For what has been a desolate farm system in recent years, the Giants finally have an elite prospect.
Catcher Joey Bart is perhaps the Giants best prospect since Buster Posey, and so far he's following in Posey's footsteps.
Bart, the Giants' top pick in the 2018 MLB Draft at No. 2 overall, has been named the best catching prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline of MLB.com. The honor comes less than two weeks after Bart was named the team's No. 1 prospect by Baseball America.
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The recently-turned 22-year-old packs the kind of power the Giants have been badly lacking. Bart combined for 29 home runs between his sophomore and junior years at Georgia Tech and his knack for the long ball followed him to the minor leagues.
After starting off slow with six games in the Arizona Rookie League, Bart was sent to Salem-Keizer (Short-Season Class A) and took the league by storm.
In his first month with the Volcanoes, Bart hit nine home runs through 21 games in July with a 1.126 OPS. He understandably slowed down after a long year of college ball plus 51 games in the minors, but overall, Bart hit .294 with 13 home runs and a .925 OPS between the two levels.
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San Francisco Giants
As the top catching prospect in the game, Bart has also been tapped with the best power by any minor leaguer behind the dish. On the 20/80 scouting scale, he is a 60 by MLB Pipeline's measure.
What's most impressive with Bart's bat is his power to all fields. He routinely launches home runs and extra-base hits to the opposite field and has an easy approach at the plate.
The only downside to Bart's offense so far is his strikeout rate -- 23 percent in the minors and 25 percent his final year in college. But the Giants will easily take that with the home runs he can pull at Oracle Park.
Bart is slated to skip the Augusta GreenJackets and start the 2019 season with Heliot Ramos on the San Jose Giants in Advanced Single-A.
Even if they move him along slower than Posey, it's not inconceivable to see him in San Francisco at some point in 2020.