San Francisco Giants 2018 MLB Draft: Day Two Live Thread

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The San Francisco Giants have a top pick in each round of the MLB Draft. With the second overall pick already in place, they’re looking to fill out some strong organizational depth throughout the rest of the draft. We’re following the draft through all of Day 2!

In the first day of the draft, the San Francisco Giants did mostly what you could expect. They selected a strong candidate to take over Buster Posey‘s role in the future. Joey Bart of Georgia Tech was the second overall pick as the Tigers predictably took Casey Mize.

Bart’s 6’3″ frame and strong body shows he may have the physique to be as good as Posey was at the plate. He also has an advanced feel behind the plate, as he already calls his own games, which is mostly unheard of in college ball. He has a massive future ahead of him and the Giants went safe and smart with their first pick.

The San Francisco Giants took Sean Hjelle with the 45th pick, their second round draft selection. Hjelle is a stud starter from the University of Kentucky, a 6’11” stud who won SEC Pitcher of the year in 2017. Hjelle comes with very solid mechanics, virtually unheard of for a player his size. Check out our deeper look at what Hjelle could bring to the table:

2018 MLB Draft: What Sean Hjelle Can Bring to San Francisco Giants

Now that we’ve recapped day 1, here is our live thread of what’s taking place on Day 2:

Round 3, pick 80: Jake Wong, RHP, Grand Canyon University

Jake Wong has drawn comparisons to Dan Straily, and looks to be a fourth starter of sorts for his ceiling. He has a grade 60 fastball, and sits at 50 for everything else. He was Grand Canyon University’s ace the last couple years and made an amazing performance against TCU this season.

Over his two seasons of starting for GCU, he has a 3.59 ERA and a 2/1 K/BB ratio. If he can control the walks he might be good to go as a starter, but has experience in the bullpen in the Cape Cod League and could eventually go there if he can’t control the walks over a long start. He had a 2.66 ERA in 16 appearances in the Cape Cod league, 15 of them being in relief. He then posessed a 0.75 WHIP and just over a 7:1 strikeout/walk ratio.

Here is a video of his strikeouts and performance against a strong TCU squad:

Round 4, Pick 106: Blake Rivera, RHP, Wallace State CC (AL)

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Rivera was actually drafted by the Giants in the 2017 draft, just 28 rounds later. Rivera denied the Giants in round 32 last year, but this year the Giants get him early. He is being recruited by Auburn, but the idea of getting into the Giants organization, for a much higher price than the 32nd round should do the trick.

Rivera draws comparisons to Craig Kimbrel, a former Wallace State grad, with a booming fastball and nasty curveball.

He added in a changeup in his second year at Wallace State. In 2018, he’s struck out 72 in 55.2 innings so far this year, and holds an ERA at 1.94.

Rivera is seen more as a reliever, but some believe that his changeup might develop him into a starter. MLBPipeline gave him 60 grades for both his fastball and curveball, and a 50 for his changeup. His control was given a 45 grade. We’ll see what he does in the coming weeks!

Here are the picks from rounds 5-7, including two prep players.

Round 5, Pick 136, Keaton Winn, RHP, Iowa Western CC

Keaton Winn was selected in the 20th round by the Giants in 2017. They chose another redraft as they clearly see something they like. He’s projected as a project starter, but with plenty of upside. He’s yet to be a starter at his CC, as Iowa Western is one of the best Community College programs in the country. Winn pitched out of the pen, but again is projected as a starter.

Round 6, Pick 166, Patrick (P.J.) Hilson, OF, Nettleton Senior HS (Ark)

Patrick Hilson is an athletic outfielder from Arkansas. The 5’10” outfielder has tons of speed, and tons of upside. He could add a little bit of weight for power, but it could compromise his athleticism. Hilson also touches 94 on the gun and could be seen as a pitcher as well. But that size would likely add many doubts about his viability as a pitcher in the long term. For now, we’ll chalk that 94 mph fastball up to a “plus arm” outfield.

Round 7, Pick 196, Edison Mora, SS, Puerto Rico BB Academy

The right handed shortstop is their second Y2K baby pick. Mora is a shortstop, sitting at 6’2″ 160. He’ll definitely fill out his large frame. You can look at his promotional video linked below. He’s tall and lanky, has decent hands and a decent arm. His swing is nice, but the power really isn’t that apparent. When he fills out a bit, you might see that power take off. He does have a good swing, quick to the ball, bat within the zone for a while. Pretty simple and not too much action in his swing. Take a look here:

Round 8, Pick 226, Solomon Bates, RHP, University of Southern California

Solomon Bates is an interesting pitcher. He started nine games and relieved in nine games. He threw 77 innings, striking out 79, walking 21, and posted an ERA of 3.14 and WHIP of 1.07. Those were much better than his sophomore year stats. You can see those numbers at this link.

Bates features a very nice slurve and a low to mid-nineties fast-ball with both run and sink. His delivery is a high 3/4 arm-slot. The question is whether or not he can clean up his mechanics as his delivery gets a bit rocky. If they can get him to stay somewhat upright in his pitching motion, that might be able to keep him going. In looking at his video, at times his back shoulder drops and he gets under the pitch. Take a look at his video here:

Round 9, Pick 256: Ben Madison, RHP, Central Baptist College (Ark.)

Madison comes from an NAIA school that plays in one of the better conferences in the NAIA for baseball. The prevailing line from him is that he struck out 301 hitters over 176.2 innings in his two seasons. He posted a 3.17 career ERA and a 1.259 WHIP. The latest report on terms of velocity and pitches I’ve found has his fastball in the low nineties, and a 12/6 curve in the low seventies. That’s also out of High School, when he was listed at 6’2″ 175lbs, where he was also a prep basketball star. He’s now up to 6’3″ and 205lbs according to the MLB Draft Tracker. That’s a 30lb difference which has likely added a good amount velocity to his pitches.

Next: Giants Win Opener against Diamondbacks

The Giants still have plenty of picks left today, and we’ll do our best to keep you updated on what’s going on.

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