Archive for Andrew Susac

While deals for Zach Duke and Mark Melancon might have made it appear as though the price for relief pitching was coming down, the San Francisco Giants, in need of some help at the back end of the bullpen, have just paid a pretty high price to get the left-handed Brewers’ reliever Will Smith.

Here are the full terms.

Giants get:

• Will Smith (RHP)

Brewers get:

• Phil Bickford (RHP)
• Andrew Susac (C)

For the Giants, pursuing a reliever made a lot of sense. They have some useful pieces there, surely: Santiago Casilla has been generally reliable at the the end of the bullpen, Derek Law has pitched well with more exposure, and Hunter Strickland has been solid at time. As a whole, however, the group hasn’t done a lot to add to the Giants’ chances of reaching the postseason this year.

The Giants’ 19.8% strikeout rate is barely ahead of the Colorado Rockies’ (19.7%). By ERA (3.76) and FIP (3.92), the Giants pen sits in the middle of the National League pack. By WAR, however, the team places ahead only of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the abomination the Cincinnati Reds have put together. By Win Probability Added (WPA) among NL relievers, Casilla (0.63, 37th), Strickland (0.53, 39th) and Law (0.52, 40) — who, again, represent the back-end of San Francisco’s bullpen — are well behind the game’s better pitchers. The rest of the relief corps is hovering around zero or worse. They’ve landed someone who should be able to bolster the bullpen significantly this year, and perhaps into future seasons.

In 2015, mostly in the capacity of setting up Francisco Rodriguez, Will Smith was one of the best relievers in baseball, . He made 76 appearances, strinking out 35% of the batters he faced — and no NL reliever without a save had a higher WAR than Smith’s 1.4 mark. He moved into 2016 with the closer role his to lose, but lose it he did when he lost his balance while removing a shoe and twisting his right knee during spring training, an injury which required surgery. Smith hasn’t been as lights out this season, striking out 24% of batters against a 10% walk rate in 22 innings. Although his ERA and FIP have not stabilized due to a couple home runs, his strikeout rate in July has crossed the 30% threshold, providing some encouragement that Smith is on his way back.

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The Giants organization possesses some strong prospects at the top of the list, as well as solid pitching depth. But the overall depth in the system is somewhat thin. It’s not a result of poor drafting or inept talent evaluation – it’s actually the complete opposite. The organization has wisely leveraged its assets to acquire key playoff contributors, such as Carlos Beltran, Hunter Pence, and Marco Scutaro. It has also seen key prospects, such as Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Brandon Belt, zoom through the minors and fill holes on the big league roster. It’s easy to see why this club has won the World Series in two of the past three seasons.

#1 Kyle Crick (P)

Opening Day Age: 20
2012 Level: A
Acquired: 2011 draft (49th overall) 
Projected 2013 Level: A+/AA

Crick has quickly become the Giants’ best prospect after being selected 49th overall during the 2011 draft out of a Texas high school. Crick, 20, has a strong pitcher’s frame and the velocity to match. He struck out 128 batters in 111.1 innings at the A-ball level in 2012.

A scout I spoke with said the right-hander is definitely a potential front-line starter with premium power, as well as a potentially-plus cutter/slider. “He’s a great athlete for a big guy… and you can’t teach that kind of velocity,” he said. “His delivery is pretty easy and the ball really jumps out of his hand… The fastball is on top of them [before they know it].” Crick also a solid downward plane on his pitches, which results in poor contact, and he also has some deception.

On the down side, the scout said Crick tries to be too fine at times and needs to trust his stuff more. “He is really, really hard to hit,” he said.”He tries to make the perfect pitch but he doesn’t need to. His stuff is more than good enough.” Crick should open 2013 in high-A ball but could easily reach double-A by the end of the year and could see the majors by the end of 2014. Read the rest of this entry »

Seeing prospects in person is my passion. In 2012, I was fortunate enough to visit parks in five different leagues — collecting information and video on 200 legitimate prospects or more. The lists released over the next few weeks will highlight the best prospects I’ve seen in person at each position during the 2012 season. The rankings will be adjusted based on projected position at the major league level, not present position. Additionally, I’ll do my best to rank based on notes/video from the park and avoid adjusting for statistics after the fact. Keep this in mind when working through the lists and understand this is not meant to be a complete list of the best prospects at each position across all of Minor League Baseball, but the best of what I’ve seen.

In 2012, the ability to travel more afforded me the opportunity to see more legitimate catching prospects than ever before. And while I haven’t been able to list 10 prospects of note in previous years, finding complete young catchers is as difficult as ever.

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