A Giants minor leaguer of interest….
Last season, I was at a San Jose Giants game, and firstbaseman Ricky Oropesa hit a monstrous homerun, and I did a double-take. “Who’s that?!” was my immediate thought. Certainly, one homerun does not a career make. He ended up hitting 16 for San Jose, which is good for the Cal League, but not setting the world on fire. And he seems to have flown under the radar in discussions of Giants prospects. But that homerun really sticks in my memory, and he is a Giants minor leaguer whose numbers I’ll be keeping an eye on next season. He’ll be 23. Firstbase is potentially blocked in the future, with Belt trying to nail that down, so I don’t know how Oropesa fits into the future; but that’s OK. Depth of quality is an awesome thing to have in order to make future transactions. Sabean has been masterful at filling needs in the middle of the season during this era of greatness for the Giants. Sabean has a hot hand these days.
Is there a particular Giants minor leaguer you are intrigued by? Certainly Gary Brown is high on all our radars. It’ll be interesting to see how he does in Spring Training. He is sure to get a reasonable amount of playing time for the big club in Spring Training this year. A player like Oropesa is farther down the pecking order for a few years. But he might be a big part of the SF Giants’ future someday, or not. We’ll see.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Good relevant topic.
Here’s an article that just came out…don’t know if it was posted.
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2012/11/16/3656784/san-francisco-giants-top-20-prospects-for-2013
Great site Salty . . . Heading out early this morning, but am going to review later. Gracias 🙂
Great to see so many pitchers. I haven’t been paying attention but it seemed the cupboard was pretty bare. Hopefully we will start to see these guys as real options in the near future.
Nice read, thanks for sharing, and agree with Eric…nice to see all those arms on the list.
One could compare Oropresa to a guy like Kieschnick– big hr numbers, high K’s in A league at the same age.
Kieschnick is sort of the forgotten man. Was his injury career threatening? I was never THAT high on him, but he did have 15hrs in 250ab’s last yr at Fresno.
I’m giving Brown the benefit of the doubt and hope he’s just pressing a bit with all the attention paid him as the G’s top prospect. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
Looks from that piece above the G’s will be trading pitching propects in the future to fill some holes.
Roger is playing in the AFL and did resume play at the end of this year at Fresno. He’s probably getting close to make or break time.
Baseball is weird. And potentially confusing. I surmise that “from the left side of the plate” means he is a left-handed hitter. But think about it. Doesn’t a left-handed hitter bat from the right side of the plate? It is “right” of the plate from most of the stands and from the umpire’s vantage point and the announcers’ booth. But not from the pitcher’s view. Let me see. We skew the whole terminology because of ONE person, the pitcher?! Isn’t that disrespectful to the batter, about whom we are speaking? Another point, the “left-handed” hitter has to use two hands so wouldn’t left-shouldered be better? No, no. The RIGHT shoulder faces the pitcher if you are a left-handed batter. That won’t work. (Imagine explaining all of this to a foreigner.) You can see that since I’m not good in debating stats I resort to semantic and semiotic silliness (SASS).
Good thing I’m not a scout. At the Binghamton NY game I saw MadBum I was more impressed by his hitting than his pitching. Or maybe not. As Marcel Proust proved, memory is conveniently selective. Didn’t go down to Binghamton in ’12 to see the Flying Squirrels visit the B-Mets and their swarm of bees. Must do that in 2013. It will have my head spinning hitting up other basking and Pandalirious citizens of Gigantes de la Nacion.
I like catching minor league games. Ticket prices are reasonable, and you get a chance to occasionaly see a rising star. Years ago I was in Shreveport, LA with the Air Force, and caught quite a few games while a young kid, Royce Clayton, was flashing the leather at SS. A couple of years later, he was up and held the position for a few years in SF.
There are many sites that rate prospects,: Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs, Baseball America, to cite 3 of the most prominent. I watch all of them. Brown is still considered the top prospect by most.Oropesa isn’t considered a top prospect by most but they can be wrong, too. Salty’s link is for our top 20 by John Sickels, one of the most respected guys in the biz. Here’s his mea culpa on our World Serires MVP.
http://tinyurl.com/avr6tkz
I’ve always felt that people have more credibility when they are able to recognize their mistakes. nobody (other than yourself :)), is right all the time. of course that eliminates politicians.
Well, usually there’s no need for me to recognize them, I have many many helpers..and I’m thankful for them.
Good read…thanks for sharing, Twin.
Juan Pierre reportedly will sign with the Marlins. CF list getting smaller. Me slightly nervous, though trusting of Mr. Sabean’s poker-playing talents. Note to self: send thank you cards to Sabes et al.
On the low end of the Minors, I’m interested in the kid from Virginia, Jarrett Parker. And, even though the odds are against Villalona, I’m still interested in the guy but I’m not sure if that interest is just a train wreck kinda deal.
I’m not positive but I don’t think Angel has been granted a visa yet. On Parker, never a good sign when a kid stays at one level two straight years, but I’ve read that’s he’s still considered a good prospect., From Scout.com:
“Parker does have some power potential, and is one of the fastest players in the Giants’ system. Given his superior knowledge of the strike zone, that makes him an ideal top-of-the-order batter. However, he has a ways to go. Parker will have to show improvements at San Jose before the Giants give him a chance at Richmond or Fresno. Given that, he’s likely two years away, at least, from sniffing the big leagues.
We see Parker’s skill set as comparable to Franklin Gutierrez of the Mariners: A strong outfielder with some pop; a threat on the base paths; but also a strikeout liability”
Yeah, at 23 Parker probably won’t be much but I’m always intrigued by the speed guys.
