⏩ Giants observations: Ramos hits two homers — Bart also goes deep.
GOODYEAR, Ariz. — In conversations about the Giants’ top prospects, the focus almost always turns to whether shortstop Marco Luciano or catcher Joey Bart is No. 1.
For the most part, outfielder Heliot Ramos is No. 3, not considered the very best but certainly good enough to move up and become at least as impactful as the others.
All three played in Sunday’s GiantsReds exhibition at Goodyear Ballpark, and Ramos clearly stood above the rest. He blasted two home runs, a shot off lefty Sean Doolittle and another to the opposite field off another lefty, Reiver Sanmartin.
Bart had a nice day, too, coming off the bench to replace Curt Casali and getting two hits, including a homer, making him 5for8 in the exhibition season. He also stole a base. Luciano, a 19yearold who started 0for7 with six strikeouts, got his first hit, an infield single.
After the Giants’ 94 win over the Reds, Ramos said he wants to prove to the Giants he should be in the majors sooner rather than later: “Of course. Every day. I go out to prove myself.”
Which manager Gabe Kapler appreciates.
“That drive and determination allows him to perform like he did today,” Kapler said. “Demonstrating power to all fields, showing off a great arm, running the bases, speedpower combination. So we’re really glad Ramos is hungry.”
Ramos, known for his pop, arm and overall athletic ability, made a mighty throw from deep left field, a perfect onehopper to the plate, almost gunning down Eugenio Suarez, who scored on a sacrifice fly.
In the middle innings, Ramos moved from left to center — his natural position — and found himself in a scary moment when both he and right fielder Luis Basabe went for a routine fly, Ramos tumbling over Basabe, the ball flipping out of his glove.
Both called for the ball, but Basabe should have deferred to the center fielder. In any event, both returned to their positions, a relief to the Giants’ brass.
On another routine fly, Ramos moved in a few steps, slipped and dropped the ball. He’s 21 and has played 25 games above Class A, so there’s still time to finetune his game before his call to the big leagues.
⏩ Here’s Kapler’s analysis on Luciano to date: “I think this is the right time to remind ourselves we have a young, developing prospect in Marco, who’s experiencing a lot of firsts right now, and part of that is dealing with some failure. I would remind everybody that six, seven, 10, 15, 20 plate appearances and a handful of innings on defense really doesn’t say much relative to his larger body of work. I would suggest we’re very confident we’re going to get improvements.”
⏩ And Kapler on Bart: “Joey had his best day. He had a positive day from every angle. Behind the plate, he controlled the pace. He asked our pitchers to speed things along a little bit. We’re going to keep emphasizing that. Pace and rhythm are really important for our pitchers. So he’s prepared for that. He had a nice game plan with each of the pitchers he caught. I thought he did a nice job on the bases, and that ball was blistered to leftcenter field, so really nice job from every angle for Joey.”
⏩ The GoGo Giants stole four bases, but don’t anticipate they’ll be the 1959 White Sox. It was more of a seewhattheycando game plan, and the response was positive. LaMonte Wade Jr., Jason Vosler, Mauricio Dubón and Bart stole bags.
⏩ Overlooked in all the hubbub over the prospects’ exploits, Steven Duggar smoked an oppositefield homer, a significant moment for the outfielder who opened camp with six strikeouts in eight atbats.
⏩ In his Giants debut, starter Anthony DeSclafani had a sense of comfort when pitching to his former Cincinnati teammates with Casali, a former Cincinnati catcher, working as his batterymate. “Knock it out all at once,” DeSclafani said of the many firsts. The righthander retired six of seven batters and gave up a run when Suarez doubled and advanced on a groundout and sacrifice fly.