SF Giants Minor Lines 8/24/18: Ramos triples twice

It’s a “Heliot Ramos stands between us and darkness” kind of day here at Minor Lines, as little good was to be found on the farm yesterday. Still, let’s poke around and see what there is to see.

HIGHLIGHTS: Heliot Ramos tripled twice in three hits; Jesus Gomez struck out 8 in 3 IP.

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Sacramento lost to Fresno Grizzlies (Astros), 15-1
getting swept in their series, 0-3

As you can read elsewhere on the front page today, Brian Sabean told KNBR yesterday that people are playing for their spots on the ‘19 team at this point. In a different way, that’s true on the farm as well, where some players on the fringes of the 40 man are trying to solidify their spots, or play their way onto 40 man consideration.

Yesterday was not a step in the right direction for Tyler Herb on that score. It was bombs away against the RHP who has spent much of 2018 on the DL. Herb allowed three HRs to a power-laden Grizzlies team. Kyle Tucker, who homered twice the day before, smacked his 20th. One time top Astros prospect AJ Reed hit his 26th. And 3b JD Davis, apparently the weakling of the trio, had just his 17th of the year. What is it like to have three 20s-ish HR hitters on a single roster? We Giants fans may never know.

Hey but apropos of nothing, yesterday was the 57th anniversary of the game the Giants hit 5 HRs in an inning!

Brock Stassi’s homecoming continues to be a happy story as he picked up two more hits including the team’s only XBH. Stassi has five multi-hit games in his last seven.

Tyler Beede tried out returning for a second inning for the first time since returning for the DL. He ran into trouble in his second inning, loading up the bases with 1 out, and Josh Osich would let all three runners score. But that shouldn’t distract us from the fact that Beede has been excellent since returning to Sacramento from the DL — striking out 7 and walking just 2 in 3.1 IP. He should get some time in the Giants bullpen in September.

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Richmond lost at Bowie BaySox (Orioles), 3-1
splitting their series, 1-1

Logan Webb followed a CJ Hinojosa throwing error by allowing a two-out, two-run homer, which ended up making the difference. For the first time in his four AA starts, Webb failed to complete 5 innings. He’s been remarkably consistent in his four games with Richmond though, throwing between 80-86 pitches in each with between 50-55 strikes. And he’s thrown between 4.2 and 5.1 IP in each. After holding Cal League hitters to a miniscule .207 batting average, he hasn’t been much more hittable in the Eastern League so far, with batters reaching him at just a .237 clip. Interestingly, Webb has been getting a lot of ground balls with Richmond, showing much heavier ground ball tendencies than he did in San Jose, albeit still in a very small sample. His peripherals still aren’t quite matching up with the overall stuff, as he’s struck out just 16 to 9 BBs with Richmond, and of course, that strikeout total is boosted by his career best 9 K performance last time out.

The Richmond offense took the day off, collecting just four hits — two of those from the red-hot Caleb Gindl who is 16 for his last 37, with five doubles and a homer in that time. Aside from Gindl, a Jonah Arenado double and a Dylan Davis “pop fly” — or as we might call it, his 13th HR of the year — was the entire output.

Davis, the 3rd round pick of the 2014 draft, has had a woeful second season in AA, hitting just .236/.282/.401. In his two years in Richmond, he’s hit just .228 collectively. The top of that 2014 draft — Tyler Beede, Aramis Garcia, Dylan Davis — have not exactly shined in 2018, though Garcia will certainly make his major league debut this year (and Beede should get some pen time in) and the draft did also include Logan Webb and Austin Slater, who is carrying the flag for the class thus far.

Ok, 18-2 after two games! Onward!

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San Jose lost at Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks), 3-1
winning their series, 2-1

Dom Mazza added his name to the trivia question from the other day, posting the 11th double-digit strikeout performance in the system this year. But his efforts weren’t enough to secure a series sweep in Visalia (let’s not get greedy!), as yet another somnambulent offense failed to find their way to a 2nd run. That’s three games, three runs. The mean is 1, and the median is 1. Even the mode is 1!

Kelvin Beltre’s solo HR — his 5th of the year — was the only tally for the Giants. Beltre’s another Giant whose 2018 has not gone the way it was drawn up. A broken tibia in the final week of camp put him on the shelf for two months, and when he finally returned he never seemed to gain any traction. Still just 21, and seeing a good amount of his season at SS, we’ll probably see Beltre return next year and hopefully find himself in a little better groove in 2019. In nearly 50 games, Beltre has hit just .222/.309/.335.

He’ll likely be joined in a return by teammate Sandro Fabian, who didn’t get injured this year but still has struggled to find himself in High A. Fabian is having the most success he’s seen this year in August, with an .861 OPS, but overall Cal League pitchers have had a field day with his lack of discrimination at the plate, and he’s hit just .211/.265/.338 for San Jose. Both of these guys will hope to emulate teammate Jalen Miller upon their return to the Cal.

