SF Giants Minor Lines 6/26/17: Bryan Reynolds picks up another 4 hits

Perhaps you’re thinking: there’s just too much good news surrounding the organization these days. And you live in fear of the hanging shoe inevitably dropping to blight the happy vibes.

To which I say: Giants Fan Who So Obviously Has Returned from a Long Trip Abroad, have I got the transaction for you!

Yup. These are the days, alright.

HIGHLIGHTS: Tyler Beede pitched 8 strong innings with 7 Ks; CJ Hinojosa doubles, HRs; Bryan Reynolds had four hits including 2 doubles, HR; Aramis Garcia hit 2 HRs;

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Sacramento won at El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres), 4-2

Stepping in for Gregorio (though on six days rest himself), Tyler Beede delivered his best outing in a month. Beede went a season high 8 innings, throwing 102 pitches, and allowed just two runs in gaining his first road win in the PCL. It was the first start in which Beede had allowed two or fewer runs since May 23rd. One nice thing about Beede’s recent stretch is that he has re-discovered a little swing and miss in his game, striking out 26 in his last four starts over 25.1 IP, while walking just 8.

He was the victim of the long ball once again, getting touched up for two solo HRs in this game to account for all the scoring. He had just four hits overall though, so the big flies didn’t hurt him as they had in the past. One can put some of the gopher ball tendencies on the PCL, but these days are tough times for fly ball pitchers in any league, so it would be good to put a rein on it. Or put another way, PCL gonna PCL, but Beede’s allowed nearly half of the entire Sacramento staff’s HRs in the month of June (11 of 25 total). Still, this outing in a tough ballpark was definitely a step forward.

Ali Castillo made Beede a winner, hitting a three-run triple in the top of the 6th. The RiverCats only other run came on Jae-Gyun Hwang’s 7th HR of the year, a solo shot in the 4th.

Tough call coming up for the org here. Despite getting time in at 3b and a (very) little rough time in LF, Hwang’s mostly been confined to 1b lately and his power has almost entirely come on the road. He’s hit 5 of his 7 HRs on the road and owns a .530 SLG on the road as compared to .418 at home. For a 29 year old he also displays some iffy K/Bb peripherals. It seems to me that the org sees Ryder Jones as a guy who can do almost everything Hwang can only better and younger, and may not have room for both at the major league level — or really either until a couple trades get made to clear away some brush. We’ll know if a few days, I guess.

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Richmond won at Trenton Thunder (Yankees), 3-2

“I got your danged power, RIGHT HERE!!!!!” Cj Hinojosa seemingly shouted in an entirely fictitious interior monologue that I just made up and am very please with. Coming into the contest with just six extra base hits in nearly 160 PA, SS Hinojoa exploded in Trenton, power bursting at the seams like a new Avenger.

In the 4th, Hinojosa doubled off Trenton flame thrower Domingo Acevedo (one of just four hits he allowed in 7 innings), ultimately coming around to score Richmond’s first run on a two-out throwing error.

And then in the top of the 8th with Jeff Arnold representing the tying run on 2b, Hinojosa really muscled up, jacking the game-winning HR out to LF, his first HR of the year.

All coming on the same day that beloved former Squirrel SS Kelby Tomlinson hit his first major league XBH of the year. Coincidence? Hmmmm...

It was, as you can hear in the Trenton announcer’s voice, a somewhat stunning turn of affairs, after Acevedo had dominated the Squirrels for 7 innings, striking out 9 and allowing just the one unearned run. Sam Coonrod wasn’t as efficient, working through a lot of traffic in 5.2 innings, but he got through mostly unscathed, and the bullpen locked it down through the late innings. Tyler Cyr (that’s “SEAR” by the way, for those who have asked) had a nice bounce back from Sunday’s rough outing, picking up the save with a mostly unadventurous 9th inning.

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San Jose beat Stockton Ports (A’s), 12-4

A happy return home, as the top of the Giants order hammered the Ports last night. Led by the 3-4 combination of Bryan Reynolds and Aramis Garcia, San Jose knocked out 13 hits including 8 XBH in the laugher.

