Draft Interview

After the draft, I had a chance to talk to the writer at thecollegebaseballblog.com, Brian Foley, and ask him a couple questions regarding the Giants' draft:

Q: What are your thoughts on Buster Posey? Did he go lower than you expected?

A: I know several places around the Internet predicated that Posey would go first overall to the Devil Rays but I never saw Posey as dominate to be the first overall pick. I think Posey is going to be a 12-14 year MLB player with a .275 avg and 15 homers.

Q: Many Giants fans wanted the team to draft a big time power hitter like Justin Smoak or Yonder Alonso. Gordon Beckham was another guy who was on Giants radar as well. Do you think Posey will end up being a better major league hitter than those guys?

A: Justin Smoak is the best player that was drafted. In my opinion, He is the next Mark Textiera with his switch hitting ability and he also hits for power from both sides of the plate. He is a very good defensive first baseman who could possibly win a gold glove at the next level.

Beckham has many doubters on whether he can stay at short at the next level and his swing tends to be long so he will have to shorten that up to become a great MLB player but there is some potential.

Alonso to me looks like a AL DH and needs to continue to become more fit to play the field everyday.

Q: Talk a little bit about Connor Gillaspie. A lot of scouts had him going higher than he did. Was it only the lack of power that made him drop so far?

A: Gillaspie led the Cape Cod League in hitting last summer and picked up the MVP award down there so I don't know why people let his stock drop off so much. He just wasn't that dominate this past season for the Shockers.

Q: The Giants are obviously hoping to fast-rack their top two picks. How soon do you expect to see Gillaspie and Posey playing at AT&T Park?

A: I expect Posey to be on the Giants roster at the beginning of the 2012 season as he is still learning the catching position and has never called his own game. Gillaspie should be called up in the summer of 2011 and be an instant contributor.

Q: Looking at the list of Giants draftees, who jumps out at you besides Posey and Gillaspie as a name that Giants fans will become familiar with over the next couple of years?

A: I think Erik Surkamp will be an excellent addition to the Giants minor league system. He was expected to be the number 1 for the NC State Wolfpack staff this year but faced some injuries and lost his spot. He was the number 1 for the Pack during his sophomore year which led him to be selected to participate on the USA National Team last summer which took part in the Pan-Am Games.

Q: I really liked the Brandon Crawford and Roger Kieshnick picks in the 3rd and 4th rounds. What do you expect to see out of those two?

A: Kieshnick did nothing all year with the Texas Tech Red Raiders and was a disappointment as the Red Raiders failed to make the Big 12 tourney. Crawford has been about potential during his career with UCLA as he only hit .302 this season. He had some problems with woodbats last summer in the Cape Cod League with a .189 average with four homers in 36 games. He was rated as one of the top 30 prospects in the league though.

Q: The Giants definitely focused on offense early in the draft. Who are a couple of pitchers that they picked who intrigue you the most?

A: Jason Jarvis who was kicked off the Arizona State team would have been a Top 3-4 round pick but slipped to the 687th overall pick. I just love the kid's competitiveness and it should translate to him being a cog in the bullpen for the Giants. Scott Barnes out of St. John's had a great season with the Red Storm where he went 7-3 and held opponents to a .216 average.

Q: How do you grade the Giants 2008 draft?

A: Baseball scouting is always tough to grade because the attrition rate is so low in MLB. The Giants had a very good draft grabbing some diamond in the rough but the question will be whether or not they want to dish out the 12 million for Buster.