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SF Giants Minor Lines, 7/7

Nine games plus extra innings and rain delays too? It's like the double stufft Oreo cookies edition of Minor Lines.

By Roger

Two Macs on opposite ends of the system were on the move yesterday. First the Mac at the bottom, this year's 4th round pick Mac Marshall:

After two short appearances in the AZL Marshall's gotten the call to join the SK Volcanoes.

And the Mac at the top of the system is heading off too, as Mac Williamson takes a two week leave of absence from Sacramento to represent his country in the Pan Am games. He'll be on Team USA duty until July 20th.

And speaking of moving as we move into and past the All Star break we'll start seeing a lot of speculation like this popping up in the twitterverse:

Buckle your seat belts, Minor Linesians, the trade deadline is coming up and as always, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

HIGHLIGHTS: D.J. Snelten struck out everyone he saw, including the ticket tackers, popcorn salesmen and the Bull Mascot, twice*.  Johneshwy Fargas reached base 4 times, with a SB and a 3 run HR. Brian Ragira went 3 for 4 with a HR. Miguel Gomez went 3 for 6 with a HR and 4 RBI.

*Not, strictly speaking, true.

Sacramento lost to the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks), 2-1 in 7 inn in Gm 1 of DH

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

CF

Darren Ford

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.268

1b

Adam Duvall

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.263

LF

Jarrett Parker

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

.276

3b

Kevin Frandsen

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

.302

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Tommy Hanson, L, 0-1

4.0

7

2

2

5

2

0

0

0

4.50

94

53

Mike Broadway

1.0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1.26

14

8

Sacramento beat Reno, 6-2 in 7 inn in Gm 2 of the DH
splitting their four game series, 2-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

CF-LF

Xavier Avery

3

1

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

.333

2b

Kelby Tomlinson

4

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

.320

SS

Carlos Triunfel

3

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

.279

C

Trevor Brown

3

1

3

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.298

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Ty Blach W, 7-8

5.1

6

2

2

1

5

0

0

0

4.21

82

57

Erik Cordier, S 7

1.2

0

0

0

1

2

0

0

0

1.38

25

15

In a night to test the heart's of true fans, the double header (caused by last night's rain out) began with a 2.5 hour rain delay.  The second game wouldn't get underway until after 10:30 pm and ended about the time I got up this morning. Even the Sacramento marketing team seemed to get more baseball than they had a belly for:

It took most of the 7 hour ordeal for Sacramento to get their offense warmed up. Their only run in game 1 came via a Carlos Triunfel ground out (parenthetically, Triunfel's has put together fine little year so far; for minor league emergency SS depth you could probably do worse than him), and in game 2 their first three runs came via a Ty Blach Sac Fly, a bases loaded walk, and a bases loaded HBP. So the RiverCats aren't exactly bringing out the big bats these days.

Shredded arm reclamation project Tommy Hanson got moved up to AAA and made his first start for Sacramento in the first game. He got off ot a somewhat stilted start, issuing three straight two-out walks to load the bases in the first inning. But he got out of the jam and settled in thereafter, though a 5:2 BB:K ratio isn't generally what you're after.

Ty Blach, working well past bedtime, had an efficient game, though it was his second shortest outing of the year at 5.1 inning.  With 5 Ks and 1 BB he's now at 62:13 K:BB on the season in 104 IP. And as noted he helped his cause by knocking in the first run of the game, though he also went 0 for 2 with 2 Ks, knocking his season BA down below the Mendoza Line. For shame, Ty!

For those of you in the Sacramento area, the RiverCats are coming home tonight and starting out the homestand with a fascinating pitching match up as fellow 2012 1st rounders Chris Stratton and Mark Appel square off.  Appel of course, was also the 1-1 pick  of the 2013 draft and has had a somewhat confounding career thus far. The same can be said of Stratton as well, though his confundiment doesn't come with a 96+ MPH fastball..

* * *

Richmond lost to the Harrisburg Senators (Nats), 2-1 in 13 innings

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

Rando Moreno

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

2

.299

.341

.385

RF

Hunter Cole

6

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.289

.341

.474

2b

Austin Slater

5

0

2

1

1

0

0

0

1

.229

.289

.371

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Edwin Quirarte

6.0

3

0

0

0

6

0

1

0

3.94

Stephen Johnson

2.0

1

1

0

0

2

0

0

0

3.89

Phil McCormick

2.0

0

0

0

2

1

0

0

0

1.89

Jose Casilla, L, 2-4

2.0

3

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

1.57

When this game started Hunter Cole and Austin Slater's BA were separated by .144 points. When it was over they were only .060 points apart. Granted they've only been in Richmond for about 10 days, but still, it was that kind of game. And Cole and Slater's fortunes in this game were differentiated in more ways than just the stat sheet.  Austin Slater came up in the bottom of the 8th with his team down 1-0 and played the hero:

While Hunter Cole came up in the bottom of the 13th with the chance to play hero:

Such is life. On the season Cole is having the decidedly better year of the two 2014 draftees, with an overall slash line of .305/.369/.481 to Slater's .284/.317/.393. On the other hand, Slater appears to be sticking in the dirt, while Cole has settled in to a corner OF position. Though he began the year as Augusta's regular 2b and moved up to SJ to take Slater's spot when Austin went on the DL, Cole now hasn't played the IF since May 15, coinciding with Slater's return from the DL.

Career reliever and Indy ball refugee Edwin Quirarte will be taking Kyle Crick's starts for the time being while Crick tries to work out his troubles in the pen and last night Quirarte delivered an eloquent sermon for Kyle on the simple virtues of throwing the leather sphere over the funny shaped white thing. In the end he had 6 shutout innings with 6 Ks and 0 BBs. A thing of beauty.

Less beautiful, both of Harrisburg's two runs in this game were the result of Richmond mistakes. In the 8th, Myles Schroder, playing in CF, overran a ground single and his error allowed the runner to reach 2b. From there a sac bunt and a Sac fly brought him in. And in the 13th, Jose Casilla fielded a well placed bunt single and fired it into the RF corner, allowing the leadoff runner to come all the way around to 3b. Another Sac Fly delivered the winner. Mistakes will kill you!

Still the free baseball offered up some entertainment:

* * *

San Jose beat the Bakersfield Blaze (Mariners), 9-4

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

Christian Arroyo

5

1

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

.321

.363

.494

3b

Ryder Jones

4

2

2

2

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

.285

.318

.407

1b

Angel Villalona

2

1

1

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

.293

.348

.634

DH

Brian Ragira

4

1

3

2

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

.224

.320

.383

RF

Tyler Horan

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

.207

.301

.386

2b

John Polonius

3

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

.211

.253

.289

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Keury Mella, W, 4-2

5.0

3

2

2

2

7

0

2

0

3.29

89

56

Dan Slania

2.0

2

2

0

0

3

0

0

0

2.70

22

18

San Jose hitters, quite the opposite of their Sacramento and Richmond colleagues, busted out the whomping sticks in this one. They had 11 hits, including 5 for XB, in addition to 3 BB and a HB.  Angel Villalona officially loves being back in the Cal as he launched his 4th HR in just 11 games with SJ. And Brian Ragira hit his team leading 7th HR in addition to a double.

Ryder Jones, boosted to the #3 spot in the order in this game really responded with two hits, a RBI double and a walk.

Arroyo's double was his 15th of the season despite missing nearly two months' playing time. Also, we have a "he can hit!" alert:

Let's watch both the talented 2013 draftees go to work:

Keury Mella had his final game before his Future's Game appearance and his wicked stuff was in evidence right from the beginning, as he either K'd or hit all of the first 7 batters he faced. Fortunately most of them were K'd, though as Pedro Martinez used to say, sometimes hitting guys isn't the worst thing in the world either. Joe Ritzo had him in the 93-96 throughout. He surrendered only 3 hits, but two were clustered together in the 2nd following a HB, accounting for his 2 ER allowed.

Dan Slania's been in a bit of a post-All Star funk, allowing runs in 4 out of his 5 appearances since the break, although these runs were unearned in this game.

And for those not headed to Sacramento for that pitching matchup, you might want to head to SJ where Ray Black once again takes the start, lighting up radar guns and hearts alike.


