WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 15: Shaun Anderson #32 of the San Francisco Giants and the U.S. Team works the seventh inning against the World Team during the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Nationals Park on July 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
CORAL GABLES, FL – FEBRUARY 28: Shaun Anderson #37 of the Florida Gators throws the ball against the Miami Hurricanes on February 28, 2016 at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Florida. Florida defeated Miami 7-3. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images) /
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.
Size/Delivery/Control
Size/Build – Anderson is listed at 6’4″ and 225 pounds, and he is certainly filled out without bad weight to his body.
Delivery – In college, Anderson was known for his “lunge” toward the plate, getting big extension toward the plate. He has changed his delivery since college, and he now is more balanced throughout his delivery, but he perhaps has sacrificed extension and late movement on his pitches for that balance.
Anderson stays very upright and direct in his delivery, taking a slight side step, then proceeding into a knee lift just above waist high before striding to home plate. He does have a bit of a hip twist at the peak of his delivery to help generate velocity, and then he finishes in line to home plate with a 3/4 arm slot very consistently.
Control (55) – Anderson fills up the zone, though at this time, he’s a lot more control than command, putting the ball into the zone, but not always nailing his spots with the ball the way you’d like. Regardless, filling up the zone the way he does is a huge start to future command.
Pitches
Fastball (55) – A fringe-plus pitch, Anderson comes with a fastball that sits in the low-90s and can touch 95-96, but he doesn’t get a ton of movement on the pitch. He does get some sink on the pitch low in the zone for the only movement that he really generates on the pitch.
Change Up (50) – While his change has made significant strides from college, it’s certainly still an average pitch, though his location with it is probably as good as his location with any of his offspeed pitches. He typically sits mid-80s with the pitch.
Slider (60) – Generating the same velocity as his change, Anderson’s slider is probably his only true plus pitch, able to touch 87-88 and featuring a big 11-to-5 two-plane break. He’s worked to manipulate the pitch to where he can show a version of his slider that works similar to a slider/cutter hybrid.
Curveball (50) – While the quality of his curve is better than his change, he cannot locate it as well, leaving it with an average grade, working very well low in the zone with a 12-6 shape.
MLB Player Comp
Very highly regarded out of high school, the background for Rick Porcello is nearly complete opposite of Anderson, as he lept through the minor leagues to make his major league debut at age 20. However, their approaches on the mound are very similar.
Porcello does utilize a four-seam and two-seam fastball, but he works in the same range with all of his pitches. While he’s not a strikeout artist, Porcello has been able to have a very successful major league career, with 6 seasons under his belt of 30 or more starts before he turned 30.
Anderson has a similar profile with a collection of average to fringe-plus pitches that play up due to pounding the zone.
Future role
Like Porcello, Anderson is likely best suited to fit in the back of a rotation, most perfectly set as a #4 to eat up innings at a league-average rate.
There’s definite value in an average pitcher that can consistently provide average production for 30 starts. Porcello has been a 1.3-2.9 fWAR pitcher for all but one season of his career, and that’s the sort of career that Porcello could settle into for the Giants.
While there’s plenty of value in the rotation for a guy with Anderson’s style, moving into the bullpen is likely going to either require a delivery overhaul again or be a rough situation as Anderson doesn’t really have a put-away pitch currently.
Next. Giants 2019 top 10 prospects. dark
While a guy that is consistently average isn’t sexy, a guy like Shaun Anderson is very valuable for a rotation, and especially for a team like the San Francisco Giants that is in the process of a rebuild as he can save bullpen arms.
