SF Giants Minor Lines: Ryder Jones keeps on slugging

Another opening, another show! We’re up to six affiliates now as we hit the heart of the summer.

HIGHLIGHTS: Ryder Jones homered and reached base 3x; Aramis Garcia homered with two hits; Brandon Van Horn had four hits and a SB; Kelvin Beltre reached base 5x with a SB. Stetson Woods threw 6 shutout innings.

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Sacramento lost at Las Vegas 51s (Mets), 12-4

Joan Gregorio was a last minute scratch for this game (undisclosed reasons) so Dusten Knight stepped in for a bullpen game. All things considered, Knight performed ably. He hurt his own cause dropping a throw at 1b on the back end of a double play (one of three errors the RiverCats made), and he was missing his normal strikeout totals. But for a last minute relief fill-in in Las Vegas, four innings and two earned runs wasn’t so bad at all.

The rest of the bullpen had some pretty shake moments, which ultimately turned into a blow out, especially Tyler Rogers and Heath Slatton, who’s had a rough year no matter which level he’s been on and in which role (remember Slatton began the year in SJ’s bullpen, running up a 13.00 ERA in nine games and six starts).

Despite eight hits, including five extra base hits, the RiverCats offense couldn’t gain much traction in this game. They struggled to bring runners in, going just 2 for 10 with RISP. They did provide a little spark in the 8th when Ryder Jones and Chris Shaw hit solo HRs with three at bats, but that was far too little too late.

Rehabbing Conor Gillaspie picked up two hits including a double. But the impressive performance once again came from Ryder Jones, who’s really having a breakout year. Playing both 3b and 1b, Jones walked, singled, and homered. Nearly half of Ryder’s hits this year have gone for extra bases (23 XBH/50 Hits) and his 24 BB/ 40 K ratio is by far the best of his career. Last year in about 500 PA he walked 26 times to 79 Ks, and two years ago in the Cal league he had just 16 walks to 80 Ks. He’s very close to a .300/.400/.500 line, after having spent years with sub-.300 OBP and sub-.400 SLG lines. It’s a really impressive step forward for the 23 year old. With yesterday’s blast, he took over the team lead in HR with 9.

Both Jones and Shaw showed some impressive opposite field power with their HRs. In fact, you have to watch the tiny OFs way in the background to be able to see much difference between these two highlights (oh well, only one more game in Vegas).

Yep, that’s some dynamic camera work!

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Richmond lost to New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays), 4-1 in Gm 1 (7 inn)

Richmond lost to New Hampshire Fisher Cats, 4-3 in Gm 2 (7 inn)
getting swept in their three game series, 0-3

In nearly identical games, the Flying Squirrels bullpens coughed up the game in the final inning twice yesterday. In Game 1, the normally reliable Tyler Cyr went out in the 7th to protect a 1-1 tie and surrendered three runs. And in a gut-punch of a nightcap, the Squirrels went to the final inning with a 3-0 lead and recently acquired vets Jerret Martin and Collin Balester teamed up to give up four runs and the sweep. Just a brutal night at the ballyard.

Cory Taylor had a real wild time of it in his start, walking five batters in just six innings. Taylor’s walked 34 batters in 56.2 innings this year.

The thoroughly lifeless Richmond offense went just 2 for 20 with RISP during the two games, scoring in just three of their 14 at bats. Miguel Gomez has gone hitless in just 11 games this year, but interestingly enough four of those have come in double headers. He mixed up the normal pattern this time, though, going hitless in the first game and then picking up a single and a double in the nightcap. He’s currently slashing .321/.353/.473 on the year. His double was his 16th of the year, tied for 7th in the EL. It wasn’t exactly smoked, but it was a classic Gomez AB. He got down 0-2 and then spoiled off pitch after pitch after pitch. Finally he got one he could “spoil” into fair territory.

The Squirrels hit the road for Harrisburg tonight, no doubt riding a not so happy bus.

