SF Giants Minor Lines 6/28/18: Boo on the Rox!

Congratulations to Sacramento’s newest All Stars

Rogers and D’Arnaud are not, perhaps, the list of potential All Stars we might have crafted for Sacramento upon first seeing their Opening Day roster, but that’s a topic for another day. Today it’s just congratulations due! This is the second straight PCL All Star appearance for Tyler Rogers.

HIGHLIGHTS: Heath Quinn homered for the second straight day among three hits; Jalen Miller had three hits with a double; David Villar hit his first professional homer; Richgelon Juliana homered twice among three hits.

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Sacramento lost at Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies), 3-1
splitting their series, 2-2

Let me know when you’re tired of hearing this story: a Giants’ team played a Colorado team yesterday and the Rockies came out on top. You may recall when last we met that I mentioned the top of the org would be going up against the Rockies’ best. Sacramento bats were not up to the challenge, as they managed just 5 hits on the day, apparently forgetting that they were playing in Albuquerque.

With two outs in the 9th inning, Orlando Calixte’s pinch hit single brought in Steven Duggar with the RiverCats lone run, but that was all she wrote on getaway day. Myles Schroeder picked up two of the team’s hits, the only RiverCat to collect multiple hits. Antonio Senzatela went 7.1 IP shutout innings, allowing just 3 hits and a walk.

Sacramento’s pitching was nearly as good with lefty Daniel Camarena allowing just 1 run over 5 and Tyler Beede throwing another clean inning in the 6th. Beede looks like he is starting to take to relieving. After allowing 6 runs in his first two relief appearances on 5 hits, 3 walks and a hit batsman, Beede has come back to record three straight scoreless outings. In his last three games, he’s allowed two hits, no walks and had a strikeout in each game. We shall see...

The big blow of the game came after Beede’s departure, as Michael Connolly served up a two run homer to Colorado’s #8 prospect Garrett Hampson to essentially salt the game away.

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Richmond lost at Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies), 4-1

That about says it: another Rockies affiliate, another loss on the day. 21 year old Peter Lambert, the Rox #5 prospect, thoroughly dominated the Squirrels over 7 innings, allowing just 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 9. At one point Lambert retired 13 Richmond batters in a row.

That streak was stopped by CJ Hinojosa, who got back on the hitting beam a day after having his 12 game streak with Richmond snapped. With Ryan Howard back from the DL we can see the Giants preferred arrangement of this middle infield tandem. Richmond has steadily gone with a lineup of Howard at SS and Hinojosa at 2b. Howard has the stronger arm and probably the better range so that makes sense to me.

Chase Johnson had a solid return from the DL, going 3 shutout innings, striking out 2 and allowing just 2 hits. Following Chase, Richmond made an interesting pitching move bringing Garrett Williams on in relief. Whether this signals some longer term strategy or was just the exigency of the day, with Johnson slated for a short start, will be worth keeping an eye on.

If it was a longer term move, it didn’t help Williams any with his struggles, as he was tagged for three hits including a homer (to a fellow lefty!) and exited after just one inning of work.

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San Jose beat Stockton Ports (A’s), 6-1

Everything I said about Heath Quinn yesterday still stands! The strapping OF reached base four times yesterday, and knocked out three hits including his 8th HR. Second Half VROOM on the move! That’s five hits in the last two games for Quinn and four home runs now over his last eight games. Quinn is up to a .338/.391/.539 mark in his Prospect Rx season. College guys repeating the Cal League is a phylum of minor league ball that is exceedingly hard to interpret, but certainly it’s better to see him succeeding in that circumstance than not.

The Giants top of the lineup provided a ton of production, as three of the top four hitters had three hits. That included a nice afternoon for Jalen Miller, who’s come out of the gate from the All Star break a tad slow, hitting just .194/.194/.323 in the second half (just 7 games). Miller picked up his 19th double among his three hits yesterday.

CF Bryce Johnson hasn’t been much of a topic of conversation this year, as he’s had a disappointing first full season, posting just a .626 OPS and striking out 69 times in 278 At Bats, which is a pretty high mark for a zero power guy.

