After a week in Tacoma, I’m back to the solo Live Looks articles. I’ve had a couple bad breaks with prospect promotions and guys getting called up just before their teams come to Sugar Land (ex: Jordan Lawlar). This time around though, I hit the jackpot. The Giants called up their top prospect (and PLive No. 27 overall prospect) Bryce Eldridge for this series and he sure did not disappoint. Sacramento is a fun team beyond Eldridge too, with the Giants having excellent starting pitching depth in the upper minors with Carson Whisenhunt and Mason Black featured in this look. As far as Triple-A teams go, the River Cats are one of the youngest squads you’ll see and were a lot of fun to cover for the week.

Here are some of the standouts:  

Bryce Eldridge, 1B SF (Triple-A)

Eldridge has gotten off to a slow start since his promotion to Triple-A, but there’s little doubt in my mind that he’s going to be in the middle of the Giants order for years to come. Eldridge is massive, standing at 6’7” 240 pounds and looks every bit of it. The frame reminds me of Brandon Belt only for me to realize that Eldridge is actually four inches taller. He’s still a skinny 20-year-old though and there’s still some room for him to fill out and add some muscle that would unlock even more power. 

If I were to create a tall LH swing from scratch, I would just copy and paste Eldridge’s and change nothing about it. It’s so rhythmic and smooth, something that you don’t often say about a guy his size. He just has a quick toe tap and turns his hips, which creates all the power he needs. This was best shown when Eldridge came up to the plate in the seventh inning, with the bases loaded and 2 outs. He got a hanging breaking ball and launched it for a go-ahead grand slam, with the ball just sounding different off his bat than most of the Triple-A guys I watch. Because his swing is so simple and pretty short, I don’t think he will have the same issues that tall prospects usually have catching up to velocity.

He does an excellent job creating leverage with his lower half and his swing has plenty of loft for him to lift the ball consistently. Eldridge’s power is enormous and even though he’ll play in San Francisco, with the type of power he has it won’t matter the home ballpark. He can pull and lift with the best of them, but also has quick enough hands to hit line drives to the opposite field and hit it where it’s pitched. 

Eldridge’s value comes from the offensive side, so the defense and speed doesn’t matter a whole lot, but he can hold his own defensively. He’s probably going to be a 45 glove though and his hands have to improve. They’re still a little stiff and he’s a little too upright for my liking. As a fellow tall man myself, that comes with the territory of being 6’7”. Eldridge is going to mash and has the type of power to be a 40 home run guy and hit .250 with a 25% K rate. Once the 20-year-old fills out his frame and adds some more muscle, watch out. This is a star in the making and worth all the hype he’s been getting. Bryce Eldridge and Rafael Devers in the middle of that order is going to be quite the duo in San Francisco for the next decade. 

Carson Whisenhunt, LHP SF (Triple-A)

Carson Whisenhunt had a solid outing when I saw him in Sugar Land, but I think he profiles better as a reliever. It’s not a command or control problem that makes me say that, but outside of his 70 grade changeup, I don’t love the rest of his arsenal and I don’t think it’s going to play multiple times through big league lineups. 

The lefty is a pretty basic three-pitch guy: sinker, changeup, and slider. The sinker was 92-94 early in his outing, but settled in more around 90-92 late. Whisenhunt had good command of it and was able to locate and keep it down in the zone, but it didn’t have a ton of bite to it. He got in trouble when the sinker flattened out as the start went on and played right into the barrel. There’s no doubt though, Whisenhunt’s changeup is elite. I knew it was good, but seeing it live blew me away. First there’s a significant velocity difference between the sinker and changeup, with the changeup being roughly 12-14 MPH off the sinker. It plays extremely well with the sinker because it comes out of the exact same tunnel with the same sinking appearance, except it drops off the table and seems to take forever to reach the plate.

His changeup has excellent fade and above average depth to it and Whisenhunt commands it extremely well. The 24-year-old was comfortable enough to throw it in any count and it consistently generated whiffs. Whisenhunt’s changeup is a comfortable double plus offering and I’d put it up there with the best changeups in the entire big leagues. The slider though I did not like nearly as much. It mostly sat 82-84, but there’s not enough horizontal movement to generate the whiffs he’ll need to. The whiffs he did get with the slider were mostly bad chases that are unlikely to occur often at the big league level.

Whisenhunt’s slider was too vertical and the command of it was below average as well. Everyone’s slider is different, but he clearly throws his slider to be a swing and miss and chase pitch and it doesn’t have the sweep or command he needs to have in order to make it a real weapon capable of getting big league hitters out. 

The changeup is awesome, but can a guy with a 50 fastball, 70 changeup, and 45 slider be a consistent big league starter? Maybe if the pitcher has excellent command it can work and Whisenhunt’s strike throwing abilities have improved a lot, but I wouldn’t put him in that category.

Now as a reliever I’d be much more intrigued, where he can utilize his changeup and consistently be in the mid 90s with his sinker and use his slider more as a get ahead in the count pitch. I understand the buzz for Whisenhunt and I do think there’s high-leverage reliever upside, but I’m not a believer that he’s a starter long-term in the big leagues. However, given how much starting pitching depth the Giants have even after trading Kyle Harrison, I think this is where he fits and would be best utilized.  

Mason Black, RHP SF (Triple-A)