Prior to the cancelation of spring training due to the coronavirus pandemic, some Giants top prospects were opening eyes in Scottsdale.
For the second straight year, Joey Bart proved once again he has all the skills to be a star in the near future. The Giants' top prospect hit .438 with two homers and a 1.401 OPS in nine games with the big league club. He wasn't the only young prospect impressing the coaching staff, too.
Hunter Bishop, San Francisco's top pick from the 2019 MLB Draft, only had one hit in eight at-bats in major league camp but manager Gabe Kapler saw shades of Bryce Harper in the powerful outfielder.
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SIGN UP HERE "I thought that Hunter Bishop coming over made a really good impression on all of us," Kapler said Monday on KNBR's "Tolbert, Krueger, & Brooks." "And he's a first-round pick, he's got the pedigree, he's got the power. I thought about his swing and it's so violent, very similar to the way Bryce Harper is. Harper's is violent.
"By the way, I'm not comparing Hunter to Bryce Harper," Kapler continued. "What I am saying is there's some similarities in their personality, and their hustle and the way they play the game like their hair's on fire. So, Hunter made a really strong impression."
The Athletic's Keith Law is impressed, too.
Here's what Law was asked in his "Klawchat" on March 26: "Who is the next team on the way to building an elite farm system?"
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Law had one word to answer the question: "Giants."
The Giants landed at No. 10 in Law's preseason farm system rankings at the beginning of March. But he isn't super high on any of San Francisco's top prospects. It's more about the entirety of the system.
"I feel like the whole exceeds the sum of the parts here," Law wrote about the Giants' farm system in March. "Each individual Giants prospect of note has some significant risk of low or no return, but if you add them all up, there’s more than enough upside to start to feel optimistic about the Giants’ long-term future."
[RELATED: These three Giants stood out to Kapler in spring training]
Bart (No. 44) and Bishop (No. 87) are joined by Heliot Ramos (No. 52) and Marco Luciano (No. 58) on Law's top 100. The Giants also signed an exciting 17-year-old shortstop last month, Javier Alexander Francisco Estrella, who already has been compared to young San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr.
While fans will have to wait to see these young players, there are plenty of reasons of optimism in San Francisco right now.