* * *

Augusta lost to Kannapolis Intimidators (White Sox), 3-1 in Gm 1 of their DH

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

CF

Johneshwy Fargas

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

.292

C

Aramis Garcia

4

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.235

RF

Dylan Davis

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.212

2b

Travious Relaford

3

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.277

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Samuel Coonrod, L 5-3

6.0

5

3

3

2

7

0

0

0

2.78

Rodolfo Martinez

0.2

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

3.12

Augusta lost to Kannapolis Intimidators, 4-3 in 10 innings in Gm 2
losing their four game series 1-3

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SLG

CF

Johneshwy Fargas

4

1

1

3

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

.291

.357

.367

SS-2b

Travious Relaford

3

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

.285

.363

.367

1b

Skyler Ewing

4

0

2

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

.230

.295

.311

DH

Aramis Garcia

5

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

.230

.323

.394

3b-1b

Jonah Arenado

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.258

.281

.362

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

D.J. Snelten

6.0

4

1

1

0

10

0

0

1

3.06

Carlos Alvarado, BS 4

1.0

3

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

3.75

Carlos Diaz

2.0

1

0

0

2

3

0

0

0

1.97

Reyes Moronta, L 1-5

1.0

1

1

1

0

1

0

0

0

4.84

The Greenjackets wasted some tremendous starting pitching in dropping both halves of this double header.  Sam Coonrod and D.J. Snelten combined for 17 Ks, 2 BBs, 4 ER in 12 innings of work, but all for naught. Snelten's start was the extraordinary one with 10 Ks and 0 BBs over 6 dominating innings. It's Snelten's second consecutive double digit K game and he now has 30 Ks in his last three starts, covering 19 IP. His walks in those three starts have gone from 3 to 1 to 0 and he's given up a total of 3 Runs. Clearly, once he got adjusted to the new environment the demotion has done Snelten good. We'll see if he can continue to turn his solid lefty stuff into success at higher levels the next time he gets the chance.

There wasn't a whole lot of good things to say about the offense that turned all of that great pitching into a sweep, but a couple of things are worthy noting. Travious Relaford came off the DL and got his first game action in over a month, going 3 for 6 with a SB. Also, Johneshwy Fargas' had an excellent day. He reached base 4 out of 9 PA in the double header, with 1 BB and 1 K. He stole his 40th base of the year, and in the second game he launched a 3 run HR, his second of the year, which looked like it would reward Snelten with a Pitcher Win for his great effort.

Alas, in the top of the final inning (the 7th) Carlos Alvarado blew the two run lead with a slight assist from Skyler Ewing who dropped a cutoff throw, allowing the tying run to score from third. That sent it into extras where the Greenjackets continued to get on base but couldn't push across the winner. In the end, the game of inches teased them enough to slip the knife of hope in:

And for just a bit more bad news, the Greenjackets also had two players limp off the field in the first game as Dylan Davis pulled up running the bases and was replaced with some kind of leg tweak, and then Rodolfo Martinez limped off the mound three batters into his appearance.

Bad day at the office.

* * *

Salem-Keizer lost to the Tri-City Dust Devils (Padres) 6-5 in 11 innings

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SLG

CF

Steven Duggar

5

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

.241

.353

.345

C

Miguel Gomez

6

1

3

4

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

.348

.352

.522

1b

Christopher Shaw

5

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

3

0

0

.281

.395

.375

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Michael Connolly

4.2

7

3

3

5

3

0

0

0

4.29

Cory Taylor

2.2

2

1

1

1

3

0

0

1

4.15

Caleb Smith

2.0

1

0

0

0

5

0

0

0

4.50

E.J. Encinosa, L 1-1

1.0

1

1

1

1

2

0

0

1

3.00

22 year old Catcher Miguel Gomez spent three years as an "old for his level" player in the DSL, but he always hit there. And now that he's gotten a chance to move up he's continued to hit, proving to be the most reliable force in the Volcanoes offense. He had three of the team's 10 hits in this game, and knocked in 4 of their 5 runs, three of them on his 3rd HR of the year.

