San Francisco Giants Former Top Prospect Seeing Uptick in Velocity

The San Francisco Giants are off to a great start. They will have to compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks for the top spot in the NL West all season, but their start is encouraging.

A big part of their success this year has been the pitching staff, especially the relievers.

Their bullpen has the second-lowest ERA, seventh-most saves and the second-lowest walk percentage.

The starters, on the other hand, have had their struggles.

San Francisco' starting pitchers have a combined 4.17 ERA and opponents are hitting .251 off of them.

Logan Webb and Robbie Ray have been consistently good all year. They are giving the team a chance to win each time they take the mound. However, Justin Verlander, Jordan Hicks and Landen Roupp are a little bit of a coin flip.

Verlander is never in danger of losing his job in the rotation. However, Hicks and Roupp could be in danger of losing their starting spots. They each have an ERA over 5.00 and more hits allowed than innings pitched. If their struggles continue, San Francisco could look to replace the two right-handers.

Hayden Birdsong -- who is being used as a reliever -- is the first candidate to be moved into the rotation. However, the other player has been very good in Triple-A.

Kyle Harrison did not make the team out of spring training as he started the season with the Sacramento River Cats. He has made six starts in Triple-A, thrown 26.0 innings, allowed 26 hits and struck out 38 batters. The left-hander owns a 3.46 ERA through those six games.

The best part of his year up to this point has been his velocity.

In the big leagues last year, Harrison averaged just 92.5 mph with his four-seam fastball. In his latest start with Sacramento, the 23-year-old threw plenty of pitches at 96 and 97 mph. In fact, he topped out at 97.8 mph.

The uptick in velocity is a great sign for the Giants. He was dealing with some shoulder issues this offseason, so being able to throw that hard means he has only gotten stronger.

Although his beginning to the Triple-A season is encouraging, the Giants are content with what they have in the Major Leagues right now.

"We've played pretty well, we're trying to create an environment of some stability," manager Bob Melvin said, per Taylor Wirth of NBC Sports Bay Area.

Stability on a big league roster is always important. The constant moving of players up and down can cause some uncertainty amongst the players.

However, with the way Harrison is pitching right now, it is going to be hard to keep him out of Oracle Park much longer.

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