minor lines, 7/2/10
by steve S on Jul 3, 2010 11:29 AM PDT
in They Might Be Giants
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PrintFriday highlights from the Giants' farm: both Matt Downs and Jesus Guzman homered while reaching base three times. Also notable, Craig Westcott allowed 2 ER in 6.0 IP in his upper minors debut.
AAA: Fresno lost to Sacramento 4-3 (11 innings)
Fresno: 3B Matt Downs: 2 for 4, HR, 2B, BB
Fresno: DH Jesus Guzman: 2 for 4, HR, BB, SO, GiDP, SB
Sacramento: DH Matt Watson: 2 for 5, HR, SO
Fresno: SP Joe Martinez: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K--1 HR, 1 PO
Fresno: RP Alex Hinshaw: 1.0 IP, 2 K
Fresno: RP Tony Pena Jr.: 1.0+ IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Fresno: RP Geno Espineli: 3.0 IP, 1 H, 3 K
Downs and Guzman both homered while reaching base three times. The HRs were the 6th for Downs and the 10th for Guzman. Both hitters have AVGs of .300+. Watson, who played a bit for the Athletics in 2005 and who is back in their organization this year, had the RiverCats only multi-hit line as he also homered for the second straight night.
Martinez allowed a couple runs early but settled in after that. He retired the final ten batters he faced. He threw 89 pitches (50 strikes). Hinshaw had 2 K in a perfect 6th inning. After a scoreless 7th inning, Pena allowed a leadoff triple in the 8th inning that led to an earned run, although that hit perhaps should have been scored as an error as Velez and Bowker came together to make the catch. Espineli did allow the runner inherited from Pena to score, but otherwise retired nine of the ten batters he faced to lower his ERA below 3.00. He has the second lowest ERA among Grizzlies with at least 12 pitching appearances.
AA: Richmond defeated Erie 3-2
Richmond: LF Thomas Neal: 1 for 3, 2B, BB
Richmond: SP Craig Westcott: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Richmond: RP Dan Turpen: 2.0 IP, 1 K
Richmond: RP Rafael Cova: 1.0 IP, 3 K
Neal was the only Flying Squirrel to reach base twice as he walked and had his 20th double.
Westcott had a quality start in his upper minors debut. Is the Cal League's ERA leader a fairly underappreciated prospect, or are his less impressive K/IP and BB/IP stats more indicative of his true talent than his league-leading ERA? Turpen and Cova, who had his fifth straight multi-strikeout appearance, combined for 3.0 perfect IP to secure the win.
A+: San Jose defeated Lancaster 4-3
(rallying for three runs in the bottom of the 9th inning)
San Jose: 2B Charlie Culberson: 2 for 4
San Jose: LF James Simmons: 1 for 3, HR, BB, SO
San Jose: SP Eric Surkamp: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
San Jose: RP Edwin Quirarte: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Simmons' 5th HR provided the Giants' only offense through the first eight innings, and he drew their only walk, which came in the 9th inning. Culberson was one of four Giants hitters with two hits, although he did not figure in the 9th inning scoring.
Surkamp had his fourth straight start with at least 6.0 IP and no more than 3 ER. This performance got his ERA back under 3.50 after fourteen starts. With 2.0 scoreless IP, Quirarte got his ERA back below 2.50.
A-: Augusta lost to Charleston 5-3
(scoring two runs to tie in the 8th inning but then allowing two runs in the 9th inning)
Augusta: 2B Ryan Cavan: 2 for 4, BB, 2 SO
Augusta: 3B Chris Dominguez: 2 for 5, 2 2B, SO
Augusta: SP Andrew Reichard: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K
Dominguez had his 16th and 17th doubles, raising his SLG to nearly .450. Cavan didn't have any XBH but did reach base three times.
In his third start, Reichard delivered a quality start. I presume the 10 K were also a career high. Overall this year, his peripheral stats are 40 H, 13 BB, and 36 K in 35.1 IP.
ssA: Salem-Keizer lost to Everett 8-6
Salem-Keizer: 0 for 1, 4 BB
Salem-Keizer: RF Ryan Scoma: 2 for 3, 2B, HBP
Salem-Keizer: SP Matt Graham: 2.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 3 K--1 HR
Salem-Keizer: RP Andrew Romo: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Scoma had the Volcanoes only multi-hit line, further raising his AVG to .468. Scorching hot, he may be the Volcanoes' only currently hot hitter, although Medina, who drew four walks, still has an AVG above .300 as well.
The 20-year-old Graham has now yielded 12 ER over his first three pro starts, giving him an ERA above 10.00 so far. Romo, who had made six PCL appearances earlier this year, made his second ever NWL appearance.
R: Giants defeated Dodgers 7-4
Scottsdale: SS Jose Cuevas: 1 for 3, HR, BB
Scottsdale: SP Lorenzo Mendoza: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K--1 HB
Scottsdale: RP Addison Proszek: 1.0 IP, 2 K
Cuevas had his 2nd pro HR in his third straight game with an XBH.