That was most of the offensive excitement for SK in this game, though some other excitement was to be had:

Starter Michael Connolly, the 27th round pick in the 2013 draft out of the University of Maine has done little to impress thus far on the year. With Marshall joining the team one wonders if he or the equally unimpressive Nicholas Gonzalez will have to move aside or whether they'll move to a six man rotation.

Hard throwing Caleb Smith had a fantastic appearance in this game, K'ing 5 of the 7 batters he faced. He now has 16 Ks (4 BBs) in 8 IP. The 17th rounder is definitely a candidate to be a huge value pick from the 2014 draft. E.J. Encinosa on the other hand, continues to have a very frustrating pro career. Part of the 2012 draft he got his first taste of full season ball just this year, and it went very badly, so now he's back in Short Season ball for the fourth year and still having problems.

* * *

AZL Giants lost to the AZL Angels, 6-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

Kelvin Beltre

2

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

.500

.500

.500

SS

Jalen Miller

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

.378

.452

.405

LF

Byron Murray

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

1

0

.276

.317

.466

C

Zachary Bowers

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

.000

.000

.000

3b

Nathanael Javier

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

.191

.191

.277

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Tyler Cyr, L, 0-1

1.0

2

3

1

1

2

0

0

0

2.25

Kendry Melo

3.0

1

1

1

1

6

0

1

1

4.00

Jose Morel

2.0

1

0

0

1

3

0

0

0

0.96

The two-headed Beltre/Miller SS tandem had a fine collective day going 3 for 4 with 3 SB.  I know many here really dislike this arrangement, but I personally don't think it's a big issue this summer as Miller is transitioning from HS ball where he played twice a week and Beltre only has 72 at bats in his pro career. Easing the teenagers into the rigors of everyday play seems a good idea with plenty of rest in between.  But moving forward, it will be very interesting to see how the Giants approach this situation. I suspect they'll hope Beltre is advanced enough to make the bigger level leap next year (maybe SJ?), but even that still leaves Miller and Fox battling for playing time. It'll be a happy challenge.

Zachary Bowers has got to be itching for his first pro hit, having gone hitless now in his first three gmaes. And while he hasn't faced the medical challenges of fellow 2012 bonus baby Gustavo Cabrera, Nathanael Javier's career hasn't really gone the way I'm sure he and the Giants hoped it would either. In a little over 300 PA in three years, he's hit .218/.255/.304, sandwiched around a 50 game suspension for a violation of the Joint Drug Agreement.

Tyler Cyr is another hard-thrower from the 2015 crop. At Embry-Riddle U (NAIA) he K'd 98 and walked 50 in 86 IP this year, helping the Eagles to a 3rd place finish in the NAIA World Series. Kendry Melo, who was signed for $500k at the end of the 2012-2013 IFA signing period, had the best game of his pro career, surrendering just 1 hit over 3 IP with 6 Ks.

For those wondering where 1st round pick Phil Bickford is, he's not far away and I suspect we'll see him soon:

* * *

DSL Giants lost to DSL Mets1, 4-0

Age

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

2b

18.9

Manuel Geraldo

4

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

2

0

0

.323

RF

17.3

Sandro Fabian

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

.258

DH

17.4

Beicker Mendoza

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.277

CF

17.6

Jose Patino

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

.258

SS

17.2

Jose Rivero

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.167

3b

17.2

Francisco Medina

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.255

Age

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

20.0

Melvin Adon

5.0

3

0

0

1

7

0

0

2

3.31

17.6

Jasier Herrera

0.1

2

3

3

1

0

0

0

1

7.59

The DSL team, second in the league in runs scored with 220 in 33 games, suffered their first shutout of the year. They had just six hits, 2 BB, and 0 HB (very odd for a DSL game). And after I was just bragging on him yesterday, Jose Patino went 0 for 3 and got thrown out on the bases twice. Classic.

Jasier Herrera, who was signed for $150k last year, hasn't shown much in games to justify the bonus. But the 17 year old is likely following the Michael Santos program of being eased into games while they work to put some beef on his skinny 6'5" 180 lb frame.

* * *

Final thought: Kids, if I were you, I'd listen to what this man has to say:

Good to see one of my childhood favorites keeping touch with the great game.

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