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San Jose lost to Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks), 4-3

The game started off with a bang when Aramis Garcia tore into his 8th HR of the year on the first pitch he saw. Joe Ritzo had the Trackman data at 381’ with an exit velocity of 106 mph. That’s just the second HR for Garcia since May 6, but he has shown signs of picking it up again this week after a long slow month. That’s seven hits now in his last four games (17 AB) with a double and HR. Damn that concussion for slowing down what started out as such a great year for Aramis, but hopefully he’ll get a head of steam going again now. He has shown himself to be a player who hits HRs in bunches in his career.

Unfortunately, that was all the offense the Giants would muster until a Dillon Dobson sac fly in the 9th. In the meantime, former UCLA lefty Grant Watson showed himself to be extremely hittable, giving up 10 hits in just 5 innings of work and surrendering all of the Visalia runs.

Bryan Reynolds had another good game, with two hits including a double and scoring two runs. Since May 18, Reynolds is hitting .380/.400/.540 though he does have a free-swinging 20K/3BB ratio over that time. Heath Quinn only had two of his true outcomes last night, with a walk and a K.

What’s with the ugly home record for the Giants this year? One suspects it’s a result of the team’s mediocre to awful pitching staff (a rarity in SJ history) combined with a homer happy offense. That’s not necessarily a combination that plays well at the Muni, the most HR suppressing park in the league. Where are the arms of yester-year?

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Augusta won at Rome Braves, 7-2
losing their three game series, 1-2

This was really an odd game in a lot of ways. Pushed back to 7:30 due to some afternoon rain, the Rome Braves came out desperate to sweep Augusta to keep pace in the division, and instead laid one of the most spectacular eggs imaginable.

Augusta had 20 hits in this game — all singles. They stole 7 bases (four from Jean Angomas alone, who also had three hits). They were also the benificiaries of five Rome errors. Given that they also went 9 for 23 with RISP its frankly a little astonishing that they only scored 7 runs! (actually that was going to be my lead for this game at one point, because after the 7th they had 17 hits and had gone 7 for 18 w RISP and only had 4 runs, which seemed pretty amazing).

Kelvin Beltre had a huge night with three hits and two walks. Beltre also stole a base (his 5th) though he also had, alas, the only unsuccessful base stealing attempt of their eight tries on the night.

Jean Angomas and Frandy de la Rosa also had three hit games, while SS Brandon Van Horn had a big four hit night, while stealing his 6th base of the year. Van Horn is an interesting kid to keep an eye on, because he flashes the glove to play SS (though more consistency would help). Could he sneak through and be the next Kelby? I won’t say the next Matt Duffy because the .235 average in the Sally isn’t showing him to be on that level. Van Horn is yet another draftee out of The Master’s College, where the Giants apparently have a scout on the coaching staff these days.

Sandro Fabian has a modest nine game hitting streak going, during which he’s hit .353/.371/.441.

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Salem-Keizer lost to the Tri-City Dust Devils (Padres), 10-4

Former Madera high school basketball star, Stetson Woods, had a fantastic start to his NWL season, throwing 6 shutout innings, allowing just three singles while striking out 5. The Giants’ development team surely loves their big tall galoots, and they’ve slow played Woods development while he’s grown into his body and learned some of the subtleties of his second sport. The Randy Johnson impersonator (seriously, Stetson, cut the hair! That’s a rough look) spent three years in the AZL, with each of them being incrementally less successful, but for at least one night he gave an impression that this could be the year he steps forward.

And in more exciting news, Woods’ fellow two-sport 2014 draft mate Logan Webb followed him to the mound. This was Webb’s first appearance in a game since undergoing TJ surgery almost exactly a year ago. So Webb’s rehab seems to have gone well and on a good schedule. He allowed a run but struck out two in a single inning. Very good sight to see!

Unfortunately their good work was undone by a bullpen that allowed 9 runs in the final two innings. Most of that came from Luis Pino, who you might recall torching up the Richmond bullpen for a few games last month (11.66 ERA in 9 games). This wasn’t at all a good start at regaining balance in Pino’s 2017, as he retired just 1 of the 7 batters he faced. Sad to say, but the end may be near in the Giants org for the 22 year old RHP.

