. . . the Giants had a pretty good year.
So I'm taking the 3-2 win by the "senior circuit" to be a good omen for the rest of the season. The NL used nine pitchers for one inning apiece. Alex Cobb threw a scoreless 4th and Camilo Doval a scoreless 7th. Doval was awarded the win as the go-ahead homer was hit in the top of the 8th. Way to go, Giants!
MLB decided that the June draft should be moved to July and should happen during the All-Star Break. The Giants had the 16th pick and took another two-way player, this time a high-schooler named Bryce Eldrige. The second pick (#49) was another high schooler, lefty-hitting shortstop Walker Martin. After that it was Kent State southpaw Joe Whitman (#69) followed by two more college shortstops. Cole Foster (#85) is a switch-hitter from Auburn and Maui Ahuna (#117) is a lefty-hitter from Tennessee. Ahuna is from Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai'i. You might remember that I spent some time watching baseball in Hilo and I have a real fondness for the place. There are a lot of Giants fans in the Aloha State. In Hilo you can follow the orange-and-black on KPUA 670 AM.
Here's a list of all the Giants picks (21 total). We are seeing players (Patrick Bailey and Casey Schmitt) from the 2020 draft class in the majors right now so we could to see some of these new Giants by 2026.
The games resume Friday--the Giants will be in Pittsburgh (4:05 PT).
--M.C.
p.s. Hilo High School's most famous graduate has to be Jennifer Doudna who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize (with Emmanuelle Charpentier) in Chemistry for their work in genetics (CRISPR).
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Melissa Lockard's take on Ahuna (from The Athletic):
Ahuna was one of the most well-known names in the transfer portal last year, as he made the jump from Kansas to Tennessee after hitting .396/.479/.634 for the Jayhawks in 2022. His Tennessee tenure began under some controversy when the NCAA initially ruled he was ineligible to play for the Vols due to a recruiting violation. He served a three-game suspension and ultimately played 53 games for UT in 2023. Ahuna didn’t match his 2022 numbers with the Vols, but still had a strong season, batting .312/.425/.537 with eight homers.
The biggest knock on Ahuna coming into the draft was his contact rate, which plummeted in 2023 when he struck out 77 times in 247 plate appearances. Holmes said the Giants noticed a change in Ahuna’s approach at the plate this season. “I think at Tennessee maybe he was trying to do a few things that maybe led to a little bit more swing and miss and the stats reflected that. I think we feel really confident that we can get him in a good place at the plate,” Holmes said. Ultimately, though, it was Ahuna’s glove that drew the Giants’ interest, as Holmes stated he “easily could have been considered the best defensive shortstop in the entire draft.”
“We think he’s a quote-unquote impactful defender and we think we can help him out on the hitting side,” Holmes said. “He’s already a really good hitter. Get his approach back to maybe what it was the year before, control the zone a little bit more and we think we’ve got an everyday player.”
Fun fact: A native of Hilo, Maui Ahuna’s legal name is Walter Clyde Ahuna III.
Apparently Maui's dad Walter played baseball at UH-Hilo.
From the MLB game story:
One bit of symmetry? The winning pitcher in 2012 was the Giants’ Matt Cain, and the winning pitcher on Tuesday was the Giants’ Camilo Doval, who tossed a scoreless seventh inning. Those are the only two Giants to be the winning pitcher in the All-Star Game since Vida Blue did it in 1981.
https://www.mlb.com/giants/news/2023-all-star-game-facts-and-figures
Giants picked up OF Jack Larsen. He's a lefty hitter, plays all three OF spots, is from UC San Diego was was in the Mariners organization. He's 28 and has 1 PA of MLB time.
So the last 2 N.L. allstar wins were giants pitchers.
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