minor lines, 6/28/10
by steve S on Jun 28, 2010 10:39 PM PDT
in They Might Be Giants
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PrintHighlights from the Giants' farm: Jesus Guzman and Ryan Cavan both homered twice, Thomas Neal and Chris Dominguez both homered and doubled among their four hits, Luke Anders reached base in all six plate appearances, and Felix Romero had 8 K and 2 ER in 7.1 IP.
AAA: Fresno lost to Las Vegas 13-7
Fresno: 3B Matt Downs: 2 for 3, 2 BB
Fresno: DH Jesus Guzman: 2 for 5, 2 HR, SO, GiDP
Las Vegas: C J.P. Arencibia: 2 for 4, HR, 2B, SF, SO, E
Las Vegas: 3B Edwin Encarnacion: 3 for 6, HR GiDP, E
Fresno: SP Eric Hacker: 5.0 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 5 K--2 HR
Las Vegas: RP Merkin Valdez: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB
Guzman had his 8th and 9th HRs this year. After a slow start, he has heated up in June. He entered the game batting .371/.451/.516 in 62 AB in June. Downs reached base four times. The Blue Jays' Arencibia and Encarnacion both homered against the Grizzlies for the second straight day.
With gametime temperature officially at 107, Hacker saw his ERA take some heat too as he allowed 6+ ER for the fourth time in his last eight starts. His ERA is now above 4.50. Valdez was the only one of seven pitchers in the game not to allow an earned run.
AA: Richmond defeated Akron 7-3
Richmond: LF Thomas Neal: 4 for 5, HR, 2B
Richmond: DH Roger Kieschnick: 1 for 4, HR, SF SO
Richmond: C Jackson Williams: 2 for 3, BB
Richmond: SP Felix Romero: 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K--1 HR
Two days after homering three times, Neal homered, doubled and singled twice. The past four weeks he has now hit .348/.414/.584 in 25 games. Kieschnick finally had his first HR of the month and his 4th HR of the year. Williams reached base three times, improving his paltry line to .188/.313/.277 through 191 AB.
Romero had his second straight start with new season highs in both IP and K, this time with 7.1 IP and 8 K. Since moving to the rotation, his strikeout rate is up and his walk rate his down.
A+: San Jose lost to Visalia 5-4
San Jose: RF James Simmons: 1 for 3, HR, 2 SO
San Jose: C Joel Weeks: 1 for 3, HR
San Jose: SP Justin Fitzgerald: 6.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K--1 HR, 2 WP
Batting in the final two spots of the lineup, Simmons and Weeks, neither of whom is a regular in the Giants lineup, had their 3rd and 1st HRs, respectively.
Fitzgerald had a quality start, pitching six full innings for the first time in over a month. This was also his first start without a walk in at least two months. For the season, his K/BB ratio remains below 2.00.
A-: Augusta defeated Kannapolis: 13-9 (10 innings)
(with both teams scoring five runs over the 8th and 9th innings)
Augusta: CF Evan Crawford: 3 for 5, BB, SB
Augusta: 2B Ryan Cavan: 3 for 5, 2 HR, BB, SO
Augusta: 3B Chris Dominguez: 4 for 5, HR, 2B, BB, IBB, SB, E
Augusta: 1B Luke Anders: 5 for 5, BB
Augusta: SP Brian Irving: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K--1 HR, WP
Augusta: RP Kyle Vazquez: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB
Cavan continues to be read hot. After eight hits, including five XBH, in his previous three games, Cavan homered twice more while reaching base four times. After just 1 HR the first two months of the season, he has 6 HRs in June. Dominguez had his 12th HR and 15th double but also his 19th error. Anders' five singles accounted for a quarter of the GreenJackets' twenty hits while he reached base in all six plate appearances. Crawford added three hits while reaching base four times
Irving allowed 4 ER in his third start. Vazquez made his first relief appearance after a dozen starts.
ssA: Salem-Keizer lost to Tri-City 7-2
Salem-Keizer: CF Jose Medina: 3 for 4, BB
Salem-Keizer: SP Taylor Rogers: 4.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K--1 HR
Salem-Keizer: RP Brennan Flick: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 4 K
Medina had three of the Volcanoes' ten hits. He has a six-game hitting streak, over which time has hit 12 for 24 to raise his AVG to .378.
Rogers has now allowed 4+ ER in two of his three starts but was nearly unhittable in the other start. Flick, who signed as an undrafted free agent a year ago, struck out four of the seven batters he faced.
