from an infielder, and Bohm seems to make the most sense for their needs.

They don’t need any more outfielders, so I wouldn’t expect them to go there. The infield is starting to thin out though, and if they don’t believe they are getting something significant from an early pitcher’s draft choice, I would not be shocked if they went with Bohm or someone similar.