When the San Francisco Giants picked pitchers with their first six selections in the 2022 MLB Draft, few figured the guy chosen 196th overall would show more promise in 2024 than those taken ahead of him.
Hayden Birdsong, recently promoted to Triple-A Sacramento, is pitching his way to the head of the class at age 22. The 6-4, 215-pound right-hander struck out 81 over 48 1/3 innings at Double-A Richmond, going 4-2 with a 2.05 earned run average.
Not bad for a kid who was cut by his own father in American Legion ball.
Birdsong was a scrawny 5-foot-9 then at age 14 in the small town of Mattoon, IL. He didn’t have anywhere near the mid-90s fastball, crackling curve and superb slider he throws these days. He didn’t command those pitches when he went to Eastern Illinois, either. In 34 games for the Panthers – 27 of them in relief — he was a less-than-mediocre 5-9 with a 5.77 ERA. The only thing that stood out were his 95 strikeouts in 73 1/3 innings.
Mattoon resident Bert Bradley, a retired Giants minor league pitching coordinator, saw something others didn’t. He gave Birdsong instruction through the years and recommended the Giants take a chance on him.
“I’ve known Bert forever,” Birdsong told Andrew Baggerly of The Athletic. “He put me in the loop with the Giants and their area scout Tom Shafer saw me at a showcase in Indianapolis. Then I threw well in a summer (wooden bat) league.”
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Birdsong got $187,500 to sign. In 47 games as a pro, he has a whopping 240 strikeouts in 164 2/3 innings. He’s walked 69 and allowed only 127 hits.
Five Pitchers Picked Sooner
Pitchers picked ahead of Birdsong got much more money to sign. All are now age 23. None have excelled, though they are still considered prospects.
MLB Pipeline lists Birdsong as the Giants’ No. 6 prospect overall. From the 2022 Draft, top pick Reggie Crawford is listed at No. 8 and second pick Carson Whisenhunt at No. 2. William Kempner, Spencer Miles and Liam Simon, chosen 3-4-5, are not rated.
Crawford got $2,297,500 to sign out of Connecticut, where he pitched only eight innings and had Tommy John surgery.
He was a highly rated slugging first baseman and batted .308 with 14 homers and 78 RBI in 64 games for the Huskies.
The 6-4 lefty brings the heat, touching 100 mph with his fastball, an 88-mph slider and a sinking low-80s changeup. He’s got 62 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings as a pro. He’s started only once in 14 games this year and could be on the way to developing into an Aroldis Chapman type closer.
Whisenhunt got $1,866,220 to sign out of East Carolina, where he was suspended for all of 2022 by the NCAA for failing a test for performance-enhancing drugs. The lefty has an outstanding changeup, decent mid-90s fastball with movement and an ordinary curve.
He’s regarded as a mid-rotation prospect and has 172 strikeouts in 123 innings in the minors.
Kempner has not pitched this year as he recovers from a broken right foot. The side-arming right-hander projects as a reliever throwing a multi-pitch mix. He needs better command of all of them. He has walked 36 in 71 2/3 innings in 43 games in the minors, though he has fanned 89.
Miles has worked only 11 1/3 innings the past two years as he battles a back injury. He got $347,500 to sign out of Missouri, where he gave up 181 hits in 145 innings with a 6.27 ERA. Scouts like his mid-90s fastball and big, overhand curve. He didn’t command either in college and must get healthy enough to even begin to work on improving.
Simon got $317,500 out of Notre Dame. He’s just recovered from Tommy John Surgery. Before that, he displayed even better stuff than Miles but also poor command.
Giant-Sized Pitching
In 2022, San Francisco picked 10 pitchers in the first 12 rounds, one year after taking nine in the first nine rounds. The reasoning is clear. When the Giants won three World Series in five years (2010-14), a steady rotation was key.
Madison Bumgarner led the way. In 14 post-season starts over that span, the lefty went 7-3 with a 2.24 ERA, 77 strikeouts, 15 walks, 63 hits allowed in 84 1/3 innings.
Right-hander Matt Cain went 4-2 with a 2.10 ERA in eight post-season starts in 2010 and 2012. He wasn’t used in the 2014 playoff run.
Right-hander Tim Lincecum had won Cy Young Awards in 2008 and 2009. In the three World Championship seasons, he went 5-2 with a 2.40 ERA in 13 games including six starts. He began with a masterful two-hit shutout of the Atlanta Braves in the 2010 NL Division Series, fanning 14 and walking one.
Lefty Barry Zito, the 2002 AL Cy Young winner with a 23-5 record for the Oakland Athletics, went 2-0 in the 2012 post-season for the Giants.
In 2014, right-hander Tim Hudson, a 20-game winner for Oakland in 2000, got the Giants going in the playoffs. At age 38, he held the Washington Nationals to one run without a walk, fanning eight over 7 1/3 innings. He wasn’t around when Brandon Belt belted a homer to snap a 1-1 tie in the 18th inning for a 2-1 victory.
That gave the win to Yusmeiro Petit, who yielded only one hit over six innings of relief. Petit went 3-0 in the post-season that year. The right-hander had been a key spot-starter and long reliever during the regular season, fanning 133 and walking only 22 in 117 innings.
