SF Giants Minor Lines 6/23/17: in which I grumble

[EDIT: STOP THE PRESSES, CHANGE THE FRONT PAGE

RYDER JONES IS THE NEWEST GIANT!

Now back to your originally scheduled post]

57-26

That’s how much the organization was outscored last night in getting wiped off the map in 7 losses from top to bottom. If you want to just concentrate on the minors, though, it was only 46-22! There was one tremendous rout boosting that number, it’s true, but even tossing out Salem-Keizer’s blow out, the average runs allowed yesterday by the four full season affiliates was 7. There were bad starts; there were bad relief appearances. Dare I say that the state of the system’s pitching right now is somewhat shockingly bad.

But hey, we’re not here to bury the Giants’ system but to celebrate it. So let’s cheer up by watching this tremendous play from UCLA grad (and son of 49ers QB) Christoph Bono, easily play of the day.

HIGHLIGHTS: Ryder Jones reached base 3x with a double; CJ Hinojosa had three hits; Manuel Geraldo had three hits with double.

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Sacramento lost at Fresno Grizzlies (Astros), 7-6

So we start right off with the worst of last night’s six losses. And not just because it was, frankly, the only really competitive game (at least domestically). No it was the worst because of the way it was lost: by Derek Law’s inability to throw strikes.

Sacramento took a 6-5 lead to the bottom of the 9th and, entrusting Law to hold it, the newest RiverCat preceded to walk four batters to bring in the tying run and ultimately to give up the walk off. Admittedly, the winning base hit was a grounder which the ageless Juan Ciriaco really should have been able to handle. And admittedly, the third of those walks was issued intentionally following a Sac bunt, which is a form of “old school” baseball I’ve been railing against for 40 years at least. But as Derek I know would say: there are few excuses for four walks in an inning.

We’ll take a look at the fourth of those. What’s most disheartening about this at bat is that he got Colin Moran down 0-2, taking Fresno to it’s final strike, and then after a very good 0-2 pitch that nearly got Moran to chase, he simply wasn’t competitive with the rest of the at bat at all.

Derek Law once had a 43 to 1 K/Bb ratio in the Cal League. He’s a pitcher who simply lives at the bottom of the strike zone when he’s at his best. But that’s not the guy we’ve been watching in 2017. The 2017 model has been up far too often on a regular basis. But I dearly hope he finds that old level of command over his famously violent mechanics again before 2017 is over, because I really miss great Derek Law.

On the happier side of the ledger, two guys in the middle of the order continue to have good weeks. Mac Williamson drove in three runs with a two-run single in the 1st and a Sac Fly. Mac’s had an uneven time of it since being sent back down showing good power numbers but inconsistent offense overall (.235/.295/.519 this month with a 28% K rate) but he’s turned it up this week, going 8 for 22 in his last six games with 2 doubles, 2 HRs, 7 RBIs and just 3 Ks (to 2 BBs) so it looks like he’s starting to get dialed in. All while playing his usual stellar defense, of course.

And Ryder Jones just continued to roll, reaching base three times, including a first inning double that set up Mac’s two-run single. Ryder had a productive spring, but when the calendar hit June he really kicked it into a new gear. In the month of June, Ryder’s hitting .343/.450/.701. Yeah, .450! From the guy who’d never put up a .300 OBP since the AZL. Crazy!

Apologies for the inappropriate camera movement. Nice to see the opposite field power though!

Jarrett Parker meanwhile, walked twice and scored three runs. At the risk of being redundant, I would stop worrying about Parker’s options situation when his rehab clock ticks down. They have better options than Jarrett to try and improve their OF situation. Sometimes inventory isn’t the most important consideration.

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Richmond lost to Akron Rubber Ducks (Indians), 9-6

Alright, let’s start with some happy news. Not sure if everybody saw this, but CJ Hinojosa made this week’s Baseball America Hot Sheet. Congrats, CJ:

And how did CJ celebrate? He went out and picked up three more hits, of course! One of the two times on the night when he didn’t get a hit was a sac bunt. They were all ground balls, but they were hit where they ain’t, which does the job. Here’s CJ hanging in tough against extreme side-winder Neil Holland for his third hit of the night:

that hit was the end of a four-run uprising in the bottom of the 9th that made the final score look far more competitive than the game actually was. For his last 7 games, CJ is hitting a tidy .538/.556/.654 with three doubles. And doing his best Miguel Gomez impression that line comes with 0 walks and 0 strikeouts (a HBP accounts for the OBP).

On the other side of the ledger, starter Jordan Johnson’s night was waylaid by a couple of familiar foes. He was a little loose with his fastball commands and the hits he gave up tended to be loud. Of Johnson’s six hits allowed, four of them went for extra bases, including a two-run HR in the 4th. Of his three walks, two were bunched together in the second inning and both came home on a ringing double off the wall. He was often solid, striking out five and throwing four scoreless frames on the night, but he made enough mistakes to doom his night, which has been a familiar tale for Jordan. He’s tied for 8th in the league in both HRs allowed and walks allowed. A tough way to do business (I hadn’t noticed this before but Cory Taylor is second in the Eastern League in walks, yikes!)

More shocking was Ryan Halstead’s rough line. But let’s chalk it up to one of those nights.

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San Jose lost at Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks), 6-1

After an encouragingly competitive series in Visalia near the end of the first half, San Jose has returned to getting sand kicked in their face down in the Valley to start the second half. San Jose is on a six game losing streak and all six losses have come against the Rawhide, their own personal 200 pound beach bully.

