Eldridge homers in first AB of 2025

Plus: Whisenhunt named PCL Pitcher of the Week

Wednesday, April 23 SAN FRANCISCO -- Bryce Eldridge is back.    The Giants' No. 1 prospect made his season debut with Double-A Richmond on Tuesday after completing his rehab from a left wrist injury and immediately picked up where he left off from his breakout 2024 campaign. The 20-year-old first baseman homered in his first at-bat of the year, crushing a hanging breaking ball from Akron right-hander Tommy Mace 386 feet out to right field to put the Flying Squirrels on the board in the top of the second inning.     It was a promising start for Eldridge, who established himself as one of the top power-hitting prospects in the Minors after batting .291 with an .890 OPS and 23 home runs over 116 games while climbing from Single-A San Jose to Triple-A Sacramento in 2024.    While Eldridge ended last season at Sacramento, he ended up appearing in only 17 games above High-A Eugene, as the Giants wanted him to keep playing and stay prepared for a brief stint in the Arizona Fall League. Given his lack of upper-level experience in the Minors, the Giants felt it was best for him to open the 2025 campaign back at Double-A Richmond, where he'll have a chance to play only an hour and a half from his hometown of Fairfax, Va. === Now that he's healthy and back in action, the Giants plan to keep close tabs on Eldridge, who also flashed his eye-popping power by launching a Statcast-projected 450-foot home run in his Cactus League debut in February.    "We watch everybody, but obviously, he's the top prospect in the organization," manager Bob Melvin said Tuesday. "He was with us in Spring Training, and we feel like he has a really bright future. We'll take a hard look at him and hopefully he gets off to a good start and does his thing. We'll see where it goes from there."    The Giants don't plan to rush Eldridge, who remains a work in progress defensively, but the 2023 first-round Draft pick could force the issue if he continues to mash in the Minors, especially given the lackluster production the club has received from the slumping LaMonte Wade Jr. (.473 OPS). Wade's slow start is a major reason why San Francisco first basemen entered Tuesday with a paltry .476 OPS, which ranked 29th in the Majors, ahead of only the Rockies. Will the needs of the big league roster impact Eldridge's timeline?    "I'm not really sure about that," Melvin said. "He's going to have to perform to get here. That's something [president of baseball operations] Buster [Posey] has stated. If you perform well, then you've got an opportunity to get to the big leagues."   While the Giants view Eldridge as their first baseman of the future, the organization wants to make sure he's fully developed before giving him a chance to hold down the spot in the Majors.     "He's young, and he's super talented," vice president of player development Randy Winn said last month. "Big, strong. He's got some power. I think he's going to surprise some people with his hitability. He's got a really short swing. I just want him to continue to improve in all facets of the game.    "A lot of the game is kind of the mental side as well. How do you deal with failure? How do you hit in certain situations? How do you hit if somebody is pitching around you? How do you hit when you're not feeling great? Those are all things he's got to learn, but you can only learn that with more reps. And then obviously, becoming a complete player -- fielding, baserunning -- as well."

Three Giants prospects who are off to hot starts - Giants Beat

Some of us old goats remember when the Giants would develop prospects. Exciting prospects. 

 

This doesn't even include Bryce Eldridge and LHP Carson Whisenhunt. So, short-term, pipeline looks good. Slightly longer term, not too shabby as well.  

Plus: Posey back as front-office force in SF

Saturday, April 12 The Giants have emerged as one of the early surprises of the 2025 season, with Jung Hoo Lee, Wilmer Flores and Mike Yastrzemski among the hitters who have powered the club's strong start to the year.    But the positive developments haven't been limited to the big league club.    Here's a look at three Giants prospects who have also come strong out of the gate in the Minors this year:    1. Carson Seymour, RHP (Giants' No. 20 prospect per MLB Pipeline) Triple-A Sacramento's rotation features plenty of notable names, including Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn and Carson Whisenhunt (No. 2), but the unit's most impressive starter thus far has been Seymour, who has logged a 0.64 ERA with 17 strikeouts over 14 innings across his first three outings of the year. The 26-year-old right-hander racked up 13 K's over nine shutout innings over his first two starts, which earned him Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week honors for the week of April 1-6. Seymour was added to the Giants' 40-man roster in November, so he should be part of the next wave of young starters who could debut in San Francisco in the not too distant future.   2. James Tibbs III, OF (No. 4) The Giants' 2024 first-round Draft pick, Tibbs earned a quick promotion after batting .415 over nine games at Single-A San Jose last summer, but he cooled off significantly once he reached the Northwest League. The 22-year-old outfielder hit only .134 with two home runs and 25 strikeouts over 17 games with High-A Eugene in 2024, a mildly concerning stretch for a player who was viewed as one of the most advanced hitters in his Draft class.    Tibbs returned to High-A Eugene for the start of the 2025 campaign, but he's making a far better impression at the plate this time around. He entered Friday having hit safely in each of his first five games for the Emeralds, batting .368 (7-for-19) with a 1.152 OPS and one homer over that span. Tibbs reached base in seven of his first eight plate appearances to start the year and capped that stretch by crushing his first home run of the season -- a solo shot to straightaway center field -- against Hillsboro on April 5.  Tibbs' former Florida State teammate, Cam Smith, was taken one pick after him in last year's Draft and is already in the Majors with the Astros, so the Giants will hope to see a similarly fast rise from their own first-rounder this year.     3. Dakota Jordan, OF (No. 6) The Giants gambled on Jordan's tantalizing upside when they took the power-hitting outfielder in the fourth round of the 2024 Draft. The early returns have been promising so far this year. Jordan entered Friday batting .364 (8-for-22) with one home run, six RBIs and two stolen bases over his first six games with Single-A San Jose. The 21-year-old hammered his first professional homer against Visalia on Wednesday, launching a two-run shot over the center-field wall to cap a three-hit night at Excite Ballpark. Strikeouts remain an issue for Jordan, who has whiffed in seven of his first 22 at-bats, but he's made some tweaks to his batting stance since joining the Giants organization and is now standing taller to try to stay more relaxed in the box.     "When it comes to the hitting part, I would say it's 50 percent for me," Jordan said before the Giants' Spring Breakout game last month. "I've got the quick bat, the quick twitch. For me, I don't need to be all jumpy and everything. Really for me, whenever I'm hitting, I just sit back and relax now. That's something that I've learned even in my cage routines now. You don't have to hit, hit, hit. You can hit, take a breather, catch your breath. That's something that I learned. Being able to breathe and relax and have fun."

