MLB Draft 2017: Giants take Seth Corry on Day 2

Hello! Welcome to the second day of the 2017 MLB Draft, when the teams call their picks in and it isn’t even televised. You can watch it here, though:

The picks come at a rapid pace, and the talking heads have just a few seconds to talk about each one. I’ll update this throughout the day as a living post, with whatever video and scouting reports I can find around the internet about the the Giants’ selections.

The Giants haven’t done a lot on the second day in recent years. Just Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford and a couple championships. Maybe they can pick it up a little bit.

(Also, in addition to the Brandons, the Giants have picked up current major leaguers Austin Slater, Josh Osich, Derek Law, and Ty Blach, as well as prospects Heath Quinn, Jalen Miller, Steven Duggar, Sam Coonrod, and Gio Brusa.)

After each pick, I’ll update the post with a little information on the player, so refresh, refresh, refresh! And click on a few ads.

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Round 3 - Seth Corry, LHP (Lone Peak HS, Utah)

I swear that the person announcing this pick for the Giants said “Steph Curry.” It’s on all of our brains, my man, I totally get it.

Corry was ranked 69th on the Baseball America list of top-100 draft prospects, so you know he has a nice arm. He was the 12th-best left-handed pitching prospect, too, and someone who wouldn’t have been a surprise with the second-round pick, so it looks like there’s some value.

While the third-round money isn’t anything to sneeze at ($558,500 is the recommended slot bonus), Corry does have a commitment to Brigham Young University, so it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll sign. You can read more about him on our BYU site, Vanquish the Foe.

Corry throws in the low 90s, and his best pitch is the curveball. Here’s the MLB.com scouting report:

At times, Corry has been lights out, resembling a young Matt Moore type. He has good, but raw stuff. He'll consistently sit in the 90-92 mph range, touching 94 mph on occasion. His best pitch is his curve, thrown 78-79 mph, which he spins well and uses to miss bats. Corry does have good feel for a changeup as well, and it could eventually be an average pitch. His problem is getting to his secondary stuff as poor fastball command hasn't allowed him to get ahead to use the breaking ball to put hitters away consistently.

Wait, so if he develops, does that mean we get Matt Duffy back? Probably.

If you’re a spin-rate geek, good news about that curve. From FanGraphs:

Corry is athletic and a well-built 6-foot-2, 195 and sits 89-92 with some natural cut. He had a nightmare inning at Area Codes, but he throws pretty hard and he broke off a curveball that crested the 3000-rpm mark based on FlightScope’s real-time tracking. I think the arm action is a little stiff and I’m not sure there’s ever going to be a changeup here, but the velocity and curveball feel are intriguing — as is the body, even if it isn’t all that projectable.

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Round 4 - Garrett Cave, RHP (University of Tampa)

The Giants took their first college player in the fourth round, and you’ll never believe it, but it’s someone who did well in the Cape Cod League.

Cave has started and relieved over the years, but the two things that stand out to me are a) he throws really, really hard and b) this video mentions that he’s held that velocity deep into games:

Cave was drafted out of high school by the Yankees in the 17th round of the 2014 Draft but didn’t sign, and he transferred from Florida International to Tampa to become a full-time starter. He was ranked the 147th-best prospect on the Baseball America top-200 list, and MLB.com has this to say about him:

Cave began his college career at Florida International, struggling there for two years, especially as a starter during his sophomore season. He starred in the Cape Cod League as a closer last summer, ahead of his transfer to Division II Tampa, where he has continued to show off tremendous arm strength. The 6-foot-4 right-hander shows a premium fastball that typically touches 97-98 mph, and he's been able to maintain his velocity even as a starter this spring for Tampa. He throws two breaking balls, with his power 86-88 mph slider a better option than his 80-82 mph curveball, though he'll throw the latter more often. He does have a changeup, but it's well behind the other three pitches. Command has always been an issue for Cave, even when he threw well out of the bullpen on the Cape.

Get the 98-mph fastball first, figure out the command later. I can dig that approach on the draft’s second day.

