SF Minor Lines 4/21/17: Ryder Jones perfect at plate

At the risk of being overly self-referential:

Yeah. Giants fans don’t need any more bad news, but I have a little anyway:

Poor Aramis just can’t catch a break. On to the games.

HIGHLIGHTS: Ryder Jones reached base times with a HR; Ryan Howard had three hits including two doubles; Melvin Adon K’s 7 while flashing 100.

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Sacramento lost to Salt Lake Bees (Angels), 9-5
getting swept in their four game series, 0-4

On the verge of salvaging the final game of the series, Sacramento took a 5-3 lead into the 8th inning. But Roberto Gomez blew it all up, allowing 6 of the first 7 batters in the 8th to reach, leading to a 6 run inning and a four game sweep.

This is a true fact. Nonetheless, some good things did happen in the game so let’s focus on them. First and foremost, the continued improvement of Ryder Jones who has been a new prospect since the second half of 2016.

Jones reached base in all four of his PA, walking once and delivering his first HR of the season, off a LHP no less!

From July 1 on last year in Richmond Jones hit .262/.330/.419 which was easily the best sustained stretch of his career (and a solid line playing half his games in Richmond) and he followed it up with an excellent AFL campaign. Getting off to a good start in Sacramento just continues a nice trend. Less nice, of course, is that all of this more or less coincides with Ryder becoming a full-time 1b. There’s been talk of him getting time in LF, but that hasn’t progressed off the practice field as of yet.

Speaking of which, Jae-Gyun Hwang did get time in LF yesterday and the results continue to be mixed:

Actually, I guess that wasn’t mixed at all. Hwang did pick up two more hits and a walk though, in a nice game with the bat. One good thing about Hwang playing LF is that it game Christian Arroyo a game at 3b, where he made a sterling play to help Sacramento escape a 5th inning jam and protect (for a little while) the lead:

Another guy who got himself in the HR column last night was Drew Stubbs who gave Sacramento the early lead by crushing a 3-run shot off RHP Drew Gagnon. Could Stubbs be an upgrade on Gorkys?

Ricky Romero’s line was a little of everything in his 4.2 IP. His comeback is still something to keep an eye on.

So the Cats have lost 9 of 10 after a promising opening to the year, with a lot of the problems coming from the late game relief. Not overly helpful. But there are some promising individual efforts going on amongst the rubble.

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Richmond lost to Reading Fightin’ Phils, 6-2

For fans at the Diamond unfortunately, most of last night’s drama came from the skies:

I’ve been at the Diamond during lightning storms like that and I’ll tell you there is not much place to hide! Rain delays turned the evening into a long sodden affair, as they finally concluded the game 5 and a half hours after opening pitch. The rains came in the bottom of the 2nd and they cut short another promising Sam Coonrod start, as Sam had picked up 3 Ks (0 BBs) along with 2 hits in his first two frames. For the season now, Coonrod has an eye-popping 18 Ks, 1 BB ratio in 14 IP and he’s been using a change up to great effect. Excellent job turning around his messy peripherals from 2016 so far.

Aside from Coonrod, however, there was only one moment when a Squirrel managed to provide any of the night’s electricity and that came in the form of a titanic shot from CF Slade Heathcott who went over the batter’s eye and out into the parking lot.

On a soggy, leaden night in Richmond, going 430’ is no small feat! But, sadly, that was all the juice the Squirrels’ bats had in them last night as they managed just 5 hits in the game.

Carlos Alvarado ended the night with a perfect 9th inning. Alvarado seems to be enjoying his return to the EL. The surprising NRI to camp this year now has 16 Ks against 2 BB in his 7 IP this year. The only run he has allowed came on a solo HR, as the big RH has been a very impressive addition to a shutdown bullpen. Now if only they could get to that last inning relief a little more often.... Sacramento and Richmond, one can’t hold leads, the other cant’ get ‘em. Baseball, man, what a charming psychopath.

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San Jose won at Stockton Ports (A’s), 4-2

Hey, a win! What do we do with this thing?

