San Francisco Giants: Early Mock Drafts A Mixed Bag

The San Francisco Giants have their highest draft pick since 2008. On June 4th, we finally get to know who that prospect will be. But, standing in the way are a few months, and a whole lot of baseball to be played both at the high-school and college level.

We’re going to take a look what many have the San Francisco Giants doing so far.

The MLB Amateur draft is not as hyped as the NBA and NFL draft. Why? Because there is a good chance you don’t see the players who go number one and two overall for another 3-5 years. The NFL and NBA get to see their top draft picks play almost immediately. There is also no trading allowed, so the mystery and intrigue surrounding each team’s pick has only one true outcome, a player that you won’t see for probably 3-5 years.

But, to have as high of a draft pick as the Giants do should mean more intrigue.

The San Francisco Giants highest draft pick in recent memory was in 2008, when they selected Buster Posey with the fourth overall pick. The last time they had a pick as high as number two, was 1985, where they selected team legend, Will Clark. That’s the type of players we’re potentially looking at. Now to get into this year’s draft.

There is no real consensus number one draft prospect like there has been in years past. Brady Singer from Florida, was the closest thing to that. Now the hot pick for number one is Auburn pitcher, Casey Mize.

We’re going to take a look at the mock drafts we have to date, and who the prospects are that are linked to the second overall pick.

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?