SF Giants sees modest bump in ESPN's latest farm system rankings

On Tuesday, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN put together his latest farm system rankings. The SF Giants saw a modest bump, coming in at No 24.

SF Giants sees modest bump in ESPN's latest farm system rankings

In the preseason rankings, the Giants were at No. 29, so this represents an improvement. This is not quite as strong as MLB Pipeline's rankings from earlier this month, which deemed them the most improved farm system.

Similar to ESPN, MLB Pipeline had the Giants as one of the worst farm systems heading into this season. I suppose there is only one way to go from there, and they are trending in the right direction.

Kiley McDaniel believes that Bryce Eldridge could help the Giants as soon as next year, but the next wave could be a few years away:

"1B Bryce Eldridge is the Giants' top prospect and will likely play a big part for the big league team next season... SS Jhonny Level, RHP Keyner Martinez, and RHP Argenis Cayama are all rising from the international department along with [Josuar] Gonzalez."

Kiley McDaniel

These rankings are usually influenced by the number of top-100 prospects a team has in its system. Depending on the publication, the Giants have a few, including Eldridge, Gonzalez, and even Bo Davidson. On the other hand, some teams have as many as five or more top-100 prospects in their system. That usually leads to a higher ranking.

The summary from ESPN does highlight the large gap between Eldridge and Davidson and many of the organization's other top prospects.

Eldridge has spent the bulk of the season in Triple-A, whereas Davidson was recently promoted to Double-A. Eldridge has an .800 OPS with 14 home runs and 49 RBI in 208 plate appearances with the Sacramento River Cats. Davidson has put up a respectable .674 OPS with five home runs and seven RBI in 121 plate appearances with the Richmond Flying Squirrels. The Eastern League is usually a tough adjustment for hitters.

Many of the other Giants' top prospects are at the lower levels. Jhonny Level, Keyner Martinez, and Argenis Cayama joined the San Jose Giants after a successful season in the Arizona Complex League. On the other hand, Josuar Gonzalez just finished a strong regular season in the Dominican Summer League. It might be a couple of years before any of them are making a push to join the Giants.

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