San Francisco Giants scouting report on RHP Shaun Anderson

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.