Arizona State Baseball's Pipeline to the San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants have a long history of taking Arizona State baseball players. This relationship goes all the way back even before the Barry Bonds days (Bonds was drafted by the Pirates and later signed as a free agent with the Giants). It actually dates back to 1965 when the San Francisco Giants selected outfielder Glen Smith with their second round pick. Now, back to back years, 2019 and 2020, the Bay Area team has selected a Sun Devil in the draft. Last year they took outfielder Hunter Bishop in the first round and utility Carter Aldrete in the 15th round and this year they selected a pitcher in the fourth round, RJ Dabovich. The Giants were able to scout the righty a lot while they were out checking out Bishop and Aldrete last year.
Dabovich was a closer at Arizona State, but the Giants think they can move him to a starting role. As the Sun Devils closer this past season, he had 17 strikeouts in 11.2 innings pitched, four saves in nine appearances with a 0.77 ERA. The right handed flame thrower has a fastball that touches 97 mph.
According to Michael Holmes the Giants amateur scouting director he told NBC Sports, “ He’s got the ability to run his fastball up into the upper 90s and he complements it with a really good secondary mix ... This guy really gets after it and he's a guy that we've been drawn to not just this year but in years past.”
Dabovich made his way to ASU through the JUCO route transferring from from Central Arizona. He was drafted in the 18th round in the 2018 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals, but he opted to go to ASU instead and play for Tracy Smith and Company. Now, two years later, he was drafted again and this time 14 rounds higher and heading off to Northern California to be reunited with his former college teammates.