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SF Giants Minor Lines, 6/5

In which a severe case of gopher-itis swept through the system.

By Roger

THE CONTINUING HITTING ADVENTURES OF BUNGALOW PHIL:
You may recall, when last we saw Phil McCormick at the plate, he was crushing a ground rule double while pitching for Sacramento. Saturday night, he got his first AB of the year in Richmond, going up against rehabbing major leaguer Matt Belisle. And what did he do? Should there be a doubt?

For the season, McCormick is now 3 for 4, sporting a robust .750/.750/1.000 slasher.

HIGHLIGHTS: Chris Heston struck out 8 over 7 IP; Ricky Oropesa doubled twice and HRd;

Sacramento lost to Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies), 6-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

LF

Austin Slater

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

.188

.278

.250

C

Miguel Olivo

4

2

3

2

0

0

2

0

0

.310

.328

.519

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Chris Heston L 1-6

7.0

6

2

2

2

8

2

1

0

4.11

Alex Torres

0.2

1

3

1

2

0

0

1

3

4.26

Chris Heston's last two home starts have been his best two games of the year, as he's surrendered just two runs over 13 IP while striking out 14.  In between the two, he did have a rather less successful six-run effort in the high climes of El Paso. Particularly notable about yesterday's game was that Heston hit his season high in Ks while walking just 2, after having three consecutive starts with 4 walks. Both of his walks came in the first two innings, before he really  settled in, retiring 11 straight batters from the 2nd through the 6th innings. The only thing that Heston really did wrong was surrender two solo HRs. The second of those, in the 7th inning, broke a 1-1 tie and hung Chris with the loss.

Solo HRs were the theme of this game, as five of the eight total runs scored on solo blasts. Two of them came off the bat of Sacramento's new clean-up hitter, Miguel Olivo (who really is the biggest bat left in the lineup unfortunately, when he's giving Susac a rest)! Olivo had half of Sacramento's hits, in addition to providing their only two runs. The 37 year old vet just keeps chugging along.

There was one ball that went over the fence with a runner on yesterday. But that one came to an unhappy conclusion. Unless, of course, you like to watch really good defense, which we always do (courtesy of former Rockie and Astro Brandon Barnes).

Reliever Alex Torres took a close game and helped put it out of reach with a true wild man performance. In the space of 7 batters he managed to walk two, hit one, and uncork three wild pitches. If you're gonna do it, do it right, I guess!

And just to close the loop on the Hak-Ju Lee story, after opting out the Giants had a 72 hour window to add him to the Active Roster and declined to do so. So...

* * *

Richmond beat Harrisburg Senators (Nats), 6-2
losing their three game series, 1-2

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

CF

Myles Schroder

3

0

1

1

0

0

0

2

0

.272

.329

.366

SS

Christian Arroyo

4

1

2

0

1

0

0

1

1

.289

.319

.402

1b

Ricky Oropesa

5

1

3

2

2

0

1

0

1

.230

.309

.414

RF

Hunter Cole

5

1

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

.240

.304

.333

2b

Ali Castillo

4

0

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

.317

.363

.374

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Andrew Saurez, W 2-2

6.0

6

2

2

0

2

1

0

0

5.34

Ray Black

1.0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

7.08

Tyler Rogers

1.0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.00

Richmond veteran 1b Ricky Oropesa had a hot weekend, as he posted 7 hits over the last four game to lift his average by 20 points, and put an exclamation mark on the run with three extra base hits on Sunday. Oropesa has just 40 hits on the year, but nearly a quarter of them (9) have been HRs and 14 of them have been XBH. Singles are overrated, right Ricky?

Oropesa's outburst was part of a 14 hit night, plus 4 walks and a HBP. They also had 6 XBH, as they finally got to feast on Senators pitching after being silenced for two nights by Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez et al. With Austin Slater gone, Ali Castillo's .317 BA would lead the league if he qualified (he's about 20 AB short).  It's a testimony to the difficulty of hitting in the EL that Christian Arroyo, who does qualify, is 7th in the league with his now .289 average. After seeing his average bottom out at .248 on May 18, Arroyo has gone 26 for 71 (.366) with 8 doubles and a HR. He's had 11 Ks to 2 BBs in that time.

Andrew Suarez has now made five starts in AA and he's surrendered 3, 8, 1, 8, and 2 runs in those games. I sense he's searching for some consistency level. (In fairness, only 11 of the 16 runs in the two blow-outs were earned). He was very effective in this game, with a solo HR (apparently the theme of the day) being his biggest mistake. Suarez' K rate has been cut in half with his promotion to AA, but that's not terribly surprising for the polish over stuff lefty.  As he continues to learn the subtleties of sequencing, adding and subtracting, and setting up batters I would imagine some of them will return.

I really enjoy the Ray Black appearances where he throws (a decent percentage of) strikes, Ks a couple guys and walks away (that is, he walks away off the mound, not he "BBs" everybody in his a-way). While it seem as if Black's been hit hard this year, it's worth noting that of the 16 runs he's allowed, 13 of them came in just four appearances covering 3.1 IP. In none of those four games did he manage to complete his assigned inning. But that leaves 18 games in which he's been very effective, and in face in 15 of his 22 games he's been unscored upon. Eight of his appearances have been perfect including his last two appearances, during which he's K 4 of 6 batters. As Owlcroft liked to say, he's essentially been the little girl with the curl this year, and when he's bad, he''s horrid.

