Baseball America recently unveiled their list of the top ten Giants’ prospects and topping the list is Tim Lincecum. The right hander has already made some waves in spring training and he has an outside shot at making the rotation. He also came up as the sixth best prospect in baseball and the third best pitching prospect in Kevin Goldstein’s Top 100 List. Not too shabby for a pitcher who has all of 32 professional innings to his credit.
Jonathon Sanchez comes in at number two because he fell under the 50 innings pitched mark last year. He fell into the Giants pen last year and even made four starts, posting some solid numbers. Hopefully he’ll be able to do even better as part of the Giants in 2007. Even better, he’s a lefty.
Angel Villalona comes in at number three. He’s only sixteen and he was signed by the Giants out of the Domincan Republic last year and liked him enough to give him a $2.1 million bonus to sign. He’ll probably start in rookie ball this year although he could play Low A.
Number for is shortstop Emmanuel Burriss, who is a couple of years away and could be the heir apparant to Omar Vizquel when he retires. He didn’t hit for a lot of power in his short season last year and it’s expected that he’ll skip Low A and head right to High A in 2007.
Rounding out the top five is right hander Brian Wilson. The hurler spent some time with the Giants and he very well could pitch as a setup man for the Giants in 2007. If Armando Benitez falls out of favor as the closer, Wilson could close by year end.
So a solid crop of talent here. And they’re all at various levels, from major league ready to just starting their minor league careers.
