SF Giants Minor Lines 4/30/17: Fear and Trembling edition

I know you’re coming here for solace, for succor, for sustaining hope for the future. Instead i have this to offer you:

Yep. It’s that kind of day here at Minor Lines.

HIGHLIGHTS: Tyler Beede and Cory Taylor each allowed just 1 run in 6 IP.

Sacramento lost at Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners), 2-0
Getting swept in their four game series, 0-4

The RiverCats are now 3-15 since beginning the year 4-1. And for this series, at least, the blame can be placed pretty squarely on the offense. Sacramento scored just five runs on a total of 24 hits over the course of the four-game series, with four of those runs and 12 of those hits coming in the 3rd game Saturday night.

At the moment they’re not getting a whole lot of offense from anybody. Ryder Jones started off hot in his return from the DL, but he went 1 for 15 with 5 Ks in this series. Mac Williamson, still trying to find his groove, took the hat trick in this game, which made him 2 for 15 for the series with 6 Ks.

The brightest spot in the lineup has been Jae-Gyun Hwang who had hit second consecutive two-hit game to drive his average up to .313. Hwang is slashing .313/.353/.413 to lead the offense. Still not showing much power but he’s getting on base at a decent clip.

The quiet bats left another strong effort from Tyler Beede hanging out to dry. Beede allowed just three hits and a walk over six innings. He K’d only 3 batters, as he continues an early trend toward middling peripherals. He has 16 Ks and 11 BBs in 27 IP so far on the year.

The lone run Beede allowed was originally ruled unearned, though they changed it after the game. I would say they changed it incorrectly. After starting the 1st inning by allowing a ringing leadoff double to Leonys Martin, Beede allowed a soft pop up to LF with one out. There stood Ryder Jones, getting his first ever game in LF and his first defensive chance as an OF. How did it go? Not so well!

Pretty clearly that was both a misplay (breaking back) and an error (letting the ball bounce off his hand on behind him) so I’m not entirely sure what possessed the official scorekeeper to take away Jones’ error after the game. Possibly a little lobbying from a hitter who wanted an RBI?

And that was it. Beede shut the Rainiers down throughly the rest of the game, allowing just two more batters to reach over his final 5.2 IP. But it wasn’t enough, on another day when the bats stayed silent against our old friend Chris Heston. Heston had a very brief call up to the majors last week, but after surrendering 5 runs in 2 IP, he was returned to the Tacoma rotation. There he found greener pastures to plow.

And before we leave a happy note for fans of the dazzling curve ball of Dusten Knight. Following his latest dominant outing (5 Ks in 2 IP Saturday night), Dusten got himself a BIG promotion.

Congratulations Dusten!

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Richmond won at Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies), 2-1
winning their three game series 2-1

Another Pitchers’ Duel with the Giants Cory Taylor going up against Rockies #18 prospect Sam Howard. And here the Squirrels came out on top, behind a strong start from Cory Taylor. Taylor scuffled in his first two starts of the year, allowing 9 Runs in just 7 IP over two games. But he’s turned it around in the past two. Taylor’s gone 5 and 6 innings in his last two starts and allowed just a single run in each. He’s surrendered just 7 hits in those two games, striking out 13 while walking 5.

Here he gets his final victim of the day.

Taylor was supported by a suddenly very hot Hunter Cole. Cole picked up two more hits, including a double that powered the Squirrels winning two-run rally. Cole now has a 9-game hit streak going and he’s produced multiple hits in four of those games. He’s also had 7 doubles in that stretch.

Chris Shaw, who’s seen a dip the last week, produced a hit and a walk and scored the Squirrels first run. Shaw, from nearby Lexington, Mass, had a large and vocal contingent of family and friends supporting him at the ballpark as he left about 50 passes at the gate.

With Reyes Moronta having pitched in each of the previous two games (and returned to his typical dominant form) Tyler Cyr got the chance to convert the save, striking out two to close it out.

