At the least, the Giants have found a future spokesman for taking public transit to AT&T Park. If catcher Joey Bart reaches his potential, though, the Giants may have just inked the heir apparent to Buster Posey.
The Giants, Sunday, announced the signing of 32 recent draftees, including their first-round selection, Bart. While the Giants signed him for under the recommended slot value as the No. 2 overall pick, they still gave Bart a signing bonus of $7,025,000, the largest upfront bonus for a position player in Major League Baseball history, as per a report by MLB.com writer Jim Callis.
When Posey was drafted in 2008 with the No. 5 overall pick, his $6.2 million signing bonus was, at the time, the highest signing bonus in draft history.
The recommended slot bonus for the No. 2 overall pick this year was $7,494,600.
A 21-year-old catcher out of Georgia Tech, Bart was named the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year and led the conference in hitting with a .359 average. He topped the Yellow Jackets with a .632 slugging percentage, 79 hits, 16 home runs, 55 runs scored and a .471 on-base percentage.
Bart is one of the country’s best defensive catchers, with a .992 fielding percentage on the season while throwing out 12 of 33 would-be base stealers.
The Giants Sunday also announced the signings of right-handed pitchers Sean Hjelle, Jake Wong, Blake Rivera, Keaton Winn, Solomon Bates, Ben Madison, Alex DuBord, Matt Frisbee, Trenton Toplikar, Clay Helvey, Ben Strahm, Preston White, Travis Perry, Ryan Walker, Chris Roberts and Trevor Horn; left-handed pitcher Bryce Tucker; shortstops Edison Mora, Jett Manning and Marcos Campos; third basemen David Villar, Sean Roby and Abidel Layer; catchers Angel Guzman, Fabian Pena and Braden Frankenfort; and outfielders Patrick Hilson, George Bell, Randy Norris, Kwan Adkins and Austin Edgette.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.