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SF Giants Minor Lines 4/14

Relievers in the spotlight! We congratulate Derek Law while salivating over Ray Black.

By Roger

Congrats to Derek Law, whose major league debut is soon at hand:

Not too far behind Derek, another Giants' reliever was busy exciting visiting scouts last night:

How'd it work out? That's why we have Minor Lines!

HIGHLIGHTS: Hak-Ju Lee had 3 hits w double, HR; Steven Duggar had a double, HR. Ray Black and Rodolfo Martinez threw perfect innings with 2 Ks. Tyler Cyr struck out 6 over 3 innings.

Sacramento lost at Las Vegas 51s (Mets), 6-2
splitting four game series, 2-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

2b

Ramiro Pena

4

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

.370

.452

.481

RF-1b

Ryan Lollis

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

.286

.310

.393

LF-RF

Jarrett Parker

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

.154

.241

.154

SS

Hak-Ju Lee

4

1

3

1

1

0

1

0

1

.391

.462

.739

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Chris Stratton L 0-2

5.0

9

6

6

2

6

0

0

1

9.82

90

55

Mike Broadway

1.0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

9.00

14

9

Clayton Blackburn

1.0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3.00

5

4

Chris Stratton opened his outing with 4 terrific innings last night, allowing just three hits, while striking out 5 and walking none through four. But the wheels came off in the 5th and he ended up allowing 3 runs each in the 5th and 6th innings. In the 6th inning he failed to retire a batter.  In the end, Stratton's line was almost identical to his first outing, as he's allowed 6 Runs on 9 Hits in both his first two starts.

After getting scratched from his start the previous night, Clayton Blackburn got in an inning of work to keep him on schedule for his next start.

The Sacramento offense was once again quieted. Though they scattered 12 hits through the lineup, 10 were singles and no other batters reached. The offensive star, as he has been through the early going for the RiverCats was SS Hak-Ju Lee, who collected the teams only two XBH. With a suddenly banged up MI at the major league level, Lee's looking like some pretty decent depth.

The RiverCats finally come back to Raley Field for their home opener tonight, following a 2-6 road trip.

* * *

Richmond beat the Altoona Curve (Pirates), 2-1

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

LF

Myles Schroder

4

1

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

.300

.344

.433

SS

Christian Arroyo

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

.375

.412

.438

CF

Austin Slater

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

.300

.382

.533

RF

Hunter Cole

4

0

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

.111

.143

.111

3b

Ryder Jones

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.281

.281

.500

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Adalberto Mejia

4.2

3

1

1

3

5

0

0

1

1.86

82

49

Jose Casilla

2.0

1

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

0.00

26

17

Dan Slania, W 2-0

1.0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.00

7

6

Ray Black, S, 2

1.0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

3.00

11

9

Adam McInturff, a senior scout for Baseball Prospectus, dropped in for the Squirrels home opener, and I'd definitely recommend checking out his twitter timeline (@WAdam_McInturff) for observations on many of the Richmond players, including Ryder Jones, Dan Slania, Jose Castilla, etc etc. Hopefully a writeup will follow soon.

For now, I'll concentrate on what he had to say about Adalberto Mejia and Ray Black. Mejia has opened the year with back to back outstanding starts, allowing just a single run in both of them while striking out 12 in 9.2 IP.  He did uncharacteristically walk three last night, and was quickly pulled after 4.2 IP, perhaps because he exceeded an early season pitch count. He had thrown 75 pitches in his first start. Let's see what Adam had to say:

Not a full-throated roar in favor of Mejia, but rather a description of something like a left-handed version of Clayton Blackburn with a tick more stuff. An encouraging package that should be able to provide value in some major league role.

But, of course, the real star of the show was Ray Black.

Now that's full-throated, shoe pounding excitement. Let's watch!

While we're enjoying the arm, let's not sleep on that high striped socks style!

Soon... Ray....Soon!

After picking up his first hit of the year the day before, Hunter Cole had two more hits, including a single that drove in the game winner.

* * *

San Jose won at Inland Empire 66ers (Angels), 4-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

CF

Ronnie Jebavy

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

.111

.200

.111

RF

Steven Duggar

4

2

2

1

1

0

1

0

0

.350

.425

.700

SS

CJ Hinojosa

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

.333

.429

.333

1b

Chris Shaw

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

.300

.333

.400

C

Aramis Garcia

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

1

.333

.529

.417

LF

Johneshwy Fargas

3

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

.294

.429

.647

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Jason Forjet, W 1-0

5.0

1

0

0

1

8

0

0

1

0.00

Dusten Knight

2.0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

0.00

Reyes Moronta

1.0

2

2

2

1

2

0

0

1

6.00

Rodolfo Martinez, S 3

1.0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

0.00

San Jose scored single runs in 4 different innings to secure the win in their first road game of the year. Steven Duggar got them on the board quickly, hitting a solo HR in the top of the 1st. After hitting just 1 HR in more than 250 PA in the NWL last year, he's now hit 2 in 5 games in Cal League. Duggar's come out of the shoots hitting in his full-season debut and hopefully looks primed for a nice Cal League season.  On the flip side of the coin, his OF partner Ronnie Jebavy has scuffled in this opening week, going just 2 for 18 to open the year.  In last night's game, Jebavy also got caught stealing for the 3rd time on the year. After stealing successfully on 23 of 30 attempts last year, he's been CS on his first 3 attempts in the early goings in the Cal League.

