SF Giants Prospect Fan Chat w/Marc Delucchi: Full Transcript

As we approach the end of SF Giants prospects week, I’ll be answering fan questions about my prospect rankings and other takeaways from my articles on the farm system this week. In case you missed some of my work, here’s a quick list of all the articles we have posted this week as part of our prospect’s week slate:

State of the SF Giants Farm System
5 Recent SF Giants Draft Trends
5 Strongest Positions in the SF Giants System
15 Breakout Candidates that Missed the Top 31 Rankings
SF Giants Top 31 Prospect Rankings
Explaining My Prospect Ranking Process

Disclaimer: The page will not automatically refresh, but I’ll try to have at least one new question answered every few minutes, so whenever you finish reading what’s currently on the page, you should be able to refresh and see the updates. If you cannot see the updates, try clearing your browser’s cache, and refresh the page again.

To submit your questions, just comment below the article, and I will make sure to answer as many as I can.

SF Giants Prospects Fan Chat w/Marc Delucchi

5:45 pm PST
Marc Delucchi: Alright, hi everyone, thank you for reading all of my prospect week content this week and for taking the time to join me tonight. I decided to open things up 15 minutes early so people could begin submitting their questions in the comments, and we can hopefully troubleshoot any technical issues. I’m going to update this post at 5:55 PST, so if you refresh the page at that point, you should see another entry. If not, try the directions in the disclaimer, and let me know in the comments if you are still having problems. If it does not work out live, which it very well might not, just leave your questions in the comments and come back after 7:00 pm PST, and you can read the final transcript of everything at that point.

Thank you!

5:55 pm PST
Marc Delucchi: Here’s the test update. Hopefully, everyone sees this. If not, we have a problem.

6:00 pm PST
MD: Alright, let’s get started. Thanks again to everyone for reading all the prospect week work and for joining me tonight.

SF: SF: Given the Giants have more financial flexibility than most teams, why haven’t we seen another Will Wilson type trade where the Giants take on a bad contract with 1 year and $10-20m left on it but get a legit prospect? With all of our bullpen depth maybe we send 1-2 arms to a team + we take a bad contract in exchange for an elite prospect? Maybe win now teams like Angels, Mets, or someone Yankees might interested

6:01 pm PST
MD: This is a great question. Frankly, I’m somewhat surprised too. I thought the Giants should have been in on the Adam Ottavino trade this offseason for similar reasons. I think you can come up with three possible explanations. 1) Ownership is being cheap and putting restrictions on Zaidi. 2) Zaidi knows he’s about to spend a lot this offseason and wants to save his political capital with ownership for spending until then. 3) Most other teams are averse to such moves because trading a big prospect is usually bad PR. The Yankees did not trade a big prospect with Ottavino and I have a feeling there aren’t many teams willing to move a recent top pick, as the Angels did with Wilson.

Lane Stapp: Could Sam Long really be the next Diamond Farhan finds in a barrel of coal?

6:05 pm PST
MD: Absolutely. We still have a really small sample and I’m obviously riding a lot of recent momentum ranking him the system’s 11th-best prospect, but he has a legitimate shot to be a big-league starter, and, just as importantly, even if that never comes to fruition he has the arsenal to be a strong bullpen arm, which would still be a fantastic value.

Jacob: If we were to offload pieces at the deadline, what kind of prospects do you think we look for in return? We’ve seemed to restock much of the depth of the system under Zaidi so far, is that still what we target? Do we take more fliers on young, international players? Thanks!

6:09 pm PST
MD: The easy answer is starting pitching, but that almost always comes at a premium. It’s hard to envision the Giants getting a high-upside arm that’s already reached full-season ball. Plus, if Long is a legitimate difference-maker, you wonder if teams start giving Zaidi and co. the elite front-office treatment where they become unwilling to part with anyone San Francisco asks for since they’re afraid the Giants see something they don’t.

I personally lean towards upside so I’d encourage them to target higher-risk players. Like you point out, the organization has the depth to do so. However, I wonder if Zaidi believes that the best way to acquire impact players is to keep acquiring depth pieces, develop them, and then stumble into players like Yastrzemski.

6:11 pm PST

Jeff: Give me a name from the 20-31 range who could jump into the top 10 by next season?

6:16 pm PST
MD: Any of them!!! We really are not as good at evaluating prospects as most think. Generally, anyone whose job is “predicting the future” and speaks with certainty should probably be questioned. If I had to choose though, I’d probably pick one of the catchers: Ricardo Genoves, Rayner Santana, and Adrian Sugastey (probably in that order) or Gregory Santos because the Giants change course, and give him a chance to start.

