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SF Giants Minor Lines, 5/20

I'd recommend just skipping down to the A ball section.

By Roger

Discussion topic: Jordan Johnson's K9 is 6. Sam Coonrod's is 5.5. Tyler Beede's has improved this year, but it's still below 8. Chase Johnson's is 5.5. All have excellent ERAs on the year. So, does the lack of Ks from the system's best power armed starting pitchers disturb you?

HIGHLIGHTS: Dillon Dobson doubled twice and homered.  Cory Taylor K'd 5 over 6 dominant innings.

Sacramento lost at Nashville Sounds (A's), 2-1

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

RF

Ryan Lollis

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

.274

.320

.385

DH

Mac Williamson

4

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

2

.289

.330

.526

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Chris Heston L 0-4

6.2

3

2

2

4

5

1

1

0

4.45

Mike Broadway

0.1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

4.50

Daniel Mengden (Nashville)

7.0

5

1

1

1

8

0

0

0

0.67

The RiverCats scored a run off Nashville's Daniel Mengden last night, which is actually good news. It was only the 4th run that Mengden had allowed this year in 50 IP. The command over stuff righty was acquired from Houston last year in the Scott Kazmir deal, and was Oakland's #24 prospect coming into the season. Mengden limited the RiverCats to just five hits, and an 0 for 6 with RISP to gain the win. Sacramento managed their lone run when Mac Williamson doubled down into the LF corner to bring around Ryan Lollis.

The lack of runs doomed Chris Heston to an undeserved loss. Heston struggled with control in this start, walking four and hitting another, but he limited Nashville to just three hits. A solo HR in the 4th proved to be the winning run against him. When he could command the stuff it had swing and miss effectiveness as he K'd 5.

The four game series continues tonight.

* * *

Richmond lost to the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers), 6-1

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

3b

Christian Arroyo

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

.261

.296

.352

CF

Austin Slater

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

.306

.392

.444

RF

Hunter Cole

4

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

.243

.311

.309

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Chase Johnson

6.2

5

1

0

3

3

0

1

0

3.68

Christian Jones BS L 0-2

1.1

6

5

5

1

0

0

0

0

6.35

Ray Black

1.0

0

0

0

1

2

0

0

0

7.98

The drumbeat hit 14 yesterday, and now Richmond hits the field today trying to avoid matching 2015's franchise high 15 game losing streak (on the bright side, that team ended up nearly making the playoffs!). Once again, the primary culprits were a wheezing offense and a leaky bullpen. A walk and two singles pushed across a run in the bottom of the first, but that was all the run scoring the team would do. They had five more singles and three walks the rest of the game but went 0 for 5 with RISP after Cole's first inning single. Once again too few base runners and no power made for a feeble combination.

Still, Chase Johnson made that one run stand up as long as he was in the game, putting up 6 innings of zeroes. He had some help from his friends at key moments though.

RVA announcers noted that Chase looked like he had more consistent drive out of his lower half last night, and he occasionally flashed an outstanding hard (high 80s) slider, twice getting Erie hitter Connor Harrell swinging at the pitch:

Unfortunately, Chase left the game in the 7th with a man on and then the other main weakness of this Richmond team kicked in: a bullpen that is far too prone to blowups. Christian Jones came in with a runner on 1st and two outs and immediately moved the guy to 3rd with an errant pickoff (drink!), and then allowed a run scoring single. Having dinged up Chase's line a little, Jones came back out in the 8th and really did a number on his own, with a 5-run 8th inning. Jones allowed 7 of the first 8 batters he faced to reach base.

The bullpen ERAs on the current roster: 7.98, 6.59, 5.40, 5.06, 6.35 and our two A students, 2.70 (Tyler Mizensko) and 0.00 (Tyler Rogers).

With the game out of reach, the 9th still featured a little bit of interest as Ray Black made the first appearance of his career on back-to-back nights, an important step in his development. Black was much better than the previous night, striking out two of the four batters he faced.

Prior to the game, Richmond made a few personnel moves. Ben Turner was assigned to Richmond and made his first AA start at Catcher. No offsetting move was announced, but you have to wonder about the health of the other Catchers. And in a sad, but not terribly surprising move, Mike Kickham was given his release.

* * *

San Jose won at Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Dodgers), 4-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

CF

Ronnie Jebavy

4

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

0

.238

.302

.340

RF

Steven Duggar

4

1

3

0

0

0

0

0

1

.293

.414

.534

C

Andrew Susac

4

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.250

.250

.250

DH

Chris Shaw

4

1

1

2

0

0

1

0

0

.310

.380

.566

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Jordan Johnson W 5-2

6.0

8

1

1

3

3

1

0

1

2.85

Rodolfo Martinez S 11

1.0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1.04

Hyun-Jin Ryu (RC)

3.0

3

3

1

0

1

2

0

0

1.80

The Road Warriors just keep piling up wins. With 11 victories now in their last 13 road games and on a 14-4 run overall, the Giants have now pulled into a first-place tie with Visalia in the Northern Division. First half winners get preference in Cal league playoff formats, so this run could be setting the team up nicely for September.