San Jose climbed back over .500 with a tidy 4-2 victory in Stockton last night, keyed by solid pitching from starter Conner Menez and his relief and a lot of strong defense up the middle:

Is that all, Conner?

No! There’s more!

Johneshwy hasn’t been able to get his bat going in two tries at the Cal League, but the man can play some OF.

Ryan Howard, playing SS again, was also strong with the glove and with the bat, picking up two doubles among three hits. Howard is having a great start to his A+ career and could well find himself on the Slater/Cole/Hinojosa/Duggar plan with a second half in AA.

One player in the Giants’ lineup who is in a bit of a scuffle right now is Bryan Reynolds, who’s now 0 for his last 15 with 5 strikeouts.

Ryan Halstead, throwing 91-94 with the fastball, cleaned up with a two inning save. The RHP has 7 Ks and 0 bbs, along with 9 hits in his 9.1 IP this year.

Lots of roster moves heading into this game for San Jose, who lost two members of their starting lineup the last two days.

The loss of Dobson and Garcia is bound to have some detrimental effect on the offense that had been crushing Cal League pitching so far, though if guys like Brusa and Arenado and Vizcaino could get themselves going it will help. Mostly, it’s another disruption to Garcia’s development that stings. Come back soon, hale and hearty Aramis!

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Augusta lost at Greensboro Grasshoppers (Marlins), 7-2

Melvin Adon came out hoping to build on what was probably the best start of his career, and he did exactly that. In the wake of a 2nd inning meltdown in his 2017 debut, Adon has turned it around and delivered back to back performances that are as good or better than anything he’s ever done (including in the DSL).

Though he wasn’t overly pitch efficient (causing him to come out with two outs in the 5th when he hit 80 pitches), he ended up allowing just 1 unearned run on three hits. Over two starts now in 10 IP he has 14 Ks, 3 BBs, 5 hits and just 1 ER allowed (2 Runs total). That’s definitely something for the big guy to build on!

Adon did get into a lot of trouble in the 2nd once again, when he moved to the stretch for the first time. An error by 2b Kevin Rivera was followed by a two singles sandwiched around a walk. Then he got a little lucky when a line drive found the glove of SS Brandon Van Horn, and he got out of the jam with his 4th K of the game. But after that he allowed just two baserunners in the rest of his night. Excellent!

And his stuff?

That’ll work!

Adon was supported by another two-hit game from the red hot Kelvin Beltre who has now boosted his average up to .300 thanks to his fourth multi-hit game in his past seven starts. He’s hitting .391/.464/.478 in that stretch with 3 BBs against just 3 Ks. Only two XBH in the week but something definitely seems to be clicking in the talented youngster’s approach. The Giants are really getting a lot of terrific starts from their hitting prospects early on. Let’s hope it keeps going that way.

Beltre’s younger teammate Sandro Fabian was in the middle of much of the team’s offense as he doubled and scored their first run and knocked in the second with a Sac Fly. Fabian’s season is showing echoes of Beltre’s first go round in the Sally, as he’s posting a pretty ugly 16 K to 1 BB ratio but when he makes contact he’s making hard contact. Five of Fabian’s 13 hits on the year have gone for XB.

Greensboro also saw some tarp time last night, and none of the Greenjackets pitchers who followed Adon were particularly effective. A tidy 2-2 game in the 7th got away from the Greenjackets as Avila-Leeper, DJ Myers, and Alex Bostic combined to allow 5 runs over the final two innings.

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Tonights Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: TBD vs. Ricky Knapp
Richmond: Cory Taylor vs. Shane Watson
San Jose: Michael Connolly vs. TBD
Augusta: Caleb Baragar vs. Jordan Holloway

Obviously the Bumgarner news is going to cause more shake ups for the system’s already thin starting rotations. Sacramento is still showing Chris Stratton as the scheduled starter for tonight, which obviously isn’t going to happen now. How the RiverCats replace him without disrupting the Richmond rotation which doesn’t really have any arms to give up will be an interesting question.

We shall see. Have a great weekend everybody!