SF Giants Minor Lines 8/1/18: Shaun Anderson gets first AAA win

Well, I suppose it is an improvement from last year

HIGHLIGHTS: Shaun Anderson allowed 2 runs in 7 IP; Solomon Webb K’d 6 in 3 IP; Seth Corry promoted to NWL; Luis Toribio tied for DSL lead in HRs.

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Sacramento won at Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 6-3

Shaun Anderson matched a career high going 7 innings to record his first win in the PCL. It was the third time in his career, and second in the last month, that Anderson had gone a full 7. The right-hander was hurt by just one swing of the bat — a two run homer to Memphis RF Adolis Garcia, who also homered off of Tyler Rogers later in the game. Other than that, he was stingy, allowing just two Memphis batters to advance as far as 2b all game.

The Giants most advanced pitching prospect has now allowed 2 ER in two of his three AAA outings. He’s definitely experiencing some development hurdles though, as the more advanced AAA hitters don’t seem as inclined to be fooled by his offerings. After striking out 93 batters and walking just 22 in 92 innings with Richmond, he has just 12 Ks and 9 BBs in 18 IP so far in Sacramento. But that’s why the different levels exist. Now at 112 IP for the year, Anderson will probably cruise by his 123 IP of last year in two more innings, possibly ending up close to the 140 mark by season’s end.

Anderson was supported by a RiverCats offense that produced four extra base hits, including Jerry Sands 3rd HR with Sacramento and 16th overall this year.

Tyler Beede had had a lot of things go wrong in 2018, but until yesterday health hadn’t been one of them. That changed when he was placed on the DL yesterday, retroactive to 7/31 with an undisclosed injury.

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Richmond lost at New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays), 14-3

Richmond’s lone journey to New Hampshire for the season came just a hair too late to catch Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. but the Cats didn’t seem to need Vladdie’s bats to wreak havoc on the Squirrels’ pitching. Instead it was a couple of other Legacy Boys doing the damage. Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio collectively bashed out six hits — five of them for extra bases. That included Biggio’s 22nd and 23rd homers of the year.

Everybody that took the mound for Richmond got a piece of the trouble. Starter Mike Connolly took the worst of it but nobody really came out unscathed. Garrett Williams did manage to be unscored upon which was certainly a moral victory, though he did walk two more batters in 2.1 IP. One might have imaged the New Hampshire hitters were tired out by the time he came into the game anyway.

New Papa CJ Hinojosa is back from paternity leave and contributed one of the team’s four hits. Ryan Howard had two more including the only extra base hit. Howard’s batting average has fallen into the .260s following a rough July in which he hit just .210/.305/.346.

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San Jose won at Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks), 7-5

Following a pathetic 8-21 month of July, San Jose got August off on a winning foot, taking a 7-5 decision in their own personal Palace of Horrors, Visalia’s Recreation Field.

1b Gio Brusa put the Giants on the board early with his 17th homer of the year. That matches his Cal League total of 2017—in 30 fewer games. The switch hitting Brusa has some of the system’s biggest raw power, but as a career .242 hitter in A+ (.299 career OBP) the question remains whether his hit tool will ever allow him to reach enough of it in-game to make it really play.

San Jose also got a three-hit night from Kelvin Beltre. That’s just the fourth multi-hit game of 2018 for Beltre. It’s been pretty much a lost season for the 21 year old INF. He’s a possible candidate for an AFL assignment this year, to try to make up for some of the lost time.

So, once again, the Giants stand on the precipice of breaking a streak that goes back years: a victory tonight and they’ll have their first series win in Visalia since I believe 2013 (it’s been going on so long now I’ve forgotten when it started!). Earlier this year they won the first two games of a series in Visalia, but because that was a highly unusual five-game series, they still found a way to leave down with a series loss.

Listen to San Jose’s pitching coach Matt Yourkin talk about Logan Webb’s year on the Wednesday pregame show:

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Augusta beat Kannapolis Intimidators (White Sox), 5-2

Augusta and Kannapolis were supposed to play a double header to make up for Tuesday night’s rain out, but after another lengthy rain delay to start yesterday’s proceedings — and with both teams scheduled for long overnight bus trips to their Thursday games — a little adjustment seemed prudent:

Heliot Ramos got the Greenjackets off on the right foot with a first inning triple to RF that drove in Manny Geraldo. Ramos then came in himself on a Jacob Gonzalez Sac Fly.

Aaron Phillips took that 1st inning lead and ran with it, guiding the team to a 5-2 win.

Kannapolis got a little life in the 9th, when Camilo Doval returned to his Wild Man ways of April — walking the first two batters he faced and mixing in a balk and a wild pitch while he was at it. It was the first time since Opening Day that Doval had walked more than 2 batters in a game, and just the third time he’d walked more than 1 since April 12. The live-wire still boasts and impressive 59 Ks in 39.2 IP for the year. Good job, Camilo! Take a bow!

