I know Kevin covered the A ball All Star Games in yesterday’s Prospect Roundup, but dangit, I want in on a little of this action too! Let’s talk some Manny Geraldo! Now you may recall Geraldo from such Minor Lines as...me talking about the kid every damn day for the last four years! But let’s take a quick This Is Your Life spin back on Geraldo’s career thus far:
Geraldo was signed for $375,000 on July 2, 2013, one of the highest bonuses handed out by the Giants in a class that included Kelvin Beltre, Mikey Edie, and Rodolfo Martinez. At the time, Ben Badler had this to report on the young SS:
At 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, the 17-year-old Geraldo is a 60 runner and has plus arm strength. With good actions, range and footwork, he has a chance to be a quality defender at shortstop.
As a skinny 17 year old, Geraldo’s pro debut in the DSL was solid but not exactly eye popping, hitting .251/.323/.338. The most impressive thing he did was stay on the field for 62 games, mostly at SS, without wearing down as a 170 lb 17 year old. Still it wasn’t surprising when the Giants chose to keep Geraldo in the DSL for a repeat season in 2015, allowing him to grow and mature.
Geraldo responded to the second chance with a break out performance, this time hitting .328/.383/.431. The next year came a surprise — a huge challenge assignment all the way up to full season ball in the Sally League. In retrospect, perhaps the slower path through the AZL and NWL would have suited Geraldo better, but regardless he never seemed to lose confidence. In two consecutive years he struggled mightily in the Sally, posting a .381 OPS in 2016 and just a .478 OPS in 2017. But both times he rebounded in the NWL and last year even managed to make the NWL All Star game, hitting .301/.338/.370 in the short season league.
That catches us up to date. This year, Geraldo made another All Star team, following a blistering May in which he was the Sally League’s Player of the Month. He’s already set a career high in HRs and is posting SLG and OPS that he hasn’t shown since the Dominican Republic. And he’s catching some scouting buzz too. John Calvagno found room for Geraldo in his mid-season prospect list for a stacked Sally League (this is really excellent work and worth reading in its entirety)
Here's my mid-season Sally top 25 prospect list. https://t.co/1Agh1prg6e
— John Calvagno (@SALNotes) June 19, 2018
The lg is deep this year, a lot of talent. Some players I really like struggled to make the list.
Fun exercise. Let me know if you see any omissions. Thanks
Juan Soto photo courtesy of @PatrickCavey pic.twitter.com/2J8vx5xqa7
and in yesterday’s All Star Game, during which Geraldo picked up three hits including another HR he gained the attention of former MLB scout Adam McInturff of 2080Baseball
And he shows that pop: #SFGiants SS Manuel Geraldo tanks a hanging CH deep over the RF wall for pullside dinger. Really nice blend of strength and athleticism, better SS than you think for a large, physical frame w/ thick lower half.
— Adam McInturff (@2080adam) June 20, 2018
It’s been a slow steady burn for the 21 year old, but things are starting to come together for a talented kid. Good job, Manny!
Ok, now on to the fairly limited lines!
HIGHLIGHTS: Dan Slania struck out 7 in 3.2 IP; Diego Rincones doubled and homered among three hits; Yorlis Rodriguez collected 3 hits and 3 RBIs;
Richmond lost to Altoona Curve (Pirates), 5-1 in Gm 1 (7 inn)
Richmond beat Altoona Curve (Pirates), 5-1 Gm 2 (7 inn)
The first game in this rain makeup double header should have been one of the better pitching matchups of the day: with Shaun Anderson going up against quite probably the best pitching prospect currently active in the minors, Pittsburgh’s #1 prospect Mitch Keller.
Unfortunately, only half of the duo really came to play. Anderson was slapped around for 11 hits and 5 runs in just 5 IP. He did strike out 6 to regain the Eastern League lead in that category with 82. But the ERA and WHIP continue to climb up. This is the year that the Giants planned to put a starter’s full load on the former reliever, so it’s likely that the workload is starting to weigh on Anderson a little. At almost 80 IP so far he’s highly likely to well exceed his career high of 123 IP (from last year). The peripherals are still strong and he appears to be moving in the right direction.
Keller went 6 innings and allowed just one unearned run on 4 hits. He even helped his own cause, picking up one of those 11 hits Anderson allowed—though not perhaps the hardest hit of them all.
Richmond roared back to take game 2 behind a four run 1st inning in support of huge spot start appearance from Dan Slania. Making his first start of 2018, the burly right-hander came out firing strikes—he threw 40 strikes in his 57 pitches for the game—and Altoona wasn’t much success with any of them. Slania struck out 7 of the 13 batters he faced, and allowed just one hit. That hit, a leadoff double, was turned into a run courtesy of Jake McCasland who built a monument to LOLWins with his 0.1 IP appearance in which he allowed Altoona’s lone run to score. Winning Pitcher.
