Who is the 30th-best prospect in the Giants system?
The 2023 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List keeps chugging along, as we get closer and closer to ranking the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization.
The latest name is one of the hardest players to place in the entire system. It’s outfielder Hunter Bishop, who has been voted as the No. 29 prospect in the system, a drop of 19 spots from his position a year ago.
It’s safe to say that nothing has gone as hoped or expected since the Giants used their first-round pick (No. 10 overall) on Bishop in 2019. No one presumed that the first ever draft pick in the Farhan Zaidi era would still be in High-A Eugene in 2022, but so far Bishop’s once-promising career has been defined by injuries and poor performance — as well as a lost year to the pandemic, as happened to most prospects.
As such, Bishop entered 2022 — his fourth year as a pro — having taken just 202 plate appearances in his career. He blew past that number in Eugene, though he once again dealt with injuries. Still, he managed 358 plate appearances, during which time he hit .235/.320/.406, for a mildly above league-average 104 wRC+.
Bishop flashed some of the things that made him a first-round pick. His athleticism was on display in center field and on the basepaths, where he stole 20 bases in 22 attempts. He showed the kind of power you don’t often get with center field speed, bashing 13 homers in 85 games.
But needless to say, there’s work to do. Hitting barely above league average in High-A in your age-24 season isn’t the way to rise up a system, nor is a 32.7% strikeout rate.
Still, I’d expect Bishop to begin the year with AA Richmond, where he’ll likely do what he did in Eugene in 2022: split center field reps with Luis Matos, and try to get his once-promising career back on track.
Now onward we march!
The list so far
- Kyle Harrison — LHP
- Marco Luciano — SS
- Casey Schmitt — 3B
- Luis Matos — CF
- Vaun Brown — OF
- Grant McCray — CF
- Aeverson Arteaga — SS
- Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
- Reggie Crawford — LHP/DH
- Patrick Bailey — C
- Mason Black — RHP
- Heliot Ramos — OF
- Eric Silva — RHP
- Jairo Pomares — OF
- Cole Waites — RHP
- Keaton Winn — RHP
- R.J. Dabovich — RHP
- Tyler Fitzgerald — INF
- Ryan Murphy — RHP
- Landen Roupp — RHP
- Will Wilson — INF
- Adrian Sugastey — C
- Trevor McDonald — RHP
- Tristan Beck — RHP
- Will Bednar — RHP
- Nick Swiney — LHP
- Rayner Arias — OF
- Carson Seymour — RHP
- Hunter Bishop — OF
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
On to No. 30!
No. 30 prospect nominees
Brett Auerbach — 24.5-year old C/UTIL, 94 wRC+ in AA (425 PAs)
Jose Cruz — 22.9-year old RHP, 3.10 FIP in Low-A (51.2 IP)
Sean Hjelle — 25.9-year old RHP, 3.51 FIP in MLB (25 IP), 5.20 FIP in AAA (97 IP)
Ryan Reckley — 18.5-year old SS, 86 wRC+ in DSL (46 PAs)
Randy Rodriguez — 23.5-year old RHP, 7.52 FIP in AAA (6 IP), 5.21 FIP in AA (10 IP), 4.10 FIP in High-A (50.2 IP)
Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page.
Reminder: voting is now in the comments!