SF Giants Minor Lines 6/29/17: Shawsome!

Before we get to the Giants’ doings for the day, a heartfelt Minor Lines thought goes out to Yankees prospect Dustin Fowler, whose lifelong dream played out as nightmare last night. After all the work that goes into getting to the Show, it’s just unbearable to watch something like this happen. Get better, Dustin, and get back!

HIGHLIGHTS: Chris Shaw hit two HRs in four hit night; Matt Winn hit a HR and two doubles; Ryan Howard had four hits; Ricardo Genovese hit a HR and two doubles.

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Sacramento won at El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres), 11-10
splitting their four game series, 2-2

Chris Shaw, one would imagine, is not at all pleased with the idea of returning to Sacramento and is likely even now putting in paperwork for a work transfer to the West Texas town of El Paso. Because wild as the west Texas wind @Shawsome24 did him some damage in this series! One night after collecting three hits including a HR and a double off the top of the wall, Shaw picked picked up four more, the first two of which looked like this:

and this:

Lift And Separate. That’s some easy power. Good golly, Texas is fun!

It was less fun for starter Michael Roth, who allowed three HRs himself, but the big lefty DJ Snelten tamed it fine, picking up 5 Ks in two innings of stellar relief work that brought a little sanity to the then 8-8 game.

That is one funktastic delivery Snelten’s got going lately. Lot of deception at work there. Command still seems to come and go a bit with the big guy.

It stayed 8-8 way into the 9th, when Matt Winn, who himself is probably eager to stick around in El Paso, picked up AAA HR #1.

Insult to injury! Man how many opposing OF are we going to tag this week?

In two games with Sacramento, Winn is now 4 for 4 with two doubles, a HR, and 4 RBI. Yep, Texas is the bestas. Winn’s three-run jack proved to be barely enough when Derek Law tap-danced through a two-run bottom of the 9th after allowing singles to the first three hitters he faced. In four games since his demotion, Law has allowed 6 hits and 4 BBs in just 4.2 IP. Yikes.

Shaw’s three HR series gave him 12 for the year across two levels, which means he and the similar hot Aramis Garcia have both raced out to a lead for HRs in the system, jetting past Ryder Jones. Jarrett Parker hit his first of the year at any level. Parker’s about ten days or so away from the end of his rehab assignment, which is going to coincide almost exactly with the AAA All Star break.

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Richmond lost at Trenton Thunder (Yankees), 8-2
splitting their four game series, 2-2

Jordan Johnson’s AA season has hit a bit of a speed bump lately. In his last three starts the right-hander has given up 21 Runs in just 15.1 IP. That’s come with 10 walks and 5 HRs as wavering command and hittable pitches up continue to plague him. There were a couple infield hits mixed in, still Johnson allowed nearly half of the batters he faced to reach base (10 of 21) while throwing barely half of his pitches for strikes (42 of 76). Not a great recipe for success. JJ’s ERA has now climbed up to 4.38 and away from the run suppressing climes of The Diamond in Richmond, it’s 5.67. Ouch!

The pitching staff, which was supposed to be a strength of this Richmond team, isn’t proving itself out, as the top three SP prospects left in the rotation (Johnson, Coonrod, and Taylor) are all among the bottom 20 ERAs in the Eastern League among qualified pitchers, all well north of 4.00.

The only bright spot on the Squirrels’ side of the game came from Swiss Army knife Myles Schroder. Manning 3b for the game, the 29 year old picked up three of the seven Richmond hits, including his first HR of the year. The three hits pushed his average up over the .300 mark. I’ll go ahead and call it now and predict that someday Myles will part of the Giants’ minor league coaching staff.

But let not be said the Squirrels bring nothing of excitement to the field (as perhaps I did in my little mini-tirade yesterday):

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San Jose beat Stockton Ports (A’s), 8-5
winning their four game series, 3-1

The Giants had mostly struggled to provide much offense at home this year, but that was decidedly not the case in this four game set with Stockton, where they piled up 31 runs in their three victories.

With Aramis Garcia getting a day of rest, Nestor Rojas moved Hit King Ryan Howard into the clean-up spot and boy did he repay the move, picking up four more hits, driving his batting average up to .332 (third in the league among current players). Howard led a 15-hit attack that included multi-hit efforts from Bryan Reynolds, Jalen Miller (who also picked up a walk in addition to two hits), and spot starter John Polonius.

They also got two big doubles from Steven Duggar, his first two hits of the year. Duggar grounded a double past the 1b as part of San Jose’s big 5-run second inning. And then the next time up he doubled a little more emphatically off the wall in the opposite field power alley.

Nice to see that swing again! Though he’s just DHing for now, Duggar’s addition to San Jose gives them the option of the All CF OF. Which puts me in mind to see a little defense. Go get it, Ronnie!

Stockton managed to stick around in this game thanks to the continued struggles of Jake McCasland. McCasland is a bit of a puzzlement. The Giants drafted Jake out of both High School and college because there’s a lot of arm strength in that package. He throws mid-90s with consistency and has good run on his fastball. But like Johnson, McCasland has shown a penchant for mistakes up in the Cal League and they tend to get punished. McCasland is featuring an incredible 1.63 WHIP thanks in large part to allowing 92 hits in 71 IP. Just way too much hard contact. Still, you have to wonder if there’s not a Joe Biagini in that package somewhere.

Before the game manager Nestor Rojas mentioned on the pre-game show with Joe Ritzo that Heath Quinn should be rejoining the team in the next few days and doctors don’t believe there’s anything serious with his shoulder. Good news!