The win gave Richmond their first series win of the year, which isn’t a great thing to say one month into the season. Still, it’s better than no series wins, so Yay!

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San Jose lost Stockton Ports (A’s), 3-0
losing their three game series, 1-2

The formerly prolific Giants’ offense has come to a crashing halt. Everywhere in the lineup you see batters in free fall. Jalen Miller is 2 for his last 26. Bryan Reynolds is 1 for his last 19, and still has this weird thing going where he has six three-hit games on the year, and only three games in which he’s had 1 or 2 hits. He’s 4 for 59 in all games this year in which he did NOT have three hits.

Jose Vizcaino is still hitting below the Mendoza Line. Jonah Arenado’s OBP is below .300 (again) and he’s slugging just .329. This is an offense that is really struggling right now. A return to Lancaster would be most welcome, but sadly, is nowhere to be found on the schedule for another few weeks.

While the bats were snoozing away their Sunday, Matt Krook was once again struggling to find rhythm or consistency in his delivery. He made it just three innings, thanks to an elevated pitch count. He threw 66 pitches and had long stressful innings in each of his three. It’s not getting better for Matt, who now has 18 BBs against 13 Ks in 11.2 IP.

The whole staff is really a mess at this point, and the bullpen’s being asked to carry a huge load as starters consistently fail to make it through 5 innings. San Jose’s staff leads the Cal League by a considerable margin in Walks (121, second is Lancaster at 102) and they’re next to the last in strikeouts (thanks Lancaster!). They’re also second to last in ERA (Lancaster again! I’m getting the feeling looking at these stats that Lancaster probably isn’t having a very good year). Of course, Lancaster has an excuse for terrible pitching stats playing in that wind tunnel of a park. San Jose has no such excuse. Mark Reyes, 6.16 ERA. Matt Krook, 12.34 ERA, Heath Slatton, 18.62 ERA. That’s half the starting rotation! Jake McCasland’s 4.50 looks downright stingy by comparison.

Oof. Bad days.

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Augusta lost to Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 8-3
Losing their four game series, 1-3

There will be walks! More action from the hard-throwing, middling control 2016 draft of pitchers as Steven Woods, Jr. took the mound again, and later in the game we got another glimpse of Alex Bostic. The result? Augusta struck out 10 batters. That’s good! They also walked 9 batters. That’s bad! Someone go get me the free frogurt gif, please.

Woods too made an early exit as he got his pitch count over 80 in 4.1 IP. He was hard to square up, but he issued too many free passes again and for the year he now has 15 walks to 18 Ks in 21 IP.

Dare we check on the Walks leader board for the Sally Team Pitching stats? Oh yeah:

and how about Ks?

well, that’s just fantastic.

Ok, let’s talk offense! With two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning, trailing 8-1, Jacob Heyward doubled home two runs. Congratulations, Augusta, your three runs scored led the organization today!

If you were paying super close attention today, you might have noticed an extraordinary symmetry in the box scores: Sacramento 5 hits, Richmond 4 hits, San Jose 4 hits, Augusta 5 hits. Not so nifty.

However, Augusta did bring one thing to the party that no one else in the system did, a little punch! Sacramento, Richmond, and San Jose combined for two extra base hits yesterday. Augusta had three of them all by their lonesome. Including the system’s only HR, as Sandro Fabian picked up his 3rd of the year, and first at Lake Olmstead. Fabian showed off more power, as he also picked up his 5th OF assist of the year, gunning down a runner at 3b. This has been a big part of his game at every level as he led both the DSL and AZL in OF assists in his years there.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Joan Gregorio vs. Rob Whalen
Richmond: Matt Gage vs. JT Brubaker
San Jose: Mark Reyes vs Nathan Bannister
Augusta: Travel Day

May 1. Turn the page on the calendar. Pick up the pieces. Try to do better tomorrow. That’s baseball.