A 9th inning single from Heath Quinn avoided the shutout loss, but otherwise... man o man is there nothing much to say about this effort. Jake McCasland struck out 7 in a fine 6 inning performance (infielder TJ Bennett’s two errors undermined his work). McCasland, who the Giants selected two different times in the draft, now has struck out 59 in 65.1 IP. But he’s also walked 23 and is rocking an amazing 1.67 WHIP, helping the 5.23 ERA get along.

Yup, this was a bad one. Quinn and Aramis Garcia each had two hits. Let’s move it along.

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Augusta lost at Hickory Crawdads (Rangers), 5-2

Melvin Adon issued a leadoff walk to start the 1st inning and then got whacked with the BABIP stick a bit as he allowed four consecutive base hits, leading to two runs. The rest of his night really went much better. He did give up two more runs in the third that might have been prevented had Brandon Van Horn not booted a potential innings-ending double play.

And you know, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas as my big brother was wont to say. So let’s put Adon’s first start of the second half in the “decidedly mixed” bag. The big right hander has 44 Ks, 21 BBs, and 54 hits allowed in 51.1 IP in his full season debut, with many encouraging flashes and many, uh... opportunities for growth (as the HR folks would say).

Sandro Fabian ended April with a rush of power, hitting three HRs in the final week. But he went all of May and nearly all of June without hitting another one. Yesterday he went deep for the first time since April 30. And to celebrate the moment, he also did something he accomplishes much more often: threw a runner out at 3b. The 19 year old RF is hitting .246/.265/.355 in a season of, yes, more growth opportunities!

Kelvin Beltre drew a walk in this game (and stole his 6th base) to keep alive his streak of reaching base in 23 consecutive games. While Beltre’s new found patience is a welcome phenomenon, there is a missing component here. One of the points of improved selectivity should be swinging at better pitches on which to do damage (we’ve seen exactly that in the rise of Ryder Jones). But over the last 14 games, as Beltre has walked 14 times, he has just 1 XBH. While his OBP has increased by about 40 points in his consecutive game streak, and his average has climbed .015 points, his SLG has actually declined by about .025 points. We’ll see if he can put the two pieces of his offensive game together at some point. Definitely encouraging strides here, for sure.

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Salem-Keizer lost Eugene Emeralds (Cubs), 15-5

Well, this one got so bad that the Volcanoes ended up using two different position players on the mound (3b AJ Ramirez and C Rene Melendez) AND THEY WERE THE TWO BEST PERFORMANCES OF THE NIGHT!

SP Sidney Duprey endured a nightmare 1st inning that he just never could quite get himself out of. Duprey was all over the place with his control, walking two and hitting a batter in an inning that ultimately hung 5 ER on his line. Hengerber Medina and Matt Pope would pour kerosene on the fire allowing 8 more runs over the next five innings.

But to the happy side. Let’s see... did the Volcanoes run? Yes, they did! Stealing six more bases including a league leading 8th from both Malique Ziegler and Manuel Geraldo.

Geraldo has been kicked around a good bit by the Sally league the last two years (hitting a collective .163 in nearly 300 PA) but he’s got the NWL figured out. After posting an excellent .298/.333/.371 line there last year, Geraldo’s hitting .367/.412/.433 there so far this year. While he’s been hanging around the Minor Lines for a long time now, it’s worth remembering he’s still just 20 years old and younger than much of his competition in this league.

Malique Ziegler picked up two more base hits and two stolen bases. In addition to being tied for the league lead in SB, Ziegler is 4th in the league in OPS. If you’re wondering why that was Bono making the amazing catch up there rather than Ziegler, the Volcanoes emptied their bench once the game got out of hand. Bono’s catch helped save 3b AJ Ramirez’ inning.

Rene Melendez also got help. After walking the bases loaded the C got a little help from a friend with this nifty double play from 1b Ryan Kirby.

Ziegler, Geraldo, and Kirby are, btw, 5th, 6th, and 7th in the league in batting average. So why aren’t the Volcanoes winning more with all this offense? Oh yeah, it’s the pitching.

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DSL Giants lost to DSL Blue Jays, 4-2

Presented without comment, the Giants’ team totals here: 3 hits, 9 walks, 6 errors.

Lefty Marco Gonzalez got no help from his friends, surrendering 2 (unearned) runs on just three hits. He did walk three batters but he also added to his K total with 4 more strikeouts. Gonzalez’ 22 Ks (in 18.1 IP) are tied for 4th in the DSL.

Enoch Watts two-run double was the moment of glory for the offense. Watts boosted his average to .100 as all three of the noted SS group of Watts, Santos, and Jorge has scuffled out of the gates of their pro careers.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: TBD vs. Casey Coleman; Michael Roth vs. Dean Deetz
Richmond: Dan Slania vs. Matt Marza
San Jose: Conner Menez vs. Bo Takahashi
Augusta: Caleb Barager vs. Michael Matuella
SK: Alejandro De La Rosa vs. Enrique De Los Rios
AZL: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DSL: Norwith Gudino

Not to grumble my way through this entire post, but does that look like an exciting slate to you? Because I have to be honest here: it’s not exciting to me. You know the Braves have all of Mike Soroka, Touki Toussaint, and Joey Wentz going tonight. Just sayin’.

Anyway, the Volcanoes matchup is entertaining just on name value alone. And toiling in obscurity, 21 year old Norwith Gudino is quietly having a fantastic year in his third DSL campaign with a 21 to 1 K:BB ratio. And in the desert, the rookie league squad gets it’s season opened. Will we see recent signings like Seth Corry or Garrett Cave? Maybe! Probably not, but we might see Luis Amaya or Jake Greenwalt or even more tantalizingly Johan Herrera or Camilo Doval.

So c’mon guys: let’s try very hard not to go 0 and 8 tonight. Oh wait, Sacramento has a double header: 0 and 9. Let’s get out there and win a few tonight.

Now let us have fireworks: