San Francisco Giants select local Serra High product Hunter Bishop in MLB Draft
NEW YORK — Five years after a player chosen with the 10th overall pick in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft willed the Giants to their third World Series title in five seasons, the franchise was on the clock again at No. 10.
They can only hope outfielder Hunter Bishop of Arizona State produces a similar impact Madison Bumgarner has made during his Giants career.
Under first-year president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and new amateur scouting director Michael Holmes, the Giants used their first round selection on a left-handed hitting center fielder, Bishop, who attended Serra High in San Mateo before playing college ball at Arizona State.
Considered one of the top hitters in college baseball and a future corner outfielder in the pros, Bishop finished with 22 home runs and a team-best 1.239 on-base plus slugging percentage in his junior season at Arizona State.
Bishop, who will turn 21 later this month, attended the same high school and college as the most prolific left-handed hitter in Giants history, Barry Bonds.
Bishop hopes to become the second member of his family to reach the major leagues as his older brother, Braden, is an outfielder for the Seattle Mariners. Together, the brothers founded the 4MOM Foundation after their mother, Suzy, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
The Giants drafted Bumgarner with the 10th overall pick out of South Caldwell High School in Hudson, North Carolina in 2007, one year after they chose right-handed pitcher Tim Lincecum at No. 10 out of the University of Washington.
The Giants will be on the clock again on Monday as they will make their second round selection with the No. 51 overall pick. Rounds three-10 of the draft will take place Tuesday with the final 30 rounds of the draft concluding on Wednesday.
Since 2007, the Giants have only drafted in the top 10 three times, choosing Buster Posey at No. 5 in 2008, current Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler with the No. 6 pick in 2009 and catching prospect Joey Bart with the No. 2 selection last June.
Bart is considered the top overall prospect in the Giants organization, a ranking that wasn’t going to change regardless of who the franchise selected in this year’s draft.
The first draft for a new front office will always be scrutinized closely, but particularly when a franchise is afforded a selection among the first 10 picks.
After being hired to assume his role as the Giants’ top baseball executive in November, Zaidi retained the vast majority of front office personnel. However, one of the first changes he made was installing Holmes as the new amateur scouting director after John Barr served in that role for the previous 11 years.
Zaidi and Holmes worked together during their tenures in the Oakland Athletics front office for a decade before Zaidi left to become the Dodgers general manager in the fall of 2014. Barr is still involved in the Giants’ amateur scouting process and helped lead the Giants’ preparation for this year’s draft after Holmes’ wife, Heather, passed away on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer.
Barr built much of the Giants’ current core through the draft, selecting Posey with his first ever pick and adding others like Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik in subsequent years. Ten of the 11 first round selections the Giants made under Barr between 2008 and 2015 reached the major leagues, as 2015 first round pick Phil Bickford is the only player who did not.