San Francisco Giants: Top 10 Rookie-Eligible Prospects for 2018
We have reached the point of the offseason where prospect lists abound. We continue our top 10 prospects for every team with the San Francisco Giants!
Our team top 10 prospect lists at Call to the Pen are spearheaded by Benjamin Chase. Today, he gives us the top ten prospects for the San Francisco Giants.
This season, we will be going through teams by division, in order of 2017 record. The AL East will be first, followed by the AL Central and AL West. Then the focus will shift to the National League in the same order.
The format will be as it was last season for the same lists, with a system review, which will include last season’s list. The top 10 will follow in reverse order, two players per page in order to give adequate space to each player. Major trades or international signings will lead to an updated top 10!
Finally, don’t go away after #1 is revealed as each list will also contain a player either signed in the 2017 international free agent class or drafted in 2017 that isn’t part of the top 10 and should be tracked. Last season’s mentions in that area made over half of the top 10s this season, so this is a great way to get to know a player who could be making a big splash in the organization.
System overview
While the major league team has loaded up for the 2018 season, the San Francisco Giants have one of the lower-graded farm systems in all of baseball. The team traded multiple pieces to the Rays to acquire Evan Longoria, then multiple pieces to the Pirates to acquire Andrew McCutchen. Those big name pickups didn’t take away the top 2-3 prospects in the system, but they did take away the minimal depth that was present for the Giants.
The Giants have done well in their drafting the last few seasons, which is the only reason they won’t end up the very last team in system rankings when they come out, but without holding onto some of those players, this is a team headed for a big crash from veterans without any help in the farm system to bring them up for quite some time when that crash comes.
Let’s take a look at that system….
Next: #9 and #10