Who were the best SF Giants position player prospects in the Cactus League?

Now that Spring Training is so over, it's time to look back and see how these prospects perform in the Cactus League. Essentially, what we are looking at in Spring Training is whether these prospects powered up in the time skip that is the offseason. It should help us with our evaluations once the regular season starts. I only pulled up the prospects who tallied at least one appearance for the SF Giants.

Who were the best SF Giants position player prospects in the Cactus League?

Even if they only mustered just one out or one plate appearance, it should be enough. On Saturday, we looked at the pitching prospects who impressed in camp. Today, we will look at the position players. To help support their games, we are also going to garner help from the clips taken at Papago from several friends of the site. We are not looking for the stats here. We are only looking at the tweaks in their game.

Maui Ahuna

Ahuna appeared in one televised game this spring and it gave us a glimpse of his current progress. I mentioned before that one of the likely causes of his poor production with his bat is the lack of strength to maintain balance in his swing.

Adding 20 pounds of muscle will help. The actual swing mechanics did not change much but it looked more balanced. I did notice that he has an inside-out approach where he tends to hit inside pitches to left or left-center field. He looked good in the only chance I saw him field but he underestimated or was unaware of the hitter's speed so he took his time and the hitter beat out the throw. I mean they are fielding a bunch of who's who in spring so it can tend to happen.

Scott Bandura

I saw Bandura swing the bat against the Cubs this spring and I thought he did well there. He worked the count but was overmatched with the fastball against a lefty. I thought he would gain weight over the winter to help him tap into a promising offensive potential but he was still kind of the same frame-wise as he did last year. That kept him nice and loose though as he shapes up to be one of the better sleeper picks for this year.

Victor Bericoto

In the couple of televised games that Bericoto played, I thought he looked good on both sides of the ball. Offensively, I feel he's on his bag as he put up good at-bat after good at-bat. There was one instance where he was badly fooled by the speed of a changeup from a lefty pitcher to get him to two strikes but then hit a line drive with the next changeup that he saw to right field for an RBI.

He's also looked solid in right field. I do not feel he has the arm for the position as the throw that he made to nab a runner to second base one hopped before arriving after planting his body but it was accurate and made solid reads of the ball in general.

Hunter Bishop

Bishop finally got back to action after missing the entire 2023 season. There are definitely some rough spots, particularly struggling with his reads in left field. It is likely a result of not playing in an affiliate. The swing surely needs more work but he had a feel-good moment when he laced a single to left field in one of his plate appearances and drove one to the warning track in another.

Trenton Brooks

Brooks played in plenty of games this spring which gave us a lot of opportunity to assess his game a bit further. Brooks has a simple batting stance and only a mini leg kick to get his momentum going. There is a good amount of rotation and uphill tilt going on when he swings which allowed him to 22 homers last year. He is not the most athletic person in the world as he only looked average at first base but he gets the job done at the position.

Tyler Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald did not have a good spring stats-wise but we're going to dig into the tape. He was very patient at the plate, almost to the point of passivity, though I can see that he's doing a good job taking pitches on the edge and way outside of the zone.

The problem that I see though is he is not trying to buy himself time by fouling off pitches on the edge where he got caught looking. There are certain contact issues but as long as he can get on base at a strong clip via walking, I think the Giants would take it especially since they have placed in all over the place defensively. They played him in outfield and the infield, and I think that he looked solid in center and left as he gets good reads off of the bat allowing his range to play. The speed is also on display in the base paths with his base-stealing prowess and was able to leg out a sacrifice bunt situation.