San Francisco Giants Top-15 Prospects of 2010, No’s 6 – 15

ALSO SEE – Giants Top Prospects, No’s 1 – 5

Grades are based on a prospect’s projected value over the course of his career and how likely it is that prospect will fulfill his projected value. Various factors are accounted for including upside, red flags, actual performance, and closeness to the majors. See the 2010 Prospect Primer for more information as it relates to prospect grading and philosophy.

Hitters must have 100 or fewer Major League ABs to qualify for this list. Starting pitchers must have 50 or fewer Major League innings to qualify for this list. Relief pitchers must have 25 or fewer Major League innings to qualify for this list. Ages are listed as of May 1st, 2010. Levels are based on the highest level in which a prospect played in 2009. All grades are subject to change based on any new information I receive before the season starts.

If you need to reach me in any way, please contact me via e-mail or post a comment at the bottom of the page and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. The first two prospects are available for everybody to read.

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Player Grades
Contact – 40 Now | 60 Future
Power – 30 | 55
Discipline – 35 | 50/55
Speed – 60 | 55
Defense – 50 | 55
Arm – 60 | 60
Instincts – 40 | 55
ETA – 2016
Final Grade – B-

Body Type – Tall, lanky, and extremely projectable as he still needs to pack on the weight

Scouting Report

Signed by the Giants in 2008 for a signing bonus of $2.55 million, Rafael Rodriguez possesses the best raw tools in the organization. To start, he has a tremendous body that has room to grow, not just in pounds, but in height as well. He has plus bat speed as a quick-twitch athlete. He displays both plus speed and equally rated arm strength and best profiles in right field because of his size. Rodriguez also displays plus power potential BP, but it hardly translated to game day situations.

Rodriguez is an extremely young and raw specimen, but he did something last season that has to have Giant officials extremely excited. After being touted as somebody with big time plate discipline issues, he ended up walking in 10.8% of his plate appearances while striking out in just 15.5% of his PAs. He came close to getting on base 40% of the time, which is outstanding for somebody as raw as Rodriguez is.

Rodriguez has issues with his swing that currently have a negative impact on his power production, but it’s nice to see, of all the balls he put in play, that he hit a line drive in 24% of them. Rodriguez also generated enough back spin to consistently to put the ball in the air though he got under too many of those balls.

The Giants will not rush Rodriguez and can afford to be patient with him. He’s still a long, long ways off, but he passed an important plate discipline test. Many, if not most, failed Latin American prospects are done in because of a lack of plate discipline. Now Rodriguez has to go out and show his 2009 season wasn’t a fluke.

Best Case Outcome – All Star right fielder

More Likely Outcome – Too soon to say

Player Grades
Fastball – 65 Now | 65 Future
Slider – 65 | 65
Control – 40 | 45
Command – 45 | 50
Pitchability – 55 | 55
ETA – 2010
Final Grade – B-

Body Type – Big, physical left hander

Stuff

Fastball – Clocked between 92 – 96 with plus life…thrown down in the strike zone

Slider – A hard and late breaking pitch that will range anywhere from 80 – 86 mph…he can vary the break on the pitch

Scouting Report

Starting last season in Single-A Augusta, Dan Runzler shot through the Giants’ farm system and found himself on the Major League roster by season’s end.

Along the way, Runzler showed off an impressive ability to rack up the strikeouts with his power based stuff. Not only that, he did a good job of keeping the ball on the ground.

Runzler’s emergence comes off a serious increase in velocity. I think Runzler offers a really interesting case study for how one’s mechanics can significantly improve velocity and that’s an article I’ll do a write up on later.

The issue for Runzler is control and command. Besides his 2007 season in the Arizona Rookie League and a tremendous stretch of 21 innings with A+ San Jose, Runzler’s walk percentage has been in the double digits. The big reason for Runzler’s control issues are that he has complicated mechanics. He’s aggressive and throws with a lot of intent, sometimes rushing through his delivery. His fastball will sometimes sail on him at times and he bounces his slider in the dirt too often. Still, there are times when Runzler is on his game and is able to place his pitches exactly where he wants them.

