SF Giants Minor Lines, 8/3

Baseball America has its annual tools issue out this week. The Giants, perhaps not surprisingly, had their best showing at the major league level, where their entire infield (including, dear departed Matt Duffy) made the best Defensive list, Brandon Crawford was voted the best infield arm in the NL, Madison Bumgarner second on the Best Pitcher list behind Kershaw, Cueto third on Best Control and Best Pickoff move, and, perhaps to the bemusement of some Giants fans, Bruce Bochy was voted Best Manager.

In the minors, the system didn't do so well on the Tools lists. Nobody from the org made the PCL or EL lists. In the Sally, Dillon Dobson was named Best Defensive 1b. But the Cal League list included several Giants (possibly connected, the Cal League is the smallest of any of the leagues that the Giants affiliates compete in). Chris Shaw was rated Best Power Prospect and Steven Duggar Best Strike Zone Judgement. Now former Giant Phil Bickford is rated the Best Pitching Prospect, while Rodolfo Martinez picked up best Best Fastball and Best Relief Prospect.

So here's to tools! Hard to build a major leaguer without them.

HIGHLIGHTS: Austin Slater had 3 hits with a HR; Sam Coonrod went 5.1 IP with just one run;

* * *

Sacramento won at Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies), 10-8

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
CF	Gorkys Hernandez	3	1	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	.299	.375	.413
LF	Austin Slater	5	3	3	1	0	0	1	0	1	.241	.333	.400
RF	Chris Denorfia	3	1	2	4	0	0	1	0	0	.260	.318	.390

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Joan Gregorio	2.0	6	5	5	2	1	1	0	0	5.89
Tyler Rogers W 1-0	3.0	3	1	1	2	3	0	0	0	4.30
Alex Torres	1.2	2	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	1.59
Jake Dunning	2.0	2	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	4.66
Jean Machi S 7	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3.75

As tends to be the case with trips to Albuquerque, the hitters are having a fine time, pitchers not so much. Joan Gregorio got roughed up but good, in his second shortest outing of the year. Gregorio allowed a two-run HR in the 1st inning, but he really put himself into a bad position in the 2nd when he walked the first two batters of the inning. Albuquerque is unforgiving with such mistakes and before he made it out of the inning Sacramento was down 5-1. A well turned double play actually prevented the inning from getting further out of hand.

Which was important, because Sacramento still had plenty of outs to play with and they used them well, piling up 15 hits in the game, including 9 hits in the pivotal 6th and 7th innings when they scored 8 runs to take the lead. For the first five innings, all of their scoring had come on two swings of the bat. Gorkys Hernandez, leading off the game:

And Austin Slater's monster opposite field shot, his second HR in two days.

But they put a big 5-run rally together in the 6th, capped by Chris Denorfia's three-run HR. Denorfia was in the game to replace Jarrett Parker after he was ejected for disagreeing with the strike zone.

Tyler Rogers and Alex Torres provided 4.2 innings of pretty solid relief allowing the comeback and Torres even managed to hit a double. Jake Dunning ran into some 9th inning trouble, but with the help of Jean Machi they got out of the inning ok.

* * *

Richmond lost at Altoona Curve (Pirates), 2-1 in 12 inn

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
CF	Steven Duggar	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	2	.325	.384	.439
3b	Christian Arroyo	5	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	.282	.321	.387
1b	Chris Shaw	5	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	.211	.264	.333

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Sam Coonrod	5.1	4	1	1	2	4	0	1	0	3.12
Rodolfo Martinez	1.0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	7.15
Chase Johnson	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3.35
Preston Claiborne	3.0	3	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	3.26
Christian Jones L 2-5	0.1	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	4.50

The Squirrels wasted a pretty good Sam Coonrod start with a lack of production in this one. Coonrod was by no means efficient, as he hit the 100 pitch mark in less than 6 innings, but he was extremely effective. Heading into the 6th inning he was throwing a two-hit shutout. But he hiccuped as he neared 100 pitches, allowing a triple, a walk, and finally a run scoring single. That ended Coonrod's night and tied the game up 1-1.

That one run had come courtesy of Steven Duggar and Christian Arroyo, who put one just an inch or so out of Stetson Allie's reach.

But that was it for the offense, which wasted quite a few opportunities (including Arroyo on 2nd with 1 out in that inning). Brandon Bednar doubled to open an inning but then was doubled off on a line drive to CF, one of three DPs they hit into. The team went 1 for 8 with RISP over 12 innings. The biggest failure came in the 11th, when Chris Shaw put himself into scoring position with one out.

But neither Bednar nor Horan could get him that last 90 feet, and an inning later, Christian Jones served up the game winner to end it.

* * *

San Jose won at Bakersfield Blaze (Mariners), 6-4
winning their three game series, 2-1

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
RF	Dylan Davis	5	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.297	.333	.551
1b	Jonah Arenado	5	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	.261	.295	.427
DH	Cristian Paulino	4	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	.259	.274	.368

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Jordan Johnson W 7-8	6.0	7	3	3	4	5	0	0	0	4.51
Jeff Soptic	1.0	3	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	4.60
Pat Young S 2	2.0	2	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	3.69

Jordan Johnson is still fighting to find his fastball control, as he walked four for the third time in his last four starts. But, at least for the second straight start, he managed to keep control of the Runs Allowed. After surrendering eight runs in back to back starts July 14th and 22nd, he's now give up just three runs in each of his last two. And this time, that was good enough to pick up a win.

