Minor Lines, April 13, 2015

I've possibly mentioned before that I love love love baseball of the 70s. Not so much with its ugly stadiums and wall to wall carpeting, no. But its speed thrilled me. I can't get enough of daring prodigious base stealers. And so you might well imagine that Johneshwy Fargas' performance today ran his way right into my heart:

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Parenthetically, "plenty of time" my aunt Jenny's corset! He was SAFE you old fool! However, later in the game the same announcer said that the "sacks are packed with Jackets" which was so delightful I totally forgive him and shall now be repeating that phrase in all bases loaded situations always.

HIGHLIGHTS: Johneshwy Fargas had 3 hits, 3 RBIs, and 4 SB. Mitch Delfino had 3 hits including a 2b and HR. Adam Duvall has 3 hits, 3 RBIs, one of which came off a guy they call "The Beast." The Beast had just thrown a pitch that simultaneously shattered Adam's bat, broke his thumbs, and benumbed his foot. Then The Beast went for the kill:

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This movie practically writes itself!

Sacramento lost to Las Vegas (Mets), 8-5

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="http://t.co/wpSrYDEMEu">http://t.co/wpSrYDEMEu</a>&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/jimcallisMLB">@jimcallisMLB</a> named Triple-A Las Vegas one of the Minor League&#39;s 10 most talented teams: <a href="http://t.co/Rj39gUngcX">http://t.co/Rj39gUngcX</a></p>&mdash; Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyDiComo/status/586664365006270464">April 10, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sacramento begins a series with one of the stronger prospect rosters in the minors. Offensively, the RiverCats had to feel pretty good with the way they handled Noah Syndergaard (#1 prospect in strong Mets system and #11 on BA's top 100). They touched him up for 8 base runners, had him constantly under pressure and scored 3 runs in 4 IP, with Adam Duvall knocking in two of the runs on singles (he would add a third run scoring single later). Syndergaard had been sent for an MRI after some arm soreness in ST, and was on a strict pitch limit in his season debut.

The pitching staff's ability to handle a lineup that featured the Mets #4 (Dilson Herrera), #5 (Kevin Pawlecki) and #12 (Matt Reynolds) prospects was somewhat less successful, though only Reynolds had a particularly strong game of that group.  Nik Turley was knocked around for 7 runs in 4 IP before Cody Hall brought some calm to the game with 3 scoreless innings.

Richmond defeated Altoona (Pirates), 10-3

Entering the bottom of the 7th in a 0-0 game, the Squirrels offense exploded for a 7 run 7th. The offensive hero was Mitch Delfino (24 yr, 20th rd pick in 2012) who hit his 1st HR of the year to open the scoring and added a 2 run double to end the 7th inning explosion. Every regular in the lineup reached base at least once, and 6 of them reached base twice or more. Only Jax of the position players, went hitless. Daniel Carbonell had a “reaching base hat trick” with a hit, bb, and HBP. He also had a GIDP, however, which might diminish the feat. Adding Catcher’s interference is the “reaching base golden sombrero.” Tomlinson (24 yr old, 12th round 2011 draft) reached base 4 times however he was CS twice. Last year Tomlinson was successful in 49 of 61 SB attempts. He’s started this year getting caught stealing on 3 consecutive attempts. Huh.

San Jose lost at Visalia (Diamondbacks), 4-2

The Li'l Giants offensive woes can be traced directly to the middle of their lineup where 3-4-5 hitters Slater, Horan, and Ragira have reached base only 4 times each in their first 5 games. The San Jose team has drawn only 7 bbs in their first 5 games, against 44 Ks. They're the only team in the Cal League with single digit walks as a team.

Christian Arroyo continues his hot start with two more hits including his first HR and 5th XBH. Here was part of the writeup on Arroyo by one of the BP staff during ST:

There’s a lot of tweener to this profile, but Arroyo does enough well to be a role-5 type who could be a solution for a team in need at any of a few positions. His feel for the game and hustle lets the entire package of tools play up some.

He took the day off from defense and was replaced by Slater, who struggled a bit defensively though committing only one Error. Arroyo might still want to work on that signature a bit though.

@arroyo_c thanks for signing Christian! Great game today! pic.twitter.com/Pq6L3XALa5

— Robert (@Giants55) April 12, 2015

On the mound, 23 year old Venezuelan signee Luis Ysla made his SJ debut, and while he made it through 5 full innings, his effort could probably best be described as uneven.  He got BABIPd a bit and wasn't entirely helped by his defense, but he also pitched from behind a decent amount. In the first couple of innings the Rawhide was running on him as soon as they reached base, but Ysla turned that aggressiveness against them later, picking off two attempted base stealers going on his first move. Dan Slania threw a dominant inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced. The Rawhide team includes Domingo Leyba (BA's #9 in Dbacks system, acquired from Detroit in the Didi Gregarious deal), former 1st rounder Styker Trahan (#21), and Daniel Palka (#30), though Trahan didn't play in today's game.

As an aside, I read a story today that Brian Ragira got the org’s blessing in the offseason to skip Instrux in order to accept the Thomas Kell Montag scholarship, traveling to Oxford University to study neuroscience and literature. “Mostly modernist texts” Ragira said of his coursework, “so late 19th century, earlier 20th century stuff. You know, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, all that sort of thing.” As a former college literature instructor myself I must wipe a tear from eye when I read that. Still, mix in a hit Brian!

Augusta won at Charleston (Yankees), 7-6

Pitching lines were all variations on scale between yuck and meh with 2013 draftee Nicolas Gonzalez starting.

At bat, Fargas (20 yr, 11th rd pick in 2013) had the biggest day with three of the team's 8 hits and 4 SB. True one of Fargas’ hits was muscling a high fastball just into CF (for a two run single to tie the game!), but having the strength to fight off a pitcher's pitch is a baseball skill and one that its exciting to see the slightly built Fargas apply. Also one of his SB was actually a pickoff that turned into your basic 1-3-2-5 massive screw ups on Charleston’s part. Still 4 SBs is an awesome stat line that makes me pine for the days of Ron LeFlore. Ah heck. Let's watch some more!

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The Greenjackets also had 7 walks on the day, which indicates either a good approach or some bad A ball pitching. Like SJ, the Augusta team has had a hole in their middle, in their case, surprisingly coming from their two advanced college bats Aramis Garcia and Skyler Ewing. Garcia’s 5 walks in 19 PA give him a robust OBP but he’s done little else with the bat thus far. His hat trick today left him with 7 Ks in 14 ABs against only 2 hits. Skyler Ewing has also gotten off to a very slow start, though without even the BBs to boost his line as he worked his first walk of the year today. Hunter Cole has likewise walked just once against 6 Ks, but he boasts a robust hitting line with an OPS near 1.000.

Incidentally, Charleston is the River Dogs which naturally leads one to wonder how a matchup with the RiverCats would go. Charleston is also partly owned by Bill Murray. And lastly, I did a quick twitter search on Johneshwy Fargas to see if anybody in the twitterverse caught the game live and came up with this:

@mccoveychron Also, we are both in trouble when Johneshwy Fargas gets promoted.

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) April 8, 2015

Today's games will feature starters Chris Stratton and Martin Agosta (who recently pitched in relief).  The RiverCats go from the pan to the fire as they get the hard throwing lefty Steve Matz (#2 in Mets system, #33 in BA's top 100) who dominated the Richmond squad in the final game of last year's EL championship series.