R: Giants lost to Brewers 8-2
Scottsdale: C Joseph Staley: 2 for 4, HR, 2 SO, SB
Scottsdale: SP Kendry Flores: 4.0 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 3 K--1 HB
Maryvale: RP Eric Arnett: 2.0 IP, 6 K
In his fourth pro game, Staley had two of the rookie Giants' four hits, including his first pro HR.
Flores has an ERA close to 12.00 through his first two starts. Arnett, the Brewers' first round pick who had an ERA close to 7.00 in a dozen starts in the Midwest League previously this year and who had allowed 6 ER in his one previous AZL appearance, struck out all six batters he faced today. Overall, four Brewers pitchers combined for 19 K.
DSL: Giants lost to Mets1 5-4
Dominican: C Gabriel Cornier: 2 for 3, 2B, HBP
Dominican: RP Luis Utria: 4.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 K
Cornier (18.0 y.o.) had the Gigantes' only multi-hit line, raising his AVG to .419 through 43 AB. Utria (17.9 y.o.) has provided 4.0 IP in relief in all three of his appearances. This was his first appearance in nearly three weeks.
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Jacks!
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
"Out, out, Fred Lewis!" - JCTillam Gamerspeare
It’s Jax-sonian!
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
something less depressing than the game we just saw!!!
by TimLaser and MattyC on Jun 28, 2010 11:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Is it really selfish and impatient of me to want to see what Neal can do in Fresno right now?
Adopted Nut: Paraparaumu, New Zealand native, Andy Skeels
Or AT&T Park.
Neal before Zod!
Official Sponsor of the 1997 San Francisco Giants
by nostocksjustbonds on Jun 29, 2010 7:58 AM PDT up reply actions
Maybe that's pushing.
But if this keeps up, it’s perhaps not wildly outlandish a little later on.
Professional baseball analyst since 1980.
For those who didn't see:
Ryan Cavan was the SAL Player of the Week. That was before he hit two home runs today. Yikes-ish. Happy B-Day, dude. (Check out the fanshot)
Also, some battery shuffling around the system. Craig Westcott got promoted to Double-A, Tony Pena goes from Double-A to Triple-A, and Craig Clark dips from Double-A to Low-A. That’s in addition to the catcher, as Klimas goes to San Jose to fill in for the injured Lowenstein.
"The knowledge of the game is inversely proportional to the price of the seat." ---Bill Veeck. •Check out the new look of SFDugout.com•
Clark hasn’t pitched in about a month — has he been injured? Also, Brute, do you know what’s become of Wilbur Bucardo, Kelvin Marte, or Jason Jarvis? None are on any of the system’s rosters? Do you know if they’re out with long term injuries or just gone?
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
Kelvin Marte
Marte has been officially listed on the Augusta roster all season. His desigantion has been “7-day DL” (it’s a looooong 7 days), so I assume he has some serious injury that has kept him off the mound. Here’s the link (the pitchers are listed in alphabetical order).
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ros&cid=478
I scoured everywhere and could find no mention of W. Bucardo and Jarvis, so I have to believe that they’ve been released. If they were just injured they should still have shown up on an official roster now that all the farm system is finally active.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
I’m not sure that’s true. There are some folks who have been still in the system (and perhaps officially attached to XST) while on long term rehab in the past. Francisco Liriano and Kelyn Acosta being two that stick out in my mind (in fact, Acosta may still be in the system for all I know. He finally actually made a couple of appearances last year after having not played at all for two seasons, and I don’t remember seeing that he’d been released this winter.).
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
Not all injuries show up on an active roster, and actually, neither do healthy players. Just because a player has a contract doesn’t mean the Giants are obliged to assign him anywhere if they don’t feel he is ready.
I’ll ask around and see what I can find.
"The knowledge of the game is inversely proportional to the price of the seat." ---Bill Veeck. •Check out the new look of SFDugout.com•
by BruteSentiment on Jun 29, 2010 2:13 PM PDT up reply actions
For sure. But, almost always when a prospect has already established himself for at least a full season at ss-A ball, or above, and then gets injured, the Giants will have them officially listed on some team’s roster, but with the 7-day DL label, so they’re not actually taking up a roster spot.
Oh, and I just found out from minorleaguesplits.com that Jarvis did indeed pitch 15 innings in relief at Augusta in April and May of this year, so the fact that he’s not on their roster now also leads me to assume he’s probably been let go. If he was merely demoted to XST, then he should have shown up on the AZL roster by now, at a minimum.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Ah yeah, I forgot Jarvis appeared in Augusta this year. He was placed on the 7 Day DL on May 12, retroactive to May 9, which is the date of his final appearance. Something bad happened that day, certainly.