Bryan Reynolds is scorching hot this week. Yesterday he picked up four hits, including two doubles and a HR. Over the last three days, the top draft pick from 2016 has nearly accumulated two cycles of hits over his last three days, going 9 for 16 with two doubles, two triples and a HR (his 4th). Reynolds has met the Cal League assignment about as well as the Giants could have hoped for. After a slow April he got things turned around when the calendar turned and has hit .327/.360/.476 since May 1. The Ks are still high, as they tend to always be with Reynolds, and the walks could definitely stand to move up, but Reynolds continues to hit, as he has virtually everywhere he’s ever played. Interestingly, his current SJ line (.312/.353/.462) is extremely similar to the line he posted last year in Salem-Keizer (.312/.368/.500). In each of the last two seasons the Giants have promoted their best Cal League performers shortly after the All Star break, and it won’t be shocking if Reynolds gets that treatment, too. With CF depth in the system on the thin side I imagine they’ll challenge Reynolds some more in the second half of the year.

And a guy Reynolds could conceivably take with him to Richmond is Catcher Aramis Garcia. Garcia had just two hits in yesterday’s game, but they both left the yard. With 10 HRs now, Garcia is 8th in the Cal League in homers, one behind team leader Gio Brusa. Let’s enjoy a little back to back action as Reynolds and Garcia teamed up to pile it on the Ports:

There’s a lot going on in that video. Reynolds with a tremendously quick bat (109 mph exit velocity!) and then Garcia with a long extended at bat ending with a hanger that he could really handle. And in between, the sufferings of Seth Brown who spent a considerable amount of the night with wadding in both nostrils, showing his toughness after suffering from a Canseco-esque indignity when chasing a fly ball.

One last potential call-up alert, Ryan Howard returned to the lineup after missing a few days and went right back to hitting, picking up 3 hits and scoring 3 runs. Is he on the Slater/Cole/Hinjosa/Duggar/Shaw schedule too? Could be!

Good times at the Muni! Hey, do you want to know the terrifying truth about the Giants’ system? Or do you want to watch Aramis Garcia hit some dingers? DINGERS! DINGERS! DINGERS!

Do NOT throw this man a breaking ball up in the zone.

Hey, trivia question: who hit the last cycle for the San Jose Giants? This comes courtesy of Joe Ritzo in the broadcast, so it’s not like i had any idea either, but it’s a beloved former prospect (answer at the bottom).

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Augusta beat West Virginia Power (Pirates), 2-0

All Star Dom Mazza had one of his best nights since his perfect game, going 7 shutout innings in a good old fashioned pitcher’s duel with the Power’s Eduardo Vera. Mazza struck out 6 while allowing just four hits and a walk. It was just the second start since his perfecto (back on April 25) in which Mazza has allowed no runs.

The double shutout was broken up in the 7th when Sandro Fabian hit his 16th double of the season, driving in Skyler Ewing. Fabian himself would score the final run of the game when Jacob Heyward singled him in. Fabian continues creeping his numbers back up towards respectability. Following a brutal May, in which he hit .216 and had just a .486 OPS, he’s hit .284/.301/.395 in the month of June, while cutting the K rate down to 15.6% (it’s 20% for the season). Baby steps, Sandro. I’ll take the moment to recall that Christian Arroyo posted a .497 OPS in his aborted attempt at the Sally at the same age.

Speaking of Jacob Heyward, he was the focus of a local news story last night, which you can see here:

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Salem-Keizer lost at the Boise Hawks (Rockies), 8-2

The Volcanoes were definitely not erupting in game one of their set with the Hawks last night. In their defense, I’ll point out that that’s about an 8-9 hour bus ride with no stops and no road construction (yeah, likely) so a flat performance isn’t terribly unexpected.

