SF Giants Double-A Opening Day roster is heavy with pitching talent

The Richmond Flying Squirrels, the SF Giants Double-A affiliate, published its Opening Day roster on Wednesday and it has plenty of pitching talent. The starting rotation will feature some of the better arms in the organization such as Mason Black, Ryan Murphy, Carson Seymour, and Nick Swiney.

SF Giants Double-A Opening Day roster is heavy with pitching talent

The full roster was published by the Flying Squirrels' Twitter account early on Thursday:

Not listed here is another pitcher in Landen Roupp, who is currently on the injured list according to Roger Munter of There R Giants. Richmond's roster has a lot of starting pitcher options, so they will have some piggyback starts to ensure that everyone throws.

Every starting pitcher has, at the very least, average command with a good idea of how to sequence pitches to keep hitters off balance. Black and Roupp are a couple of the top names from the 2021 draft class. The latter excelled in his first full season as a pro in 2022, earning two promotions and finishing the year in Double-A.

Roupp posted a 2.68 ERA with 152 strikeouts across 107.1 innings. The righty probably has the best curveball in the system that he mixes with a solid slider and a four-seam fastball that has improved since he was drafted.

Black, on the other hand, is regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in the organization. He began the 2022 campaign in Low-A, but earned a quick promotion to High-A. In 24 starts, he tallied a 3.21 ERA with 136 strikeouts against 36 walks. His slider is a true out-pitch that he mixes with a fastball that sits in the mid-90's with a changeup that is a work in progress.

Carson Seymour was a 2021 draftee like Roupp and Black, but he was not selected by the Giants. The pitching prospect was one of four players to be sent from the New York Mets in exchange for Darin Ruf at last year's deadline. Seymour fills up the strike zone and flashes a mid-90's sinker that he pairs with a good slider. The sinker gets a lot of ground balls as he induced a ground ball in over 50 percent of batted ball events last year.

Ryan Murphy and Nick Swiney were in the same 2020 draft class. Murphy has a four-pitch mix that does not necessarily jump off of the pitch but he sequences his pitches well to keep hitters guessing. Swiney has an excellent changeup, but needs to work on his command.

There is a lot more to the team than just pitching! For example, Patrick Bailey will be in a position to lead a quality staff. We will cover the rest of the roster throughout the year, but the pitching staff has plenty to be excited about.