The Giants have a lot of toolsy position players who swing and miss too frequently to be projected as regulars in their system, along with a lot of they-might-be-relievers. They also have enough pitching depth in their system to not pursue right-handed relievers or back-end starters in trades or free agency. They do, however, need one of these recent first-round selections to succeed because the current front staff hasn’t had much luck with such selections thus far, and the Giants haven’t had a true first-round selection since Zack Wheeler in 2009.
The Giants have a lot of toolsy position players who swing and miss too frequently to be projected as regulars in their system, along with a lot of they-might-be-relievers. They also have enough pitching depth in their system to not pursue right-handed relievers or back-end starters in trades or free agency. They do, however, need one of these recent first-round selections to succeed because the current front staff hasn’t had much luck with such selections thus far, and the Giants haven’t had a true first-round selection since Zack Wheeler in 2009.
Everybody wants to turn pitchers who throw like Harrison into Chris Sale, but in my opinion, that would be unjust to both players. Sale became a 70 mph slider when the White Sox gave him a new grip, whereas Harrison might end up depending a lot more on his fastball and changeup and reserving his breaker for left-on-left situations. No matter how he puts it together, he has the appearance of a No. 2 starter with that ace upside if he can tighten up the slurve or take a leap in command.
Luciano started the year on the IL while recovering from a stress fracture in his lower back, finally got rolling after some time in Double A, then ended up in the big leagues and was mostly overmatched. He did hit the ball very hard in the majors, as he’s done everywhere when healthy, and he’s able to keep up with fastballs, but offspeed stuff was an issue even in Double A, and killed him at the next two stops — he went from a 30 percent strikeout rate in Double A to 35 percent in Triple A to 37 percent in the big leagues, which is all an argument that he should have stayed at Double A until he showed better non-fastball recognition. He’s also not a shortstop, and I think moving him to left field might allow him to focus more on developing the bat while also perhaps keeping him healthy. He’s still quite young, just 22 all season with barely 300 professional games on his resume, and he’s got a strong swing that’s geared for 25-30 homers. I never bought him as a shortstop, or really even a second baseman, but I thought the bat would be more advanced than this. He can still be an above-average regular if the Giants give him the time to develop his pitch recognition.
Eldridge was a two-way prospect in high school who was 91-95 mph off the mound but without an average second pitch, so his future always seemed to be in the batter’s box. He’s 6-7 and can show you the huge power that you associate with those taller guys, but unlike most hitters his size, he has a very short swing and there’s reason to hope he’ll be an outlier among his peers when it comes to contact rate. His approach is geared toward putting the ball in play rather than a dead-pull approach to show off his power, so he goes the other way comfortably and hits the ball very hard when he does so. He was bothered by an ankle injury for the latter half of the spring and wasn’t running that well even over the summer when the Giants moved him to right field from his high school position of first base, although I’d reserve judgment on his outfield defense until this season when we see him at full go. There’s definitely risk here, as the history of hitters 6-7 and up is not great because their size typically means they swing and miss too often; the exceptions have done it with huge power, like Aaron Judge and the late Frank Howard. Eldridge’s ceiling is one where the power comes, but he also maintains a higher contact rate than other lowercase-g giants because of the shape of his swing.
