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SF Giants Minor Lines, 8/7

Leo Rojas had two career HRs since being draft in 2012. Now he has more!

By Roger

Digressing from the Minors for just one moment, but this is a pretty damn depressing stat:

Well, on the brighter side, this terrific Chris Denorfia catch last night did give me flashbacks to a certain Aubrey Huff liner and happier times:

HIGHLIGHTS: Ramiro Pena doubled and HRd; Chris Shaw doubled and HRd; Manuel Geraldo had 4 hits with a triple; Leo Rojas hit 2 HRs and had 6 RBIs.

* * *

Sacramento beat Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners), 10-2

Player

Pos

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

AVG

OBP

SLG

Ramiro Pena

2B

5

2

2

1

0

1

3

0

1

.306

.364

.444

Travis Ishikawa

DH

4

0

2

0

0

0

1

1

2

.279

.365

.481

Grant Green

1B

5

1

2

0

0

0

2

0

1

.301

.326

.449

Ruben Tejada

SS

5

1

2

0

0

0

1

0

1

.250

.295

.357

Ali Castillo

3B

5

1

2

1

0

0

2

0

0

.320

.364

.350

Player

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

HR

ERA*

Chris Stratton (W, 9-5)

6.0

7

2

2

2

2

1

4.69

Cory Gearrin

1.0

0

0

0

1

2

0

0.00

Tyler Rogers

1.0

1

0

0

0

1

0

4.02

The RiverCats busted out the whomping sticks for the opener of their series in Tacoma. They bashed out 14 hits including five XBH as six different members of the starting lineup had multi-hit games. This was the sixth time in the last seven games that the suddenly lively Sacramento has had double-digit hit totals. Half of those hits came in a seven-run outburst in the 4th inning that was capped by Ramiro Pena's three-run HR.

Pena celebrated his return to the Sacramento lineup with his 10th double and 5th HR of the PCL season, both of them off of the Dodgers 2010 1st round pick Zach Lee, who just never quite seemed to turn the corner on his development.

Chris Stratton took the largesse and put it in cruise control in picking up his 9th win of the year. Stratton matched a season low 2 Ks, but otherwise limited the damage to just two solo run innings. Stratton's time in the majors seems to have done him some good. Prior to getting his promotion he had a 6.02 ERA on the year, having allowed five or more ER in six of his nine starts. Since coming back from SF, he's cut the ERA by a run and a half and allowed 2 or fewer runs in five of his seven starts. He's had just one start since his return in which he's surrendered more than 3 Runs.

Cory Gearrin made another successful rehab appearance and will likely return to SF when they come home from the road.

* * *

Richmond lost at Bowie BaySox (Orioles), 6-4
splitting their four game series, 2-2

Player

Pos

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

AVG

OBP

SLG

Chris Shaw

1B

4

1

2

1

0

1

3

0

1

.220

.271

.386

Jeff Arnold

C

3

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

.232

.300

.376

Player

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

HR

ERA*

Kyle Crick (L, 3-10)

3.2

5

4

0

5

2

0

5.32

Carlos Alvarado

2.1

1

1

1

0

1

1

2.25

Rodolfo Martinez

1.0

2

1

1

0

1

0

6.75

Chase Johnson

1.0

0

0

0

0

2

0

3.27

Chris Shaw doubled in two runs in the top of the first and hit a solo HR in the 4th to stake Richmond to a 3-0 lead and a possible series win. But Kyle Crick, who had been flirting with danger all game, moved from flirting to a bad relationship decision in the bottom of the 4th, helped by some leaky defense. Crick had amazingly avoided a meltdown in the 3rd, when he allowed a leadoff single and then walked three straight batters but allowed no runs thanks to a CS and a double play grounder. But in the 4th, his wildness combined with errors from Christian Arroyo (on a potential DP grounder) and Darren Ford led to disaster and the end of Crick's outing.

Needing a response, the Squirrels offense went cold at the wrong time, with their next 10 batters making outs. Back to back singles to start the 8th inning was quashed when Arroyo bounced into a double play. And Ryder Jones' 11th HR of the year in the 9th proved to be too little/too late.

Shaw's HR was his 19th of the season, which ties him with Jarrett Parker for the organizational lead this year. Nearly half of his hits in AA have gone for XB (13 for 29) and his overall season Iso is .230.

Incidentally, the BaySox were running a Manny Machado bobblehead promotion yesterday, which apparently Manny heartily approved of, given his big afternoon.

* * *

San Jose lost to Stockton Ports (A's), 5-2
losing their four game series, 1-3

Player

Pos

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

AVG

OBP

SLG

Dylan Davis

RF

2

0

1

1

0

0

0

2

0

.293

.352

.533

Daniel Carbonell

LF

4

1

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

.274

.322

.360

Player

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

HR

ERA

Mark Reyes (L, 8-6)

4.2

6

4

4

3

2

0

4.50

Austin Fleet

2.1

3

1

1

0

1

1

4.35

Conner Menez

2.0

2

0

0

1

1

0

7.11

Another game where one bad inning turned the tide, as Stockton's three-run 5th wiped out San Jose's 2-1 lead and led to the series victory. San Jose managed just six hits in the game, along with two BBs. After losing the lead in the top of the 5th, the Giants had just two more baserunners the rest of the game, and both came with two outs: Ronnie Jebavy was HBP in the 7th and Dylan Davis doubled in the 8th. Both were immediately stranded as the offense went quiet.

