SF Giants Minor Lines 6/29/19: The Giants Sign Bishop, Others, And Canario Keeps Homering

Let’s just open up with the big news.

Yep, Hunter Bishop has signed. But not just their first round pick, but also second round pick Logan Wyatt, fourth round pick Tyler Fitzgerald, and eighth round pick Caleb Kilian. The latter three were all a part of the College World Series, which caused the delay, and the delay in signing Bishop came from knowing the budget to work with.

The signings mean that the Giants have all the picks signed from the Top 10 rounds, and some room to go for a few more (I’ll be shocked if 11th round pick Trevor McDonald doesn’t sign before the deadline).

We’ll look a little more into these signings, who’s left, and what this means for the Giants in tomorrow’s Prospect Roundup. But in the meantime, it will likely be a few days before we see these guys on any teams. Early indications are that all three will begin their seasons in the Arizona League, and it’s easy to expect Hunter Bishop and Logan Wyatt (and maybe others) to quickly move up to Salem-Keizer not long after.

Highlights: Canario and Luciano hit back-to-back home runs; Garrett Williams had his best start in years

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Sacramento defeated Albuquerque (Rockies), 6-1

Sacramento’s hitting continues to power them, but for once, strong pitching also helped.

Zach Green hit his 18th, and had his third consecutive game with a home run, and sixth in the last seven games. Green has been white hot as of late, bringing up his numbers to .310/.403/.725, although he had 14 strikeouts and just three walks in his last ten games.

Meanwhile, Mike Gerber hit his 16th home run of the season in the first inning, his first in nine games, to kick off the scoring. Gerber is batting only .220 over his last ten games, but is still batting .315/.381/.595 on the season.

Meanwhile, Steven Duggar made his first rehab appearance, going 1-for-3 with a triple and a pair of strikeouts. He was placed on the IL with lower back stiffness on June 21st. He is eligible to come back on July 1st. Remember, it was his injury that led to Alex Dickerson’s callup, and the rest has been history. It might be that Mike Yastrzemski might be ticketed to return when Duggar goes back to SF.

Yoanys Quiala got the win with a scoreless seven innings, including a season-high nine strikeouts and, for the second straight start (and third of four), he did not walk anyone. Quiala has 58 strikeouts and 18 walks in 62.1 IP in Sacramento this season.

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Richmond defeated Hartford (Rockies), 4-0

The Flying Squirrels got a shutout win, but didn’t pick up a single hit from outside of the first three hitters in the lineup.

The biggest hit came from Jalen Miller, getting his first triple of the season, and his second 2-hit game in the last four. That’s good news for Miller, because after a hot April, he went ice cold, batting about .200 over the months of May and June. Perhaps these last few games, which also included a home run, are a sign he’s finding his way out of this slump.

Peter Maris, in his fourth game at Richmond, pitched in with his first double at Double-A. The 25-year old second baseman hit .296/.405/.500 over 29 games in San Jose before his promotion. And Bryce Johnson continues to tear up the Eastern League. In four games, he’s 7-for-16 and is batting .438/.412/.813 with a double, a triple and a home run.

The lack of all-around hitting was supported by Garrett Williams’ best start of the season. Williams struck out nine, the most in the last two seasons. That is on the heels of a great string of starts, having not allowed a run in four of his last five starts. Once upon a time, Williams was among the top pitching prospects in the Giants’ system. Perhaps he is finally figuring things out and making things work.

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San Jose was defeated by Stockton (Athletics), 8-6, in 10 Innings

The Giants pitching couldn’t hold things down in either the beginning or the end of this game.

Aaron Phillips had a difficult start, going just three innings and allowing four runs. Phillips now hasn’t been able to get through five innings in any of his last four starts, as his ERA has jumped from 4.01 to 5.23 over that span. San Jose came back, though, taking a 6-4 lead in the seventh, and then the bullpen began to struggle.

The main and final leak in the bullpen was by Peter Lannoo, who came in with a one run lead, and allowed three runs over two innings in the ninth and tenth to take the loss. The five hits allowed were a season-high for him.

The offense collected 11 hits, but only two were for extra bases. Courtney Hawkins picked up his eighth double in 33 games with San Jose. Fabian Pena got his eighth in his 21st game of the season.

