Top organizational pitching prospect among pair of SF Giants prospects to take home Pitcher of the Week honors

The minor league season is just getting underway. Through the first full week, SF Giants pitching prospect Mason Black took home Pitcher of the Week honors in the PCL along with Dylan Carmouche of the California League.

Top organizational pitching prospect among pair of SF Giants prospects to take home Pitcher of the Week honors

Each week, Minor League Baseball awards the best hitter and pitcher for each minor leagues on their social media platforms and a couple of Giants pitching prospects have already acquired recognition for their performance in the early season.

Starting with Mason Black winning the PCL Pitcher of the Week after he twirled a majestic performance where he held the El Paso Chihuahuas hitless for five innings. He only allowed a couple of walks and struck out seven batters. He was surgical with his operation (no pun intended for Black who aspired to become a doctor had his baseball pursuit not work out), only needed 68 pitches while also inducing 12 swinging strikes.

Ranked as my number 10 prospect in my 2024 pre-season rankings, Black only works in the 90-94 mph range with his fastball on most nights, but his five-foot release height gives the pitch extra life especially when thrown up in the zone where he can front door lefty batters as the tailing action he generates can reach up to 20 inches according to Statcast.

His fastball helps set up the slider, which varies depending on the movement he wants to make. He can either spin it like a bullet and generate more velocity and beat hitters with its late break or spin it so that he throws it with more sweep to get righties fishing down and away from the strike zone.

For the season, Black has held the notorious hitter-friendly PCL to a .220 batting average in the early season while also having an elite 30% K-BB rate (subtracting strikeout rate to walk rate; the higher, the better). The pitching corps at Oracle Park are doing pretty well so far but there is a big chance that Black is one of the first pitchers to be called up to the Show if one of the key pitchers goes down to an injury.

Down in Low-A, there is a late-round draft pick that had the best outing out of all San Jose pitchers so far this season. 15th-rounder Dylan Carmouche also did not allow a single hit in his four innings of work last Wednesday against the Visalia Rawhide. Carmouche did even better than Black as he faced the minimum while striking out five batters.

Carmouche did the fandango on Visalia hitting as there is a bit of a hitch in his delivery where he pauses for a short bit in the peak of his drive on the mound but it still comes as one smooth motion.

His fastball does not have the oomph to break the radar gun but it was more than enough to set up the feature pitch which is the changeup. The changeup is a revelation, even to me, as the Tulane product can certainly pull the handbrake lever on hitters because it can generate a lot of drop that completely misses the barrel.

Carmouche did that on more than a handful of occasions in his no-hit outing. He also has a curveball for good measure to keep the opposition in check.

Control is Carmouche's biggest drawback as he allowed three walks and gave up four earned runs in his professional debut against the Fresno Grizzlies.

However, he has struck out eight batters in the early season. It looks like the high strikeout trend will continue in the low minors as the changeup is a definite killer pitch. I can confidently grade it as a plus pitch. If there is more development in store for the 22 year old, then we might have a diamond in the rough in Carmouche.

Congratulations to the two Giants pitching prospects and here's to more Players of the Week winners in the coming weeks for both Giants hitting and pitching!