Conner Menez, who debuted with San Jose in the starting rotation, came out of the pen in relief in this one, pitching two scoreless innings.

You probably want to hear Dan Slania talk about his wild ride this season. And if so, you're in luck! Because he joined Joe Ritzo this weekend to do just that:

* * *

Augusta's game in Asheville was cancelled

The finale between Augusta and Asheville was tied 1-1 in the 5th when the rains came and they kept on coming. As this was the final meeting of the year between the two teams, the game was cancelled and will not be concluded or made up, with all stats being wiped out. Hopefully that doesn't end up affecting the playoff race. The Greenjackets head to Hickory tonight to conclude their road trip.

Since there's no game to read about, you probably want to read David Lee's feature article on Doug Clark's lone major league hit, don't you? Of course you do! He's from Boston College you know! (also, he tossed me a ball in Spring Training which is sitting on my desk right this very second).

Ah heck, and as long as we're reminiscing over the Giants 7th round pick from 1998, let's remember perhaps the biggest (and one of the last) moment's of his pro career, which carried on long after MLB/MiLB was through with him. Skip ahead to the 2.30 mark here for Doug's shining moment, hitting the championship winning HR in the deciding game of the 2013 Serie del Caribe:

* * *

Salem-Keizer beat the Spokane Indians (Rangers), 17-11

Player

Pos

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

AVG

OBP

SLG

Manuel Geraldo

SS

6

4

4

0

1

0

4

0

1

.279

.313

.363

Ashford Fulmer

RF

5

1

3

2

0

0

3

0

1

.328

.449

.430

Bryan Reynolds

CF

4

2

1

1

0

0

3

1

0

.304

.377

.513

Leo Rojas

1B

4

3

3

0

0

2

6

1

1

.264

.328

.415

Player

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

HR

ERA*

Matt Krook

2.1

5

6

6

6

3

0

4.03

Kendry Melo

1.1

1

3

3

3

1

0

5.47

Patrick Ruotolo

2.0

1

1

0

1

3

0

0.00

How best to describe this game? Let's try this: Spokane had three consecutive three-run innings in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and yet never at any time held a lead in the game. Other than 0-0 they were never even tied. The Volcanoes posted five-run rallies in both the 1st and 3rd innings, and mixed in a few puny two-run rallies around them in putting up a huge 17 runs. The two guys at the top, Maneul Geraldo and Ashford Fulmer made the offense go combining for 7 hits including two doubles and a triple.

But the star of the game was the seldom-used utility infielder/Catcher Leo Rojas. To say Rojas had a career day would be a fairly major understatement. He doubled his career total of HRs from 2 to 4 and came somewhat close to matching his season high for RBIs (he's never had more than 10 RBIs in a season). Rojas missed the entire 2015 season, and I can't tell if that was injury related or simply that he was never put on any active roster.

As you might guess, this was not such a great day for the pitchers, including starter Matt Krook, who proved his own worst enemy in this game by walking 6 in less than 3 innings of pitching. Krook, as we may recall, recently told Jen Mac Ramos that he was focusing on command in the NWL. One might presume he lost his focus in this outing.

Patrick Ruotolo gave up just his second run of the year, thanks to a two-out error from Geraldo, but he also added on 3 more Ks, giving the right-hander 31 in 17.1 IP in his debut.

Volcanoes TV put up a couple of interviews this weekend with All Stars Gio Brusa and Ashford Fulmer. A little audio challenged but good stuff nonetheless.

* * *

AZL Giants lost to AZL Angels, 3-2

Player

Pos

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

AVG

OBP

SLG

Mikey Edie

CF

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.204

.268

.272

Nick Hill

DH

4

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

2

.304

.378

.402

Sandro Fabian

RF

4

0

2

1

0

0

2

0

0

.333

.365

.542

Player

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

HR

ERA

Caleb Baragar

5.0

2

0

0

3

3

0

2.50

Sidney Duprey

2.2

5

2

1

0

2

0

1.23

Olbis Parra (L, 0-1)

1.1

1

1

0

0

0

0

2.45

Another day, another couple of knocks with an XBH for Sandro Fabian, who keeps barreling up balls for the AZL club. With two-out in the 8th inning, Fabian hit a two-run double to momentarily tie up last night's game, but Hector Santiago's fielding error to open up the 9th set up a small-ball game-winning rally: error, sac bunt, ground ball, single, ball game.

* * *

DSL Giants had their Sunday off

* * *

I posted the BA and MLB Pipeline rankings of traded prospects last week, so I might as well complete the set with Fangraphs' version. To get a great feel for the ways in which prospecting is an art, not a science, compare Eric Longenhagen's view of Phil Bickford with BA's:

Cory Taylor makes his AA debut to lead today's slate. MiLB.com is currently showing that reliever Heath Slatton is scheduled to step into Taylor's spot in the Augusta rotation and start tonight, which is half true. Slatton is apparently taking over for Taylor, but he started yesterday's cancelled game, throwing three innings, so one would presume he won't start again today.

Today's Matchups:
Sacramento: Joan Gregorio vs. TBD
Richmond: Cory Taylor vs. Ronald Herrera
San Jose: Off
Augusta: TBD vs. Wes Benjamin 
SK: Raffi Vizcaino vs. Kyle Cody
AZL and DSL: TBD



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