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Susan Slusser breaks down Giants’ approach on Kyle Harrison, young outfielders

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© Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Casey Schmitt has been a roaring success in his early debut to the majors.

But what about the other Giants prospects?

Kyle Harrison is the top name on the list for San Francisco, but the 21-year-old lefty hasn’t pitched more than four innings so far in Triple-A Sacramento.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle joined Tolbert and Copes on Wednesday and discussed the Giants’ prospect situation.

After talking to Farhan Zaidi, Slusser said she the Giants may be approaching their young pitchers in a way that leaves the door open for them to make a second-half impact.

“All their starters at Triple-A are kind of going 3, 3 2/3, 4 innings, lower pitch counts. And I would think that you could could say if they need any of those guys in the second half, they won’t have to worry about limits and innings limits.”

Kyle Harrison is among that group, and Slusser singled him out as the top name who could be brought up in the second half. Slusser thinks he could get “stretched out” fairly quickly if the Giants felt like they needed him.

Perhaps the more intriguing group is the young hitters — specifically outfielders — in their ranks.

“They’ve got a really strong group of outfielders,” Slusser said. “Luis Gonzalez comes up last year, has a good couple of months, then gets hurt and has had obviously injuries. I really like Bryce Johnson. The speed is absolutely elite. He’s a switch hitter. [Luis] Matos I think is coming soon. Vaun Brown looked great during the spring. Grant McCray, I mean, they’ve got guys. The one guy of course, we’re not mentioning is Hunter Bishop who’s had injuries, but Farhan says he’s he’s still remains in their plans.”

San Francisco has gotten a shot in the arm from Schmitt, and plenty of other teams around the league are getting the same from their young players.

It might make sense for the Giants to make some promotions with their prospects sooner than later.

Listen to the full interview above. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Catch Tolbert & Copes weekdays from 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.