Robinson Medrano, a one time star for the DSL team, who hit almost everything hard in my views of him in spring, was one of four Volcanoes with two hits and he also had one of the team’s three doubles. He also picked up an OF assist. Juan Rodriguez, also a crucial member of the 2015 DSL champions had two hits as well, after missing all of last year due to suspension.

Byron Murray also had two hits and a double, however that’s not the end of the story for his night. You may recall Dylan Davis short experiment at converting to 3b? After spending an extra few weeks in XST working on the conversion he made his AA debut at 3b and in his second game he committed 4 errors and has never manned the position again since? Well Byron Murray has apparently also been spending XST working on a conversion to 3b? How’d it go on the first night? He did Davis just slightly better, by committing Three errors (fielding, fielding, throw). We’ll see how long Murray’s conversion efforts last. He’s a much more interesting kid if he can play the position, for sure.

Oh yeah, there’s one more crucial thing to note about this game and it came with the very first batter of the night:

As Jared noted in a latter tweet, today is the first day of the rest of your really, really old life.

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DSL Giants beat the DSL Mariners, 8-3

Here we find an absolute staple of DSL box scores: 8 runs/3 rbis. That can mean just one thing... let me search around in the log and... yup here’s the culprit: the classic 4 errors and 3 WP inning. That’ll do it alright. Here’s the best part:

Prior to that, Wascar de Leon hit the first HR of his pro career. The 19 year old is repeating DSL after posting a .268/.388/.309 line last year. Yesterday was also the first time de Leon has played the OF in his career, so perhaps he thought appearing in LF, rather than his customary 2b, meant he should bulk up the power hitting. If so: well done, Wascar!

17 year old CF Alexander Canario also had a big game with three hits including two doubles. After a slow start to the year, Canario is now 6 for 11 over his last three games played with two walks. He has 11 walks now in 11 games (against 7 Ks), good for a .417 OBP.

18 year old Jerson SeverinO had a nice bounceback from his disastrous appearance on Tuesday, going 3 shutout innings and striking out 4 against 0 walks. In his previous appearance he allowed 4 ER in 0.1 IP, and in a span of five batters he allowed 2 hits, 2 BBs, had 2 WP and a balk. That performance was apparently so awful that he had to change his name to get rid of the memory, and so yesterday, the former Jerson Severin turned into Jerson Severino. We’ll see what name he goes under next time, but it looks like this is the lucky name, so I think he should keep it. Yesterday’s excellent outing actually put his strikeouts (10) ahead of his walks (8) on the year.

On the other side of the ledger, starter Luis Moreno, 18 year old Columbian RHP, hasn’t walked a batter yet this year. He now has 9 Ks and 0 BBs in 14.1 IP. He has, however, allowed 9 ER over that time.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: TBD vs. Donovan Hand
Richmond: Jordan Johnson vs. TBD
San Jose: Jake McCasland vs. Ryan Atkinson
Augusta: Raffi Vizcaino vs. Erick Julio
SK: Jose Marte vs. Adrian Morejon
DSL: Aneudy Acosta

Sacramento’s rotation is in a bit of kerfuffle right now with Gregorio having skipped a start, Slania demoted and Suarez promoted. Suarez last started on Saturday so if he’s caught up with the team and good to go this could be his AAA debut. Jordan Johnson looks to build on an impressive 2017 campaign. At the moment he’s looking like the best pitcher left in Richmond. And Raffi Vizcaino hopes to build on a fantastic first start and keep on rolling.

But the most interesting matchup might well be in Salem, where the Volcanoes face one of the most hyped pitching prospects in the low minors, lefty Adrian Morejon who the Padres signed out of Cuba for $11mm. Going up against him the Giants send Jose Marte. The 21 year old RHP got in 5 starts for the DSL team last year, striking out 18 and walking 10 in 19 IP with a nifty 1.89 ERA. Marte got an “Others of Note” writeup in Eric Longenhagen’s rankings for the Giants’ system on Fangraphs last winter with this note:

Jose Marte, RHP – A 20-year-old Dominican righty who was up to 95 in instructional league and flashing an above average curveball. He’s a below-average athlete with some control issues but is an interesting low-level prospect.