But, speaking of perfect, Tyler Rogers 0.00 ERA continues, now up to 25.2 IP on the year. Rogers' twin brother Taylor, by the way, picked up his first major league Win this weekend for the Twins, and has been have outstanding success at the onset of his career. Here's hoping Tyler gets to join him for some family bragging rights someday soon.

* * *

San Jose lost to Bakersfield Blaze (Mariners), 7-5

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

RF

Steven Duggar

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

2

2

.288

.408

.503

SS

Brandon Bednar

4

1

3

2

1

0

0

0

0

.289

.332

.370

2b

Cristian Paulino

4

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

1

.216

.235

.284

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

Sam Coonrod, L 5-3

6.0

4

6

6

2

2

3

0

0

2.26

Sam Coonrod did some unfortunate channeling of Jeff Samardzija's latest outing in this one, surrendering 3 HRs to help send San Jose to a second consecutive loss to Bakersfield. Coonrod surrendered just four hits overall in his six innings, but not only did three-quarters of them leave the yard, but Coonrod maximized the damage by preceding two of the blasts with his only two walks of the game. The perfectly crummy storm caused Coonrod's ERA to jump from 1.45 to 2.26 in a single outing. Bakersfield ended up with 4 HRs on the night.

A night after walking four times, Steven Duggar picked up two more walks along with a run scoring double.  Chris Shaw went just 1 for 4 on the night, which was actually his first hit in five games, but the linescore doesn't tell the story fully (apparently today is the day of showing opponents making great plays to take away hits).

* * *

Augusta had an off night
They continue their homestand tonight vs. Columbia

The entire Sally had a league-wide Sunday off-day yesterday for reasons that are not immediately clear.

* * *

DSL Giants beat DSL Rojos, 4-3 (Saturday)

Age

Name

AB

R

H

RBI

2B

3B

HR

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

CF

18.6

Jose Patino

4

2

2

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

.500

LF-RF

18.1

Franklin Labour

3

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.333

1b

17.11

Angeddy Almanzar

3

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

.333

2b

17.1

Nishell Gutierrez

3

1

2

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

.667

Age

Name

IP

H

R

ER

BB

K

HR

HB

WP

ERA

17.6

Johan Herrera

5.0

5

2

1

0

3

0

0

0

1.80

17.4

Kervin Castro BS 1

2.0

1

1

0

2

3

0

0

2

0.00

19.10

Jesus Reyes W 1-0

2.0

0

0

0

2

3

0

0

0

0.00

Hey, the DSL season began Saturday. And since they followed opening night with their traditional Sunday off (see, it makes more sense when the DSL does it, because it's a weekly thing for them), let's look at the lid-lifter. As with the 2015 championship team, the 2016 edition has a tremendous amount of youth. In fact, this is almost certainly the youngest DSL lineup the Giants have ever fielded. Their lineup Saturday included four 18-year olds, four 17-year olds and a 16-year old, Diego Rincones who won't turn 17 for another 10 days, and who signed for $175k last year out of Venezuela. It's possible that, like Amaya last year, Rincones is the youngest player in organized ball this year.

Even two of the three pitchers in the game were 17, starter Johan Herrera and Kervin Castro who signed for $125 and $120k respectively last winter.  Herrera is a 6'1" RHP with a fast arm and fluid motion. His fastball sits in the 80s but he's a projectionable pitcher with room to grow. He changeup is considered advanced for his age. Castro is a Catcher-convert with arm strength and arm speed.

Another $125k signee was Nishell Gutierrez. Gutierrez was signed as a smallish Catcher out of Venezuela (Giants love their Venezuelans!). Because one of their bigger international signees last year, Ricardo Genoves ,is also a Catcher (with a strong defensive reputation), the Giants have been working the switch-hitting Gutierrez at 2b, where he played here. Not to push this too far, but the scouting report on Nishell bears some similarity to Miguel Gomez: an undersized Catcher who can fill in around the infield, switch hitter with good bat to ball skills and line drive approach from both sides of the plate.

Gutierrez was on base three times. The third of those, a lead-off single to open the bottom of the 9th, started the winning rally. Gutierrez would score the walk off winner when Jose Patino singled him home. Patino, a veteran of the 2015 team, was signed for $400k out of, where else, Venezuela. Another switch-hitter, Patino was graded as a 70 runner when signed with a chance to develop into an outstanding defensive CF.

Obviously, no video from the DR, so let's end this by #TBT last summer, when the Giants won a thrilling semi-final series over the DSL Yankees on their way to the league championship. Here's what you're defending kids.

* * *

Salem-Keizer's season will start up a week from Friday, on June 17, while the AZL team finally takes the field on June 20.

Jordan Johnson returns to San Jose's rotation after having skipped a turn. We'll see if the rest returns him to form and gets his season back on track. San Jose could use a win, as they've lost two games to Visalia the last two days with just 14 to play in the first half.  Augusta, with a TBD for today, continues to scuffle to set a rotation in the face of injuries.

Final note, congratulations to the San Jose Giants, who hit a major milestone yesterday. That is a LOT of happy customers over the years.

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