Latest news with #Bumgarner
New York Times
09-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Xavier Neyens and other 2025 MLB Draft names of interest for the Giants
Once upon a time, the Giants could pitch well, but they couldn't hit. Take a moment to imagine such a lopsided team … if you can. These Giants were loaded with young arms, but they didn't have two singles to rub together. While the amateur draft typically isn't the place to find immediate help, there was a prospect who wasn't going to need much time in the minors, with some even describing him as 'major league-ready.' He hit .458 with 38 homers in just 62 games his junior season, and even if he cut that production in half, he'd be the best hitter on the Giants. He was perfect. Advertisement The Giants drafted a high-school pitcher instead. Not even a college pitcher. A teenager who might be ready in five years. It was a slap in the face, a defiantly stupid move from a front office that was incapable of finding hitters. And that's the story of how the Giants passed on Beau Mills (powerful, patient, perfect) for Madison Bumgarner (some high school kid who didn't even throw that hard) in the 2007 MLB Draft. If it's a story I bring up every year or so, that's because it's the perfect example of just how ridiculous it is to look at a draft through the lens of a team's current situation. The players the Giants eventually draft and the players already on the major-league roster have nothing to do with each other. They exist in the same galaxy, but they're not even in the same solar system yet. If the Giants draft 18 pitchers on July 13-14, the response shouldn't be, 'But they already have young pitchers.' The response should be, 'Yeah, they'll probably need pitchers in 2030.' Still, that doesn't mean that there aren't holes in an organization that can be immediately addressed. Every organization has more speed than power, more athleticism than production, more pitching than hitting, et cetera, et cetera, and the draft is a place to fill those gaps. So let's look at the upcoming draft through this lens. The Giants have the No. 13 selection in the upcoming draft, and if you have a concern about the state of the current system, here's how it can be immediately addressed. There are future major leaguers down there, but are there any future stars in the Giants farm system? Top prospect Bryce Eldridge has that kind of ceiling, certainly, along with a few others, like Josuar Gonzalez and Rayner Arias, but they're outliers. The Giants don't need semi-helpful homegrown players to occasionally pop onto the roster; they need All-Stars and cornerstone players, even if it takes riskier, high-variance draft picks to get them. Advertisement If this describes your current concern with the system, it's tools that ye be after. Except the Giants are drafting 13th, which isn't traditionally where the superstars are found. They'll have to get lucky on a toolsy player who falls out of the top 10. And if a player's draft stock is falling, it's probably falling for a reason, whether it's poor performance, bonus demands, college commitment, et cetera. Perhaps you'd be interested in Gavin Fien, a high school shortstop who looked like a top-10 pick before the season started and features a 70-grade arm, loud contact and great bat speed. He had a disappointing senior year, though, and he has a strong commitment to Texas. A team would have to really believe that his 2025 performance was an aberration and completely write it off, then pay him like the first-rounder he was expected to be. Keith Law has Fien as the 12th-best prospect in the draft class, writing, 'There's some risk here given the performance this spring, but that looks like a buy-low opportunity for some team that probably thought in January it would have no shot to draft a player of his talent.' Carson Seymour and Mason Black have made their 2025 debuts in recent weeks, and Trevor McDonald should join them at some point this season. All of them could be a part of a future rotation, following the path that Landen Roupp took. Carson Whisenhunt still has a changeup of the gods, although Triple-A hitters haven't been kind to him over the last month. There aren't a lot of future All-Stars in the system, though. There aren't a lot of prospects who might turn into a staff ace, someone regularly pitching into the seventh inning with his best stuff. If this describes your current concern with the system, it's projectability that ye be after. May we suggest Oklahoma right-hander Kyson Witherspoon, with the caveat that he might not be around for the 13th pick. Baseball America had him going to the Giants in one of their mock drafts, but they have him going in the top 10 in their most recent mock, and Law has him as the ninth-best prospect in the class, though he is available at 13 in Law's latest mock draft. If Witherspoon is there at 13, he would have both projectability and a much higher floor than most college pitchers, as he's already throwing strikes and holding his velocity deep into games. He has five pitches and plus arm strength, and in Law's words, 'There's so much to work with here.' Dingers. You want dingers. We all want dingers. Maybe Eldridge will hit 763 home runs in a Giants uniform, but you can't stop there. More dingers. Advertisement You want beef, then. Which means this might not be the draft for you. There are plenty of well-rounded hitters, but there aren't as many power-first players, at least not for where the Giants are drafting. You might want to take a shot on Xavier Neyens then, a high school third baseman with a commitment to Oregon State. He has strong plate discipline to go with his plus power, but he misses too many pitches in the strike zone. If a team thinks it can fix that, it might think it is getting one of the best power prospects in the class. The loss of Kyle Harrison got most of the attention in the Rafael Devers trade, and rightfully so, but the organization will also miss James Tibbs III. The reports were uniformly positive about his ability to make hard contact, and it wasn't improbable to think he could reach the majors by 2026. He was a rarity in the system: a relatively polished, fast-moving hitter. Got it. You're kinda impatient, and I don't blame you. There's only so much fun you can have waiting around for Vladimir Guerrero VI, metaphorically speaking. If this describes your current concern with the system, friend, do I have the prospect for you. Gavin Kilen is likely to slide over to second base as a professional, but that won't hurt his value much if he hits as much as he's expected to. He has my favorite combination for a hitting prospect — high exit velocities and an ultra-high contact rate. He hits the ball hard and he hits it a lot. Law has him as the seventh-best player in the entire 2025 draft class, but both Law and Baseball America has him passing right by the Giants in their latest mocks. Joe Panik with a lot more power? I'm interested, and if Kilen makes it to the Giants, they should be, too. The Giants could draft Maximus Martin and Griffin Hugus. They could win three championships together, and it would be known as the Maximus-Hugus Era. That's the sort of big swing this organization needs to take. But if we're talking about the coolest names available to the Giants in the first round, Washington state prep left-hander Kruz Schoolcraft is the easy pick. It's the name of a protagonist, and isn't that what you want your prospect to be? A protagonist in a story that's worth telling? As Kruz Schoolcraft entered the ballpark one day, he noticed … I mean, yeah. That's what it's going to come down to. If you're forcing me to choose from all of the available options, I'm in the tank for Kilen. I'm a sucker for high-contact types in the modern game, and a homegrown version would be fun to watch. My second-favorite option is going with Witherspoon's high ceiling as a starter if he falls far enough. Advertisement On the other hand, Kruz Schoolcraft. In five years, some of these players will be important parts of your everyday life, unless you'll never think about any of them ever again. That's the promise of amateur baseball players, all right. Here's a great chance for the Giants to find help for a system that needs it. (Top photo of Neyens: Tracy Proffitt / Four Seam Images via Associated Press)
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Texas bill proposes mandatory cancer screenings for firefighters
The Brief House Bill 198 would require cancer screening for all Texas firefighters. Screenings would begin in the firefighter's fifth year of employment and focus on the colon, prostate, lungs and brain. Some have voiced concerns about how these screenings would be paid for as the bill currently does not provide any state funding. AUSTIN, Texas - A proposed Texas law would require mandatory cancer screenings for firefighters across the state. On Monday, a Texas House subcommittee on County & Regional Government under the Texas House Committee of Intergovernmental Affairs considered House Bill 198. What we know House Bill 198 is also known as the Wade Cannon Act after a Flower Mound firefighter who recently died from cancer. HB 198 would require political subdivisions to provide free cancer screenings for their firefighters. The tests would focus on the colon, prostate, lungs and brain. The free screenings would start in the fifth year of a firefighter's employment and then happen once every three years following the initial screening. What they're saying State Rep. Ben Bumgarner (R-Flower Mound) filed the bill in November, marking his second attempt at passing this legislation. His first attempt two years ago failed to clear the Senate. "It was a timing issue. It was. It was heard later on in the session. And this time around we had a low bill number. And it's going to be one of the first Bills heard over in the Senate from the House side. So, I feel really good about it," said Bumgarner. Among those to testify in support of the legislation was Tim Mackling who worked with Wade Cannon, the namesake of the bill. "Unfortunately, Wade was too young for our health insurance to cover his cancer screenings. At 31, you go in for a colonoscopy screening, your insurance tends to deny it. They screen at 45. "So, Cannon was caught in a weird situation between health insurance and worker's comp," said Mackling. By the numbers Between 2002 and 2019, cancer caused 66% of the line-of-duty deaths of career firefighters, according to data from the International Association of Fire Fighters. Research by the CDC/National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety determined that firefighters have a 9% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer than the general U.S. population and are 14% more likely to die from cancer. The other side The committee was told Monday that testing can cost about $500. State Rep. Sheryl Cole (D-Austin) noted the bill does not provide any state funding. "We're saying, shall, to a municipality and we get, you know, called on the carpet about that quite a bit. And I used to be a city council member," said Cole. Covering the cost on the local level is a concern for Chief Roger Esparza with the El Paso County ESD #2. "I'm a small ESD, West Texas, lowest taxing entities. Right now, there's 26 bills that are going to target the way we do ad valorem taxing. And I think it's one of those things that I think it's a great idea. Phenomenal. I think we need it, but I'm concerned of how I'm going to pay for that," said Chief Esparza. Bumgarner believes the bill can save money and lives. "Preventive care is so much cheaper than what it is for costs of workman's comp occupational therapy. These guys can't come back to work, death benefits in the in the in term that they pass away and just the cost of savings on having to replace that institutional knowledge and the firefighter itself," said Bumgarner. Local perspective Austin pays for an annual wellness physical, which has caught some medical conditions, according to Bob Nicks with the Austin Firefighter's Association. Big picture view Early screening laws have been filed in Louisiana and Connecticut. New Hampshire passed a law last year and allocated $5 million. A bill proposing a federal screening law has also been filed in Congress. The Source Information in this report comes from reporting by FOX 7 Austin chief political reporter Rudy Koski.