The 18-year-old Mendoza has a 3.00 ERA through his first three starts in the U.S. He has exactly 4.0 IP in each of those starts. In his first appearance of the year, Proszek, the Giants' 38th rounder a year ago, had 2 K in a perfect 7th inning.
DSL: Giants defeated Nationals 16-2
Dominican: 2B Cristian Paulino: 4 for 5, 2B, HBP, SO, SB, CS
Dominican: SP Luis Angeles: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Paulino (18.10 y.o.) raised his AVG to .269 with four hits. Angeles (20.6 y.o) had his fifth straigth start with at least 6.0 IP. His WHIP remains below 1.00, and his ERA below 2.00.
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Frezhno lost again?
Steve Decker does not know how to win without Buster and MadBum.
The money lies in the RBIs
-- Jeff Kent
And Bochy does not know how to win with Buster and MadBum.
Sounds like we need to do a switcheroo, TRADING PLACES-style.
"I been waitin' a long time for this! I been waitin' since the f**kin' amateurs!" --WILL "THE THRILL" CLARK
by Josh from Hollywood on Jul 3, 2010 12:17 PM PDT up reply actions
I wonder if Andrew Romo was sent down to work on something specific? Or did they have no ideal what level he should be at?
proud, yes I said proud, adoptive papa of "Geno" Eugenio Velez
I think that he was always scheduled to pitch for S-K this year. He only was up in Fresno for a few weeks because they needed an arm in the bullpen as a stop-gap measure, and Romo was available (the ss-A season hadn’t started yet). Certainly he did nothing last year, or in ST this year, to earn a promotion all the way from ss-A to AAA.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
The SJ come-from-behind win was a nail-biter. In the bottom of the 9th (down 3-1) they loaded the bases with 1 out on 2 singles and a BB. The next guy up Ks to make it 2 outs. JCP then proceeds to slam a pitch over the centerfielders head for a 3-run double, and the walk-off win. Hopefully this will shake JCP out of his summer doldrum.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
I think that he was always scheduled to pitch for S-K this year. He was only up in Fresno for a few weeks because they needed an arm in the bullpen as a stop-gap measure, and Romo was available (the ss-A season hadn’t started yet). Certainly he did nothing last year, or in ST this year, to earn a promotion all the way from ss-A to AAA.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Westcott
The fact that he’s had good-looking stats and has yet to lose a game in his 21 starts and 7 relief appearances over the last year was easy to push aside because of his advanced age (23 last season and 24 this season). Now that he’s in AA and still performing admirably, he’s starting to stand out to me as a guy with real potential. Yes, he still is a bit old for AA, but let’s just remember that he didn’t begin to focus on pitching until his senior year in college back at the beginning of 2009 – so this year is only his 3rd season as a ful-time pitcher.
Here’s a good article about his chaotic college days, from last summer:
http://blog.nola.com/tpsports/2009/07/exhannan_first_baseman_craig_w.html
Here’s what Andy Seiler wrote about him after last year’s draft:
Westcott was a dominating pitcher at Belhaven, though it was as a 23 year old senior. He threw 90 innings over 17 starts, striking out 124 while allowing roughly a .200 batting average against him. That’s obviously great success, and I thought someone might take him in the teens as an interesting senior sign. He’s got good size, but marginal pro stuff.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Quotes from the article on Westcott:
…at West Florida (in 2008) he pitched just 4 1/3 innings total with a 2.08 ERA.
With an opportunity in hand, Westcott agreed (to focus on pitching), but he reminded Denson that he could hit, too. “At our first fall practice, he hits eight balls out of Smith-Wills Stadium, which is a big ballpark, the old (Class) Triple-A minor-league park here,” Denson said.
(In 2009 at Belhaven) He finished 11-4 and had a 3.29 ERA, second in the conference. He had a school-record and GCAC-leading 124 strikeouts in 90 1/3 innings. His season included no-hitters on back-to-back weekends. That was just half the story. He batted .343 with 11 homers, 17 doubles and 65 RBIs.
Westcott experienced some anxiety before his professional career began. Upon reporting to Arizona, he received a physical examination and was told he could not play.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
I prefer to think that he’s a guy in only his second year after being drafted and he is now in AA, at a time when most players from his draft class are likely at low A. Just because he’s older than most really doesn’t mean much, since he’s still a pup as a professional.
Chris Gloor: my lefty is bigger than your lefty
by crazedcrustacean on Jul 3, 2010 11:37 PM PDT up reply actions
He’s also a guy who’s apparently pitching with a fastball in the high 80s and pretty poor K rates, which isn’t so encouraging.
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.
That's just plain wrong
I don’t know where yoo’re gettng you’re info from, but you obviously didn’t read the article that I provided. Westcott has at least an above-average FB. It sits in the low 90’s and touches mid-90s. His problem is that his secondary pitches are a work in progress, and average at best. Yes, his K/9 has slipped to 7.0 this year in SJ (which is still quite far from “pretty poor”), but last yaer in the AZL and S-K he had a K/9 = 13.0, which was outstanding – and not something you do with only a high 80s FB.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
One of the recent BA Hot Sheet chats had a question on Westcott and the answer was their scouts had him throwing his FB at 88-90. Can’t find the link just now.
