SF Giants pitching prospects rundown (4/16 - 4/22)

Make sure to revisit our weekly SF Giants prospect rundowns to keep up with each of the organization’s minor-league affiliates.

SF Giants pitching prospects rundown (4/16 - 4/22)

If you do not feel well acclimated to the prospects throughout the farm system, you might want to revisit this year's Prospect Week articles (specifically the SF Giants 2022 prospects depth chart) or purchase the 2022 SF Giants Prospects Primer filled with scouting reports of 150 San Francisco Giants prospects from the best of the best to the unheard-of prospects. If you’re just interested in the biggest names, then the four-part2022 pre-season top 30 prospects ranking and the thought process behind the ranking is the one-stop-shop for you.

I'm here this week to talk about mostly the under-the-radar pitching prospects in the system to raise more awareness about them.

River Cats Pitching Prospects

Notable Performers

Michael Plassmeyer: 2 G (2 GS), 10.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R (2 ER), 1 HBP, 4 BB, 12 K, 1.74 ERA
Joey Marciano: 2 G, 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 0.00 ERA
Patrick Ruotolo: 1 G, 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K

Michael Plassmeyer earned his first appearance on the weekly rundowns with two strong outings this week that helped brought down his ERA from 5.00 to a respectable 3.26. After a good amount of starts, a couple of particularly interesting bits could be deduced after looking at his Statcast data. The first is the below-average movement (both horizontal and vertical) with his sinker relative to velocity. The best sinkers will get up to 30 inches of vertical movement (or drop) and up to 18.5 inches of horizontal movement (or tail) at around 89 MPH. Plassmeyer only gets up to around 18 inches of drop and around 14 inches of tail. He compensates for it with a 5.5-foot release height though his release point was inconsistent before his latest start.

After Plassmeyer comes a couple of relievers who deserve to get love for their start of this season. The first is Joey Marciano. Marciano came out of the gates blazing hot like last season with Richmond as he already struck out seven out of the 26 batters that he faced. The one thing that was different from Marciano to last season is the strike-throwing where his control is a bit similar to his 2019 form rather than last season's form. Nonetheless, he's still throwing into the high-90s with his heater and is proving to be a potential call-up candidate if ever the Giants need a lefty although I could not really see it yet this season.

The second reliever is Patrick Ruotolo. Ruotolo has been a favorite of mine ever since he was drafted by the Giants back in 2016 as a reliever that can throw a good number of strikes while having a very deceptive, Lincecum-esque delivery. He's now received the AAA call and he struck out three hitters in his first two innings of work as a River Cat. The now 27-year old has struck out 10 of the 16 batters that he's faced this year while only allowing two of them to reach via base on balls. I am hoping that he will receive the call to the big leagues sometime in the middle of the season.

Finally, I want to cap this with a Yunior Marte message. It's very nice to see him succeed in the Majors after flying under the radar throughout last season because he's been a good reliever last season with a 3.49 ERA, a strong 9.85 K/9 and a 3.65 BB/9, and pumping the heater into the high-90s. Let's hope he will be a staple of the Giants bullpen corps throughout the season.

SF Giants pitching prospects rundown (4/16 - 4/22)

Emeralds Pitching Prospects

Brooks Crawford: 2 G (1 W), 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 0.00 ERA
Randy Rodriguez: 1 G (1 GS), 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 2 HBP, 2 BB, 4 K, 3.38 ERA
Wil Jensen: 2 G (1 W), 4.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 7 K, 2.08 ERA

Let's start off with the standout pitcher of the week for the Emeralds: Brooks Crawford. Crawford was one of the better performing pitchers in the San Jose bullpen throughout
2021 with a 1.96 ERA in 46 innings pitched. His fastball sits in the low-90s that he pairs up with a decent,
late-breaking slider that he can throw in and out of the zone pretty consistently. It's tough to project him anywhere else aside from relief given his age and his arm action but he has been a performer for more than a year now and will likely do so once again this time for the Emeralds.

