SF Giants Minor Lines 4/11

Seeing as how I love OF assists, and have no small amount of affection for Johneshwy Fargas, how about an early season Play of the Year candidate (even though we don't really see the play being made)?

The irony there is that the runner, the Rawhide's Henry Castillo, was only on 2b because Fargas had made a really unnecessary throwing error the play before, trying to show off his gun. Only use it when you need it Johneshwy!

HIGHLIGHTS: Ricky Romero goes 4 IP with one hit; Austin Slater 3 for 4 with HR; Steven Duggar reaches base 5x with HR, SB.

Sacramento lost at Las Vegas 51s (Mets), 5-2

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	Other
1b	Ryan Lollis	4	1	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	.188
LF	Mac Williamson	4	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.211
C	Andrew Susac	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.154
RF	Jarrett Parker	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.105
SS	Hak-Ju Lee	4	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	.313

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
Ricky Romero	4.0	1	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	0.00	62	35
Albert Suarez, L 0-1	3.0	7	3	3	1	3	0	0	0	9.00	57	36
Jake Dunning	1.0	2	2	2	1	0	0	1	1	9.00	20	13

The Las Vegas 51s don't have the firepower of last year's team, which included starting pitchers Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, but they still feature several of the Mets best prospects including SS Gavin Cecchini (#4), CF Brandon Nimmo (#5), and this game's starting pitcher, the control artist Gabriel Ynoa (#13) who held the RiverCats' offense in check over 5 innings.

At 0-5 now, new Sacramento manager Jose Alguacil may be starting to flashbacks to last April's 15-game losing streak with Richmond. A trip to Las Vegas didn't help Sacramento's scuffling offense any in the first game. And as long as the heart of the order is throwing up sub .200 BA probably nothing much is going to help them. With a hat-trick in this game, Jarrett Parker has now started the year off with 10 Ks in his first 20 PA, which...just.. ouch!  Andrew Susac actually has an OBP over .300 but has just 2 hits on the year as he tries to make up for lost swings in spring. The Sacramento offense managed just 8 baserunners in this game, with two XBH, both triples coming from Ryan Lollis and Hak-Ju Lee.

LHP Ricky Romero finally made his first appearance in full season ball for the Giants after rehabbing in Scottsdale all last year. And it was a good one, as Romero went 4 one-hit innings.  It's been awhile but Romero was a fine starting pitcher for Toronto in the early years of this decade, and isn't at all a bad lottery ticket depth guy to have in AAA.

Once Romero left things hit the rails quickly though, as Albert Suarez and Jake Dunning combined to put 12 men on base for the 51s over the next four innings and surrender 5 runs.

Hopefully Sacramento will manage to get a win on the board before coming home for opening night on Friday.

Raley Field looking ready for opening night! #sactown #orangefriday @RiverCats #SacramentoRivercats #clawsup pic.twitter.com/z3JKu9QYvD

— Brian McGovern Photo (@bmcg916) April 11, 2016

* * *

Richmond lost at Reading Fighting Phils 8-5

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	Other
LF	Myles Schroder	4	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	.235	Assist
SS	Christian Arroyo	4	2	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	.421
CF	Austin Slater	4	1	3	3	0	0	1	0	0	.333
RF	Hunter Cole	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
3b	Ryder Jones	4	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	.316	E (4)

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
Matt Gage, L 0-1	2.0	9	7	7	0	1	0	0	0	31.50	57	37

The Fightin' Phils are one of the better collections of prospect talent in the EL this year, featuring the Phillies' systems #1 prospect (and 6th best in baseball by BA) JP Crawford as well as the Phils #5 prospect Jorge Alfaro, who came over in the Cole Hamels trade.

And those two guys really ruined Matt Gage's 2016 debut, collecting 5 hits with 3 doubles, 4 runs scored and 4 RBIs between them. Though in fairness, it's probably easier to hit when they give you 4 strikes

Still, Gage's effort, surrendering 9 hits and 7 runs in just 2 innings of work, made this game an uphill climb for the Squirrels and they never could get all the way up the hill, despite an offensive effort that produced 10 hits, including 4 XBH.  The Squirrels are definitely a free swinging bunch, as they had 7 Ks vs. 0 BBs. This looks to be a trend for this aggressive group; for the year the team has 38 Ks and has produced just 6 BBs thus far on the year, which is by a goodly distance the least in the Eastern League.

Christian Arroyo had two more hits, including his first XBH of the season, but the hitting star for the team was Austin Slater, whose 3 hits knocked in 3 of the team's runs.

Five games into the year, Hunter Cole doesn't have an average yet, as Mike Krukow would say. Cole's been hitting into some tough luck with plenty of hard contact. But on the other hand, he also has been hitting a lot of OF depth line drives, neither top spinning balls in front of the OF nor backspinning them beyond the OF, and more often than not, OF depth line drives are going to get caught. Let's go Hunter, let's get yourself an average tonight!