6:17 pm PST

Downtown: Other than pitching, what other position players prospects would you like for the Giants to target? Middle Infield? Corner infield? Outfielders?

6:21 pm PST
MD: Up the middle is always a good place to start. Obviously depends on the specific prospect, but all things equal, but center field would be fairly high on the list since I’m skeptical of Bishop and Ramos’ ability to stick and Matos still has some time before he would be in the picture. Shortstop would be the next most obvious given Crawford’s impending free agency and the dearth of options outside of Luciano that look like everyday players.

6:22 pm PST

Skins: This will be very good and fun entertainment… The thing that concerns me most is how will FZ replace Cueto 2022. Who will replace Brandon Crawford in 2022?

6:24 pm PST
MD: Depends on what Cueto is before we wonder how the Giants will replace him. I will say, his first spring outing today was impressive. Would be a real difference-maker if he could find some consistency this year. Still, I do not think it’s likely that he’s elite enough where the Giants are desperate to find a replacement. I think if he’s good, they could very likely try to bring him back.

6:27 pm PST
MD: Crawford is a different story. It seems like the Giants have to sign one of the big star free-agent shortstops this coming offseason: Trevor Story, Javier Baez, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, and Corey Seager, but it’s impossible to know which ones actually hit the market. Crawford is a local guy and might want to stick around another year, but if the Giants do not get a star next offseason, fans will have a right to be upset. Seems like the best place to find one is shortstop.

6:29 pm PST
MD: Whoops, have to update a link really quick. Be right back.

6:32 pm PST

Jeff: Blake Rivera is higher on your list than most others, how would he rank if he was to become a reliever full time?

6:35 pm PST
MD: Sorry about that delay. He’d probably be right behind Santos and possibly ahead of Castro. I would have had Santos ranked among the top ten had the Giants not signaled that he’s no longer starting. It creates an entirely different amount of upside.

6:36 pm PST

Downtown: What Giants prospects do you see making the biggest jumps in the minors this year?

6:41 pm PST
MD: If you mean jumps in terms of levels, probably one of the collegiate pitchers from the 2019 draft class like Chris Wright. If Castro ends up with the MLB roster that would be an obvious one. If you’re asking in terms of prospect stock though, that gets back to my 15 breakout candidates who missed the top-31 rankings. Of the players ranked, though, I’d say Casey Schmitt, Sean Roby, Will Wilson, and Jairo Pomares would be my best bets to take big strides forward.

He’s obviously a bigger name, but given how he’s trending, Bishop seems like a player I could look back and regret putting as low as I did given his power+athleticism combo. He could take a huge jump even though he’s already towards the top of the list too.

6:42 pm PST

CandlestickWill: When will we see Marco Luciano in the show?

6:44 pm PST
MD: I know Giants fans want to see him as soon as possible, but 2022 is probably the dream scenario. That’s if everything goes right, he is able to curve some of his tendencies towards swinging at pitcher’s pitches and continues advancing defensively, and does not have to move to third base or right field. While defense is not his calling card, a move could very easily delay a debut half a season or more.

6:47 pm PST

Jeff: Is there a major league comp for Will Wilson?

MD: Right now we are low on questions, so if you have any more, please throw those in the comments. I don’t have one off the top of my head, but let me go check my notes.

6:50 pm PST
MD: Yeah I thought I remembered hearing one, an industry source comped him to Ian Kinsler. Obviously, that would require his swing adjustments to lead him to elevate consistently. I could see where that comp comes from, but I’m not sure if I’m fully on board yet. I think the Giants have some dreams about his defensive versatility that make it hard for me to think of anyone off the top of my head.

6:53 pm PST
MD: Alright this will be the final question unless someone throws something else in the comments.

Jeff: Who will the Giants select in the first round in July, and why is it another catcher?

6:57 pm PST
MD: I’ll be dropping an update to my way-too-early SF Giants draft targets to watch tomorrow! But to the catcher point (I know this is a joke, but there’s actually a serious answer here), I think that might be out of the Giants’ hands even if they want to draft one. Louisville catcher Henry Davis is checking a lot of the team’s boxes, but I don’t see how he’s still available to them at the 14th pick if he keeps trending in this direction. Catchers generally move up boards since they’re viewed as safer prospects (because of defensive value) at a position that is hard to find starters for. It would have been interesting to see if the Giants could have taken Bailey had he gotten a full college-season. Bart was a perfect example of someone who just kept moving up draft boards the more people saw how advanced his ability to catch was his final year at Georgia Tech.

6:59 pm PST
MD: Alright, that was every question, thank you to everyone who stopped by!

Thank you for checking out all of our SF Giants prospects’ week work.