Raffi Vizcaino worked through 5 walks and 4 hits in 5 innings allowing just 1 earned run. But it was the bullpen tandem of Peter Lannoo and Frank Rubio who impressed most. Both RH relievers began the year in Augusta’s bullpen, and both have appeared briefly as stopgaps in Richmond’s pen. It’s been a strong first full season for both relievers, and Lannoo especially has impressed observers, including Pitching coach Matt Yourkin, as you can hear here (among other topics of conversation):

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Augusta beat Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 6-5 in Gm 1 (9 inn)

Augusta lost to Greenville Drive (Red Sox), 5-3 in Gm 2 (7 inn)

So here’s an oddity: twice over the last month or so, Augusta has had a game suspended (not postponed) by rain, which by Sally league rules required them to finish the entire 9 inning game as a part of a double header. In each of those two games, the extra innings provided Heliot Ramos with the stage to hit a game-winning, come-from-behind HR in the Greenjackets final At Bats. Do we like dramatic Heliot Ramos HRs here at Minor Lines? Fun yes, we do!

That would be Ramos only hit in the double header however (which didn’t make it any less fun to watch! I’ve got another angle too!). Manuel Geraldo, who seems to be heating back up again, had two hits in both games. And Jacob Gonzalez, who said So Long to his teenage years earlier this week, had two hits including a two-run triple in the nightcap.

Did you know Jacob was part of triplets, btw?

Augusta had some unusual outings from two its better pitchers during the course of the double header. Franklin Van Gurp had easily his worst outing of the year. He surrendered his first Sally league HR (and only his second anywhere this season), walked a career high 3, and surrendered 5 earned runs. To put that in perspective: in his 35.2 IP in the Sally prior to last night, he’d allowed a total of 3 earned runs. Fight again another day, Franklin!

John Gavin’s night wasn’t as dramatically off kilter as Van Gurp’s, but he did have an unusual problem throwing strikes last night. He threw barely half of his 88 pitches for strikes, matched a career high with 4 walks, and exited early after just 4.2 innings of work.

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Salem-Keizer beat Eugene Emeralds (Cubs), 7-3
sweeping their series 3-0

The Volcanoes went to the long ball in bashing their way to another win. David Villar, the Giants 11th rounder out of the University of South Florida, hit his first HR in his second game in the NWL. The powerful 3b is an interesting lower round pick from this year’s draft, and a certain inside source let us know that he’s really on the org’s radar:

The Volcanoes also got home runs from Kyle McPherson as well as the powerful Robinson Medrano. It was Medrano’s team-leading 4th of the year, second best in the league.

Nice hair, Robinson!

Keaton Winn has gone exactly 2 innings in each of his three starts. Winn has pitched very effectively in his debut, allowing just 4 hits and 2 runs (1 earned) in those 6 innings. The 5th rounder has 5 Ks and 1 BB on his record so far.

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AZL GIANTS TEAMS WERE OFF YESTERDAY

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DSL Giants lost to DSL Colorado, 8-6

Former Curacao 18U World Cup star Richgelon Juliana broke out with a monster game. The speedy CF hit two HRs (his first two of the year), scored three runs, drove in four and threw out a runner trying to take 3b on him. Quite a day—just a SB away from a Toolsy Triple (TM). Juliana became just the third member of the Giants to hit a HR this season, and the second to have a two HR day.

But hey—it was a Rockies affiliate! And you know what that meant on this day. Sadly, Juliana’s efforts weren’t enough to secure a win, as hard-throwing RHP Yovanny Moronta (no relation, I believe, to Reyes) had a disaster appearance. Charged with holding a two-run lead in the bottom of the 8th, Moronta failed to retire any of the five batters he faced, and four of them ultimately scored (the fifth was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on a ground ball).

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Johnny Cueto vs. Trent Thorton
Richmond: Jake McCasland vs. Sterling Sharp
San Jose: Logan Webb vs. Riley Smith
Augusta: Aaron Phillips vs. Denyi Reyes
Salem-Keizer: TBD vs. Jordan Barrett
AZL: Luis Moreno and Seth Corry vs. TBD
DSL: Ivan Armstrong vs. TBD

Strong slate of starters tonight! Young guns Logan Webb and Seth Corry look to build off of great outings last time, while Ivan Armstrong takes the mound for the first time since he threw a 5 inning no hitter. And we’re still waiting for one of these Salem-Keizer TBDs to turn into Sean Hjelle or Jake Wong. Maybe tonight? But of course the Friday night headliner is everybody’s favorite.... heeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!

Have a great Friday night everybody! Kevin will be here to take you through the weekend as I escape into the woods for a couple of nights.

PS, I told you I had another view!