One batter who did NOT strike out was Kannapolis’ Nick Madrigal. The Elk Grove native who the White Sox took with the 4th overall pick this year has yet to K in 59 professional plate appearances.

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Salem-Keizer lost at Tri-City Dust Devils (Padres), 3-2

The Volcanoes played a highly unusual — for them — low scoring affair last night in Tri-City, and ended up wasting a rare well pitched game. Most of that pitching well came from Solomon Bates, who continues to run up some pretty impressive strikeout totals. The 8th rounder from Victorville has 28 strikeouts on the year in just 16.2 IP — and half of those have come in his last two appearances (6 IP).

You can catch some highlights of the game below, though as a Tri-City focused highlights package we get to watch Bates giving up a double off the wall, rather than striking anybody out.

For a little more Giants — or more accurately BART— centric highlights, check this out:

The Padres 19 year old SP Omar Cruz who is featured in the above, has just an 0.66 ERA in three games since coming up from the AZL. Pretty impressive! And speaking of promotions from rookie league, we got a big one coming:

A strong second half showing in the NWL could put Corry in a position to catch up with his fellow 2017 picks Ramos and Gonzalez next year.

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AZL Giants Black lost to AZL D-backs, 13-11 (resumption of suspended game)

AZL Giants Black lost to AZL D-backs, 6-5 (8 inn)

AZL Giants Orange lost to AZL Cubs1, 12-8

The box score is messed up for the Black team’s resumption of Monday’s suspended game, but I can tell you that Alexander Canario went deep for this 4th HR of the year (one of three hits in the two games), and Sean Roby reached base four times on a double, two singles and a walk. The Black team was hurt by a rehabbing Daulton Varsho, the #2 prospect in the Diamondbacks system. Slumming it in the rookie leagues, the powerful Varsho hit for the cycle against the Black team’s pitching (although the triple actually came back on Monday — so did he really hit for the cycle?)

The second Black game was an “extra innings” 8 inning affair. The Giants scored in the top of the 8th using extra innings rules to take a 5-4 lead, but Texas Tech star Dylan Dusek issued two walks in the bottom of the 8th to load the bases. After back to back strikeouts nearly got him out of the jam, Dusek allowed a walk-off ground rule double to end it.

The Orange team scored 8 runs in the 1st inning and apparently called it a night! From the 2nd through the 9th they were outscored 10-0 because those innings all count too. Following Fabian Pena’s double to lead off the 2nd inning, the Orange club would collect just two hits the rest of the night.

Interestingly, Jasier Herrera came on to pitch the final inning for Orange. Jasier had started games in his previous 7 appearances this year. Those starts had been getting a little less efficient as he’d allowed 4 runs in each of the last three, however, he’d struck out 15 batters in 12 IP in those same three games. We’ll see where his role goes from here.

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DSL Giants lost to DSL Royals2, 15-12

Man those 7-run innings are sort of hard to work around! The DSL offense gave it a game try though, with an offensive attack that features eight extra base hits.

Robert Gomez, who the Giants signed for $160,000 last year, hasn’t had a great deal of success so far in his pro debut. But he had a day to remember yesterday as he swatted his first professional HR along with a double.

Robinson Batista did Gomez one better with a triple and a home run. That was his second round-tripper of the year and second in two days.

Luis Toribio had just one hit on the day, but it was a big one as he pulled into a tie for the league lead in HRs with his 8th long ball. Richgelon Juliana, meanwhile, is just one off the league lead in triples after hitting his 7th of the year—one of three hits for the Curacao native. Juliana is second on the team (behind Toribio) in both extra base hits and OPS. He’s hitting .281/.404/.479 on the year.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Tyler Herb vs. Jake Woodford
Richmond: Conner Menez vs. Jordan Romano
San Jose: Mac Marshall vs. Jeff Bain
Augusta: Caleb Baragar vs. TBD
Salem-Keizer: Sean Hjelle vs. Angel Acevedo
AZL: Israel Cruz (Black), TBD vs. TBD
DSL: Sonny Vargas

We’ve reached the season’s final month! Barring a second half short-season run by somebody it doesn’t appear that there will be any post-season drama down the stretch which is a drag. Three of the four full season affiliates sit in last place and the fourth (Richmond) is just a game away from last place.

The system has certainly helped the big club this year as the major league roster is transitioning to a younger version and getting a lot of productivity from within (albeit some of the biggest contributors weren’t really part of the “system”, at least not prior to spring training). But I’ll beat on my drum a little more and note that system’s that are losing from top to bottom don’t typically transition into a lot of winning at the big league level. It would be good to see the affiliates get more competitive next year — and add more talent.

Still, we have one more month of ball left, so let’s focus on the positives. One more month of magic moments to absorb: