SF Giants prospects position preview chat with Wrenzie & Marc: Catcher

SF Giants prospects position-by-position chat: Catcher (Part 3)

M: Are there any other catchers in the system that you’re intrigued by? Brett Auerbach is a fun swiss-army knife to me just because of his contact skills and defensive versatility.

W: Auerbach is an interesting one. Kind of an OBP machine in college. He shed his strikeouts last year while retaining the strong walk rate. Hard contact guy but does not have much power. His defensive versatility is probably his best tool. He’s going to be a fun guy to watch heading to 2021 to just see how many positions he plays.

There are a couple of young Latino catchers that are deep sleepers in my opinion. Onil Perez is one of the more polished catchers that I have seen defensively, with a very refined catch-and-throw skill and plus arm strength to boot. His bat might not make a huge impact but we could be talking about him again in a few years. He is part of the aforementioned 2019 IFA signing class.

The other one is Angel Guzman. He is an athlete that worked his butt off during the quarantine and is in great shape. He’s applying the newer techniques with the semi-kneeled set-up. He is still rough around the edges on both sides of the ball (his swing still looks rough) but the athleticism is tantalizing enough to think that there’s plenty of room for him to improve.

M: Alright this has already been a great first chat. I can’t wait to have these discussions with you about every position in the Giants system. Before we end the chat, a simple yes or no question, do you agree with my positional rankings? Is catcher the strongest position in the farm system, or do you lean in a different direction?

W: I would say no. I still think in terms of absolute depth, it’s the outfield and I am sure we will talk about them A LOT down the line!

M: We definitely will. I think we can wrap it up now. Which position should we talk about next time?

W: I think infielders are the next best one to talk about. Do you want to chop it up in two (corner IF, middle IF) or talk about them position by position?

M: Yeah let’s do the corner infield next week.

W: Sweet! Time to hype up Casey Schmitt then! Haha

M: Awesome! I’m really excited to have you aboard to talk prospects. I always love to hear your opinion on different players.

W: Thanks for chatting! Having to talk about Giants prospects in their most prosperous time since the late-2000s is certainly fun. I’m glad to finally be a part of the ATF team.