For weeks leading up to the draft, as they prepared for an unfamiliar process of offering undrafted players $20,000 to sign, the Giants talked of staying local. They knew that might be their best bet with some players who might otherwise prefer to return to school.
"You never want to get beat in your backyard," president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said earlier this month. "That's a common refrain in scouting, and it's going to be even more true in this situation, where it's going to be really competitive and you're going to have to look for any place you might have an edge for a player."
It doesn't get any more local than Robert Emery. The former University of San Francisco catcher was the latest undrafted player to sign with the Giants, as first reported by Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group. Emery is the sixth known addition since the draft. Before playing at USF, he went to St. Ignatius College Prep in the Sunset District.
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Emery was born in San Francisco and raised a Giants fan, and he confirmed on Twitter that a Getty Images photo from 2003 is of him at a game:
Emery will now try to follow in the footsteps of Brandon Crawford and Mauricio Dubon, both of whom were photographed at Giants games as they grew up and then ended up wearing the orange and black. He appears to be a pretty solid player, too.
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San Francisco Giants
Emery was on the watch list for the Buster Posey Award given annually to the nation's best catcher (a similar award went to Giants first-rounder Patrick Bailey). In 17 games, he hit .381 with two homers and nine RBI.
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