The Giants got 13 hits overall, including four doubles, to pick up the series win with a come from behind victory. The win gave them  their first road series win since late May, on their gargantuan 14 day road trip, which was ironically the best stretch of baseball the team has played this year.

Jonah Arenado, who has a career high 12 HRs, also collected his 30th double of the season in this game.

Jonah Arenado hit his 30th double of the season tonight. First SJ Giant with 30 doubles since Devin Harris in 2013.

— Joe Ritzo (@JoeRitzo) August 4, 2016

Hitting coach Todd Linden was Joe Ritzo's guest on the pre-game show yesterday, and he discussed Ronnie Jebavy's hot streak, among other topics.

The Giants return home to the Muni for a home series against Stockton tonight.

* * *

Augusta beat the Columbia Fireflies (Mets), 2-0
winning their three game series, 2-1

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
3b	Dillon Dobson	4	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.272	.308	.469
C	Matt Winn	3	1	1	2	0	0	1	1	1	.229	.323	.394
DH	Skyler Ewing	4	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	.235	.309	.372

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Domenic Mazza W 4-2	7.0	3	0	0	2	4	0	0	0	3.76
Ryan halstead	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5.22
Ryan Koziol S 4	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2.70

Dom Mazza continued the great pitching the Greenjackets have gotten from their starters lately, combining on a four-hit shutout. The win kept Augusta in 1st place with a 3.5 game lead over Rome and Charleston. All the scoring in the game came in the 1st inning, when Catcher Matt Winn hit his 9th HR of the year, scoring Dillon Dobson in front of him. Winn's hit .333 over the last week with two HRs as the All Star may be emerging from a long slump.

GreenJackets win GreenJackets win! pic.twitter.com/aNZXooQyCi

— Augusta GreenJackets (@GreenJackets) August 4, 2016

Augusta hits the road for a trip to Asheville and Hickory starting tonight.

* * *

Salem-Keizer had the last day of it's All Star Break

* * *

AZL Giants lost to AZL Cubs, 3-1

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
C	Aramis Garcia	2	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.231	.214	.308
LF	Jacob Heyward	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.388	.538	.716

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
DJ Myers L 0-2	4.1	5	2	2	0	4	0	1	0	2.81
Sidney Duprey	2.2	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0.00
Nick Deeg	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2.08

The Giants managed just five hits, none for extra bases, and one walk, while striking out 10 times. As we've discussed before, this is not a great recipe for run scoring. The Giants picked up their lone run in the top of the first on a two base error, a groundball out and a Sac Fly and though they had potential mini-rallies here and there through the night, 0 for 9 with RISP doomed the effort. The 14-19 Giants ended the 1st half at the bottom of their division and they're right back down there again at 2-4 in the second half. The team hasn't been able to put together much consistency on either side of the ball.

Still waiting for Jose Layer's second game, as the 13th rounder hasn't returned to the lineup since his debut on July 27.

* * *

DSL Giants beat the DSL Orioles2, 8-4

	Name	AB	R	H	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
SS	Jose Rivero	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	.260	.369	.309
1b	Angeddy Almanzar	4	1	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	.308	.383	.456
DH	Franklin Labour	3	2	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	.244	.325	.305
LF	Brayan De Pena	4	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	2	.217	.289	.319
C	Andres Angulo	3	2	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	.167	.343	.218

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	HB	WP	ERA
Johan Herrera	4.2	7	3	3	2	6	1	0	0	2.51
Jesus Reyes W 4-0	3.1	3	1	0	1	4	0	0	0	1.29
Jasier Herrera	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1.59

Back to winning ways for the DSL team, which now sits in 3rd place, 1.5 games out of first. Johan Herrera had his second shortest outing of the year, but he also featured his career high in Ks. He now has 10 Ks and 3 BBs over the last two starts (11 IP). He also continued to be a ground ball machine, getting 7 outs on groundballs yesterday.

Meanwhile the offense had one of their best days of the winning stretch as they attacked consistently with 13 hits, 3 BBs and a HB. The Giants had 10 different players record a hit in the game, including every starter other than Francisco Medina. They scored at least one run in five of their eight innings at bat. Two guys who have had real struggles this year contributed. Brayan De Pena picked up a an RBI triple. De Pena is now 5 for 11 over his last three starts including two XBH. And Backup Catcher Andres Angulo followed De Pena's triple with an RBI double, one of three times Angulo reached safely in the game.

* * *

A gathering of Tylers on the bump today.

Today's Matchups:
Sacramento: Ty Blach vs. Shane Carle
Richmond: Tyler Beede vs. Tyler Eppler
San Jose: Jose Reyes vs. TBD
Augusta: Matt Solter vs. Drasen Johnson
SK: Mac Marshall vs. Demarcus Evans
AZL: Off
DSL: TBD