SF Giants Minor Lines, 8/10/15

HIGHLIGHTS: C.J. Hinojosa had 3 hits, including triple and HR. Grant Watson threw 5 shutout innings with 5 Ks. Robert Antunez had 4 hits.

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Sacramento had a scheduled off day
This is their final off day of the season

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RIchmond lost at Bowie Bay Sox (Orioles), 11-3

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA
LF	Myles Schroder	4	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.247
SS	Rando Moreno	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	.285
2b	Austin Slater	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.299
DH	Ricky Oropesa	3	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.251

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
Kelvin Marte L, 9-4	5.0	11	6	6	1	0	2	0	0	2.53	72	44
Edwin Quirarte	2.0	3	3	3	2	3	0	0	0	3.90	34	20
Kyle Crick	0.1	2	2	2	3	1	0	0	0	3.07	34	14

.@GoSquirrels Marte ranks 3rd in the EL in ERA (2.11). Tonight is his 30th career start as a member of Richmond. First pitch 7:05 PM.

— Jay Burnham (@Burnham_Jay) August 10, 2015

This was not the finest of Kelvin's 30 EL starts as he was pounded for 6 runs over 5 innings. In a brutal final stretch of the season where 19 of their final 29 games are on the road, the Squirrels looks to be in desperate need of some energy. They've now lost 8 of their last 9 road games and are just 5-13 on the road since July 1. They have three more games in this series vs. 1st place Bowie, and if they can't find some fresh legs at some point over the next couple of weeks, it might not be the playoffs they have to worry about but rather their .500 season. It would be a real shame if they fall short of a winning season after the great work they did pulling themselves out of the cellar in the spring.

It didn't take long for this game to become non-competitive as Bowie scored in five of the first six innings (and six of eight overall) and held a 9-1 lead at one point. In the finishing touch, Kyle Crick came on in the 8th in his Mr. Hyde incarnation, forcing Richmond to burn another reliever (Phil McCormick) in garbage time to get out of the inning. Crick walked his first batter on four balls, and never settled in much better than that. In all he walked three and gave up two hard hit singles (both on 3 ball counts) before being replaced by McCormick who saved Crick's line by immediately inducing a double play.

Richmond hitters scattered six hits (all singles) and two walks through the game. Only Myles Schroder and Rando Moreno reached base twice in the game.  One thing to keep an eye on with Richmond's offense: Hunter Cole, who's certainly been the Squirrels best hitter lately, missed his second consecutive game.

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San Jose had a scheduled off day
They have one off day remaining in the season

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Augusta had a scheduled off day
They have one off day remaining in the season

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Salem Keizer lost to Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks), 5-4

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA
RF	Steven Duggar	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	1 (PO)	.277
2b	Richard Amion	4	1	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	.269
CF	Ronnie Jebavy	5	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.244
SS	CJ Hinojosa	4	1	3	2	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	.275
DH	John Riley	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	.234

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Andrew Leenhouts	0.2	5	4	4	1	1	0	0	0	2.68
Eric Sim	1.1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3.54
David Owen	3.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2.38
Cory Taylor	2.0	3	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	2.05

An unusual blow-up start from two-time NWL All Star Andrew Leenhouts put the Volcanoes in a tough position from the start. They fought back to tie the game up in the 2nd on homers from Hinojosa and Julio Pena's 5th (tied for team lead). But Hillsboro pushed across a 5th run on a double play grounder in the top of the 3rd and there the score sat for the rest of the game. Salem-Keizer is now 1-7 vs the Hops who continue to have the league's best record.

C.J. Hinojosa has shown some decent pop in the NWL with 17 of his 41 hits on the season going for XB, albeit the lion's share of those have been doubles. This was his 2nd HR and 1st triple of the year. In all, six of the Volcanoes 11 hits in the game were for extra bases but nearly all of them were crowded into the first two innings of the game. The lone exception was the Volcanoes only good chance to tie the game, when Hinojosa tripled to lead off the 6th. But Riley, Pena, and Duggar all struck out to leave him stranded there.

The Volcanoes got mostly strong relief in the game, as the bullpen picked up 8.1 innings. Particularly notable were 2015 draftees David Owen and Cory Taylor. Taylor K'd 3 more without a walk and now has a 34% K rate to an 8% walk rate.

Disappointing score, but that doesn't mean the Oregonians went home unhappy:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Crater had a ton of fun at his 19th birthday, and he received many presents that will be donated to Toys for Tots! <a href="http://t.co/0YNSQoHpvx">pic.twitter.com/0YNSQoHpvx</a></p>&mdash; Volcanoes Baseball (@SKVolcanoes) <a href="https://twitter.com/SKVolcanoes/status/630945891474509824">August 11, 2015</a></blockquote>

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AZL Giants beat AZL Indians, 3-0

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA
SS	Jalen Miller	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	.225
CF	Mikey Edie	3	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.279
C	Zachary Bowers	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.160
RF	Roger Edwards	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	.221

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Grant Watson, W 2-0	5.0	3	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0.83
Kendry Melo	3.0	0	0	0	0	4	0	1	0	4.29
Heath Slatton, S 6	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.60

Collectively, the Giants three pitchers had 11 Ks, 0 BBs and 3 hits in this combined shutout. Former UCLA pitcher Grant Watson allowed the only 3 hits of the game, and he picked off two of the three runners at 1b. Watson, who is advanced for the level (and old at 22), has had an excellent debut for the AZL club.  He's allowed just 21 baserunners in 21.2 IP (18 hits, 3 walks), while striking out 25.

