San Francisco Giants prospects Joey Bart and Shaun Anderson were named the team’s Minor League player and pitcher of the year by MLB.com.
With a farm system viewed as one of the worst in baseball, San Francisco Giants can be excited about great years from Bart and Anderson.
It’s especially surprising that Bart won this reward considering he was drafted in June and only played half a season in the minors.
But he was very impressive over 181 at-bats with the Giants short-season team in Salem-Keizer. There he hit .298 with 13 home runs and 39 RBI.
You can combine that with his time at Georgia Tech in 2018 where he hit .359 with 16 home runs and 38 RBI in 220 at-bats.
If you combine those numbers with his time at Salem-Keizer and his six games in the Arizona League, he was 139-of-424 (.328), with 29 home runs, and 78 RBI.
Bart could be a quick riser through the minor leagues. He’ll probably start 2019 at High-A before spending the majority of the year at Double-A. I would be a little surprised if he doesn’t prove himself ready by 2020.
Not to compare him to Buster Posey, but Posey needed just 172 minor league games before getting called up.
As for Anderson, to me, he’s the perfect example of why the San Francisco Giants should have sold off mediocre assets the past couple of years for B-level prospects because sometimes they turn into solid major league players.
Obviously, we’ve yet to see what Anderson can do at the major league level, but he’s certainly knocking on the door to be a number three starter.
He started 2018 at Double-A where he posted a 3.45 ERA in 94 innings pitched with 93 strikeouts. And then he finished the season at Triple-A Sacramento posting a 4.18 ERA in 47.1 innings pitched with 34 strikeouts.
The San Francisco Giants received Anderson from Boston in the Eduardo Nunez trade. After another solid year, Anderson should have a shot at making the Gianst rotation next spring at age 24.
Both prospects had solid years as San Francisco Giants prospects, and it won’t be long before we see both up with the big league club.