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Belt and Escobar get some love from BA

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Two Giants' minor league players get singled out for kudos in the Thursday edition of Baseball America's Prospects Daily Dish blog. Nobody will be surprised that Brandon Belt was one of them, but they also threw some love Edwin Escobar's way. Escobar is pitching for Salem-Keizer in the NWL this summer. Here are the money quotes: Had the Giants drawn up a best-case scenario back in spring training for Brandon Belt's first full season, it still wouldn't have been this good. Belt added to his unbelievable season yesterday, hitting a 2-2 pitch over the right-center field fence for a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 14th inning to give Double-A Richmond a 5-3 victory. Between Richmond and high Class A San Jose, the 22-year-old first baseman is hitting .369/.465/.636 in 482 plate appearances. His OBP leads the minors and his slugging average ranks third behind Dodgers first baseman John Lindsey and Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia, both of whom have the advantage of playing in charitable parks in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Edwin Escobar, lhp, Giants (short-season Salem-Keizer): Escobar signed with the Rangers out of Venezuela the same year as Portillo (2008), though Texas shipped him to the Giants just before the season began to keep Rule 5 lefty Ben Snyder and put him in the minors. Escobar, 18, has been one of the Northwest League's more promising young pitchers and had his best outing of the year yesterday, striking out seven with walk (sic) walks (should read 2 walks) in six scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 4.14 with 56 strikeouts in 50 innings on the season.