Giants don’t have any prospects in FanGraphs’ top-100 list

FanGraphs came out with their mid-to-late-season revised prospect lists recently, and you’re right to flinch. You can find the Giants’ updated top-10 list here, and it goes like this:

1. Christian Arroyo
2. Tyler Beede
3. Bryan Reynolds
4. Heliot Ramos
5. Chris Shaw
6. Andrew Suarez
7. Sandro Fabian
8. Steven Duggar
9. C.J. Hinojosa
10. Joan Gregorio

There was a question in the comments about Austin Slater’s eligibility (he’ll still be a rookie next season), but I’d guess he could go anywhere from five to 10, if he were considered. As I have hopes for Shaw becoming a starter at some point, perhaps even next year, this list doesn’t seem that bad to me. If the guy in the fifth spot has starter potential (and the guy in the sixth spot might be a rotation regular one day soon), that’s decent enough depth, right? Not outstanding depth. But there’s something there. Maybe.

Except this will put it into perspective: FanGraphs also released their updated top-100 list. Here are the Giants who made it:

• .

Alas, the Giants have completely unsullied the midseason list of baseball’s best prospects. And I’m writing about this not to depress you, but to point out another way that the Giants’ season has been unfathomably dismal. The organization might have top-100 caliber prospects, but ...

• Tyler Beede was erratic, and then he broke
• Christian Arroyo broke
• No one else really came close to seizing a top-100 spot

Beede and Arroyo were both listed in the “Others Considered” section, so it’s not like the Giants were completely shut out. Just almost entirely shut out.

This has been one of my biggest complaints about a 2017 season filled with complaints. So the Giants stink, whatever, great, it happens. I’ll deal with the stink, and I’ll drag all of you down with me. Except behind that reality, I would like there to be something to look forward to. A toolsy teenager hitting .330 in A-ball, even though he’s young for his league. A major-league callup absolutely thriving with the big club and cementing a spot for next year.

Instead, there are injuries. Or performances that are okay, considering. Interesting prospects who remain interesting, which is almost an epithet you slap on a player when his performance doesn’t demand anything better. There are role players if you squint, but there aren’t a lot of future stars, it appears. The second a hitter looked like he knew what he was doing in the majors, his groin sproinged.

And, perhaps my favorite part: The pitcher and the hitter who are having the best minor league seasons of all aren’t likely to show up in the major leagues because of red tape. So we don’t even get to see them and get excited.

Add it up, and you have a recipe for a season that’s the pits all around, and it’s why the Giants don’t have a top-100 prospect. For now.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t dream on Shaw and his power. He’s the only player in the entire organization with 20 home runs, after all. This doesn’t mean you can’t get waaaaay too excited about Heliot Ramos, which I already have. It just means that as the 2017 Giants go, so goes the 2017 Giants farm system. It’s been a rough year all around, right down to the collected standings of the minor league affiliates.

And it’s trickled down to a FanGraphs top-100 list. It’s understandable. We’ll just have to root for Heliot twice as hard next year.