Auburn’s Beede is Dominating for Giants Farm Team

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Tyler Beede. Photo Credit: Flickr

Auburn's Tyler Beede is blazing his way through the San Francisco Giants minor league system and leaving a trail of opposing hitters in his dust.

Last week, Beede was promoted to the Giants' Double-A team - the Richmond Flying Squirrels. In his debut with Richmond, Beede tossed seven scoreless innings and gave up only two hits. He struck out four and walked three. Beede even got out of a bases loaded one out jam in the first inning. He is now extended his shutout streak to 20 innings.

It's only June, but Beede looks to be on the fast track to the Majors. Just this season alone, Beede skipped Single-A ball and went to directly to play for the San Jose Giants in High-A ball.

In 52 innings for San Jose, Beede struck out 37 batters and held a 2.24 ERA and 1.15 WHIP. In his final start in High-A, Beede struck out 11 batters. The next day he was promoted to Richmond.

"I went into the offseason knowing that entering Spring Training you're really performing and playing for a job. You go in expecting to end up in Double-A or even Triple-A, but in some cases you may end up in the big leagues. I'm just going to go in there ready to prepare for a job on any team. I know I have to go in and stay healthy and be willing to pitch a lot of innings because that's what the expect out of me. I just need to be ready to pitch a full season healthy wherever they decide to send me," Beede told GoLocalWorcester before the season started.

Just one year from being drafted by the Giants as 14th overall pick, Beede is now ranked by MLB.com as the 3rd best prospect in the Giants organization.

Beede was originally selected in 2011 by the Toronto Blue Jays. However, he turned down their offer and went to pitch for Vanderbilt University. After being drafted by the Giants, Beede helped lead Vanderbilt to a College World Series Championship.

Beede turned 22 last month - and he may very well be celebrating his 23rd birthday as a member of the big league Giants. With Tim Hudson likely to retire at the end of the season, Beede could plug into the opening day rotation next year - especially if he continues moving forward like he is. With pitchers Ryan Vogelsong and Tim Lincecum set to become free-agents after this season, that could break the door wide-open for Beede.