SF Giants prospects rundown 5/19: Marco Luciano’s 2-HR day

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/19: High-A

Eugene Emeralds 3 at Tri-City Dust Devils 6
Performance of the Game: Simon Whiteman (1-2, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 SB)

Seth Corry (eighth-ranked prospect) struck out nine across his longest start of the season (4.1 innings pitched). In what has become a fairly standard pattern for the Giants’ third-round pick in 2017, Corry threw 39 of his 76 pitches for strikes and issued three walks. He still has not matched the dominance he showed at the end of 2019 at Augusta, but Corry struggled mightily in the first half with control even in that breakout season. He’ll need to become more economical with his pitches, but it remains a positive sign how effectively he limits opposing contact (the Dust Devils managed just one hit).

The game remained scoreless through the first four and a half innings. Then, Corry allowed a single and hit a batter with one out in the fifth and was replaced by Tyler Schimpf. Schimpf quickly recorded the second out in the inning, but a double, walk, and home run later put the Emeralds down 5-0 in a flash.

Will Wilson (15th-ranked prospect) drove in Ismael Munguia on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth to put a run on the board. Another Tri-City home run in the bottom half kept the lead at five before second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald brought the game to its final score with a two-run blast in the seventh.

Eugene finished the game with just three hits but did work seven walks. Third baseman Simon Whiteman, an under-slot senior-sign in the 2019 draft out of Yale, had another well-rounded performance, finishing 1-for-2 with a pair of walks and a stolen base. While he’s far from the biggest name at Eugene, he’s had a quietly productive start to the season.

Whiteman was considered a contact-first hitter with the chance to impact the game with 70 or 80-grade speed. He stole 65 bases in 110 games between Yale, Salem-Keizer, and Augusta in 2019. Thus far in 2021, he has stolen seven bases without being caught across nine games while hitting .333/.467/.417. He’s primarily played second base, and that’s likely where he profiles best in the future, but he has also spelled at shortstop and third base.