In an old friends alert, 2016 2nd Rounder Bryan Reynolds is back and playing again. Reynolds, who went to the Pirates in the Andrew McCutchen trade, picked up four hits across the two games for Altoona including two doubles and two RBIs.
Oh Dylan! You gotta get there! Davis did show off his wheels in hitting a triple though!
Salem-Keizer won at Boise Hawks (Rockies), 6-4
Diego Rincones is a hitting machine! Rincones picked up three more hits including a double and an 8th inning HR that gave the Volcanoes the lead for good. And that wasn’t all the work Rincones did to lead the Volcanoes to victory.
A throw by Rincones from the left field wall keeps a run from scoring on a triple by Danny Edgeworth. 1 out in the home 6th.
— S-K Volcanoes ⚾ (@SKVolcanoes) June 21, 2018
Another super man throw from Rincones!!!! catches Castro trying to stretch a single into a double! pic.twitter.com/KOrjA0OMfj
— S-K Volcanoes ⚾ (@SKVolcanoes) June 21, 2018
Not a bad day’s work!
Rincones, who just turned 19 last week, is off to a torrid start in the NWL, hitting .500/.480/.667 over his first six games. As you can probably tell from that OBP portion of the slash, there’s no walks in his line, but on the other side of the coin he’s had just 1 strikeout. Seems like we have an OF (and much younger) version of Miguel Gomez here! Some fitness religion will certainly need to be part of Diego’s future progress, but the kid keeps putting bats on balls.
Rincones was supported by SS Kyle McPherson, who also had three hits and is also hitting .500 after the first week of games. McPherson, the Giants 26th round pick last year out of James Madison University, has just one extra base hit so far, but he’s also controlling the zone well with 2 BB and 2 Ks.
AZL Giants Orange beat AZL Giants Black, 6-4
A “friendly” as they like to say in the soccer world! This game featured a massive amount of pro debuts—goodness, let’s see if we can even keep track of them all. 2018 draftees Randy Norris, Braden Frankfurt, Abdiel Layer, Tyler Flores, Austin Edgette, Fabian Pena, Ben Strahm and JJ Santa Cruz all got their pro debuts, as did 2017 draftee Conner Nurse, who never appeared last year.
But let’s talk about a non-draftee making his pro debut. 18 year old Cuban SS Yorlis Rodriguez was one of many players who the Giants signed to their penalty-imposed maximum of $300,000 last year on July 2nd. But unlike all of the other big signings from last year — and highly unusual for a Giants IFA signing — Yorlis skipped over the DSL and went straight to domestic ball. At 18 he’s older than many of the Dominicans and Venezuelans in his class of course, and coming from Cuba he has much more experience actually playing in competitive games. So the promotion makes sense. Yorlis was a part of Cuba’s 15U National team in 2014, where he hit .366/.453/.530 in 161 PA.
And in his first game in American pro ball he kept right on hitting, picking up three singles and three RBIs in his debut. Nicely done Yorlis!
Alex Canario collected his first hit of the year, though he also K’d three times. Hopefully Canario will get in the swing of things soon. This is what we came to see, Alex!
Canario double pic.twitter.com/fvDBmbPnd1
— Roger Munter (@rog61) March 16, 2018
Part of Canario and the rest of the Black offense’ issues had to do with the level of their competition. The Orange rolled out some big guns, with Chris Heston opening up the game with only his second appearance of the year (and first since April 9). Heston was followed by the system debut of Sam Wolff, who the Giants acquired from Texas in the Matt Moore deal. Wolff has been rehabbing from a torn flexor tendon suffered in the waning days of the 2017 season. Prior to that his 2017 season had been a real breakout as he punched out 59 batters in 43.1 IP between AA and AAA. With a fastball that reaches the upper 90s, Wolff might very likely have reached Texas last September had it not been for the injury. He’s a wild card to provide some relief help in the Giants pen before 2018 is done.
DSL Giants were postponed by rain
Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: TBD vs. Dillon Overton
Richmond: TBD vs. Taylor Hearn
San Jose: Melvin Adon vs. TBD
Augusta: TBD vs. TBD
Salem-Keizer: Gregory Santos vs. Riley Pint
AZL Giants: TBD and TBD!
DSL Giants: Juan Sanchez vs. TBD
Well that wasn’t really all that informative was it!?! It did inform me that I have 8 games to writeup tomorrow. Mama mia!
One last thing before we go....Soon....
My treat for today so far - watching Joey Bart take batting practice. #Giants
— Bill Mitchell (@billazbbphotog) June 21, 2018