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SF Giants Minor Lines, April 24

April is the cruelest month...

By Roger

breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Allow me to illustrate the poet's meaning:

and then...

"Squirrels lose franchise-record 8th straight"

The losing streaks are piling up as Richmond equals SF for the org's longest losing streak of the month, with Sacramento close on their heels and SJ having only recently weathered a 7 losses in 8 games streak of their own. The horse latitudes are arriving early this season. Turn the page, fellows, turn the page. And find a happier poem. I don't want to be stuck quoting The Wasteland all season.

HIGHLIGHTS: Kyle Crick K's 8 in 4 IP, Kelby Tomlinson was 3 for 4 with a 2b and 2 SB. Skyler Stromsmoe goes 2 for 3 in first start of the year.

Sacramento lost at El Paso (Padres), 6-1
getting swept in the 4 game series

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

LF

Juan Perez

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

.190

.230

3b

Adam Duvall

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.424

.451

2b

Skyler Stomsmoe

3

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.500

.500

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Robert Coello

5.0

8

6

5

3

3

1

1

0

4.09

Clay Rapada

1.0

2

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0.00

The Sacramento offense was shut down on this day by the 38 year old converted major league OF Jason Lane, now in his third year as a pitcher. Lane allowed the RiverCats 1 run on 6 hits, while striking out 5. Sacramento hitters had 1 BB and 2 doubles and following this 2nd inning leadoff Skyler Stromsmoe double they had only one batter reach 2nd the rest of the game.

The story of this series was really the inability of the Sacramento starters to get clean through the early innings and Robert Coello became the latest victim. Coello was the 5th straight Sacramento starter to give up at least 5 runs (not so coincidentally coinciding with the 5 game losing streak).  All in all, the RiverCat starting pitchers in this four game series surrendered 29 runs in 16.2 IP. Ouch. Hopefully returning home tonight will help correct things.

Richmond lost to New Britain (Rockies), 3-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SS-2b

Kelby Tomlinson

4

0

3

0

1

0

0

0

1

2

0

.352

.417

LF

Daniel Carbonell

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

.138

.180

3b

Mitch Delfino

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

.244

.386

RF

Mac Williamson

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.241

.293

1b

Ricky Oropesa

4

1

2

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

.162

.158

2b

Blake Miller

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

.220

.250

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Kyle Crick

4.0

2

0

0

3

8

0

1

0

1.42

Joan Gregorio

1.2

1

0

0

1

3

0

0

0

1.74

The Richmond hitters are really struggling to get going this year, with the exception of leadoff hitter Kelby Tomlinson who is having a fantastic start to his season, and to a slightly lesser degree 3b Mitch Delfino. Tomlinson, the 24 yr old 12th round pick in the 2011 draft is in his 2nd full season in Richmond, with a cup of coffee appearance in 2013 as well. The middle of the order however, Williamson, Herrera, and Harris are  all in extended slides at the moment. Ricky Oropesa had his best day of the season, including his 1st HR, but the .158 OBP he's sporting, along with Carbonell's .180 OBP are extreme indications of how much trouble this team is having accruing base runners. They also, didn't help out their pitchers much today with 4 errors, 2 of them coming from Tomlinson.

Kyle Crick was overpowering on this day, allowing only 2 hits against his 8 Ks. But he was also, as usual, highly inefficient with his pitch count, accounting for his leaving the game after only 4 innings (92 pitches). He actually allowed twice as many batters on BB and HBP as he did on Hits. Crick has now made 25 starts in AA. In 14 of them he has failed to go the requisite 5 innings needed to qualify for a win (granted there were some rain shortened outings in there). He has taken the mound to start the 6th inning in only 8 of them. His career peripherals in AA are 11.4 K9 and 6.1 BB9. He remains an enigma.

San Jose lost at Bakersfield (Mariners), 5-0

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

Ryder Jones

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

1

0

0

.333

.393

San Jose Totals

28

0

1

0

0

0

0

4

5

0

0

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

D.J. Snelten

5.0

7

2

2

1

2

1

0

0

3.00

Ian Gardeck

1.0

1

3

3

2

3

0

0

1

4.22

The Giant hitters were completely stifled by Bakersfield starter Edwin Diaz (#6 prospect in Seattle system) who was facing them for the 2nd consecutive start and had much more success than his last time out in SJ. Ryan Lollis singled up the middle to lead off the game and San Jose never registered another hit. They did get 5 baserunners via BB and HBP, and actually were able to mount a couple of free threats. The best of these came in the 4th, when a HBP, WP and two BB loaded the bases with no outs.  However, Brian Ragira, off to a woeful start to the year, grounded into the ultra rare 1-2-3 DP and Brandon Bednar flew out to end their best chance at a run.

