The triple-A Fresno Grizzlies could start the year with Buster Posey behind the plate and Madison Bumgarner on the mound, but the minor-league affiliate that really sets my corazón a-pitter-patter is across the country in Richmond, Virginia.
I admit I'm jumping to conclusions, but that's where a big serving of prospects could end up in April. Assignments haven't been announced, but the Giants could have Roger Kieschnick, Brandon Crawford, Conor Gillaspie, Henry Sosa, Darren Ford and Thomas Neal, who snuck onto a top-100 prospect list or two this winter, all playing for Richmond to start the year. (With Francisco Peguero perhaps joining them later.)
Some of the above prospects are more equal than others on the farm, but the larger point is this group is moving through the system at roughly the same speed. And for the first time in a good while -- before some of you were born -- it's a entire group worth watching, not just one or two guys you pray will someday muster a few key pinch-hits off the big-league bench as a sign that the Giants' farm system isn't entirely a pile of rubble. (Obviously I'm talking about position players.)
The Richmond team, by the by, is called the Flying Squirrels, and thems good eatin' I hear as long as you pick out all the buckshot. (Just keep your fuzzy Nutzy away from me, pal.) Until last year they were known as the Connecticut Defenders, which is significant, because they will no longer have to wait til June to thaw, nor will they be playing in a stadium the size of a Target Greatland. (Not sure which one had better hot dogs.)
Between the High-A juiceball of the California League and the yawning chasm of Connecticut, it was hard to get a neutral read on Giants' hitting prospects all these years. It was like sussing out the long-term relationship prospects of a hot babe with bipolar disorder. (Inappropriate? Sure. But you know what I'm talking about.) Let's hope Richmond gives us a clearer view.