And you’re wrong Fla, about assigning injured players to some team’s roster, players who are out for the season frequently never appear on a roster. Another example, aside from Acosta is Brian Anderson, who hadn’t been assigned anywhere for over two years when he recently popped up in SJ.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
They haven’t been released.
I’ve been following the transactions all year. You’re welcome to scour the release announcements here: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?cat=7
I’m working on finding out what’s going on.
"The knowledge of the game is inversely proportional to the price of the seat." ---Bill Veeck. •Check out the new look of SFDugout.com•
by BruteSentiment on Jun 29, 2010 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions
Gotten a confirmation on Jarvis' status
Jarvis is still with the organization. He’s in Arizona (not in the AZL Team), but he’s not expected to return this season. I haven’t been able to get a specific reason for his absence or his timetable.
Gonna keep checking on Wilber.
"The knowledge of the game is inversely proportional to the price of the seat." ---Bill Veeck. •Check out the new look of SFDugout.com•
by BruteSentiment on Jun 29, 2010 5:41 PM PDT up reply actions
As long as you have a line
How about asking what’s up with the Cuban defector Roibal. He’s officially on the AZL roster, but will he be pitching this year? If yes, do they see him as a starter or in the pen?
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Also, Mike Loberg showed up in SK Saturday. He hasn’t played yet but I guess he put on quite the display in bp. Too bad he doesn’t do that during games.
Adopted father of Brian Bocock, Brad Boyer, Sharlon Schoop, Shane Jordan, Jeremiah Luster,Trey Webb,David Quinowski, and Jeff Arnold.
"GM Jack Zduriencik is one of the sharper tools in the shed. Elsewhere in that shed, Brian Sabean continues to pound screws into bricks with a garden rake."
How is Pena going to give out batting tips to our top prospects in AA if he’s on the west coast? LOL
Has anybody else noticed that except for Burriss, Bocock and Brandon Crawford (see the trend?) promotions, the Giants are beyond hesitant to promote a positon player at any level. On the other hand, they continue to aggressively promote their pitchers. It’s almost like they don’t know how to handle a position player, but then who can argue with the success they’ve had developing them in the BS era.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
There was the short-lived and ill-advised aggressive McBryde promotion last year, but yeah, generally they’re not big on the aggressive move up. Schierholtz got one many years ago after tearing up the Sally for two months, and Ishikawa the year after that. But most of their hitters do seem to stick at one level for the season and then move up (whether or not they’ve done anything to deserve it) the next year.
On the other hand, you could argue that Belt (who never played last year after signing) was already promoted aggressively when they chose to have him make his professional debut in A+. That was a nice aggressive move and I guess they feel one’s enough for one year. On a side note, Brandon’s being going through a bit of K spate the last week. I think counting the All star Game he’s got an 11/3 K/BB the last 10 days, knocking his beautiful K/BB ratio on the season a bit askew. He used to have a pretty solid 2:1 ratio for awhile, now it’s coming much closer to a 1:1.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
Then there was 2008, when in addition to the Bocock/Burriss craziness, Sandoval and Rohlinger both went from high-A to AA to the majors, while Matt Downs went from A to AA and back again.
I don’t follow other organizations closely enough to be sure, but I don’t think the Giants are particularly conservative with their promotions. “Erratic” is the word I’d chose.
I look on 2008 as an outlier. We were so bad at the major league level, that even BS had to go with a “youth movement” in the 2nd half in an attempt to salvage something from the season. Although, we were jsut as awful in 2007 and BS didn’t do much promoting back then either.
I really think that BS just looks at the farm system, except in very rare cases, as a machine to provide him trading chips to go out and try to get “proven veterans” for the big league squad. Over the years he’s learned that minor league pitchers are the best trading chips, so he concentrates on grooming them to look their best to potential trade partners. As for position players, he’s rarely had one that other teams ask about, so at this point he doesn’t pay much attention to their development.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
I don’t believe Sabean’s the one making those decisions, really, those are Hiatt, Stanley, and Bobby Evans’ calls. But yeah, it’s an organizational philosophy and Sabes is the one in charge of putting the FO team together.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
Erratic is a good one. I’ve always loved the players who get the Giants tour of the system — all 4 levels in one season, but not in ascending order. Those are the classics. I’m keeping a close eye on Timpner and Schoop to see if either of them makes it this year.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
To be fair, Belt has to be thinking that it’s going to take 14 straight HR to get promoted.
by North Side Chicago Expatriate Giants Fan on Jun 29, 2010 10:32 AM PDT up reply actions
And naturally those 3 promotions made little to no sense.
Juan "Doesn't Cheat The Game" Perez, please keep hitting.
Tommy Joseph
.633 OPS this year.
Eeep.
