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

The SF Giants top prospect, Marco Luciano, may have finally had a breakout performance at San Jose.

Make sure to revisit our daily SF Giants prospect rundowns to keep up with each of their minor-league affiliates. If you do not feel well acclimated to the prospects throughout the farm system, you might want to revisit our prospect week articles that detailed the system from the top prospects to lower-level fringes. If you’re just interested in the biggest names, then the preseason SF Giants top 31 prospects list is the one-stop shop for you.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/19: Triple-A

The Sacramento River Cats had the day off.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/19: Double-A

Bowie Baysox 2 at Richmond Flying Squirrels 1
Performance of the Game: Heliot Ramos (2-4, 2B, 1 BB, 2 K)

Matt Frisbee (22nd-ranked prospect) took the mound for the first time since he threw six perfect innings in a nine-inning no-hitter last Thursday. After walking the leadoff hitter on Wednesday, though, Frisbee knew he would not match his last outing. Then, Adley Rutschman single to right field, and a chaotic first inning began to come off the rails.

Right fielder Sandro Fabian’s above-average arm got away from him, heaving a wild throw into the infield that allowed Rutschman to advance to second and a run to score on the error. Then Patrick Dorian blooped a 3-2 pitch into left field, and Frisbee hit a batter to load the bases with nobody out. At that point, Frisbee seemed destined for a massive letdown after two fantastic starts. Instead, he struck out the next two hitters and induced a groundball to Shane Matheny that should have ended the inning. However, Matheny committed the second Flying Squirrels error of the inning, allowing a second run to score.

The next hitter grounded out on one pitch to end the inning, but not before Frisbee had thrown 33 pitches and allowed two runs. At that point, he seemed to lock-in. Over the next four innings, only one Baysox hitter reached base against the righty, who needed just 40 additional pitches. Given how many things went wrong early, Frisbee showed a fantastic ability to overcome adversity, finishing his outing, striking out five with just one walk, three hits, and two runs (one earned) over five innings.

Sadly for Richmond, their offense was unable to ever make up for their first-inning deficit. Heliot Ramos (fourth-ranked prospect) was the only Flying Squirrel to record a pair of hits, finishing 2-for-4 with a double and walk. Matheny scored the only run after working a walk in the fifth on a Kyle Mottice single.

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.