The recently prolific offense was held to just six hits on the night, a third of which came from Kirt’s kid, Dylan Manwaring. One of their other hits was 1b Ryan Kirby’s 1st HR of the year, reportedly DEEP

See! Also Malique Ziegler took the NWL lead in SB with his 9th swipe. But that’s about all the good news to reports from Idaho. 2017 continues to be rough on Alex Bostic and Cesar Yanez, who have yet to find an environment in America in which they can collect outs. It’s just a struggle sometimes. Because it’s really freakin’ hard.

But a solid yay! for Logan Webb who keeps working his way back. That’s now 6 Ks in 3 innings of work post-TJ. The 2014 4th rounder has K’d 2 batters in each of his three, 1 inning appearances while allowing just two batters to reach base (both in his first time out).

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AZL Giants lost to AZL Cubs, 5-4

Another six-hit performance out of an offense. And without the bus ride. Really hot though.

Beicker Mendoza and Angeddy Almanzar led the way with two hits apiece, as well as a loud out apiece according to friend of show Conner Penfold:

Beicker was Sandro Fabian’s running mate on the 2015 DSL champs, but he’s been left behind since, it part apparently because of problems finding him a defensive home. Almanzar was easily the best offensive player on the 2016 DSL team, hitting .294/.373/.438 down there with 5 HRs. And apparently, he has other talents as well!

Sidney Duprey had made two starts with Salem-Keizer, including one just last Friday, but he’s been sent down to the Scottsdale camp to work on things apparently. Conner reported he was getting several swing throughs in the rookie league, after his bumpy NWL experiment.

Keep an eye on Conner’s site as he promises to have some of his excellent video footage up from his trip to Scottsdale in the next day or so as he struggles with slow upload speeds.

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DSL Giants lost to DSL White Sox, 9-7

I’m going to keep giving this note until it stops being true: Ghordy Santos, prized MI acquisition now hitting .114 for the year, has five hits this season and all five have gone for extra bases (3 doubles, 1 triple, 1 HR). Crazy. Wonder how long Ghordy can keep this up.

2b Wascar de Leon had a fine game with two hits with a double, a walk and a steal of home (on a double steal with Franklin Labour). De Leon’s having a decent, though inconsistent, start of the year for the DSL team. Forgotten CF Jose Patino, on his third DSL campaign, also had two hits. The team scored 7 runs on 7 hits with just 2 RBI, which suggests your basic DSL hijinx.

SP Francis Pena ran into a buzz saw of a 3rd inning, allowing hits to four of the first six batters he faced (including three doubles) in the inning and hitting a 5th. He later mixed in a WP and a walk before being relieved in what was ultimately a four-run inning that put the White Sox comfortably on top. Reliever Janly Fermin later had a rough 0.1 of an inning as well, facing five batters, one of whom he walked, one he hit, one got a hit, and one reached via an error. Oof.

The White Sox recent big Cuban signing Luis Robert was part of the lineup in this one. Robert walked twice and had a HBP, possibly never swinging the bat on the day.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Chris Stratton vs. Matt Magill
Richmond: Cory Taylor vs. Nestor Cortes
San Jose: Grant Watson vs. TBD
Augusta: Stephen Woods, Jr. vs. Luis Escobar
Salem-Keizer: Stetson Woods vs. Rico Garcia
AZL: Deiyerbert Bolivar?? (I’ll just keep that up until I’m right some day)
DSL: Luis Moreno

Oh my goodness we’ve reached Woods Overload as both go on the same day. This should be fun. Remember, it’s Woods, JR! in Augusta.

So all the full season teams won yesterday and all the short season teams lost. Ok, that’s a pattern I can get behind. The full season teams have piling up Ls with a two month head start, so they need a little success. Let’s keep it up! And short season guys, maybe you can share in it a little more today, especially the rookie league squad that’s still sitting on a “0” in the Win column (I think I just gave Joe Angel his wings).

Trivia Answer: Thomas Neal was the last SJ player to complete a cycle, back in 2009 and the last SJ player to have a cycle at home was Kevin Frandsen.