My Son, the best position player on the damn team.
My rule for the 2010 Giants: Everyone with an OPS over .800 gets a pass.
Luke Anders
Does anyone know anything about this guy. I know he was a low draft pick and he isn’t considered a prospect, but he’s 6-6 and seems to be raking the ball since joining the system. Could he develop into a sleeper prospect.
So nice to see Neal back on track again!
Chris Gloor: my lefty is bigger than your lefty
by crazedcrustacean on Jun 29, 2010 10:56 AM PDT reply actions
Tyler Von Schell was much more impressive in his time here in SK by comparison.
Adopted father of Brian Bocock, Brad Boyer, Sharlon Schoop, Shane Jordan, Jeremiah Luster,Trey Webb,David Quinowski, and Jeff Arnold.
"GM Jack Zduriencik is one of the sharper tools in the shed. Elsewhere in that shed, Brian Sabean continues to pound screws into bricks with a garden rake."
Intriguing player
Tall, lanky southern guy, and he looks every bit like the stereotype.
Anders came into the season with a huge hitch in his swing and he was having problems throwing his hands at the ball rather than swinging., and when I was down there, I was told they were going to a lot of work to try and fix it.
Anders has a lot of power, and he’s shown a bit in the SAL. But he does still have a long way to go, and as KCE notes, he’s older. I wouldn’t throw out being a sleeper prospect, but he’s behind.
"The knowledge of the game is inversely proportional to the price of the seat." ---Bill Veeck. •Check out the new look of SFDugout.com•
by BruteSentiment on Jun 29, 2010 2:20 PM PDT up reply actions
Mentioned in the other thread
but it appears Zach Wheeler is going to the futures game:
Jonathan Mayo JonathanMayoB3
#mlbfutures roster changes: #angels C Hank Conger replaces #pirates Tony Sanchez; #giants Zack Wheeler in for #tigers Andy Oliver
The Giants don’t fare well against pitchers.
Unbelievably bad idea
Wheeler hasn’t pitched for 5 weeks, so let’s send him to the Futures Game next week – brilliant!
Now he’ll possibly be on natrional TV and be tempted to try to throw the ball 100 mph and end up blowing out his arm.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Definitely a head scratcher. I’d prefer Neal, Belt, or Crawford. If it has to be a pitcher, I don’t know which American-born pitcher is deserving in the SF system.
Futures Game is for Top 50 (in MLB) prospect types. We just aren’t in a great supply of them right now (in fact, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if we don’t have one next year, depending on what Wheeler does with the rest of his season).
I’d be leery of throwing a kid out there who hasn’t pitched in over a month myself. It does seem like a recipe for disaster. On the other hand, if he manages to throw a single pitch within about 5 feet of the strike zone, he’ll have bested Matt Cain’s appearance at the Futures Game.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
WOOHOO Conger!
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
McFAQ for all you newcomers out there.
NEAL
did this in San Jose last year too—hit mediocre at least partway into June as i remember, then apparently figured some stuff out and slugged seriously the rest of the season. So I think he is indeed REAL
also he has WHEALS
so he gets lot of STEALS
and I am so glad he will soon wear orange and not TEAL
proud, yes I said proud, adoptive papa of "Geno" Eugenio Velez
I believe that the numbers don’t bear that out. I’m too lazy to look, but somebody posted his monthly splits from last season at SJ and he had a bad Apri, but a very hot May, before cooling off in June.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Actually he had a fantastic April and scorching June, with a relatively cool (.800 OPS) May in between. April, June and July all were OPS over 1.000. August/Sept. was his worst stretch of the season.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
I knew I wasn’t remembering the post correctly, but I was too lazy to search for the real numbers. LOL. The basic point was that the whole “Neal has always been a slow starter” meme wasn’t born out by the actual stats.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
In fact, he’s never been a slow starter. He had a torrid April the year he played in the Sally as well, and was off to a very good start in the NWL before tearing up his shoulder.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
It seems like cold streaks and hot streaks to me, more than trends.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
Don’t get me wrong. Regardless of what I wrote above about his actual stats, I’m stongly of the opinion that Neal is Real! I don’t think that he’s even tapped all of his potential yet – he certainly has the speed and smarts to be an above-average base-stealer if he wants to be. He should be in the majors no later than the first part of 2012
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
A lot depends on how much longer Bochy and/or BS are around, what the Giants won-loss record is in the coming months and next year, and on whether Neal is traded to another org.
Taking all those factors into account, I could see a very faint possibility that Neal is brought up after the rosters are expanded in Sept of this year. More realistically though, I could see him in SF as early as next June if he continues on his devlopment path in AA this year.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
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