Giants 2017 Draft Notes

[Giants]

1.16 Brent Rooker - 1B/OF Minnesota
Ultimately you gotta dance with what brung ya. The obvious target was Heliot Ramos but since I had that little surge at the end of the year after I stopped paying attention I knew I'd slid past where he'd be gettable. Would have strongly considered an arm like Baz or Bukauskas who were both off the board right before me, plus my system is pretty stacked with arms right now. So hitter it was, and there were some good college hitters on the board, but I went with the guy who might contribute while my current core is still rolling. Obviously he's old so the SEC triple crown was almost expected from an age relative to league thing (the only other guy to do that by the way, a certain Rafael Palmeiro), and then he hit in the Appy league but whatever, but then they moved him up to Ft. Myers (that would be A+ ball, and generally pitcher friendly A+ ball at that), and the dude kept mashing. If any 22 year old in a relatively significant amount of ABs put together a 166 wRC+ in the FSL with a respectable walk rate and a .273 ISO we'd be talking about him, but this dude was playing in college with aluminum bats like 1 month earlier! Everyone knows I have a thing for the power bat, and so even though there were other guys on the board who were probably safer (including 2 guys I considered who went with the next two picks in Burger and Smith) I decided to swing for the fences (see what I did there?). Whether this ends up looking more like Giancarlo "Mike" Stanton or Dan "White Prince Fielder" Vogelbach remains to be seen, but I'm glad I stuck to my philosophy.

2.16 Jeter Downs - SS Reds
The jokes write themselves, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Downs last this long. Obviously doesn't have the power potential of my first rounder, but a bunch of really positive traits plus an 80 grade name. I'm starting to stack up infield prospects now (Kieboom, Paredes, Potts, Blandino, Edman, now Downs), which is kinda fun. Looking forward to seeing how he develops.

3.16 Matt Tabor - RHP Diamondbacks

Another high ceiling arm, Tabor was a cold weather pitcher who seems to be quite advanced for a guy who plays where it snows. He grew from 5'6 to 6'2 over the last couple of years and now hits 94, with a surprisingly good change up. The slider apparently moves but needs work on command, I found this guy the most intriguing of all the arms I might have grabbed in this spot. Can't beat a 9/0 K/BB ratio in his 4.2 professional innings. Probably won't pitch til short season ball next year but could be real steal.

4.16 Seth Corry - LHP Giants

Here we are in the middle of the 4th round, and there's a high upside lefty that the Giants gave $1M bonus to? I'll take that guy. I'm not yet convinced that spin rate is a thing, but Fangraphs claims that his curve at the Area Code games was elite, so that's cool. He only hits the low 90's so he'll live or die on fastball command, which is politely called effectively wild right now. Outside chance he'll get a chance in full season ball next year.

5.16 Nick Margevicius - LHP Padres

Kept y'all waiting on this one, actually thought about not making a pick but never actually posted it, then when I noticed that it had been 23 hours it was a dick move to not make one. Plus I like Margevicius, I think that he could be a left handed Aaron Civale. Small school/cold weather kid put up video game numbers in the AZL (as you'd expect from a college guy) and then the NWL which is more interesting. He throws strikes, gets outs, had a 7.75 K/BB, the stat line likes it. The stuff is more solid average than spectacular, but he's got a real chance to move quickly and he could be a solid mid rotation starter someday.