SF Giants Minor Lines 4/17/17: Christian Arroyo keeps on hitting

It’s been a tough week for the High School members of the 2011 draft class so far. First Clayton Blackburn gets traded to the Rangers, and now his fellow HS Pitcher classmate Kyle Crick gets his promising start to the season derailed a bit with a DL stint:

Get better, Kyle. Those liners into dugouts are scary! Second one this year (counting Agui in ST)!

On a happier note:

HIGHLIGHTS: Ryder Jones doubled twice; Carlos Garcia had three hits including a HR; Patrick Ruotolo K’d three in 1.1 IP.

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Sacramento lost at Las Vegas 51s (Mets), 7-5 in 10 inn
getting swept in their three game series, 0-3

The High School draft class of 2013, however, is having a fine week, thank you! Christian Arroyo, who leads the PCL in batting average by a whopping 55 points picked up two more hits in this game, while his draft mate Ryder Jones is making up for lost time since his return from the DL (concussion). Ryder picked him singles in each of his first two ABs in Sundays return, and in this one he doubled his fun with two double. Ryder now has four hits in nine PA since his return with just one K. He’s picking up where he left off with his successful AFL campaign last fall. Arroyo, now 18 for 39 on the season, extended his hitting streak to 10 (every game he’s played this year) and is also leading the PCL in OBP (.500) and is 6th in OPS (1.115). Not a bad start for the kid.

Unfortunately, it went for naught as the Sacramento pitchers couldn’t hang on to an early 4-0 lead and ended up going down to extra innings defeat when Chase Johnson allowed the Mets #2 prospect Dom Smith to hit a walk off HR. Like Arroyo, Smith is one of the 10 youngest players in the PCL (as is his teammate who singled in front of him, the Mets #1 prospect Ahmed Rosario). Once more, let’s enjoy those flashy Las Vegas’ video stylings (since there’s no other video to be had on this day):

Not surprisingly, given the locale, HRs were the bugaboo for the RiverCats, as Chris Stratton had dropped the lead in the 6th when he allowed Kevin Pawlecki to hit a 3-run HR. The RiverCats scored four runs in a big 4th inning rally, keyed by Orlando Calixte who drove in two runs with a double, stole a base and then came around to score the 4th run on a Jeff Arnold single. They tied the game in the 8th on Ryder Jones’ second double and a Drew Stubbs single, but that was all the offense they managed on the night.

After starting the year well at 4-1, the Rivercats have now gone 1-5 to drop below .500. They start a long 8-game homestand tonight against the same two opponents that have handled them on the road for the last week: Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

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Richmond lost at Bowie Baysox (Orioles), 3-2

Bowie is, I think the only EL stadium with no video feed. Work a little harder Orioles! Oh well, to give you a feel for the place, let’s let Richmond PxP man Jay Burnham give you a game preview:

Going up against rehabbing All Star Chris Tillman, the Squirrels bats struggled to get much going. Chris Shaw cooled off his torrid weekend going 0 for 4 and even Miguel Gomez managed just a scratch single. The only success Richmond managed in the game came from the middle infield combo of Rando Moreno and this winter’s minor league FA pickup Carlos Garcia, who went 3 for 4 with his first HR of the year. Garcia’s HR was a solo shot off Tillman in the 1st and it was the last time the Squirrels would score until a Moreno single in the 7th brought them to within 1, where the scoring would end.

As was true in Las Vegas, so here in Bowie: Richmond was done in by the long ball as starter Matt Gage’s one big mistake was a costly 3-run HR in the 6th inning to Catcher Austin Winns. Gage and company did a great job against Bowie CF Cedric Mullins, who leads the entire minor leagues in Hits, Runs and TB. Mullins went 0 for 4 in the game after having been named the EL Player of the Week.

Richmond Catcher Matt Winn also went 0 for 4 and continues to scuffle offensively to start the year with 13 Ks in 28 ABs, but let’s enjoy John O’Connor’s feature article about him anyway (this kind of segue doesn’t just write itself, you know!):

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Winn may be a Richmond native son, but one has to wonder if his second shot at the EL will last much longer than the first, the way Aramis Garcia is breathing down his neck. Garcia didn’t just win the Cal League award, he’s got more honors coming for his hot start:

With Matt Krook scheduled to take the mound tonight, perhaps now is a good time to link to this Baseball Census scouting report on him off of last week’s debut. There’s a ton of good information in here including lots of videos. I definitely recommend @baseballcensus and its writers @BobbyDeMuro and @NickStephens as twitter follows for great baseball content.

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Augusta lost to Charleston RiverDogs (Yankees), 7-2

Sunday’s miracle comeback did not, alas, kick start a brave new era of 2017 Greenjackets baseball, as they fell flat again last night. Stephen Woods, Jr. made his second consecutive start against the RiverDogs and perhaps familiarity wasn’t working in his favor in this one as he didn’t have quite the swing and miss success he showed against them in Charleston last week. Charleston mostly used small ball as they stole 5 bases off of Augusta Catcher Will Albertson. Augusta pitchers made two errant pickoff attempts in the game to try to combat the threat, will Albertson also pitched in with a PB.

Free bases did cut both ways as both of Augusta’s runs in the game came in to score on WP. It’s unclear whether Augusta’s offensive “attack” (just 4 hits and 2 for 12 with RISP) would have been able to bring them, left to their own devices. Newly acquired Frandy De La Rosa showed up in Augusta and was immediately inserted into the lineup at 1b. His Greenjacket debut was, um.... inglorious, shall we say. As he went 0 for 4 with 3 Ks. He did reach via a HBP though. That was part of a Greenjackets lineup that included 13 Ks last night, against 6 walks and the 4 singles. This has been a season long issue. So far on the year the Greenjackets have just 76 hits (by far the fewest in the Sally) and 37 walks (middle of the pack) vs 119 Ks (3rd highest in the league). More Ks than base runners? Not a great recipe for success.

There were a couple of performances out of the Augusta bullpen worth highlighting however. Sandro Cabrera threw 2 more solid innings with 2 Ks, 2 Hits and 0 runs. On the year, Cabrera has now pitched 9 IP in 5 appearances, striking out 12 while allowing just 10 baserunners (7 hits, 3 BBs). His only ER came on a solo HR. I’d love to see him get some starts in Augusta before the year’s out, but he’s been working in middle relief now pretty consistently since coming to the US last year.

And Patrick Ruotolo continued what has been a near perfect 2017 so far. Ruotolo finished off the final 4 outs of the game, getting 3 by way of the strikeout. Ruotolo has now faced 15 batters this year and retired 14 of them, 7 via K. The only base runner he has allowed this year in 5 appearances has been a HB. Ruotolo, the undersized RHP who was a 27th round pick out of UConn, was one of the big surprises of 2016, when he struck out 42 and walked just 14 last year between the AZL and NW. He posted a 1.13 ERA in 24 innings in his pro debut. So far, the 0s keep on coming for Ruotolo.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Dan Slania vs. Daniel Wright
Richmond: Jordan Johnson vs. Matthew Grimes
San Jose: Matt Krook vs. Justin Donnatella
Augusta: Dom Mazza vs. TBD

The system if just 1-8 since Friday night with Augusta’s five-run 9th on Sunday accounting for their only win. Maybe a little turn around tonight?

Since it’s a short day let’s go out with some more Baseball Census content, a scouting report on Tyler Beede following his second start, with again great video and reporting. Thanks Nick!