Minor Lines, April 12 2015

Not long before he left Baseball Prospectus to take a position with the Cubs, I heard Jason Parks talking about the things he still had to learn about scouting. And one of the things he mentioned was to stop relying so much on radar guns and watch the batter. His crusty old old-school straw hat mentor had always told him, watch the swing. The batter will tell you how good the stuff is. I was thinking about that last night while watching this:

HIGHLIGHTS: Sam Conrad allows no runs, strikes out 7, walks none in full season debut. Exiled Brandon (Hicks) has 4 Hits. Mac Williamson has three hits and drives in team's only run. Kelvin Marte retired all 10 batters faced out of the pen. Also Adam Duvall is a destroyer of worlds.

Sacramento defeated Salt Lake City (Angels), 7-2, winning their series 3-1

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	OPS
LF	Juan Perez	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.050
DH	Travis Ishikawa	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
1b	Adam Duvall	3	2	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1.401
2b	Brandon Hicks	4	2	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.333
RF	Jarrett Parker	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0.597

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Jake Dunning, W 1-0	6.0	4	2	2	2	3	1	0	0	3.00
Mike Broadway	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00

The River Cats had consistent offense up and down the roster as 6 of the starters reached based two or more times. That included Travis Ishikawa, back on his second game of a rehab assignment.  It did not however include Juan Perez, whose early season struggles continued. He now has reached base only once in 20 PA, has a .000 BA, and 6 Ks. He'll pick it up, but scuffling to start the year is tough for a guy on the periphery of the Active Roster like Juan.

On the pitching side, Jake Dunning has been converted to SP at least for now (as there aren't many options on the Sac roster) and Mike Broadway continued looking like potentially another great dumpster dive pickup.

As a public service announcement I should note that: HERE ENDETH THE OFFENSE FOR THE DAY. Beyond here there be 0Fers.

Richmond lost to Bowie (Orioles) 2-1, splitting their four game series

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	OPS
CF	Daniel Carbonell	4	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	0.372
RF	Mac Williamson	4	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1.088
3b	Mitch Delfino	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.388
SS	Kelby Tomlinson	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.667
2b	Blake Miller	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.294
DH	Javy Herrera	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.775
LF	Devin Harris	4	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.794
PH	Angel Villalona	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.222

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Matt Lujan, L 0-1	5.2	6	2	2	3	2	0	0	0	3.18
Kelvin Marte	3.1	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.00

The Squirrels offense has obviously yet to start clicking with early season blues running up and down the line. In no small part the weather is likely contributing to that as Bowie has been equally as inept and reports from Richmond have noted well hit fly balls dying in the air. Yesterday they managed only one run on a double by Daniel Carbonell (who had K'd in his previous 3 PA) and Mac Williamson's third hit. Williamson has gotten off to excellent start, making a good deal of hard contact.

Matt Lujan, the 26 year old UDFA out of USF is coming off a fine two level season in 2014. Like Ty Blach before him, it remains to be seen whether his high contact ways will find success in the EL. Kelvin Marte, once upon a time a good looking lefty starter is back in AA again, this time out of the pen. He's no longer a prospect, but he's still capable of some fine work.

San Jose lost to Lancaster (Astros), 2-1, splitting their four game series

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	OPS
SS	Christian Arroyo	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0.977
2b	Austin Slater	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.535
RF	Tyler Horan	4	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.667
1b	Brian Ragira	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.399
3b	Ryder Jones	2	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.846
C	Ty Ross	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.495

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
DJ Snelten	5.0	4	1	1	1	4	0	0	0	1.80
Ian Gardeck	2.2	2	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	3.86

San Jose is another team struggling on offense out of the gate, and another team that managed only a single run yesterday.  Christian Arroyo has been leading the charge but he had his first hitless game and Ryder Jones chipped in with only a SF. Ryder also made his second error of the season. Austin Slater broke out with his first two hits of the season, but he was the only Giant to reach base twice as they only managed four hits and seven base runners for the game. Still they did have a great chance for late game dramatics:

Giants load the bases with one out in the top of the ninth, but Horan and Ragira both strikeout to end the inning. Still tied 1-1.

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 12, 2015

DJ Snelten, hard throwing LHP, made his SP debut in this game. There's a full game recap on the Giants twitter feed as always. Look for it:

Game Recap: Giants Fall 2-1, Split Opening Series In Lancaster http://t.co/dgtrDoXUJ3

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 13, 2015

Also, look for this!

Tune into @SiliconHBO tonight at 10 & keep your eyes peeled for #SJGiants RHP and @SFGiants prospect @TylerBeede11! #GiantTogether

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 13, 2015

Augusta defeated Greenville (Red Sox), 2-1, splitting their four game series

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	OPS
CF	Johneshwy Fargas	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.500
2b	Hunter Cole	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1.053
1b	John Riley	4	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1.283
3b	Jonah Arenado	4	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	1.346

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Sam Coonrod	5.0	3	0	0	0	7	0	1	0	0.00
Rodolpho Martinez	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	3.38

Another 2-1 game but with a happier ending. Augusta batters were a little cooler this game, though they still did pile up three more extra base hits.  Greenville is one of the three extremely offensive ball parks in the Sally, so we'll have to see how this offense performs in the less friendly confines of their home stadium.  John Riley in particular continues to put a charge into the ball when he makes contact.

Do you love the way you can hear the contact before you see it on Greenville's feed? Because I do!.

But the story of the game for Augusta was Sam Coonrod's performance, which was good enough to catch the eye of one of BA's major prospect writers.

Sam Coonrod: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 SO. #giants

— Josh Norris (@jnorris427) April 13, 2015

Some context. Coonrod is a 5th rounder out of Southern Illinois from the 2014 draft. He shot up draft boards late after dominating in a matchup with 1st round pick Kyle Freeland (pro tip, when you're facing a guy that brings the scouts in, show up big!).  He has a excellent arm strength and arm speed, but his command is a work in progress and his secondaries are a work planning to be in progress at some later date. He's two months older than Kyle Crick, two levels lower, and has some of Crick's issues.  Still, you can only play the games that are scheduled, and Coonrod made a nice impression in his first outing.

Rodolpho Martinez relieved Coonrod for his second outing in a row and he too showed a very lively fastball working on back to back days.  Next time he pitches I need to grab a shot of him warming up so we can see his delivery which has something delightfully 60s about the way he lifts his leg.  I dig it.

All four teams face new opponents today with Sacramento taking their bats up against one of the best pitching prospects in baseball as Noah Syndergaard comes to town. Also the 2014 debut of Luis Ysla vs the Visalia Rawhide, going up against former 1st round pick Styrker Trahan and recent three way trade acquisition (from Detroit) Domingo Leyba.

And for those who want to salivate more over the prospects of Kelvin Beltre, you'll want to read Ben Badler's preview of the best prospects coming to the US this year from DSL/VSL. Beltre is the Best because he starts his name with a "B"