SF Giants Minor Lines 8/5/18: Joey Bart is....fast?

Apparently it was “Three Baggers for the Big Guys” night last night! Joey Bart, rather unbelievably hit two triples in Salem-Keizer’s game! We can’t show you those, because apparently universal on demand video from anywhere in the world isn’t a thing yet. But we CAN show you Chris Shaw speeding around the bases!

Triple to LF! Don’t see that too often. Nice hustle, big guys!

HIGHLIGHTS: Logan Webb struck out 4 in 5 innings in his AA debut; Joey Bart tripled twice and SB; Seth Corry threw 5 shutout innings in NWL debut;

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Sacramento lost at Nashville Sounds (A’s) 6-4

After getting down 5-0 the RiverCats rallied to make it a game in the late innings, but still fell 6-4 — their 12th loss in their last 14 games. Only four more weeks to go guys!

Chris Shaw’s 4th inning triple was the team’s first three-bagger in exactly a month. The last triple came from Miguel Gomez in Reno on July 5th. Shaw was stranded at 3b after his one-out triple, a run that really could have helped their comeback attempts.

Mac Williamson is still struggling to find the groove that made his March and April so scintillating. Since returning to Sacramento he’s hitting just .210 with 29 Ks in 100 ABs. Eight of his 21 hits in that time have gone for extra bases, including 5 HRs.

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Richmond lost at Portland SeaDogs (Red Sox), 7-3
winning their series, 2-1

Logan Webb had a strong AA debut, showing a lively fastball that topped at 96 on the stadium gun and sat in the 93-95 range. He struggled to command his breaking ball at first, but got a feel for that as well as the game went on. Putting the radar gun aside, however, Webb’s fastball had some hop as he was consistently getting swing throughs from batters on the #1.

Interestingly, the hits that Webb allowed predominantly went for extra bases: two doubles, a triple, and a homer, albeit both of the doubles and especially the triple were to some degree played into extra-base hits by the OF defense.

The batter who gave Webb the most trouble was another new-comer to AA: the power-hitting Bobby Dalbec. The Red Sox’ slugger, who came to Portland this weekend having hit 26 HRs in the Carolina League, would hit his first two AA HRs in the game. The first was a two-run shot off of Webb in the 3rd inning. Dalbec also accounted for two of Webb’s three walks — one of those intentional — as Logan learned quickly to treat the slugger carefully.

Still it was a strong debut for Webb who has really marked his name on 2018 as the system’s high riser.

On the flip side, Garrett Williams’ rough 2018 continued in another display of poor command. Williams came on in relief of Webb in a 3-3 game and immediately gave the SeaDogs two free runners when he walked his first batter and hit his second one. By the time he’d made his way through the inning both scored and the gave Portland a lead they never lost.

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San Jose lost to Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres), 6-4
losing their three game series, 3-0

The California contingent of the system really seems to be checking out at this point, as San Jose’s woes outdo even Sacramento’s slide — they’ve now lost 15 of their last 19. Awful.

For the second night in a row, the Giants went up against one of the premium pitching prospects in the minors, this time the Pads $11 million dollar Cuban signing LHP Adrian Morejon. Unfortunately for San Diego (and people who like good pitching prospects), Morejon left the game in the 2nd inning with triceps discomfort. Bad News!

San Jose batters weren’t able to do too much with the relief however, as they struck out another 14 times in this game while managing just six hits. Storm Reliever Pedro Avila who struck out 10 Giants in 5 innings of relief, including seven Ks in a row at one point.

The streak ended when Sandro Fabian went deep for the second day in a row. Fabian had also singled on a ball which scored the Giants first run of the game (though the official scorer did not credit Fabian with an RBI). Fabian had homered twice down in Lake Elsinore during that May road trip that saw him hit four HRs in a period of eight games. With round trippers on back to back nights in this series that means that half of Fabian’s 8 HRs for the season have come against these Lake Elsinore Storm.

The second half of the year has been a really tough slog for All Star 2b Jalen Miller. Though he keeps showing glimpses of his breakthrough first half, the reality is that Miller is going through yet another late season slide. In the Cal League’s second half Miller is hitting just .223/.269/.395 with 44 Ks and just 8 BBs in 157 ABs.

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Augusta won at West Virginia Power (Pirates), 5-1
splitting their series, 2-2

Manuel Geraldo has also had a slip in the second half but he’s trying to right the ship as he’s now 10 for 23 over his last six games. The bigger question about Geraldo is whether his May power spike meant anything or not. Geraldo hit 6 HRs and 11 XBH overall in May, but he has just 1 HR and 6 XBH overall in 228 ABs since then. Weird.

