San Francisco Giants Take Joey Bart with Second Pick
The MLB amateur draft is finally here, and the San Francisco Giants used the number two overall pick to take catcher Joey Bart.
There aren’t that many perks to a dismal season like the one the San Francisco Giants suffered through in 2017. One of them, however, is that they got to pick second overall in this year’s amateur draft. Picking this high makes the draft a bit bigger deal than normal.
With their second pick, the Giants took Joey Bart, a catcher from Georgia Tech. There were some rumblings right before the draft that the Tigers were wavering on their attachment to Auburn righty Casey Mize and that Bart would be their selection instead, but Detroit stuck to conventional wisdom, picking Mize so Bart could fall to the Giants.
The 6’3″, 225-pound catcher had a great season in 2018, hitting .359/.471/.632 for the Yellow Jackets. He added 12 doubles and 16 home runs while driving in 38 runs, and more than doubled his walk total from the previous season (16 walks in 2017, 41 in 2018). He was named a Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball first-team All-American, and was named the ACC’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
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Over his three-year career, Bart hit .321/.407/.544 with 35 doubles, 30 home runs, and 112 RBI.
From an MLB.com pre-draft scouting report, Daniel Kramer talks about Bart’s offense:
"Bart’s bat speed, strength and leverage give him power to all fields from the right side of the plate. He has the swing and the feel to hit for a solid average, and he has made huge strides with his plate discipline this spring. He has enough natural pop that he doesn’t need to sell out for home runs, and he’s not falling into that trap as much as he did in the past."
On his defense:
"There were questions about Bart’s long-term catching ability when he arrived at Georgia Tech, but he has cleaned up his receiving enough that there no longer are doubts that he’ll stay behind the plate. His strong arm never has been in question and he threw out 40 percent of basestealers in his first two college seasons. Though he’s a well-below-average runner, he’s relatively athletic for a catcher."
Though it’s way too early to say he will certainly live up to the hype, Bart will certainly be thought of as Buster Posey’s heir apparent as the Giants’ backstop. The Giants made Posey the fifth overall pick in 2008, and he has racked up accolade after accolade since his big league debut late in 2009. He’s won Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player, won Silver Sluggers and a Gold Glove, and was an integral part of three World Series-winning teams. Posey is one of the most decorated players in the game, and in Giants’ history.
Georgia Tech has a strong history of first-round catchers, with Matt Wieters (whom Bart worked with this past offseason) also going fifth overall back in 2007 and Jason Varitek going 21st in 1993. If Bart can have a big league career like either of those guys, he will certainly admirably fill the large shoes left by Posey.
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Of course, the Giants hadn’t picked second overall since 1985, when they took Mississippi State’s Will Clark, who went on to enjoy a fantastic big league career. He played 15 seasons in the MLB, eight with the Giants, and was a six-time All-Star (five times in San Francisco). He hit .299 with 249 doubles and 176 home runs while driving in 709 runs. The Giants will hope to get that kind of longevity and production out of this year’s pick.