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SF Giants Minor Lines 4/20

In which we discuss whether or not Phil Bickford throws an invisi-ball!

By Roger

It's time to delve into the mystery of last year's 1st round pick, Phil Bickford. He's racking up impressive K numbers, but radar readings are low. Holy cognitive dissonance, Batman! What's this all about?

Hmmm..... what could it possibly mean?

HIGHLIGHTS: Adalberto Mejia K'd 7, walked 0 in 6 IP; Dylan Davis hit 2 HRs, 4 RBIs

Sacramento lost to the Las Vegas 51s (Mets), 9-3

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

Other

LF

Ryan Lollis

4

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

.324

1b

Conor Gillaspie

5

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

1

.314

GIDP

RF

Jarrett Parker

4

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

2

.152

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Matt Lujan, L 0-2

4.0

5

4

4

6

2

1

0

1

4.85

91

42

Braulio Lara

1.2

6

4

4

1

2

0

1

0

5.19

52

32

Jake Dunning

2.1

0

1

0

1

2

0

0

0

2.08

39

22

On a lovely spring night in Sacramento, that oddly shaped white thing with all the points, played an excellent game of Hide and Go Seek with Sacramento starting pitcher Matt Lujan, who found himself almost completely incapable of finding the little demon. Lujan threw well less than half of his pitches for strikes, walking 6 batters in just 4+ innings of work, and mixing in five hits just for the fun of it. It's frankly amazing given all the traffic, that he came out of the game with as clean a line as he did.  After all that, the team was trailing just 3-2 when Lujan left, with a runner on 1st and nobody out. But Braulio Lara picked up the hard work of really putting the game out of reach. He allowed Lujan's final run to score then added four more of his own before the 6th inning was out.

Jarrett Parker's first couple of weeks have been nightmarish, and he's still striking out in half his at bats (23 Ks in 46 AB now with just 3 walks). But he did hit his first HR of the year in this game, and rather astonishingly, he did it on an 0-2 count. So let's celebrate that accomplishment!

Don't forget all bobblehead completionists need to make it out to Raley Field tomorrow night

* * *

Richmond beat Reading Fightin' Phils, 3-2 in 11th inn
losing their three game series, 1-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

Other

2b

Christian Arroyo

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

.283

IBB

1b

Ricky Oropesa

5

1

2

1

0

0

1

0

1

.212

GIDP

SS

Rando Moreno

4

1

3

0

0

0

0

0

1

.381

3b

Ryder Jones

4

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.283

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Adalberto Mejia

6.0

5

2

2

0

7

1

0

0

2.30

86

58

Dan Slania

2.0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

1.13

35

25

Jake  Smith

1.0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

13.50

10

7

The Flying Squirrels ended their six game homestand in style, walking it off in the 11th inning. The win broke a four game losing streak and was their second consecutive win to come down to the final swing of the bat. This time they walked off with a big fly, courtesy of Ricky Oropesa.

Adalberto Mejia had a terrific outing, striking out 7 and walking none over 6 innings. He was just one swing away from walking away a winner, but that one swing resulted in a two run HR to former big leaguer (mostly with the Cubs and Orioles) Jake Fox. But other than that pitch, Mejia had everything working and looked fantastic. He's getting many more swing and misses this year than in his shortened 2015 season. After three starts, Mejia's wracked up 19 Ks to just 4 walks in 15.2 IP, and he's allowed just 4 Runs, mostly the result of his 2 HRs he's surrendered.  Very very impressive start to the year for the big lefty.

The offense was exactly running on all cylinders for the Squirrels yesterday. They scored their first run thanks to back to back throwing errors by Reading infielders, and they scored their second run on a bases loaded walk, which followed an unintentional walk to move a runner into scoring position and an intentional walk to load the bases (so yeah, that's a bad idea).

But they finally got a run with a more traditional approach in the bottom of the 11th when Oropesa blasted off with his 5th HR of the year, which puts him 1 behind the EL leader David Dahl. Since his big opening weekend Oropesa has really cooled down.  In fact, when Ricky's not homering, he's not doing too much, as 5 of his 11 hits on the year have left the ballyard. Subsequently, it may not be terribly surprising, but still fascinating, that so far this year none of Oropesa's teammates have drive him in. He's hit 5 HRs; he's scored 5 runs. If he only had 5 RBIs (he has 9)!

Christian Arroyo is in a 5 for 29 skid over the last week. More than half of his 15 hits on the year have come in just 3 games.