Last I read (a couple of weeks ago) was that Angel still did not have a visa.
I’m only trying to shed some light on what’s reported on Parker and our other prospects, I’m not making a judgement. I wish all these kids could realize their dream. I tried a prospect of the day on “B” in 2011, I like to follow the progress of the young guys. Back in the early Splash days, it amazed me how many commenters were like “Who?” when a kid got called up. It’s cool to have a group here who actually pay some attention to the farm system.
TF, thanks for the video clip of Oropesa. Very cool. And the article about the scout talking about Sandoval was very cool, too.
And thanks for that prospects link, Salty. Also very cool stuff.
Oropesa had 98 RBIs last season, which is very good; but as a “power guy,” he’ll need to improve his HR/K ratio, which was 16/150.
Good stuff you wrote, Pawlie.
“Good thing I’m not a scout.” I hear ya; me too. After I saw Brandon Hynick pitch several games in the minors, I thought he would be a major league dominator some day. Haven’t you all heard of Brandon Hynick??
Well….stuff happens. I guess he developed arm trouble in AA, and has bounced around since then. It’s a tough thing. Like TF said, a bunch of guys pursuing their life dream. It’s heartbreaking to them when it doesn’t come true. All the more to be amazed at what Voglesong has accomplished after so much “journeyman” travels. He developed, late in his career, into an All-Star and playoff hero. A World Series champion. It’s storybook stuff.
The Giants’ web site has a list of top 20 prospects, and with player head shots: http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/mlb/minorleagues/affiliates/index.jsp?c_id=sf
I like the Nos. 16 & 17 players with the movie-star names: Adam Duvall and Chris Heston. Not on the list, but I’m rooting for Bochy’s son, Brett, to someday make it to the bigs. Didn’t he get hurt late in the season for Richmond? I don’t know how serious a prospect he is, but what a great story it would be if he somehow made it to the Giants and played for his father.
Interesting, the difference between this list and the one shared by Salt, earlier. For example, Eric Surkamp on this list?
There’s a pretty significant difference from site to site. As of when Wheeler was traded last year, some had Peguero rated higher than Brown. Francisco has been one of those guys who just don’t seem to put it all together despite great “tools”.
Brett had a “very tired” arm according to Dad, when he went on the DL. He also had Tommy John surgery in 2010.
he is not really a prospect, but I have always wanted Runzler to get a legitimate shot w/o injuries. He has been mostly in the minors for a few years now.
as an aside, the BBC are going to broadcast a rare (very rare) NFL game and it will be the 49ers v Bears. A contest seen more often in the 1850s, but hey?
Love your “the BBC are” as opposed to the Colonial stepchild’s putting it in the singular. Carry on. As you were. In a fortnight. Ha’penny.
You apparently do not realise the size and verity of the Beeb and all its bits and pieces. Its size and breadth is one of the reasons for the current crises the organisation finds themselves in. e.g. the editors have no editors to guide them and a completely non-journalistic management layer exists for that purpose??
🙂
Off topic, but I just started reading “The Juju Rules, or How to Win Ballgames from Your Couch” by Hart Seely. It is funny as hell and very well written, albeit by a Yankee fan. He’s a local guy. I’ve gotten to know him a little. It is hugely entertaining. Picture a baseball memoir as written by Jean Shepherd, whose writing “A Christmas Story” is based on. Very worth reading. (Years ago, he did a poetry book based on words of Phil Rizzuto; huge seller. Then he did the same thing satirically with the words of Donald Rumsfeld.)
Check out Room “B” for a peek at some prospects- link to the right “A Cavalcade of Prospects”. I’ll try to do more on as many as I can. Brown, Crick, Susac, Panik, and Hembree are featured first.
wish they had a gun on those pitches Hembree threw in the video you posted. I know he throws heat but those hitters looked overmatched. And the ball wasn’t moving at all. *straight as a string*. Todd Van Poppel had that problem..
One 97 mph fastball overmatches hitters and another inspires contradictory cliches about “it doesn’t matter how hard you throw, a major league hitter is gonna catch up with that.” I remember more than a few successful hard throwers (Gooden, Clemens) whose fastballs looked pretty straight watching them on TV. Lincecum’s FB never appeared to move much to me when he threw mid 90s. It was some combination of command and secondary pitches that made them so good at their peak.
Caught the 1st half of Nets-Kings before going to see Skyfall (which I liked). Must say it was a little sad to see so many empty seats at what used to be called Arco and what is now the appropriately named Sleep Train Arena. I went to a few games during my brief time there in ’96-97 and the place was always rockin’ no matter how bad the Kings were. Just another example of a loyal fan base that will tolerate a crap product for only so long before it’s had enough.
i was in NY when the yankees sucked and their fans are no better than anyone else. the giant’s fans will ultimately desert when the time comes. look at any team and when they suck, for an extended time, the fans leave. so please quit with “these are the best fans in . . .”
Warrior fans never have deserted.. and they get shit for not doing so.
Sleep Train Arena? What happened to Power Balance Pavillion? Ridiculous. I’m still a Kings fan, but I’ll wash my hands of them and the Maloofs as soon as they leave town. I dont blame the people of Sac at all for not wanting to replace an arena that is not even 25 years old.
I’m not a big college football guy and I’ve never liked Stanford much, but their coach impressed the hell out of me with his calm demeanor and class during and after that huge win last night. The fact that he is a protege of Harbaugh, who surely would have done something to make an ass of himself after such a big win, makes it even more surprising. I’m officially a David Shaw fan now.
If I remember, there weren’t too many Shaw fans here after Stanford’s loss to Oklahoma State in last year’s Fiesta Bowl.
New Post- might as well start re-basking now.