The San Francisco Giants have groomed a number of players for success in the big leagues, including Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. Zack Wheeler was another San Francisco draftee, and figures to be a big part of the New York Mets’ vaunted rotation for years to come. With that said, it should come as no surprise that one of their minor league arms is putting on a show in San Jose, California. No, it’s not top-ranked pitcher Tyler Beede, or the other well-known prospect in Kyle Crick. In fact, Chase Johnson just barely registers on the Giants’ top-30 prospects list at number 29.
So then why are we talking about him? Well, the headline says that someone struck out 14, and that someone is the 23-year-old right-hander Johnson.
Johnson was drafted in the third round of the 2013 draft (101 overall) by San Francisco and has spent the entire 2015 season with the High-A affiliate of San Francisco, the San Jose Giants. After struggling through his first two seasons of pro ball, holding a 4.38 ERA over 156 2/3 innings, Johnson is 8-3 with a 2.43 ERA this season in the home run happy California League.
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On Friday night, a rehabbing Tim Hudson got the start for San Jose at home against the visiting Lancaster JetHawks (Astros) and went 2 2/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball. Jeff Soptic came in for the final out of the third, and from there on it was Johnson’s game.
The righty would toss the final six frames, allowing three hits while walking one, and striking out fourteen. Giants’ pitching would end up with 16 strikeouts on the evening. For Johnson, it is the first time in his professional career touching double-digit punch outs, so needless to say the 14 he accumulated on Friday night is a new career high.
MLB Pipeline has this to say of the young righty, “Johnson’s lone plus pitch at this point is his fastball. He sits at 92-94 mph and peaks at 96 with little effort in his delivery. He also throws a hard slider that gets slurvy and a changeup that can throw hitters’ timing off but lacks consistency.”
That fastball is rated as a 60 on the 20-80 scale while his changeup rates at 50 (average) and his slider is a 45.
The JetHawks weren’t the only affiliate of the Houston Astros to rack up a high strikeout total on Friday night. In Pulaski, the Greeneville Astros also combined to strike out a total of 16 times, which should come as no surprise since the major league team ranks second in total strikeouts with 1,013 behind the Chicago Cubs and their total of 1,040.
None of this should take away from the performance that Johnson put on for San Jose on Friday night, however. Johnson has shown improvement all season long, and Friday night was the culmination of all of his hard work.