* * *

San Jose lost at Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres) 17-3
losing their three game series, 1-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

Other

CF

Ronnie Jebavy

2

2

1

0

0

1

0

1

1

.171

HBP, CS (5)

SS

CJ Hinojosa

4

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

1

.333

DH

Chris Shaw

3

1

1

1

0

0

0

1

0

.300

RF

Steven Duggar

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

.341

OF Assist

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Jason Forjet, L 1-1

3.0

6

6

6

2

3

4

1

0

6.75

59

41

Jose Reyes

2.2

6

4

4

0

2

1

0

0

8.38

51

35

Jeff Soptic

1.0

1

4

4

3

1

1

0

0

9.53

29

11

Dusten Knight

1.1

3

3

3

0

0

1

0

0

13.50

26

16

Somehow, one of these teams was playing in Coors Field and the other was not. San Jose pitching allowed an amazing 7 HRs in this game, led by Jason Forjet who coughed up 4 homers in just 3 innings of work. Yowza! Lake Elsinore hitters had 16 hits in the game, a full half of which were XBH variety, plus 5 walks and a HBP. Disdaining such an ostentatious display of offense, the SJ bats displayed a more modest approach to their at bats, accruing just five hit with two XBH tastefully included, while walking five times themselves. They most certainly did NOT hit a ball entirely over any fence, as that would simply be gauche.

This was the Giants final game in Lake Elsinore in 2016, as it happens. So let us never speak of it again and pretend it never happened.

On a happier note, here's Johneshwy Fargas discussing his game saving throw from Tuesday night, as well as other assorted items:

The Giants will be back in SJ tonight to begin a 7 game homestand, fully refreshed no doubt from their 10 or so hour bus ride early this morning.

* * *

Augusta beat the Rome Braves, 9-5
sweeping their three game series, 3-0

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

Other

SS

Lucius Fox

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

.188

SB, Sac

2b

Jalen Miller

3

1

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

.298

SF, CS/PO

DH

Dillon Dobson

4

2

2

1

0

0

1

0

1

.333

RF

Dylan Davis

4

2

2

4

0

0

2

0

2

.277

LF

Gustavo Cabrera

3

1

1

0

1

0

0

1

1

.364

CF

Jean Angomas

4

1

2

2

1

1

0

0

1

.194

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Pitches

Strikes

Phil Bickford, W 1-2

5.0

5

3

3

2

8

0

1

0

5.27

81

53

Michael Connolly

3.0

4

2

1

1

6

1

0

0

3.12

53

36

Caleb Smith

1.0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

6.23

12

9

Once again yesterday, Phil Bickford came out blowing Ks every which direction.

And it's not just Ks with Bickford, he gets a tremendous amount of swing and miss.

What's interesting is that he seems to be doing all this at pedestrian radar readings. Though he got as high as 98 in the Cape Cod League as a reliever, he mostly sticks around 90 as a starter, and in each of his three starts this year there's been a period in the 4th/5th where fatigue started to show. Still, the final result in the Sally is producing some cartoon numbers. He's currently at 24 Ks (vs. 4 BB and 2 HBP) in 13.2 IP.

Another intriguing aspect of Bickford's year thus far, is that when he's not striking people out, he's giving up runs. Despite having K'd 24 of the 56 batters he's faced on the year, he's also given up 10 hits and 8 ER. His BABIP for the year is .385, and in his past two games it's .429 as he's allowed hits on 9 of the 21 balls put in play against him.

Curiouser and curiouser.

You can see some video of Bickford in the following David Lee video of Rome's Austin Riley. He's the one at the end, the RHP in the orange jersey (and he has a somewhat surprisingly violent delivery). The LHP is Mac Marshall, and the RHP in between is I believe Jake McCasland.

And here's another video from David that includes Mac Marshall and Michael Santos in action vs. Rome's Ronald Acuna.

The ball was flying at Lake Olmstead in this spring morning game, and the two power hitters in the middle of the Greenjackets order certainly took advantage of it.  Dillon Dobson regained the league lead with his 5th HR, and the 2014 3rd rounder Dylan Davis hit two shots, including a 3-run laser beam just inside the foul pole that gave Augusta the lead for good in the bottom of the 4th off of the Braves' prized LHP Max Fried. The two Diylloans went back to back in the 7th inning.

Also having a big day was Jean Angomas who doubled and tripled. The triple knocked in two runs at an important point, when it was still a one-run game entering the late innings.  Angomas hasn't had much success yet this year, but he's got a nice line drive swing.

And Jalen Miller also had a nice game after a few 0-fers this week. Miller drove in the first run of the game by singling in Fox, and later hit a Sac Fly to the warning track that just missed being a 3-run HR of his own.

And finally I should note that while Lucius Fox isn't having a lot of luck with the average yet, he's still doing a lot of things to make a pest of himself at the top of the order.  He's working plenty of walks (OBP .316), stealing bases, scoring runs and playing a dynamic SS. Even with the sub-Mendoza BA he's acting like he belongs at the top of the lineup.

All in all, a fine way to spend a morning for all those school kids

* * *

Pitching Matchups:
Sacramento: TBD vs Gabriel Ynoa
Richmond: Chase Johnson vs. Cody Dickson
San Jose: Andrew Suarez vs. Carlos Polanco
Augusta: Logan Webb vs. Brady Koerner

Ricky Romero is still currently listed as Sacramento's starter for tonight, but he was placed on the DL as a result of the flurry of moves from Tuesday. This is quite possibly going to be a start for Chris Heston, but it's hard to know for sure.

Enjoy the games everybody!

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