One guy who is very happy to be back in San Jose is former Cal League All Star Sam Coonrod. You can hear Sam talk about his journey with Joe Ritzo here:

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Augusta beat Kannapolis Intimidators (White Sox), 3-2 in Gm 1 (7 inn)

Augusta beat Kannapolis Intimidators, 5-4 in Gm 2 (7 inn)

Wins! Sweet, sweet wins! (don’t get use to them).

Heliot’s tremendous August rush continued yesterday, as he showed off the speed tool. In the first game he picked up a single and stole his 8th base of the year. That was his first SB attempt since way back on July 17. Prior to that he had been successful in just 50% of his 14 attempts, so it seems like the org put a halt to his running for awhile while he either focused on other aspects of his game or worked with coaches on some of the finer points of the running game. In rookie ball, he stole 10 bases and was caught just twice in 35 games.

In the second game, he did his running from the batters’ box — unloading two triples, his 7th and 8th of the year. Want to see Ramos run (not to mention display some opposite field pop)?

Yup that’s a sight to behold alright! Heliot now has a .901 OPS in the month of August and has 10 XBH this month among his 21 hits, good for a .586 SLG. The K rate is still a little out of control, with 19 Ks (and just 2 BBs), in 70 ABs. Still, Ramos is certainly ending his sometime rugged first full season on an up note to take him into the offseason. Two more weeks, Heliot. Keep pushing to the end!

All Star Manny Geraldo is likewise having a big finish to his year. Geraldo’s year has been outright bizarre, with a huge breakout May followed by an abysmal June-July. In August he’s now hitting .373 and making a late push to get his average back over .300. However, that’s come with little power as he has just 4 XBH this month. He also has some ugly peripherals with 115 Ks and just 28 BBs. Tightening up his strike zone is probably the next box to check for Geraldo. Interestingly, his season of inconsistency hasn’t come with a platoon split, as his batting lines RH and LH are virtually identical with a .732 OPS vs LHP and .698 vs RHP. He’s offered value on the basepaths as well, with 23 SB (32 attempts).

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Salem-Keizer lost at Spokane Indians (Rangers), 18-4

With Gregory Santos out of the rotation, Miguel Figueroa has been pressed into action to replace him. Figueroa’s had a rough go of it, surrendering 11 runs in just 5 innings in his two turns in the rotation. Figueroa coughed up 4 runs in the 1st inning yesterday, which set the tone for a game in which Spokane scored early and often against everybody the Volcanoes threw out there. Salem-Keizer’s 366 runs allowed (in just 33 games), and 4.64 team ERA are, not surprisingly, the worst in the NWL. They’ve also struck out the fewest batters in the league, so it’s hard to put a contextualized silver lining on the performance. It’s been a brutal summer on the mound.

Maybe just have Seth Corry pitch every game.

Since hitting three homers in two days earlier in the month, Diego Rincones has actually gone into a bit of a slump. He’s gone just 6 for 51 the last two weeks, with his batting average dropping over that time from .359 to just .303, and he’s in danger of falling into the .200s before season’s over. The OPS has dropped from .925 to .793 in that two week period.

Last year’s 35th rounder Dalton Combs provided the team’s best moments, with a double and a homer.

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The AZL Giants teams had the day off

They both come back to start their final three games tonight.

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DSL Giants lost to DSL Pirates2, 7-4

Let’s do a throwback tweet from our good friend GPT:

It’s been a slow burn debut season for Gomez, who spent most of the season in the bullpen, but gradually extending his appearances out to 3 and 4 inning stints. Down the stretch the hard-throwing left-hander has been added to the rotation and has been at his best as a starter. In two starts down the stretch, he’s punched out 15 batters in 8 innings, while allowing just 6 hits and 2 walks. For the year, Gomez has 60 Ks in just 43.2 IP. Though the control has been an issue (25 walks), it’s been a very encouraging debut summer. It will be interesting to track the two big lefties for the Giants staff — Gomez and Juan Sanchez — and see how their development progresses.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: TBD vs. PJ Conlon
Richmond: Conner Menez vs. Dario Agrazal
San Jose: Carlos Sano vs. Austin Hutchinson
Augusta: Norwith Gudino vs. TBD
Salem-Keizer: Seth Corry vs. Scott Engler
AZL: Luis Moreno (Black), Jasier Herrera (Orange)
DSL: Sonny Vargas vs. TBD

Shaun Anderson was listed as the scheduled starter yesterday for Sacramento, but obviously he did not take the mound. Anderson hasn’t pitched since August 17th. Unclear if he’s being skipped a turn or if something else is up with the right-hander (like a trip to the Bay). We shall see!

Hey, Seth Corry IS pitching today — how about we get our hitting and our pitching on the same page tonight Volcanoes. They’re still in line to make the organization’s lone post-season appearance this year.