Kendry Melo received the highest signing bonus of the Giants' 2013 IFA class at $500k. Like his fellow signee Rodolfo Martinez, he features a premium fastball, though thus far in his career (two seasons in the AZL) he hasn't shown many signs of an ability to control it, with about a walk per inning. So a 4 K, 0 BB (albeit 1 HB) outing is nice to see.

Mikey Edie and Roger Edwards teamed up for the AZL Giants' offense.  Edie twice drove Edwards in, once on a ground ball single, and once on a Sac Fly.  Edie, the team's second youngest player (behind Hector Santiago), has his OBP up to .370, though with just two doubles on the year, he's SLG just .289.  Still, with plus plus speed and a plus arm, is it too early to assume he's going to be the next Johneshwy Fargas in a couple of years? No. No its not. Let's just assume that.

Ok, fine. For comparison's sake, Fargas was a .299/.393/.351 hitter in the AZL when he was 18 (he played the league about six months older than Edie,) then hit .240/.373/.329 hitter in SK last year as a 19 year old. They're both RHH only. At 6'1" Fargas is more projectible, as he has a little more body to add strength to than does the 5'11" Edie. Fargas was the Giants' 11th round pick in 2013 and signed for $100,000, while Edie signed for $400,000 out of the much more lucrative international market. They're both premium athletes.

OF Mikey Edie(left) with OF Ashford Fulmer on deck and 1B Dillon Dobson(right) out of Appalachian State, via @rambat pic.twitter.com/BniJAIBZiI

— GiantsProspectTalk (@giantsprospects) July 17, 2015

Before the game, more bad news for Kelvin Beltre who's yet to exhibit an ability to stay on the field:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AZL Giants placed SS Kelvin Beltre on the DL, activated C Kleiber Rivas. Injury plagued year for Beltre, was pulled from a game after a HBP.</p>&mdash; GiantsProspectTalk (@giantsprospects) <a href="https://twitter.com/giantsprospects/status/630887802255708160">August 10, 2015</a></blockquote>

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Giants having some very poor luck with some of their best international signings recently. Beltre has had just 149 PA thus far in his career over two seasons, while Gustavo Cabrera now has just 237 PA over three seasons, including just 8 in the last two.

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DSL Giants lost to DSL Orioles2, 11-9

	Age	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA
2b	19.4	Robert Antunez	5	3	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.323
SS	18.10	Manuel Geraldo	5	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.318
RF	17.5	Sandro Fabian	3	0	2	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	.254
DH	18.8	Mecky Coronado	5	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	.368
3b	17.4	Francisco Medina	5	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.267
C	19.4	Jesus Tona	2	1	1	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	.333

Age	Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
19.9	Norwith Gudino	5.0	8	4	3	1	8	0	0	2	3.83
21.7	Rey Ciriaco	0.1	7	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	7.15
20.11	Reymi Rodriguez, L, 4-3	3.2	2	2	0	1	5	0	1	1	2.04

Despite a 17-hit attack that led to an early 8-3 lead, the DSL Giants suffered a bullpen blowup that led to a 5 run 6th inning and the loss, mostly thanks to little used 21 year old reliever Rey Ciriaco. Prior to that Norwith Gudino had another solid start, though the team is certainly still missing Victor Concepcion's standard 7 or so shutout innings. Gudino does have a solid 43:8 K:BB ratio in 44.2 IP this year, but his ERA is the highest in the DSL Giants rotation.

19 year old 2b Robert Antunez is in his third DSL season, and he's had quite a leap in performances from 2014.  Last year in 138 ABs, he hit .188/.370/.225, and in almost exactly the same ABs this year he's hitting .323/.407/.354.  He's also stolen 22 bases in 24 attempts.

The top four hitters in the lineup (Antunez, Geraldo, Fabian, and Coronado) had 11 of the team's 17 hits. The team had just 1 walk in this one (and just 3 Ks) and only 2 XBH, one of which was Jesus Tona's 3rd HR of the year. Tona, a 19 year old Catcher out of Venezuela, has only had 60 ABs this year, but he's really hit in the opportunities given him, as he's sporting a .333/.474/.533 batting line, including more walks (15) than Ks (12), and a 25% XBH/H ratio driving that .200 Iso.

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Very short day today, with only one of the full-season clubs in action, but the off days are nearly out as the season is very quickly winding down. How did that happen?

Everybody's back at it today, though. Nik Turley, Matthew Gage, Luis Ysla, Pat Young, and Nolan Riggs are the scheduled starters. Riggs, who was recently moved out of the rotation, is stepping back into it, possibly taking Mac Marshall's place. Marshall last appeared on July 31. His previous two outings were both pretty rough, with lots of walks, so I suspect they're working with on things on the side.