Giants Prospects according to FanGraphs

This is not comforting when you consider that the 2018 arrivals listed include:

• Steven Duggar
• Tyler Beede
• Chris Shaw
• Andrew Suarez
• D.J. Snelten
• Austin Slater
• Tyler Herb
• Reyes Moronta
• Miguel Gomez

We've seen many of these guy perform already.  Any hope for the big league team's future from this list? BTW: FanGraphs ranks none of the above a Top 100 prospect among all major league teams. 

The 2019 arrivals include:

• Garrett Williams (a seventh rounder)
• Aramis Garcia
• C.J. Hinojosa (an 11th rounder)

BTW: FanGraphs doesn't rate the Giants badly in term of quantity. Based on the table below, you would expect to have 24.5 prospects make the list, the Giant have 22.

In term of relative quality, which I look at as the average position on the board, the Giants grade out slightly below average here as well.   

This means that the way out of this problem is pretty much the way we got in, which is allocation of free-agent dollars and trades. So the same mind-set re: roster construction that gave you Samardzija, Cueto, Span etc. have to pull a couple of more rabbits out of their hat. That or more trades. 

The answer does not appear to be in the farm system anywhere before 2023. 

Giants blow two leads, lose in 10th to Rockies - San Francisco Chronicle

This is who the Giants are. Why blow one lead when you can blow two leads, right?

from sfchronicle.com
Giants blow two leads, lose in 10th to Rockies - San Francisco Chronicle:

After the Giants reached the one-third point of the season at 25-29, manager Bruce Bochy said they plan to have Bumgarner throw one more minor-league game at San Jose on Thursday to extend his pitch count.

'via Blog this'

At 25-29 a third of the way through I get 75-87, not much better than last year, and that's before surrendering into being a seller at the trade deadline. The feeling I get is that the Giants are 1-3 versus +.500 teams and no better than .500 against below .500 teams. They struggle to win series' against bad teams, let's face it.

So 27-54 versus good teams and 40.5-40.5 versus bad teams equals 67.5 - 94.5, let's round that up to 68-94, although I'm not even sure the Giants have shown anything worthy of even that 0.5 game bump up.

So, somewhere between 68 and 75 win. This team is done.

Giants Hitting: Review

OK, I lied. I'm going to review the Giants hitters for April. I wish I didn't.

Three types of hitter on display for the squad as determined by the BB/K ratio (rankings are sorted by OPS):

Patient approach (BB/K, Avg.): 

5. Posey 1.00 .304
10. Panik 1.00 .267
8. 'Cutch 0.74 .221
3. Belt 0.69 .304
13. Slater 0.75 .200

Middle of the Road:

12. Tomlinson 0.33 .261
11. Hanson 0.33 .214
7. Pablo 0.31 .250
9. Blanco 0.27 .300

Williamson did not have enough AB's and not having been walked, has no BB/K ratio. I think he will settle into the Middle Approach.

Helicopter Approach:

15. Jackson 0.21 .234
16. Crawford 0.20 .204
6. Longo 0.11 2.43
17. Pence 0.09 .172
14. Gorkys 0.06.250

I don't know how some of these guys hit consistently. I think Longo eventually settles into the Middle approach and I'm surprised he's not more towards the Patient.

Stats are fun.

Giants Pitching: Review

These are the options until Bumgarner gets back and that's the cavalry, IMO. There isn't going to be an add-on at the trade deadline, unless the Giants are in an epic battle for 1st place. Treading water around .500 and in the wild-card hunt isn't going to motivate the expenditure.

So assuming the worst about Cueto, where are we? Bumgarner, Samardzija, Stratton, Blach and Suarez or Holland in the 5-hole? Beede needs longer than a 7-inning audition, but I like Suarez more and more. He can pitch and he can battle.

On the bullpen side of the ledger...

Thank God Will Smith is back. Everybody else gets less reps. Smith and Watson from the LH side. You'd love to give Osich time to work things out, but when is enough enough? Strickland, Dyson, Gearrin, Moronta and Pierce Johnson? How many prospects lists had Pierce Johnson on the top side of the list? Not mine.

There's enough here to get them over .500, but not by much and they cannot afford another injury. 

Other than Watson and Strickland, too many walks. Way too many. Gearrin and Osich are way too hittable. Other than that....all good. 

I don't even want to look at hitters for another month. Too depressing.