Minor Lines, April 14, 2015

Two pitchers from the 2012 draft struggled mightily in Tuesday night's play.  First rounder Chris Stratton had his game rained out. You got off easy, Chris! Meanwhile, one pitcher who didn't struggle at all was Jose Reyes, who tossed 5 no-hit innings in his season debut.

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HIGHLIGHTS: Jose Reyes Ks 6 in 5 no-hit innings. Johneshwy Fargas reaches base 4 times w 2 SB.

Sacramento defeats Las Vegas (Mets), 3-2

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	Other
CF	Darren Ford	4	2	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
RF	Juan Perez	4	1	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
1b-3b	Adam Duvall	3	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	SF
SS	Ehire Adrianza	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Robert Coello	6.0	3	2	2	1	5	1	0	0	1.50
Hunter Strickland, S, 1	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00

For the second straight night, Sacramento faced one of the best pitching prospects in the minors, LHP Steve Matz (#33 on BA's top 100). And for the second straight night they put comported themselves well.  They put 10 runners on base against Matz in his 5 IP and scored all three of their runs. The attack was led by the 1-2 hitters Darren Ford and Juan Perez who were on base 5 times and had both of the teams xbh (both 2bs). Perez had his first two hits of the year. Ehire Adrianza made his season debut with the RiverCats.

Hunter Strickland has been nearly perfect in his first three appearances, allowing only one baserunner to reach base and striking out 4 in 3.2 IP. Here's one of them (Bonus Trivia: Name that former Giant strikeout victim. You have to do it before the end of the clip because the announcer spoils it).

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Tonight&#39;s game against the Curve has been postponed and will be made up on July 17th as part of a double header. <a href="http://t.co/Vybndx329O">pic.twitter.com/Vybndx329O</a></p>&mdash; Squirrels Baseball (@GoSquirrels) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoSquirrels/status/588093269688582144">April 14, 2015</a></blockquote>

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This apparently disrupted some planned Full House merriment.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/DaveCoulier">@DaveCoulier</a> got to spend some time with Nutzy tonight! <a href="http://t.co/iN42Y3BvhE">pic.twitter.com/iN42Y3BvhE</a></p>&mdash; Squirrels Baseball (@GoSquirrels) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoSquirrels/status/588099896529543168">April 14, 2015</a></blockquote>

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San Jose lost at Visalia (Diamondbacks), 9-2

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	Other
SS	Christian Arroyo	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0
2b	Austin Slater	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	2E
RF	Tyler Horan	4	1	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	E
1b	Brian Ragira	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
LF	Rafael Rodriguez	4	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Martin Agosta	4.0	9	8	8	1	7	3	0	0	14.40

Not much good to be found in this effort. Both the Giants runs scored on Tyler Horan's (24 yr, 8th rd pick, 2013) first inning HR. Horan apparently took my challenge seriously. Brian Ragira (23 yr, 4th rd pick 2013) was nonplussed by my critique, probably because of the Oxford scholarship story. Christian Arroyo (19 yr, 1st rd pick 2013) had a hat trick and has now K'd 9 times in his 26 PA. Austin Slater's going through a rough time on both sides of the ball.

On the mound, Martin Agosta's (24 yr, 2nd rd pick 2012) return to the rotation was possibly the worst outing of his star-crossed career.  While walking only 1 and striking out 7 (4 called) in 4 IP were both positive signs, he also surrendered three HRs and the recap of the 2nd inning is chalked full of hard contact.  Of course, it's hard to tell from this remove. A strong wind and a hard infield could be camouflaging an excellent outing. But either way, it's been a struggle for Agosta since the second half of his first full season in Augusta. Whenever Agosta struggles my mind pavlovs its way back to these tweets from the essential Augusta follow, David Lee, during Agosta's playoff game start in Sept. 2013:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Agosta lost it in the fifth, has allowed two runs and is pulled with the bases loaded and one out, down 3-0. Stuff went flat, lost feel.</p>&mdash; David Lee (@David11Lee) <a href="https://twitter.com/David11Lee/status/375410641206407168">September 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Agosta&#39;s velocity was down, stuff went flat about midway through, slider went slurvy. Not used to this from him.</p>&mdash; David Lee (@David11Lee) <a href="https://twitter.com/David11Lee/status/375415948997455872">September 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

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In some essential ways, it seems like the guy who frequently dominated the Sally during the course of that year has never returned after that day.

Augusta lost at Charleston, 5-4

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	Other
CF	Johneshwy Fargas	4	2	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0
2b	Hunter Cole	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	0
C	Aramis Garcia	4	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
1b	Skyler Ewing	3	1	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	CS
3b	Jonah Arenado	3	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2E

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Jose Reyes	5.0	0	0	0	2	6	0	0	0	0.00
E.J. Encinosa, BS, 2	1.1	4	4	4	3	1	0	0	0	17.18
Rodolfo Martinez	0.1	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	3.00

Fargas' reign of terror continued unabated. I'm assuming he had 20 hits and 30 SB in his sleep last night. Three of his six SB in the last two games have been steals of 3b. He picked up two other free bases in this game as his first SB resulted in a throw into CF on which he took 3b. And later his steal of 2b was followed by a WP, again allowing him to take 3b.  Aramis Garcia (22 yr, 2nd rd pick 2014) and Skyler Ewing (22 yr, 6th rd pick 2014) also responded to some earnest ragging as they reached base a collective 5 times, both with run scoring hits.  The Greenjackets had 16 base runners in this game and continued to be the most effective offensive unit in the Giants system.

Jose Reyes (24 yr, IFA) had a terrific season debut, pitching 5 no hit, scoreless innings, striking out 6.  He used a dandy curveball to do most of the damage, and four of his Ks were called. Reyes originally pitched in the Sally briefly in 2013, before returning to short season ball in 2014. He's likely not much of a prospect but he still had himself a very nice day.

The same can't be said of E.J. Encinosa whose outing was probably even worse than his line suggests. Of the four outs he was credited, one was a CS and another was a Sac Bunt. He also allowed 2 SBs. Encinosa has now allowed 12 base runners and 7 runs in 3.2 IP in his two appearances, both of which resulted in blown leads. Rodolfo Martinez didn't help the situation much with his appearance. In the end perhaps the biggest mystery is how exactly they only surrendered 3 runs in an inning in which they allowed 5 BBs, 2 hits, and 2 SB. Here's part of the answer (I'll give you the extended mix so you can enjoy Martinez throwing 98):

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That's good minor league ball! Charleston's manager managed to outstay his welcome with the home plate ump during this conversation. Later in this game the Jackets would tie it up in the 9th inning on four consecutive walks, and then lose it in the bottom of the 9th on an Error, SB, WP, and single.

Tomorrow's game by the way, as well as tomorrow's Richmond game, will be well underway by the time you're reading this.  Sacramento also plays an early game.  Today's starters should be Braulio Lara, Chris Stratton, Tyler Beede, and Matt Gage.