2013 second round pick Ryder Jones has gotten off to a nice start in AA offensively, but he continues to struggle on the defensive side. Jones now has 4 errors in his first 5 games.

Kyle Crick returns to the starting rotation tonight for the first time since last June, beginning what's certainly going to be a crucial year for the former 1st rounder.

Time to put some wins on the board. The Giants value their young players experiencing winning, competitive baseball, so even though it's obviously very early, the organization can't be over pleased to see the two upper level clubs a combined 1-9 at this point.

* * *

San Jose lost to Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks) 6-5

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	Other
CF	Ronnie Jebavy	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.200
RF	Steven Duggar	3	1	2	1	0	0	1	2	1	.500	SB (1)
SS	CJ Hinojosa	4	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	.375	2 E (3)
1b	Chris Shaw	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	HBP
3b	Jose Vizcaino, Jr.	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	2	.286	SB (1), PO
DH	Jonah Arenado	4	1	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	.250

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
DJ Snelten	5.0	4	1	0	1	5	0	0	0	0.00	71	45
Pat Young	1.1	1	2	2	3	1	0	0	0	13.50	32	14
Carlos Diaz, BS 1	0.2	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	13.50	18	12
Jeff Soptic L 0-1	0.2	3	2	2	1	0	0	0	2	27.00	22	10

The Giants finally managed to get a game in, just their second of the year, but it didn't go their way as they lost a dramatic game vs. a Rawhide team they have really struggled to beat the last few years.

The offensive unit had an excellent night producing 15 baserunners and 4 XBH. The star of the night was RF Steven Duggar, who opened that toolbox we were discussing last week and put it to work. Duggar reached base in 4 of his 5 PA, and got himself a combo meal with his first SB and first HR of the season, a blast to CF.

Friend of Minor Lines, Wrenzie had an excellent interview with Duggar on his blog last week that you might enjoy reading in conjunction with that highlight.

DJ Snelten had an excellent return to the Cal League, going 5 innings, allowing just one unearned run (due to some sloppy fielding from CJ Hinojosa). But despite getting out to a 3-0 lead, the Giants found themselves behind in the late innings thanks to some poor middle relief work, particularly from Pat Young and Jeff Soptic (now in his 4th Cal league campaign), who both really struggled to throw strikes.

Down 6-4 in the 9th inning, the Giants strung together singles from Bednar, Duggar, and Hinojosa.  But with the tying run on second Chris Shaw (also missing an average so far) popped up, and following an Aramis Garcia walk that loaded the bases, Jose Vizcaino, Jr. struck out to end the game.

Nonetheless, Vizcaino remains a ML favorite! And you can listen to him bragging on his Dad ("he was clutch!") among other topics on last night's pregame show with Joe Ritzo here:

While enjoying this fine photo of him as well:

@SJGiants, @VizcainoJr on his toes, literally, during the home opener vs the Jethawks. @MiLB pic.twitter.com/jouS8RTHom

— Tim Cattera Photo (@TimCatteraPhoto) April 9, 2016

* * *

Augusta's game at Lexington Legends (Royals) was suspended in the top of the 3rd, 
Augusta leading 7-0

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	Other
SS	Lucius Fox	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.200	SB (2), E
DH	Jalen Miller	2	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	.429
1b	Dillon Dobson	2	2	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	.235
2b	Tyler Brown	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	.273

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA	Pitches	Strikes
Cory Taylor	2.0	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0.00	39	27

You can't stop Jalen Miller; you can only hope to suspend him with rain! Miller continues to make loud contact consistently, smoking two line drive singles last night before rain ended the game after the bottom of the second. He was in the middle of two different scoring rallies, starting off the 2-run 1st, and then coming up with the key blow in the 2nd.

After which, Dillon Dobson, whose got some serious pop!, provided the exclamation mark to the Greenjackets early game explosion:

The rains came soon after and put a premature end to the festivities. They'll pick it up in the top of the 3rd prior to tonight's scheduled game, but the result is a sadly shortened starting debut for Cory Taylor, who was a strike throwing, ground ball machine in his two innings of work last night.

It'll be interesting to see how Augusta tries to cover all those innings for tonight's DH. They'll need to get through 5 innings in the first game and 7 in the second.

* * *

So that makes for five games on tap tonight, including three eagerly anticipated debuts tonight from Crick, Marshall and possibly for me the eagerest of them all: Jordan Johnson. The Augusta regularly scheduled game features the matchup of the day, with 4th rounder Mac Marshall going against the Royals 2nd round pick last year in HS RHP Scott Blewett.

Matchups:

Ty Blach vs. Sean Gilmartin 
Kyle Crick vs. Alec Asher
Jordan Johnson vs. TBD
Mac Marshall vs Scott Blewett