The big news after the game was that Giants OF Bryan Reynolds was named the Giants representative to the Futures Game. And you can hear some of Reynolds thoughts on how his first full season is going on the latest “Inside the San Jose Giants” podcast.

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Augusta lost to West Virginia Power (Pirates), 6-5 in 11 inn
splitting their four game series, 2-2

Augusta had high hopes of winning their second consecutive home series, but Caleb Smith, who’s having a rough 2017, helped blow a three-run lead when he walked the first two batters he faced in the top of the 8th. One out later Michael Bernal made a crucial throwing error and a few pitches later the game was suddenly tied 5-5. That would hold until the 11 inning when a walk, a WP and a bunt helped set up the losing run.

All of which obscured a very nice Garrett Williams start. Williams had been scuffling a bit lately, but he managed to keep the ball nearer to the zone in this game, issuing less than four walks for the first time in four starts. More strikes helped him stretch out to a season high 93 pitches. He did have a decent amount of traffic on the bases but 5 Ks helped him dance through most of the trouble. It was his best outing since a 9 K, 6.1 inning shutout back on June 1.

Brandon Van Horn’s amazing stretch of six straight hits ended in the 2nd inning, though he did pick up a double in his 1 for 5 effort, one of just 7 hits for the Greenjackets on the night.

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Salem-Keizer won at Tri-City Dust Devils (Padres), 2-0 in 12 inn

More free baseball! The Volcanoes pitching staff has been, by any measure, by far the worst in the NWL this year, but in this game RHP Julio Benitez found himself in a good old fashioned Pitchers’ Duel and kept throwing up 0 after 0. Benitez has been quite good in two of his three starts this year, striking out 16 against 4 walks in 15.1 IP. The 22 year old has been in rookie ball for the last three seasons.

After Benitez left in the 6th with a 0-0 game, a series of relievers who have had major struggles came in and they all put up 0s too! Luis Piño, Heath Slatton, Vic Black...0s for everybody! The line of the night came from Slatton, who struck out 6 of the 10 batters he faced. That HAD to feel good for the righty who’s scuffled so badly at so many levels and roles this year.

Meanwhile, the Volcanoes offense was as silent as the Devils. The two teams managed just 14 hits between them with no extra base hits, while collectively striking out 29 times. Finally in the top of the 12th, the Volcanoes managed to break the 0-0 gridlock. Though they had just four hits in the game to that point, they managed to double their total in the 12th, with four groundball singles in a five batter stretch that delivered the 2-0 victory at the end of a long night.

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AZL Giants beat the ALZ Diamondbacks, 8-4

Eighteen year old C Ricardo Genoves is well known for “not havin’ it” as he’s already thrown out 4 of the 5 attempted SB against him this year. But he’s been far less known for his offensive power game. But Genoves exploded yesterday, picking up three of the Giants four extra base hits, including just the 2nd HR of his career. Genoves, who trained with Anderson Espinosa and who caught Johnny Cueto in the Dominican this winter, has a legit glove and has shown the ability to handle big league level velocity. It’s all about the bat with this kid. He can go as far as it will take him.

On the mound there were some surprises for the Giants. First, Albert Suarez awoke from whatever deep slumber he’s been in all summer, making his first appearance of the year. Suarez faced four batters, allowing a solo HR. And following him to the mound it was the return of Stephen Johnson, the sometimes fireballing/sometimes not RHP who the Giants drafted in the 6th round of the 2012 draft. Johnson was sent to Cincinnati in the Marlon Byrd trade of 2015, but the Giants picked him as a free agent recently, because the Giants get a pang of empathy whenever any of their former players are outside looking sad and lonely. Johnson had last pitched in a game last September with the Louisville Bats.

Check out Conner Penfold’s twitter feed and blog as he’s starting to post thoughts and video from his trip to the desert. Here’s a taste!

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DSL Giants beat DSL Orioles, 9-2

Ok, this is how this is supposed to work: I tee it up, noting that Marco Gonzalez has emerged as the leader of the DSL Giants’ staff, and then he goes and knocks it out of the park with a fantastic outing. The 19 year old lefty matched career highs with 6 innings pitched and 8 strikeouts, while allowing just 1 hit and 0 runs in what was probably his best outing so far. If there’s a nit to pick with Gonzalez’ year, he’s issuing more walks than one might wish. Still, with 30 Ks (13 walks) and just 2 ER (0.74 ERA) allowed in 24.1 IP, this is turning into a breakout year for Marco.

Once again, it was the 3-4 combination of Franklin Labour and Alexander Canario that supplied a lot of the thump behind Gonzalez. The two corner OF provided six of the team’s 13 hits and reached base safely four times each. Canario’s double was one of two extra base hits for the team (Nishell Gutierrez’ triple was the other). And he also took sole possession of the team SB lead with his 9th of the year.

3b Martin Doria also pitched in with three hits and he, too, stole a base (his 5th).

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Madison Bumgarner vs. Casey Coleman
Richmond: TBD vs. Tommy Bergjans
San Jose: Conner Menez vs. Nathan Bannister
Augusta: Melvin Adon vs. Brian Keller
Salem-Keizer: TBD vs. Henry Henry
AZL: TBD
DSL: Norwith Gudino

Lots of TBD in the system today. Richmond is listing Dan Slania as their starter but that obviously won’t be the case. The big start of course takes place in Sacramento, where the big lefty gets a Giant step closer to San Francisco and I for one, can’t wait to see him again.

Much lower down, Melvin Adon continues his odyssey hopefully spinning his stuff into gold. It’s been awhile since he threw a gem. Maybe today’s the day.