Giants Designate Chris Heston For Assignment: MLB Rumors

If this is true, perhaps the total impact of the Francoeur signing eventually becomes Cole Gillespie and Chris Heston? That would be a bit steep even if, as Schulman says, Heston has taken a step backwards in his development.

This year, what major Giants prospect hasn't regressed other than perhaps Jake Dunning?

from MLBTradeRumors.com
Giants Designate Chris Heston For Assignment: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com:

Heston checked in at 17th among Giants prospects on Baseball America's pre-season ranking after a strong showing in Double-A last year, where he posted a 2.24 ERA over 148 2/3 innings and clocked 8.2 K/9 versus 2.4 BB/9. He was added to the 40-man over the off-season to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Known as a "groundball machine" (per Baseball America), Heston has thrived as a pitchmaker in spite of his far-from-overpowering stuff.

In his first stint at the Triple-A level, however, Heston has struggled to a 5.80 ERA over 108 2/3 innings. His strikeout ratio is right on par with his career norms at 8.0 K/9, but his walks are up and he has allowed many more long balls than in past seasons. (Heston posted 2.4 BB/9 last year to go with a paltry -- and surely unsustainable -- .1 HR/9. This season, he stands a 3.8 BB/9 and has allowed 1.2 HR/9.) Nevertheless, given Heston's relatively strong prospect standing, Schulman wonders (also via Twitter) whether a trade could be in the works, since he "can't believe they'd let him go for nothing."

'via Blog this'

Heston was ranked as high as #8 be MLB.com among Giants prospects, statistically he appeared close in stature to Mike Kickham and along the same developmental glide path. His K/BB ratio was a solid 3.44, above average and better than Kickham's 2.13 coming into the season. Maybe the organization is having second thoughts after his struggles at AAA. His K/BB ratio there declined to around 2.10, so perhaps the thought is let him regroup at AA, which makes two prospects moving down a level after Oropesa was demoted from AA back to High A. Yeeesh!!



from MLB.com:
Chris Heston
Position: RHP
Age: 25, DOB: 04/10/1988
Bats: R, Throws: R
Height: 6' 4", Weight: 185
Drafted: 2009, 12th (357) - SF
Twitter: @Hesto23

 Scouting Grades* (present/future): Fastball: 5/5 | Curveball: 4/5 | Changeup: 5/5 | Control:5/ 6 | Overall: 5/5

Command type right-handers often struggle when they make the move up to Double-A. Heston clearly didn't get that memo as he used his average stuff and excellent feel for pitching to lead the organization in ERA. His sinking fastball may top out at around 92 mph, but he uses a good downhill plane and gets a lot of groundball outs with it. His big curve often has good bite and rotation and thanks to good arm speed, his changeup is effective and deceptive. He commands all of his pitches well, getting ahead of hitters regularly. His ceiling might be limited, but it's looking like his floor is too, with a future in the middle to back of a rotation coming soon.