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SF Giants Minor Lines 5/8/17: Mac Williamson hits one deeeeep

Tough losses at the top and bottom of the system with a nice tidy victory in the middle.

By Roger
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Sight for Sore Eyes, version 1:

Sight for Sore Eyes, version 2:

HIGHLIGHTS: Mac Williamson reaches bases three times with HR; Tim Federowicz has three hits and walk.

Sacramento lost to Reno Aces (Diamondbacks), 7-6

Sacramento Bats

Player Pos AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG
Player Pos AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG
Orlando Calixte SS 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .255
Jae-Gyun Hwang 3B 5 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 1 .306
Ryder Jones LF 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .312
Roberto Gomez P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Chris Marrero 1B 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .216
Austin Slater CF-RF 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 .281
Mac Williamson RF-LF 4 1 2 0 0 1 3 1 1 .231
Tim Federowicz C 4 1 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 .378
Juan Ciriaco 2B 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 .226

Sacramento Arms

Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Michael Roth 5.2 5 1 1 1 5 0 4.88
Dusten Knight 1.1 0 0 0 0 2 0 4.50
Ryan Webb 1.1 2 3 3 1 1 0 4.63
Roberto Gomez (BS, 2)(L, 0-2) 0.2 2 3 3 1 1 1 9.00

Doug actually made this joke about Sunday’s game, but it spectacularly appropriate again last night. Waltzing into the 9th inning with a 6-1 lead, the RiverCats stumbled back out of it again with a disastrous 7-6 loss courtesy of Ryan Webb and Roberto Gomez blowing up the 9th. The denoument came in suitably dramatic form as Gomez (now sporting a 9.00 ERA) surrendered a two-out Grand Slam. You want to see a Pitcher reaction face:

Enhance:

Sacramento is now a fairly incomprehensible 7-5 when leading after 7 innings. You will be shocked to know that this is the worst mark in the very large PCL (and likely several other leagues as well).

Anyhoo, for the good news! Sacramento banged out 13 hits in this game, getting multi-hit efforts from Ryder Jones, Mac Williamson, Jae-Gyun Hwang, and Tim Federowicz, who’s been swinging a very nice bat of late (looking at you Mr. Hundley).

I just noted yesterday that Mac Williamson hasn’t been hitting for power or walking of late, but yesterday he did both! Collecting two hits including the long HR seen at the top and collecting a walk (just his 2nd in 52 AB with Sacramento). Come back soon, Mac!

Yesterday was also another fine game for Ryder Jones, who likewise picked up two hits and a walk. Nearing the 100 PA mark, Jones’ is showing a fairly dramatic uptick in his walk rate this year, a continuation of the second half of last season when he boosted his walk rate up over 8% (after July 1) and had the first prolonged stretch of his career (other than the AZL) with an OBP over .300. The greater selectivity has coincided with a greater Iso and better numbers across the board. Jones’ career has been an odd one, as he’s often seemed to be “failing upwards” posting similarly mediocre numbers in level after level, but the Giants kept challenging him and he’s kept competing until things have possibly started to click.

There are also signs that at long last, he may be finding a defensive home:

A second round choice with a lot of time and money invested in him, Jones’ shot is coming and possibly sooner than anybody expected. Ryder and Arroyo have seen every promotion together in lock step — they were even basically demoted at the same time once. Seems quite possible that Arroyo will be joined by his perpetual teammate sooner than later (though a prolonged stretch of success at one level wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Ryder, who’s still just 22 years old).

Richmond beat the Altoona Curve (Pirates), 3-1

Richmond Bats

Player Pos AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG
Player Pos AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG
Slade Heathcott CF 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .274
Brandon Crawford SS 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 .333
Ali Castillo 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .158
Miguel Gomez 2B 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .320
Chris Shaw 1B 4 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 .315
C.J Hinojosa 3B-SS 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250
Hunter Cole RF 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 .223
Dylan Davis LF 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 .175
Jeff Arnold C 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .103
Jordan Johnson P 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000
a- Carlos Garcia PH 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 .257

Richmond Arms

Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Jordan Johnson 6 2 1 1 3 5 0 2.93
Jose Flores 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1.98
D.J. Snelten (W, 4-0) 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.61
Reyes Moronta (S, 5) 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 3.18

This new SS here is rocking a .667 SLG and he’s reported to have a plus glove. CALL HIM UP!

