MLB Draft 2014: Tyler Beede, Aramis Garcia, and first-day analysis

There's no sense pretending I know what to think about Tyler Beede. Giants assistant general manager John Barr has probably logged more time watching Beede videos than I have watching Miller's Crossing. In Beede's last start, he was breathtaking against Xavier in the Nashville regional last week.

Tyler Beede's "slide" may have been halted last night as he sat 93-97, hit 99, punched out 14 for Vandy. Remember Clemens sliding to 19

— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) May 31, 2014

Okay. I can dig that. He's probably Roger Clemens, give or take. Beede will face Stanford in the super regionals, which start Friday, and I should point out that I went to San Jose State because Stanford didn't think I, or my 2.6 GPA, was good enough for them. Go Commodores.

So let's check in with the smart people. What are they saying about the Giants taking Tyler Beede with the #14 pick?

Baseball America:

As @Clint_BA just said, Beede couldn't have landed in a better spot. Dick Tidrow and the #Giants will help him harness that serious upside.

— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) June 6, 2014

If Tyler Beede goes in the first rd as expected, his career BB/9 of 4.58 will be the 3rd highest of any 1st rd COL pitcher in last 6 years

— Clint Longenecker (@Clint_BA) June 4, 2014

(The other two: Alex Meyer and Matt Harvey. He's probably a healthy Matt Harvey.)

From friend of the program Chris Crawford at ESPN:

There's no question that Beede has some of the best stuff of any starter in the class, but there are serious questions about his command, as the right-hander often struggled to throw strikes over the spring. When he's at his best, he reminds many of right-hander Ervin Santana ...

Before the draft, I was geeked on Touki Touissant and Grant Holmes. The former went to the Diamondbacks. The latter went to the Dodgers. That wasn't fun. In their stead, the Giants picked a raw pile of projection, and most of the pundits were perfectly fine with that. Baseball America had him at #15. Keith Law had him at #14. According to Perfect Game, Beede was in the discussion with Carlos Rodon and Jeff Hoffman as the best college arm in the draft.

If you, like me, want to talk yourself into this pick because you're an optimist/fanboy/toadie, just repeat the first-round pitchers taken by the Giants in the last 10 years:

Tim Lincecum
Madison Bumgarner
Tim Alderson
Zack Wheeler
Kyle Crick
Chris Stratton

If you give them a .333 average, they're ahead of the league. Considering that Wheeler and Crick are still highly thought of -- and that Stratton is still an unknown, too -- I'll give them the benefit of the doubt with a pitcher who has stuff.

Second-rounders don't get a lot of instant-reaction analysis, so we're on our own with Aramis Garcia. I like that he's a bat-first catcher with a chance to stick rather than a glove-first catcher with an outside chance of hitting. Baseball America had him at #74 and Crawford had him at 70. When you get that far out of the first round, the difference between #52 and #70 is in the eye of the beholder. It's like arguing about the best Red Hot Chili Peppers song. There's probably, like, three that are really good, four that aren't so bad, and maybe another 10 that aren't so horrible. But don't waste your time ranking down to #70 with any authority. Goodness. Don't do that to yourself.

Here's hoping Garcia is one of the songs we like. Like the one where Anthony Kiedis tonelessly jabbers about nonsense. That was a good one.