© Orlando Ramirez | 2019 Mar 11
The good news just keeps rolling in for the San Francisco Giants. With the big league club improbably looking like a playoff team, things at minor-league level are also looking up for the first time in a while. The Giants have four prospects on the most recent edition of Baseball America’s Top 100 list released on Friday. Catcher Joey Bart (19), outfielder Heliot Ramos (68), shortstop Marco Luciano (71), and outfielder Hunter Bishop (98) all made the cut. Bart was the only Giants player who made the list last year.
Bart, 22, is having a solid first season in Single A after being selected with the second overall pick in the 2018 Draft. Assumed to be the successor to Buster Posey, Bart has shown impressive power at the plate, posting a slash line of .271/.319/.500 with nine home runs in 42 games so far this season.
Ramos, 19, was the 19th overall pick in 2017 and has looked even better than Bart in San Jose, crushing the ball with a .314/.397/.537 slash line and 12 jacks. Both Bart and Ramos are expected to get big league call-ups at some point in 2020.
At 17 years old and a native of the Dominican Republic, Luciano is the most raw of San Francisco’s prospects, but probably has the most upside. Luciano is putting up Bonds-esque numbers in his first minor-league season in the Arizona Rookie League, with an OPS of 1.130 and seven jacks in 23 games. Numbers like that seem to indicate that Luciano has the tools of one day being one of the best hitting shortstops in major league baseball.
Rounding out the list is Bishop, 21, who the club selected with the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft. Bishop, a graduate of Arizona State, has played just a combined nine games in low A / rookie ball so far, but has an impressive slash line of .269/.500/.615 with two home runs.