After talking about Kyle Harrison last week, let's talk more about Randy Rodriguez this week. After only topping out at 94 MPH in his first appearance, Rodriguez has been more like himself in his second one topping out at 96 MPH with his fastball. The nasty nature of his stuff is still there but the control has been way off with a 59% strike rate. It was evident in his start that he is missing his spots but has managed to pile on the strikeouts because of his sheer stuff rather than combining it with execution. Let's continue to follow this experiment as the weather becomes better in the Pacific Northwest.

Rounding out this Emeralds rundown is Wil Jensen who is off to a terrific start once again pitching as a piggyback starter/bulk relief guy for the Emeralds. Jensen was the most effective pitcher in the first half of last season for San Jose, even better than Kyle Harrison, but has gone off the rails in the second half of last season. Jensen was at his best this week where he threw strikes, executing his pitches very well where he set up a north-south approach with his fastball-curveball combo, and he's making hitters think about his changeup. It's a solid pitch mix that combined with strong control makes him a safe pitching prospect in the system.

SF Giants pitching prospects rundown (4/16 - 4/22)

SJ Giants Pitching Prospects

Trevor McDonald: 2 G, 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 0.00 ERA
Jose Cruz: 2 G (1W, 1 SV), 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 0.00 ERA
Manuel Mercedes: 1 G, 2 IP, 4 H, 4 R (3 ER), 4 BB, 1 K, 13.50 ERA

There will be a separate piece talking about my first impressions of the 2021 pitching class (should be out during the week) and it gives me the opportunity to talk about the other prospects in the insanely deep Giants squad.

Can we talk about how good Trevor McDonald is? This version of McDonald is nowhere near the McDonald that at least I have seen in his cup of coffee with San Jose late season where he was missing his spots every single time. This season just speaks for itself. Thrown in the same role that Randy Rodriguez occupied as their designated fireman/street sweeper/high-leverage guy, McDonald has delivered throughout the first two weeks with 7.2 scoreless innings, a 42% strikeout rate and just a 6.5% walk rate. Granted that he's still not exactly commanding the ball (or putting it where the catcher's mitt is at) but he's been much more in the zone more often (68% strike rate) and his stuff is good enough as it moves a lot to plainly destroy low-A hitters. I think he deserves top 30 prospect love and would do so in my now monthly rankings update in the first week of May.

It's been wild following Jose Cruz so far this season as he is legitimately wild. This week, though? He's flashed what he could become once his lanky levers are in sync with a dominating performance. Cruz established himself as a respectable relief prospect with his turbo sinker that tops out at 97 MPH from a sidearm slot and with some crossfire that gives him serious groundball rates (85.7% groundball rate this season) as well as deception. He also has a slider and a changeup to boot (he prefers his changeup right now it looks like). His strike-throwing is clearly a whack but when he is right (a nice 69% strike rate this week), he is as dominant of a reliever as they come. Let's continue to follow his progress because he has some serious big-league relief potential as long as the strike-throwing stays strong.

On the other side of the coin though, let's talk about Manuel Mercedes. Mercedes the pitcher and Mercedes the Formula One team has something in common: starting off 2022 on the wrong note. We're not here to talk about Formula One (though personally, I am a McLaren fan) but I'll point out two numbers for Mercedes this season (without context) first: 34.6 and 3.9. Guess which of those two is the strikeout rate. If you think it's the 34.6, you are incorrect as Mercedes actually has a 3.9% strikeout rate and a 34.6% walk rate to begin his 2022 season. His strike-throwing has been abysmal with just a 47% strike rate. It is clear by watching him that he's still super raw in his arm action. He's rotating too quickly and he is not finding his release point as a result. It might be best to push him back down in Arizona to sort his mechanics out there because based on what he's done so far, he's not ready yet for full-season ball.