Each year, baseball pundits will relay the same spiel on how the draft is critically important. It’s a time for your organization to draft players that you hope can one day develop into Major League talent. Sitting at the bottom of the National League West with a 26-41 record and nowhere near the type of playoff contenders they have been for the past seven seasons, the 2017 MLB Draft is one that the San Francisco Giants will want to find success with.
While the organization spent its first-round pick on Heliot Ramos out of Puerto Rico, they also stayed close to home when drafting some of its later selections. Let’s take a look at the Giants draft picks with Bay Area ties:
- Round 8 – John Gavin, LHP, Cal State Fullerton
- Gavin was born in San Francisco and is a 2014 graduate of Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California. In his senior year at Saint Francis, he was voted the CCS Pitcher of the Year for Cal-Hi Sports and Prep2Prep. This season, Gavin went 7-3 in 86 innings pitched with a 3.66 ERA and 67 strikeouts.
- Round 13 – Tyler Schimpf, RHP, Texas
- Schimpf is from Sacramento and attended Capital Christian High School. He tossed a 3-hit shutout in the state championship game his senior year. A red-shirt sophomore at Texas, Schimpf didn’t see any action during the 2016 season and finished with a 1.56 ERA in 17.1 innings pitched this season. He joins other Longhorns Brandon Belt and Drew Stubbs in the Giants organization.
- Round 24 – Nico Giarratano, infielder, University of San Francisco
- Giarratano went to Saint Ignatius High School in San Francisco, where he led his team to a Central Coast Section championship in 2012. He stayed in San Francisco to continue his career at USF, where he has the most at-bats out of any player in program history. The 2016 season saw Giarratano win the 2016 WCC Defensive Player of the Year.
- Round 27 – Matt Brown, RHP, San Jose State
- Brown played at Benicia High School, where he helped lead his team to Solano County Athletic League crowns in 2013 and 2014, going 10-1 with a 0.60 ERA his senior year. He went across the Bay to San Jose State to play college ball. Brown earned the Friday night spot in the rotation for the Spartans during the 2017 season, in which he led the team in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts.
- Round 30 – Sean Watkins, CF, Cal State LA
- Before heading off to Loyola Marymount and Cal State LA, Watkins played high school ball at Serra High School in San Mateo, the alma mater for former Giants legend Barry Bonds. In both of his years on the varsity team, Watkins earned All-WCAL honors.