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.
If true, I would highly doubt the accuracy of his radar gun. Unless he only watched an inning or 2 near the end of Westcott’s outing.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Typically when you get BA comments on players from the Cal league, they’re entirely based on league scouts, and league scouts don’t just watch 2 innings of an outing or use radar guns they have reason to doubt. It seems more likely to me that if Westcott threw in the mid-90s in college, that the workload of being a starting pitcher in pro ball took the extra MHP off his fastball -as happens to a lot of college pitchers.
Also, I didn’t do the math, just took the k rate from minor league splits, but their numbers are 53 Ks in 70.1 IP for 6.78. MiLB has him a 6.2 IP as do you so I assume that splits has its number wrong. Still the difference isnt enough to be put out about, it’s still a very poor k rate for a 24 year old in the Cal league, especially pitching at SJ, as Municipal Stadium seems to increase K rates a bit.
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.
You also have to admit that when BA comments on such a low-level, borderline prospect that they never give the full quotes and so they often lose the whole context of what the scout was saying. In other words the report is very often parsed and paraphrased and mangled. I have no doubt that a scout might have clocked Westcott only in the high 80s near the end of a long day, but I highly doubt that he’s not throwing in the low 90s through the first part of games. His secondary stuff is just not good enough for him to be successful throwing his FB only in the high 80s. And, whatever else you say about Westcott, nobody can say he hasn’t been successful – with consistent quality start after quality start.
I still say that his drop in Ks this year is a product of him trying to become a complete starting pitcher this year. Last year he relied almost totally on his above-average FB. This year, like we saw with MadBum in SJ and Conn. last year, Wescott is not just throwing his FB 90% of the time, and so his Ks have dropped while he works on improving his secondary pitches.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Also, I would consider 6.78 to be quite a poor k/9 for a 24 year old in the Cal League. As for last year, I, like don’t even consider a 23 year old’s stats in the AZL as meaningful in the least so I’ll just throw them out. His K/9 in the NWL was 11.41 which was definitely impressive, but I’m not sure I’d completely buy you’re follow up statement. I’ve seen a lot of highly impressive pitching numbers come out of the NWL from pitchers with average or below average fastballs.
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.
check your math
53 Ks in 68 2/3 innings at SJ is a K/9=6.95, not 6.78.
Also, I’m certain that the vast majority of his K drop this year can be attributable to him throwing his breaking ball and changeup much more often this year. He’s trying to become a complete pitcher.
Finally, his age really has no impact on his performance, beyond the fact that he’s done growing, because he’s only been pitching full-time since April 2009
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
Hot in S-K
I think you’d have to include Julio Izturis as the other hot hitter in the S-K lineup right now. In his last 8 games he’s got a slash of: .400/.423/.480/.903
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
You gotta love Chuckie
To me, by far the most surprising of the recently signed 2010 draftees has been Chuckie Jones. He’s stll 3+ weeks away from his 18th birthday and he’s been more than holding his own down in the AZL. Sure it’s way too early to come to any hard-and-fast conclusions, but I’m pleasantly surprised that he’s excelled in his first 5 pro games – hitting with wood bats against vastly superior pitching than he faced in HS.
Not only is he hitting well and with authority ( slash = .333/.375/.600/.975 ), but he’s only had 2 Ks (he’s got as many triples as K’s!) in his first 16 ABs. Also, he’s started 5 games in CF and seems to be doing well there on defense. As I said, a very encouraging start for a kid that was supposed to be very raw with holes in his swing.
You can see from this pic that he’s a physical specimen – more like an Andruw Jones than a Andres Torres in CF:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joepun/4735059558/in/set-72157624234585493/
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
CHUCKIE JONES IS BLACK?
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
"Out, out, Fred Lewis!" - JCTillam Gamerspeare
That’s a pretty funny looking 17 year old
Also known to haunt as theghostoftravisdenker and theaccidentalghostofsergioromo.
Adopted parent of good old Wendell, he tries so hard. You'll get a hit someday son!
by theghostofjasonellison on Jul 3, 2010 4:41 PM PDT up reply actions
Westcott
I’ve got some photos from Westcott’s 1st Richmond start.
Thanks for the pics!
Well, that solves one puzzler. The Squirrels are obviously being jinxed by the huge poster of that sanctimonious a$$ Hank Aaron in centerfield. I know Richmond stadium was a Braves AAA stadium for decades, but gimme a break, the Giants play there now. Not only that, but Aaron never played in Richmond. When he came up to the big lieagues they were still the Milwaukee Braves.
On a more serious note, I can see that the Richmond ballpark has a very difficult background in the twilight. You have the sun reflecting of the brick building in the background and that has to make it very hard on hitters to pick up the ball. The sun doesn’t full set until almost 9:00, which means the first 5-7 innings of their home “night” games must be a nightmare on hitters.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
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