Johneshwy Fargas had both a SB (3) and a CS (2) last night. It will be interesting to see how well his ultra-aggressive style succeeds at this higher level. But his speed single-handedly got the Giants their 3rd run last night. I wish I had video of this but unfortunately Inland Empire has no video feed. Here's how it's described in the game feed though. Following a HBP, Fargas advanced to 2b on this play:

  • Brandon Bednar grounds out, pitcher Dixon Llorens to shortstop David Fletcher to first baseman Jeff Boehm. Johneshwy Fargas to 2nd.

Possibly beat a throw on a sac bunt? Or just beat the front half of a double-play on a comebacker? He then stole 3b and came in to score on a WP. Speed! An inning later, Duggar doubled and he too scored on a pitch that got away from the Catcher. Those two speed runs made the difference in the game.

Jason Forjet was no doubt disappointed to be returned to the Cal League after his fantastic 2015 campaign, but he's not letting that disappointment show on the mound:

Forjet continues his role as a steadying influence for the young San Jose staff, throwing up zeroes after zeroes. Dusten Knight was rotated onto the staff before last night's game, taking Carlos Diaz' place after Diaz' disastrous outing on Wednesday.

Rodolfo Martinez threw a perfect 9th inning with 2 Ks for the save. Rodolfo is a perfect 3 for 3 in save opportunities. He's faced 11 batters and retired 9 of them, with 3 Ks and 0 BBs. Rodolfo was hitting the high 90s consistently in spring games and mixing in a devastating breaking ball. Yet another thrilling late inning power arm on the way.

* * *

Augusta lost to the Charleston RiverDogs (Yankees), 3-1

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

Lucius Fox

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

2

.167

.259

.292

2b

Jason Miller

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

.367

.387

.750

1b

Dillon Dobson

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

.286

.382

.750

3b

Kelvin Beltre

4

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

2

.200

.310

.360

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Phil Bickford L 0-2

4.0

4

2

2

1

6

0

0

0

5.19

Tyler Cyr

3.0

1

1

0

1

6

0

0

0

1.23

Heath Slatton

2.0

1

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

5.06

First Augusta home game means first scouting reports of the year from friend of ML, David Lee, which we're always happy to see. You can find his game story here:

But of course, we need some first hand views of Phil Bickford's second outing, when he once again piled up some Ks, but didn't last too long. What do we make of last year's 1st round pick?

Lee's velo readings on Bickford naturally threw up some red flags around the twitterverse, though David didn't seem to think it was a big deal:

Bickford's start to the year has provoked lots of questions, but so far the stuff is playing for sure. He's now K'd 16 of the 34 batters he's faced in two starts. It will be really interesting to see how far he can get stretched out while still maintaining the effectiveness of his stuff. This has always been the big question with Bickford, though at 6'4" he would figure to have a frame that can stand up to innings at some point.

One more reliever appearance to note: After this dominant outing in which he K'd 6 over 3 innings of work, Tyler Cyr has faced 27 batters this year, and he's now K'd 15 of them.  Still good!

Unfortunately, the Greenjackets young bats were totally shut down on this night by lefty Josh Rogers, the Yankees 11th round pick last year off of the University of Louisville's excellent staff. The offense produced just 3 hits and 2 walks. Only one of the hits went for extra bases (Beltre's double) and worse yet, of the five baserunners they managed on the night, two of them were picked off.

Fight another day, kids! Every team seems to have one major prospect getting off to a terribly cold start. Augusta has several of them, and given the youth of the lineup that's probably not too surprising. But concern definitely exists that some of the youngest, like Manuel Geraldo (.077/.111/.115) and Lucius Fox will be able to keep their heads above water and survive the leap to full-season ball. Fingers crossed!

* * *

Final home opener tonight for Sacramento, while everybody else continues the series they began last night.  Mound highlights for tonight will be the second starts of the year from Andrew Suarez and Chase Johnson. Also Logan Webb looks to rebound from a rough first start.

Pitching Matchups:
Sacramento: Matt Lujan vs. Tyler Skaggs
RIchmond: Chase Johnson vs. Tyler Eppler
San Jose: Andrew Suarez vs. Jeremy Rhoades
Augusta: Logan Webb vs. Simon De La Rosa

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