And having dispensed with that cheap and mirthless joke, the Squirrels actually did pick up their new SS in this game as CJ Hinojosa came off the DL to make his 2017 debut. Another sight for sore eyes! Now if he can manage to bring Steven Duggar and Heath Quinn back with him! Hinojosa went 1 for 4 in his return, starting at 3b and moving over to SS when Crawford departed.

Chris Shaw is having himself a nice little week. With an RBI double and an RBI single in this game, he had his fourth consecutive game in which he reached base two or more times. He’s reached 11 times in those four games, including a HR, two doubles, and three walks against just one strikeout. He’s also picked up four RBI to give him 19 for the year, three off the EL lead. He’s 7th in the EL in OPS. Chris Shaw won’t finish the season in the EL, I don’t believe.

I caption this highlight: “Your puny shift is no match for my powers!”

The Squirrels pitchers made three runs stand up despite some odd looking lines in this game. Jordan Johnson and three relievers walked six batters in the game, while striking out just five. But Altoona had just four hits and went 1 for 10 with RISP.

Richmond wasn’t great at the clutch hits either, going just 2 for 8 (both of those from Shaw), but they did enough to scratch together a two-run rally in the bottom of the 8th, and Reyes Moronta worked around two walks to nail down the save in the 9th. Moronta threw just 6 of his 16 pitches for strikes but a Gomez to Hinojosa to Shaw DP bailed him out. Moronta has just four walks on the year (in 11.1 IP) but he’s grouped them together with two different two-walk outings. He’s still got a pretty dominant season going with 17 Ks to 4 BBs.

As for Crawford, he’s not done with the RVA just yet:

San Jose had a scheduled off day
They start a series with Rancho Cucamonga tonight, potentially meeting up with Dodgers lefty Rich Hill at some point in the series. And speaking of rehabbing major leaguers, San Jose will have one of their own tonight:

Augusta lost at the Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 4-3
losing their four game series, 1-3

Augusta Bats

Player Pos AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG*
Player Pos AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG*
Ashford Fulmer CF 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 .273
Sandro Fabian RF 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 .273
Kelvin Beltre 2B 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 .275
Skyler Ewing C 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 .149
Frandy De La Rosa 1B 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 .254
Jacob Heyward LF 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .210
Ryan Kirby DH 4 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 .175
Kevin Rivera 3B 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .224
Brandon Van Horn SS 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .191

Augusta Arms

Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA*
Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA*
Domenic Mazza (L, 1-4) 6 6 4 4 2 2 0 5.73
Cesar Yanez 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 8.00

Here’s the difference between losing and, maybe, not losing in baseball.

2b Kelvin Beltre from a hundred feet away give or take puts the relay throw just a foot or so up and to the side of the bag and the die is cast. Kevin Rivera tries to make the great tag but his reach is a couple of inches shy. The next batter hits the Sac Fly to bring in the game winner. And that’s baseball.

Augusta managed just four hits in the game, with Ryan Kirby’s double the only XBH. But they also had four walks, and three of them came consecutively in the 6th inning to help the Greenjackets eek out a two-run game tying rally. Frandy de la Rosa’s RBI single tied the game, his second hit of the game. De la Rosa had quite a series in Greenville, picking up three HRs and six RBI in the four games.

Ryan Kirby hasn’t gotten much love this year (and with good reason as he’s been on the DL a good bit and is hitting just .175) so let’s give the San Ramon native a little love and show off his excellent raw power with an opposite field double off the Monster:

The Greenjackets head home to host Kannapolis starting tomorrow.

Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: TBD vs. TBD (that wasn’t very informative!)
Richmond: Andrew Suarez vs. Tanner Anderson
San Jose: Jake McCasland vs. Mitchell White
Augusta: Scheduled Off day

The Dodgers have thrown a lot of money around to build their impressive farm system, but they’ve also been doing a lot of excellent drafting lately. Mitchell White was a 2nd rounder taken out of the Giants backyard (Santa Clara College) who is blossoming into a nice SP prospect (Dodgers #19 prospect). The Giants bats taken him on tonight at the Muni.

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