Nov. 17, 2010GIANTS PAGEGIANTS VIDEO
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Giants have purchased the contracts of infielder Ehire Adrianza and outfielder Thomas Neal and have added both players to the club's 40-man roster, club Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean announced today.
With today's transactions, San Francisco now has 36 players on its 40-man roster.
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Adrianza, 21, spent the entire 2010 season with the San Jose Giants, helping the club win their second-straight California League Championship. Voted as the best defensive shortstop in the California League in 2010, Adrianza batted .256 (114-for-445) with 22 doubles, five triples, three home runs and 35 RBI in 124 games for the Giants. He went 33-for-48 in stolen base attempts with his 33 stolen bags ranking as fourth-most in the California League. A non-roster invitee to the Giants Major League camp this past spring, the Venezuela native hit .250 (5-for-20) with one home run and two RBI in eight games of San Jose's run to the Championship.
Originally signed by the Giants as a non-drafted free agent in 2006, Adrianza was tabbed as the eighth-best prospect by Baseball America entering the 2010 campaign. In five professional seasons in the Giants minor league system, Adrianza has batted .246 (312-for-1,270) with 61 doubles, six home runs and 124 RBI in 369 games.
Neal, a 23-year-old outfielder from Inglewood, Calif., spent his first season at the double-A level playing for Richmond in 2010. He batted .291 (153-for-525) with 40 doubles, one triple, 12 home runs and 69 RBI in 136 games for the Flying Squirrels. The 2010 mid-season All-Star finished third in the Eastern League in doubles and fifth in hits.
Neal, who also attended big league camp for the first time last spring, had one of the greatest individual seasons in San Jose Giants history in 2009, ranking third in club history in doubles (41), fourth in batting average (.337) and tied for fifth in home runs (22). In addition to winning San Jose's team MVP award in '09, he was selected to the Topps Class A All-Star team and was tabbed by California League managers, in a survey by Baseball America, as "top hitting prospect" and as having "best outfield arm."
Selected by the Giants in the 37th round of the 2005 draft, Neal owns a .296 (487-for-1,643) batting average with 54 home runs and 264 RBI in 442 minor league games over five seasons.