A short day, as tomorrow the final two teams of the system will get underway tomorrow. In the meantime, we’ve got two All-Star Breaks and a day off before we get 8 different leagues with games at once tomorrow!
A certain Giants draftee was at the park today, with some news about his future…
Joey Bart is at the park today. He said he’ll play a few games in Arizona and then join Salem-Keizer to start pro career.
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) June 18, 2018
But…is he going to Team Orange? Or is he going to Team Black? Inquiring minds want to know!!!! (He’s probably going to Orange.)
Before we get underway, let’s talk about a draftee not named Joey Bart!
Great story on Giants draftee Sylab Dusek https://t.co/29dJmuY8O4
— Roger Munter (@rog61) June 18, 2018
Sacramento was defeated by New Orleans (Marlins), 7-4
It wasn’t a bad offensive night for Sacramento, as they collected 12 hits, but the pitching the defense did not help for a win.
Five River Cats had two hits, but the biggest day went to Austin Slater at first base. Slater was 2-for-4 with his 24th double and 5th home run of the season, as he continues to put pressure on Bobby Evans. Slater has actually been cooling off a little, batting just 3-for-25 over his last six games, but he’s still batting .337. The downside is that Slater was playing first and had two errors (one on a throw, one on a missed catch). Slater is obviously still learning the position, or he’s just confused by why the Pacific Coast League plays on the Atlantic (Gulf) Coast, but he needs every side of his game to do well to earn his way up.
Chris Shaw picked up his 12th double while collected a pair of hits, as did Chase D’Arnaud. Gregor Blanco was 2-for-5 in his 10th game at Triple-A. Steven Duggar only got one hit, but it was his fourth double of the year, and he picked up a walk as well.
On the mound, Taylor Hill struggled once again for the River Cats. Hill has given up 18 earned runs in his last 14.1 innings of work for Sacramento. The bullpen was mostly strong, giving up just one unearned run and giving up just two hits and a walk. Pierce Johnson made his third Triple-A appearance, and first since being returned after a brief callup back to SF, and had a quiet inning. Steven Okert had his first appearance going longer than an inning since April. He hasn’t been scored upon since returning from injury in early June, a span of six appearances.
Richmond had a scheduled day off
Having gone 4-6 over their last ten games, and two teams going 8-2 to pass them, Richmond now finds itself in fourth place, 3.5 games out of first (Akron), and 1.5 games back of Altoona and Harrisburg who are in second.
San Jose is in the All-Star Break
San Jose finished the first half in 3rd place at 34-36, 10 games out of first place. The Stockton Ports took the North Division title, and Rancho Cucamonga took the South Division Title for the first half. There are no Wild Cards in the California League anymore, so San Jose will need to win the second half, or have the best overall record behind Stockton if Stockton wins it again. Visalia finished only three games ahead of San Jose in the standings, so that’s not impossible.
The California League All-Star Game will happen in Lancaster at 7 PM on Tuesday night, and feature five Giants. RHP Logan Webb, LHP Sandro Cabrera, INF Jalen Miller and Wander Franco, and OF Johneshwy Fargas will represent San Jose.
Augusta is in the All-Star Break
An eleven-game losing streak near the end of the season killed Augusta’s hopes at the first half title. Augusta ended the first half 37-31, 2.5 games behind the Rome Braves, and tied for second with the Lexington Legends. The GreenJackets can still go for the second half, and being a second-place team, puts them in solid position to compete for the wild card (best overall record for a non-half-title team).
The South Atlantic League All-Star Game will be played Tuesday night in Greensboro N.C., at 7:05 ET. Three GreenJackets: Joey Marciano, John Gavin and Manuel Geraldo, will participate.
Salem-Keizer lost to Tri-City (Padres), 8-2
The Volcanoes had a quiet night with the bats and fell quietly to the Dust Devils, splitting the season-opening series.
The game got off to a very rough start, as 20-year old starter Miguel Figueroa could not get out of his first inning of the season, giving up four hits and two walks and getting just two outs. Figueroa had a 5.24 ERA working mostly as a starter in the Arizona Rookie League last season. The end of the game also wasn’t very good, as 24-year old Orleny Quiroz made an appearance in S-K after a 0.55 ERA in San Jose, and Quiroz gave up three runs.
On the mound, the Giants did get a first look at Matt Frisbee. The 15th round pick Frisbee gave up a run in 1.2 IP, on three hits and one walk.
At the plate, 21-year old Jose Layer continued his strong start to the season, getting his second 2-hit game in his first three. The 13th round pick from 2016 hit .375 in 15 games in the AZL last season. Diego Rincones has started all four games for Salem-Keizer and has at least one hit in each, now batting 8-for-16 (with all singles). The 19-year old Rincones was one of the top hitters for the AZL Giants last season, batting .308/.372/.428. Meanwhile, 22-year old Kyle McPherson picked up a double and is now 5-for-13 in three games in S-K.
The DSL Giants defeated Colorado, 5-3
I’m starting to think we should keep an eye on this Luis Toribio kid.
The 17-year old was 2-for-4, breaking a 2-game hitless streak, and had his first triple of the season as he led the Giants’ offense with three RBI. Even with the mini-slump, Toribio has the 3rd-best OPS in the league at 1.205, is tied for the 2nd-most home runs, and is tied for the 10th-best OBP at .500.
On the night, the only other 2-hit game for the Giants was by 18-year old Nicaraguan catcher Rodolfo Bone. After going 2-for-3, Bone is batting .500/.600/.583 in five games played this season.
Ivan Armstrong took the start, and the 17-year old had his first game without allowing a run. However, collecting three walks and just one strikeout shows the kind of volatility one often sees in the DSL. In 12.1 innings, Armstrong has 13 strikeouts and nine walks. The win went to 18-year old Cristian Acosta in relief, giving up an unearned run in 1.1 IP. He has 8 walks against 5 strikeouts in 7.1 IP. Jose Cruz got the save with 1.2 IP. He didn’t get a strikeout for the second straight game, but still has eight overall in 7.2 innings.
Today’s Scheduled Starters
Sacramento: Casey Kelly vs. Pablo Lopez
Richmond: Shaun Anderson vs. Mitch Keller
Salem-Keizer: TBD vs. Ramon Perez
AG Black: TBD vs. TBD
AG Orange: TBD vs. TBD
DSL Giants: TBD vs. TBD
The River Cats will get to tangle with 22-year old Lopez, who has two starts in the PCL (3.27 ERA) after posting a 0.62 ERA in eight starts at Double-A. With Richmond, Keller is the 2014 2nd round pick for the Pirates, and has a 3.25 ERA for the Curve. The Volcanoes will face 18-year old Ramon Perez in the fifth game of the series with the Dust Devils. The young Cuban had a 2.66 ERA in the AZL last season, working mostly as a starter.
Do we need to keep doing TBD vs. TBD for the low level teams? Hm...