Round 5 - Jason Bahr, RHP (U. Central Florida)

Bahr is a tall, lanky pitcher who was ranked the 156th-best right-hander by Baseball America, but that’s just about all we have right now. He doesn’t have a scouting report on BA or MLB.com, and the only video I can find is something he uploaded to his personal YouTube account:

Interesting.

Round 6 - Bryce Johnson, CF (Sam Houston State)

Johnson is another super-toolsy outfielder for the Giants to send to their super-toolsy outfielder camp that they’ve built underneath a mountain somewhere. One of these suckers has to pay off.

Johnson was the 32nd-ranked outfielder before the draft according to Baseball America (#197 overall), and he hit .350/.453/.433 in 263 at-bats this year, and .338 for his three-year career.

There isn’t a ton of video out there, but here’s one:

MLB.com has this for a scouting report:

A three-year starter at Sam Houston State, Johnson is one of the better athletes and up-the-middle defenders in a college crop light in those areas. He has improved his numbers each season with the Bearkats, taking up switch-hitting as a sophomore in 2016 and reeling off a 46-game on-base streak. Johnson's game centers around his speed, which draws well-above-average grades from some evaluators. He uses it well on the bases, where he ranked seventh in NCAA Division I with 30 steals entering the regional playoffs, and in center field.

He chases down balls from gap to gap and has a knack for throwing out runners with his average arm. Johnson employs more of a contact approach from the left side of the plate and shows more feel for hitting and drives the ball better from his natural right side, albeit with little home run power. He understands that his role is to be a tablesetter and accrues a healthy amount of walks and hit-by-pitches. If he can get more consistent with his swing, he could bat near the top of a pro lineup.

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Round 7 - Logan Harasta, RHP (University of Buffalo)

Friends, what we have here is a large baseball boy. Harasta is 6’7” and 235 pounds, and if this video from 2013 is any indication, it seems as if he’s grown quite a bit in the last four years.

This article from his college says he lives in the low 90s. Sure. I’ll buy it.

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Round 8 - John Gavin, LHP (Cal State Fullerton)

Pitchers! Here be pitchers. If you buy the KATOH model of amateur evaluation, Gavin was one of the better pitchers in the middle rounds, ranking close to Alex Faedo, my white whale right-hander. He was the 37th-ranked left-hander according to Baseball America.

Gavin had a 2.67 ERA with 89 strikeouts and 30 walks in 101 innings for the Titans, and he pitched for a ranked team against some baseball powerhouses like Stanford and USC, in case you weren’t familiar with the strength of the Fullerton program.

It looks like he has a max-effort delivery in this, but I think everything looks max effort at 200 frames per second.

It looks like a normal delivery — with some movement away from right-handers — here:

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Round 9 - Aaron Phillips, RHP (St. Bonaventure University)

Phillips got 191 at-bats this year as a second baseman when he wasn’t pitching, but his .251/.311/.330 line makes me think the Giants are definitely looking at his performance on the mound. He had a 3.04 ERA, with 90 strikeouts and 45 walks in 100 innings. He also had 10 wild pitches, so I’m thinking there are some rough edges to polish.

As of three years ago, he was throwing 83, which would explain the St. Bonaventure part, but he looks much bigger and stronger now (MLB has him at 6’5”):

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Round 10 - Rob Calabrese, C (University of Illinois, Chicago)

My dude has hair, and he would like to show this hair to you:

That’s from this game, in which he made a pitcher point in the air and say, “There it goes! There goes the home run!”

After not playing too much in previous seasons (just 36 at-bats in 2016), Calabrese hit .353/.425/.583 with 8 homers, but he was also playing against non-powerhouses like University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin and Northern Kentucky.

Final tally for Day 2:

One high schooler, seven college players. Six pitchers, one outfielder, one catcher. Three dudes with scouting reports on MLB.com, and five without. Of the college players, all of them were juniors, so they’ll have a little leverage when it comes to signing.

It would appear that the Giants are doin’ their own thing and not adhering to a strict, industry consensus. I’m fine with that.