Overlooked in a deep college, now in one of the worst farm systems with the San Francisco Giants, Shaun Anderson continues to impress those who take notice.
With each of our top 10 prospect lists this offseason, we will have a scouting report on one player from that organization’s top 10 list. With our recent review of the San Francisco Giants, we will take a look at right-hander Shaun Anderson, the Giants #4 prospect.
Player profile
Coming out of high school in Florida, Shaun Anderson was an intriguing prospect, but he was very set on going to his local college, the University of Florida, so he was taken with a token selection in the 40th round. However, at the University of Florida, Anderson ended up in one of the most talented and deepest pitching staffs in recent college memory.
Anderson took to the bullpen for the Gators, and he succeeded tremendously. Over three seasons, he made just one start in 66 appearances, tossing 85 1/3 innings, with a 2.72 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and a 16/89 BB/K ratio, saving 14 games, most of them in his draft season when he served as the closer on the Gators 2016 team that finished 3rd at the College World Series.
The Boston Red Sox drafted Anderson in the 3rd round and immediately set about converting Anderson to the starting rotation. He spent a lot of his draft season being stretched out by the Red Sox in complex, only making two appearances with the Red Sox New York-Penn League affiliate.
Anderson opened 2017 in low-A Greenville for the Red Sox. He’d pushed his way up to high-A Salem when the Red Sox traded him to the San Francisco Giants in July as part of the return in the Eduardo Nunez deal. He finished out his season in high-A San Jose for the Giants system. Overall in 2017, he went 9-6 over 24 games, 23 of them starts, tossing 123 innings, with a 3.44 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, a 6.5% walk rate, and a 21.2% strikeout rate.
The San Francisco Giants started Anderson at AA in 2018, and he spent most of the year there before getting a late-season promotion to AAA for 8 starts. Overall, he went 8-7 over 25 games, 24 of them starts, tossing 141 1/3 innings, with a 3.69 ERA combined between the levels, a 1.23 WHIP, a 5.6% walk rate, and a 21.4% strikeout rate.