Geraldo and Logan Baldwin were the offensive muscle yesterday as the two combined for six of the team’s nine hits, scored three of their runs and had three RBIs. Baldwin’s 5th HR of the year in the top of the 9th opened up the lead to four runs.

That was helpful because Camilo Doval had his “girl with the curl” act going in the bottom of the 9th, walking three of the six batters he faced and uncorking a wild pitch. He did record two Ks as well.

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Salem-Keizer won at Tri-City Dust Devils (Padres), 5-1
winning their series, 4-1

Joey Bart is clearly bored with hitting HRs now and playing around with other aspects of his game — specifically his speed game! Bart didn’t have a triple in his three-year college career. Yesterday he sped his way to two of them! And that wasn’t the only wheels he showed off. For the second straight game, Bart stole a base! “Wheels” Bart he shall from now be known!

But back to his better known skill: 22 of Bart’s 36 hits with Salem-Keizer have gone for extra bases. Now it’s on to the Home Run Derby in Grand Junction, CO. Enjoy that thin air, Joey!

Am I burying the lede? Which was the bigger story yesterday — Bart’s amazing two triple day or Seth Corry’s excellent NWL debut? The 19 year old LHP allowed just 1 hit in his first look at the new level, while striking out 5. He’s now struck out 47 this year in 43 innings of work. The control is still a work in progress. yesterday he threw just 43 of his 80 pitches for strikes while walking two. Corry has allowed no runs in 5 of his 10 starts this year, and 9 of the 11 Earned Runs he’s allowed came in a single three game stretch.

Salem-Keizer is now pretty clearly Ground Zero for the Giants’ system — especially it’s pitching prospects. With Corry moving up to join a staff that already included Sean Hjelle, Gregory Santos, Blake Rivera, and Keaton Winn, this team contains the critical mass of the organization’s best pitching prospects, as well as its best hitter and an offense on overdrive. The team moved into 1st place in their division yesterday and should have all the tools it needs for a run at the second half title and a post-season appearance. Get it done!

David Villar tied Bart in the HR category, hitting his 9th of the year to move into a tie for 2nd in the league. The RHH from South Florida now has 20 XBH in 35 games with the Volcanoes.

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AZL Giants Black beat AZL Reds, 8-5

AZL Giants Orange lost to AZL Dodgers, 6-5

“Triples Night” continued down in the desert, where Alexander Canario hit a bases loaded triple in the 2nd inning as part of a 5-run rally. Since July 1, Canario is hitting .329/.430/.576 with a 21:15 K:BB ratio. He also has 6 SB in 8 tries in that time. The Ks are still higher than you’d like to see, but it’s nice that the power that his bat speed should provide is showing up.

Sam Coonrod made his second rehab appearance, striking out four of the eight batters he faced.

A couple of other pitching appearances are worth noting here:

19 year old lefty Luis Amaya struck out 1 in a perfect inning. Amaya now has 23 strike outs in 16.2 IP. He has allowed 12 runs, but 6 of those came in a single nightmare outing when he allowed 5 hits in 0.1 IP. Amaya missed all of 2017 after having Tommy John surgery. For his career thus far, he’s struck out 80 batters in 69.2 IP.

Another TJ survivor is big Logan Harasta, a 7th round pick last year out of SUNY Buffalo. Harasta threw just one inning in 2017 before going under the knife. Returning a year later, he’s allowed just 1 earned run in 10.1 IP, while striking out 15 of the 40 batters he’s faced. The 6’6” RHP was up to the mid-90s in Buffalo before being drafted.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento: Shaun Anderson vs. Jesus Luzardo
Richmond: OFF
San Jose: Carlos Sano vs. Leo Crawford
Augusta: OFF
Salem-Keizer: ALL STAR BREAK
AZL: Conner Nurse (Black), Ben Madison (Orange)
DSL: Ivan Armstrong vs. TBD

Sacramento’s game against Nashville features the premier pitching matchup in the minor leagues today as two members of the Future’s Game pitching squads square up against each other. For the Athletics’ #1 prospect Jesus Luzardo, it will be his AAA debut. While Shaun Anderson is an old hand at the PCL at this point, heading out for his fourth start with Sacramento. Both Pitchers were trade deadline acquisitions for their parent organizations last July.