D.J. Snelten's conversion to a starter is so far probably best described as nondescript. He's surrendered a good amount of hits, with a BABIP on the high side at .348 but not so many runs. He's missing relatively few bats (6.6 K9) but not walking anybody either (1.8 BB9). He's out there, but as of yet hasnt been fodder for a either great levels of encouragement or discouragement.  Which I guess is good? Ian Gardeck did his wild man impression this game as he struck out the first three batters he faced, and then walked two of the next three with a single and a WP in between. He could have escaped without any runs allowed but Jason Forjet came in and gave up a double to bring in his inherited runners. You can get to know Ian Gardeck on yesterday's pregame show:

Augusta won at Rome (Braves), 6-1 in Game 1 of their DH

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

CF

Johneshwy Fargas

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

.333

.394

C

Aramis Garcia

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

.176

.364

1b

Skyler Ewing

2

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.239

.339

DH

John Riley

3

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

.250

.388

RF

Randy Oritz

3

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

.265

.283

2b

Will Callaway

3

0

1

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

.455

.500

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Mark Reyes

6.0

6

1

1

0

2

0

0

0

2.76

Reyes Moronta

1.0

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

5.79

Augusta hitters got their second look this season at young lefty Ricardo Sanchez (#8 prospect in Atlanta's system), whom the Braves got from Anaheim. Sanchez, who turned 18 just two weeks ago is the youngest player in A ball, and so I guess the youngest player currently on an active roster in all of pro ball, and he dominated the Augusta hitters through the first 4 innings before they exploded against him for a 5 run rally in the 5th inning. He was particularly rough on Fargas, who K'd three times against the young lefty. Will Callaway, however, got some good looks off Sanchez.

John Riley started the 5th inning rally by hitting his 1st HR of the season. As noted yesterday, Riley is so far this year mixing a 40% K rate with a .580 BABIP. Sustainable! In this game he HRd and Kd twice.  I believe that is what the scouts refer to as "letting the barrel fly."

Augusta lost at Rome (Braves), 9-6 in Gm 2 of the DH

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

DH

Skyler Ewing

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

.224

.339

3b

Jonah Arenado

3

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

.273

.293

LF

Andrew Cain

4

1

1

3

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

.233

.313

RF

Cristian Paulino

3

2

2

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

0

.353

.389

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Connor Kaden

4.1

1

2

2

2

1

0

0

0

3.09

Rodolfo Martinez

0.2

3

3

3

1

1

0

0

0

7.71

Raymundo Montero, BS

1.0

4

4

3

0

2

0

0

0

4.66

Speaking of explosions, Game 2 of the DH was a sleepy little 1-0 affair entering the 5th inning (of a 7 inning game as normal for A ball DH), when suddenly 14 runs were scored over the following 2 innings of play. Unfortunately, Rome did most of the damage, as they tallied 5 in the 5th and 4 more in the 6th.  The scuffling Augusta bullpen blew leads of 2-0 and 6-5 in the back and forth affair.

Rodolfo Martinez continues to be something of an enigma as his exceptional stuff seems to get hit with more frequency than you'd think in such low leagues.

EDIT: some footage of Conner Kaden in his spot start.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Fantastic spot start for Connor Kaden RHP <a href="https://twitter.com/ConnorKaden">@ConnorKaden</a> 4.1IP 1H 15 batters 11 groundouts <a href="https://twitter.com/GreenJackets">@GreenJackets</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SFGiants?src=hash">#SFGiants</a> <a href="http://t.co/33s9YqJhvK">pic.twitter.com/33s9YqJhvK</a></p>&mdash; KPT Sports (@KPTSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/KPTSports/status/591979266205687808">April 25, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tonight, Sacramento returns home to face Tacoma, hoping to avoid another loss which would mean that every team in the org would be playing under .500 ball. Scheduled starters are Braulio Lara, Matt Lujan, Luis Ysla and Nathanel Santiago, the mysterious 25 year old out of Mexico with no professional experience prior to 2015.

Final thought: while searching twitter for news of Christian Arroyo, I stumbled onto these teen girls covering Metallica. They're way more awesome than anything else in today's ML. Enjoy!

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