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 Wednesday, June.12/2013

The Giants currently sit in 3rd place in the NL West – 2 Games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. With the amount of extra baseball games they have played the last three years in the Post Season, it would be okay to inject some fresh youth into the lineup.  Players like Pablo Sandoval, Angel Pagan and Ryan Vogelsong are currently on the Disabled list for awhile.  Santiago Casilla is also on the DL with a cyst on his right knee.

By Jon Schifferle ( Giants Correspondent – visit his own personal website here.)  Follow @jonschifferle

Some organizations move prospects very quickly.  They aren’t afraid to push their players, and love to show them a new challenge.  That is definitely not the way the Giants operate.

While I generally agree with this philosophy, I do feel that moving prospects mid season can benefit the organization.  Some players need to be challenged.  

Not only this, but the sooner they are moved up, the sooner they can contribute at the MLB level.  At this point in the season, there are two guys who definitely are showing that they are ready for the next step.  

Right now, there are two players that are definitely showing they have the tools to play at the next level.  

Martin Agosta was Drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 2nd round of the 2012 MLB June Amateur Draft from St. Mary’s College of California (Moraga, CA)

1. Martin Agosta

Martin Agosta is tearing up the competition in Low-A Augusta right now.  He is currently 7th in ERA, and 2nd in K’s, and 9th in IP. 

He was extremely dominant in his last start.  He went 7 innings, gave up only 2 hits, 2 walk, and 10 K’s.  Not only this, but this is the way that it has been for him, pretty much all year.  

He was also drafted out of college.  While he was viewed as more of a reliever, or somewhat of a project as a SP, he still is getting old, and should be moved up to High-A San Jose.  

It really isn’t too unrealistic to want Agosta in High-A.  He is a pitcher drafted out of college, he has shown that he is much better than most in Low-A, and he is better than many of the people in the San Jose rotation.  

2. Javier Herrera

This was one of my favorite signings of last off-season.  Herrera was once a top prospect in the A’s organization, but his career was derailed by injury for quite a few years.  He is now finally back to baseball, and he looks really good. 

He is currently hitting .315/.391/.516 at AA Richmond, with 9 HR’s and 15 SB’s.  He has definitely shown that he has the ability to help a team in many ways, and could definitely be helpful coming off the bench later in the season for the Giants.  He’s also quite old for AA, at 28 years old.  

If the Giants want Javier Herrera to be a contributor this season, it would be best to send him to AAA to see some more advanced pitching first.  

While I understand that there is more to determining whether or not a guy is ready than just looking at his numbers, it is a huge factor, and both of these guys have shown the numbers.  

Right now is the time that promotions should be considered, and it could really benefit the organization to give these two players a shot at the next level.  

Scutaro is the latest to hit the sick bay for the San Francisco Giants, leaving Tuesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a bruised left hand. Scutaro is the teams best contact hitter – only striking out 16 times in 258 Plate Appearances. That is about 1 time for every 16 times per coming to the plate.  Meanwhile Angel Pagan hasn’t played for the club since May.25/2013.

***The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners***

A big thank-you goes out to Our ‘Giants  Correspondent’ Jon Schifferle for preparing today’s featured article. Jon is a college student that grew up in Northern California and he has been a Giants fan for as long as he can remember.

Two of his greatest memories were going to Game 1 of the 2010 World Series, and Game 2 of the 2012 World Series.  he loves to watch prospects and the draft, and started his own blog called A Giant Perspective here.

Jon loves to write about all aspects of the game.   His dream is to eventually work in baseball in some capacity. Being a West Coast guy, he is able to watch all of the late games out there and have a vast knowledge of the AL and NL West especially.

Feel free to follow Jon on Twitter and talk about the game of baseball  Follow @jonschifferle

Jon is on the left and his brother is on the right.

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