Thursday, March 8, 2018

Minor League Fantasy Draft-Round Two-Heliot Ramos.

In the second round, I was pretty pleased to be able to select a player that I was considering in round one when I picked outfielder Heliot Ramos, the 2017 San Francisco Giants first-round pick from Puerto Rico.

Ramos has huge upside but is a far riskier pick than my first round outfielder Luis Robert.
I didn't expect to have to choose between Robert and Ramos so I decided to go with the more refined prospect in Robert and hope for the best that Ramos would slide to the second round.

Ramos was a somewhat criticized first rounder of the Giants last season as some teams loved him and others wondered about his bat.
Ramos answered some questions in the Arizona Rookie League last season as he hit .351 with three homers in 37 at-bats for the Giants rookie league entry.
Ramos does have plenty of questions to answer still as he struck out 15 times, but the scouts that like him project him as a potential five-tool player.
Those that don't wonder about a lot of strikeouts, don't like his arm as much as others and remember his older brother Henry Ramos, who was a highly touted player in the Red Sox system, but never seemed to put it together with Boston and now is a AA/AAA level player for the Dodgers at soon to be 26.
Still, when the Giants were making trades for Evan Longoria and Andrew McCutchen (and tried for Giancarlo Stanton), the first name that opposing general managers asked for was reported to be Ramos.
Some of that may have been the less than deep San Francisco system, but it is always a good sign when other teams ask about a prospect frequently, which makes me think that Ramos may have won over some doubters already around the game at this early stage.

Heliot Ramos from the video below does seem to have plus tools and can turn on the ball pretty well at the plate.
For the Giants, who haven't seemed to produce a top power hitter since the Clinton administration, Ramos gives them some hope that in a few years, he could be just that.
Ramos doesn't turn 19 until September, which means he'll be very young for a full season player.
The Giants are likely to challenge him at Low A Augusta in their new ballpark and see what happens, but there is a slim chance that the Giants could take it a little slower, keep him in Arizona for a few months and start him with their Northwest League short-season team-the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.

Heliot Ramos is far from a sure thing and as I mentioned earlier, there is some risk involved, but late in round two, I was ready to gamble on Ramos and take my chances...
Back later with either my third round pick (Unlikely to get to me that soon) or more likely a cleaning of the inbox...

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