You also have to like the progress Runzler has made with his control as he practically cut his walk rate in half and when he did throw strikes, they weren’t hittable strikes. His BABIP of .331 in 2008 dropped to .188 in 2009. While that number is unsustainable, it’s still a sign of how difficult it was for hitters to center the ball against Runzler.

Runzler can get hit hitters out from both sides of the plate, but he’s particularly tough on lefties because of his slider. Against lefties, Runzler had a K-rate of 10.80, a walk rate of 2.31, a line drive percentage of just 4.7%, induced a ground ball 79% of the time, and of the fly balls he did give up, a third of them were of the pop-up variety.

Best Case Outcome – Dominant left handed reliever out of the bullpen

More Likely Outcome – A sometimes dominant, sometimes wild lefty reliever that might drive fans a little crazy

Brief Rundown on Prospects 8 – 15

8. Jason Stoffel | RHP | Grade – B-/C+ – Reliever has a quality two pitch mix and closer’s mentality…could move quick

9. Nick Noonan | 2b | Grade – C+ – Production hasn’t matched the tools, but he’s always been young for his level and he was much more selective at the plate last season…needs to go back to something more similar to his high school swing as he does a couple things now that I don’t like, which I discuss in his report

10. Ehire Adrianza | SS | Grade – C+ – Excellent defensive shortstop with a good idea of what to do at the plate, but he has to get strong…power is a major question mark

11. Roger Kieschnick | RF | Grade – C+ – Big time power, but he’s an undisciplined hitter that needs to make more contact and be more selective

12. Francisco Peguero | CF | Grade – C+ – Has some good tools and makes good contact, but he’s a hacker at the plate and doesn’t hit for power

13. Edward Concepcion | RHP | Grade – C+ – Misses bats and gets ground balls with a mid – upper 90′s fastball…sleeper prospect

14. Conor Gillaspie | 3b | Grade – C+ – Excellent strike zone judgement, but little power and a bat that profiles better at second than third base

15. Hector Sanchez | C | Grade – C+ – Interesting catcher prospect is well liked defensively and shown advanced plate discipline for his age

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Other C+ Prospects

16. Brandon Crawford | SS | Age – 23 – Like his glove, but there are big questions about his bat

17. Brandon Belt | 1b | Age – 22 – Intriguing first base prospect…didn’t have an outstanding year at Texas, but he’s tall and lean with some projection remaining and he’s not a stiff — he’s actually a good athlete…walked more than he struck out in his sophomore season, so there is some potential here, a sleeper

18. Darren Ford | CF | Age – 24 – Speedy center fielder produced offensively for the first time in a little under 700 ABs across 1.5 years and three levels of competition…he must prove his 2009 season was not a fluke in Double-A

19. Waldis Joaquin | RHP | Age – 23 – Big time arm strength with a tremendous fastball, but his command is really lacking

20. Matt Graham | RHP | Age – 20 – Interesting prep pitch with a nice fastball-curveball combination

21. Clayton Tanner | LHP | Age – 22 – Finesse lefty throws strikes and keeps the ball on the ground…possible back of the rotation starter

22. Aaron King | LHP | Age – 21 – Lefty has inconsistent results, but good stuff…seems to profile best out of the bullpen

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order) – Jorge Bucardo (RHP) | Steve Edlefsen (RHP) | Dan Otero (RHP) | Kevin Pucetas (RHP) | Henry Sosa (RHP) | Eric Surkamp (LHP) | Julio Izturis (2b) | Edwin Quirarte (RHP) | Angel Villalona (1b) | Brock Bond (2b) | Brett Pill (1b) | Ari Ronick (LHP) | Kyle Nicholson (RHP) | Daryl Maday (RHP) | Chris Dominguez (3b) | Drew Biery (3b)

ALSO SEE – San Francisco Giants Top Prospects, No’s 1 – 5

Other References and Resources Used for This Article – First Inning and Minor League Splits