Who will the Giants pick?
Happy Thursday, San Francisco Giants fans.
Draft season is upon us. Shockingly, the 2023 MLB Draft is only a little over a week away. Which means it’s time to start thinking about what pick the Giants might make!
Entering this year, Farhan Zaidi had a reputation for drafting poorly in the first round. That reputation is starting to disappear thanks to Patrick Bailey calmly being the best catcher is baseball since making his debut about six weeks ago.
But who will Zaidi and the organization’s scouts and evaluators tag as the next Bailey when they select at No. 16?
Kiley McDaniel at ESPN projects the Giants to take prep righty Noble Meyer from Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon, though it’s worth noting that McDaniel said he’s hearing the Giants linked mostly to college bats, and expects them to go that route. So why did he mock the opposite to them? Well, in his words, “Meyer slides a bit, but someone has to — and all things being equal, prep righties are the demographic to bet on doing the sliding. I think this is about as low as Meyer will go.”
In other words, McDaniel expects the Giants to draft a college bat (he specifically mentioned Maryland second baseman Matt Shaw, Stanford third baseman Tommy Troy, and Grand Canyon shortstop Jacob Wilson), unless someone falls into their lap.
The Athletic’s Keith Law is going in a different direction, and operating based on pre-draft intel. He predicts the Giants to select prep shortstop Walker Martin from Eaton High School in Colorado, saying, “This link has come up at least three different times for me in the last week, as the Giants have been heavy at Martin’s games and seem to be the high mark for the 19-year-old.”
As a sign of how hard it is to predict what will happen in the draft, Law admitted that the Giants might go with a college bat instead, but then had them targeting two different players than McDaniel did (Villanova outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., and Mississippi shortstop Jacob Gonzalez).
MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo sees it both ways, projecting the Giants to draft Shaw, while stating that, “This looks like another college hitter landing spot. Vanderbilt speedster Enrique Bradfield Jr. is a contender along with Shaw, who brings an intriguing power-speed combination (24 homers, 18 steals in 2023) in a middle infield package.”
In summation … who knows.
What time do the Giants play today?
After dropping their first road game in a month on Wednesday, the Giants will finish their series against the Toronto Blue Jays today at 4:07 p.m. PT.