Despite all the excitement caused by the Giants' blistering hot streak, it's the future that should get fans giddy more than the present.
Joey Bart, Heliot Ramos and Marco Luciano all have shown themselves to be worthy of their top-three ranking in the Giants' system, but the newest kid on the block has arrived and has not disappointed.
Hunter Bishop, who the Giants selected with the No. 10 pick in this year's MLB draft, was promoted to Single-A Salem-Keizer on Tuesday and made his debut for the Volcanoes on Wednesday night.
In his second at-bat for the Volcanoes, Bishop blasted a home run over the right-field wall and onto Interstate 5.
And in his 2nd @SKVolcanoes career PA, @_HunterBishop_ goes yard with a no-doubter to Interstate 5. pic.twitter.com/GH5lcFsNVY— Max Price (@MrMaxPrice) July 18, 2019
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Impressive.
Bishop attended Junipero Serra High School and went to college at Arizona State, the same alma maters as baseball legend Barry Bonds. The comparisons to Bonds started the moment the Giants selected Bishop, and the hope is that one day he will be mashing dingers into McCovey Cove the same way Bonds did.
That admittedly is a ton of pressure for anyone to live up to, but Bishop has high hopes for his own career.
"Obviously, the baseball speaks for itself -- he was the best to ever do it," Bishop told MiLB's Katie Woo of Bonds. "I'm not comparing myself to the best, but I'm hoping one day I can be up there with him."
Bishop, however, hasn't looked nervous early on in his professional career. He's slashed .292/.500/.667 with five extra-base hits, four RBI, two stolen bases and six runs scored in six games between the Arizona Rookie League and Salem-Keizer. Perhaps his calmness partly can be attributed to a conversation he had with Bonds.
"[Barry] was one of my favorite players growing up," Bishop told Woo. "I tried to pick his brain about as much as I possibly could. Just listening to him and his stories, how he's dealt with certain situations, it was really cool.
"Everything stuck out to me, but more than anything was his approach to the game and how his mentality was so calm. I like to say 'slow the game down' and he's the epitome of that."
As for his Volcanoes debut, Bishop also singled and came around to score on a base hit by second-round pick Logan Wyatt in Salem-Keizer's 7-2 win over Boise.
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Bishop wasn't expecting to go yard in his first game, but he'll obviously take it.
"I wasn't expecting to hit a home run," Bishop said with a laugh. "I was expecting to go out there and hit something hard. I'm not surprised, but I'm definitely happy it was a home run."
It's early in all of their professional careers, but Bart, Ramos, Luciano and now Bishop are giving Giants fans a ton of hope for the future of the organization.