San Jose faced off against major leaguer Hyun-Jin Ryu, making his 2nd rehab start off 2015 shoulder surgery. And the Giants touched him up early. Chris Shaw went deep off the lefty in the first inning for his 8th HR of the year. Two innings later, Ronnie Jebavy touched him up for a HR as well, Jebavy's 1st HR this season.

A surprise member of the starting lineup was C Andrew Susac, making a rehab stint with SJ while Sacramento is off in the EST. Susac is expected to stay with SJ for the weekend series and then rejoin Sacramento when they come home on Monday.

Good friend Conner Penfold was actually at the game last night, and you can read his writeup here, including video of Jebavy's HR and more. (Conner's stuff is behind a very minimal paywall but everybody should totally pay up because his stuff is fantastic).

The Giants had less success with the non-major leaguer portion of the Quakes staff, scoring just one 9th inning run after Ryu left the game. But Steven Duggar put together another fine night. He had half of the team's six hits and threw a runner out at home and made a spectacular defensive play on the night. Duggar and Shaw are each posting OPS in the .950 range on the year.

Jordan Johnson wasn't exhibiting his normal command last night, but the stuff was still good enough to get by. Though he negotiated heavy traffic throughout his six innings, he was only touched up for one solo HR on the night (thanks in part to Duggar's efforts mentioned above. Again, you can read much more about Johnson's night at Conner's site, but here's the Executive Summary:

Rodolfo Martinez ended it with what looks to be a perfect 9th, but apparently that perfection hides a bit of drama:


* * *

Augusta won at Rome Braves, 8-5

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

SS

Lucius Fox

4

2

1

1

0

0

0

1

0

.214

.328

.304

2b

Jalen Miller

5

1

2

2

0

1

0

0

1

.259

.286

.378

1b

Dillon Dobson

5

2

3

4

2

0

1

0

0

.285

.329

.519

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Cory Taylor W 3-0

6.0

4

1

0

1

5

0

0

1

1.93

Matthew Pope

0.0

0

3

3

3

0

0

0

0

10.32

Caleb Smith

1.0

0

0

0

2

3

0

0

0

4.63

The Greenjackets have really feasted on a very strong Rome starting staff this year, and this was no exception as they bludgeoned Atlanta's #15 prospect Ricardo Sanchez for 7 runs in the first two innings. It was the second time this month that Augusta had touched Sanchez up for 7 runs.

The big rally was a 5 run 2nd that included run scoring hits from the first three batters in the lineup. Sitting on 3-0 lead after Lucius Fox singled in the first run, Jalen Miller broke it open with this bases clearing triple lashed into the gap.

And then Dillon Dobson, who had already doubled in a run in the 1st, provided the cherry on top with this blast.

Like Chris Shaw, that gave Dobson 8 HRs on the year, which ties him for the lead in the Sally. Dobson's not going anywhere as long as Shaw's in SJ (and quite possibly even beyond that), but he's definitely announcing his presence in the Augusta lineup. Could he be having an Adam Duvall-esque Sally league breakout?

The runs supported a truly dominant starting performance from Cory Taylor, who's having one of the sleeper breakouts of the system this year. Taylor surrendered just one unearned run (the defense had a dreadful night with 5 errors, led by Fox who had 3 of them) over 6 innings, pounding the Rome batters with a hard sinking fastball that collected 5 Ks and 12 groundouts. The burly right-hander allowed almost no contact into the air all night.

Hot take: is it possible that Taylor's having a better campaign than Phil Bickford thus far? 1.93 ERA and a 36 to 10 K/BB ratio in 32 IP are mighty compelling!

Of course it wouldn't be a Greenjackets game without a bit of messiness from the bullpen.  Matthew Pope walked all three batters he faced, and all three would come around to score. Pope has been next level wild this year, walking 18 (against 15 Ks) in just 11 innings of work. In his last three appearances (covering just 3.1 IP) he's walked 7 batters.

* * *

Another fun day of game's today, with both the A ball clubs getting to test themselves against premium stuff. Augusta goes up once again against the Braves Touki Toussaint while San Jose gets their first look at Yaisel Sierra, the strong armed Cuban pitcher who the Dodgers signed to a 6 year/$30 million deal this winter, in their continuing efforts to rid themselves of money.

But most of all on this day I have one thought: please please  please Richmond, win a game! Where oh where is Kelvin Marte when we need him?

Pitching Matchups:
Sacramento: Ty Blach vs. Chris Smith
Richmond: Matt Gage vs. Josh Turley
San Jose: Mark Reyes vs Yaisel Sierra
Augusta: Michael Connolly vs. Touki Toussaint

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