Heliot Ramos only got one of the hits, going 1-for-5, but extending his recent hit streak to five games, as he’s gotten hotter. Joey Bart had the day off.

Heath Quinn continued his rehab, with his fourth game in San Jose. This was easily his best game so far, as he’s 3-for-16 with four walks and four strikeouts in his rehab assignment.

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Augusta defeated Lexington (Royals), 4-1

Augusta took home the win with hits scattered up and down the lineup, but the only multi-hit game was Diego Rincones, with his third straight 2-hit game. It’s part of a short 6-game hit streak. It also included his 17th double, tying him for the team lead, although he has just one home run.

Neither of those hits were part of the team’s rallies in the first two innings, although five of the team’s hit came during those two innings. Rincones did have an RBI groundout. Shane Matheny also had an RBI in the first inning with his 13th double of the season. Jose Layer had the team’s other RBI, with a single in the second, and the team’s fourth run came thanks to an error in the second.

All that held up as 24-year old Adam Oller made his sixth appearance of the season. The free agent had his second straight good start, going six shutout inning with a season-high seven strikeouts. Oller has 20 strikeouts and ten walks in 25.1 innings on the year. Jesus Tona worked the game for his seventh save in the last eight appearances, and the fifth straight without even allowing a hit. Tona has 53 strikeouts and 17 walks in 37 innings, and 17 hits allowed. He has an average allowed of .135 on the season.

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Salem-Keizer lost to Boise (Rockies), 4-2

The Volcanoes couldn’t come back from giving up three runs in the first inning, so you probably won’t want them playing in London anytime soon.

The biggest bright spot for the Volcanoes was Harrison Freed, with his first multi-hit game in Oregon (in his fourth game). Bot hits were for doubles, also his first two with Salem-Keizer, upping his batting average to .267 (4-for-15). Freed, the Big East home run leader, only has extra-base hits in his short Volcanoes career, with his other two hits having been home runs. He also has four strikeouts to one walk in four games.

Ricardo Genoves also had a 2-hit game, and hit his fifth home run of the season. That moves him into a 2-way tie for the league lead with teammate Franklin Labour…although Genoves has done it in 12 games, while Labour has had 16 games. By the way, teammate Tyler Flores is third with three home runs, and Freed is among 10 batters tied for fourth with four home runs…but then again, Freed has only played in four games while every other player in that tie has double-digit games. The Volcanoes have 18 home runs, and Everett is second with 12. There’s still a team, Vancouver, with just one home run in 15 games this season. Wow.

Kervin Castro took the tough loss, one start after his best start of his young career (five shutout innings, eight strikeouts). Castro stuck out just one and gave up a season high eight hits, four of them in a difficult first inning that also saw a sacrifice fly. He gave up three of his four runs in that inning, putting Salem-Keizer behind for good.

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AZL Black lost to the AZL Dodgers Lasorda, 8-4

A lack luster day for the Noir Squad, managing just five hits total. Meanwhile, one pitcher gave up a lot of hits and barely gave up any runs, and another gave up just one hit but a lot of runs.

The team’s biggest hit came from Dilan Rosario, who picked up his second home run of the season, a 2-run home run in the second inning. That was part of a 4-run inning, that included Grant McCray scoring on a Garrett Frechette HBP, that was standing up behind starter Ivan Armstrong.

Armstrong only allowed one run in four innings of work, although he did give up seven hits (more than double the five he’d given up in the previous two games. Armstrong has walked seven and struck out six in 11.2 IP this season. Despite the hits, he had the Giants in the position for a win, but the bullpen wasn’t able to hold it. Jose Cruz went two innings without allowing a run, but then gave up four runs in the inning, as part of a six run inning. He hit two batters and walked two before being relieved, and Francis Pena allowed all the runners left on base to score and gave up a pair of runs on his own.

A pair of hitters did pick up doubles low in the batting order. Carter Aldrete got his third, extending a short 4-game hitting streak. He also picked up a pair of walks, giving him seven to six strikeouts in eight games. Matt Malkin picked up his third, in his seventh game played.

While the Orange squad is laden in prospects, this team might be the one most in need of some injections of new blood from the recent 2019 draft signings.

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AZL Orange defeated the AZL Dodgers Mota (Mota?), 9-3

#DidAlexanderHomer? Yep, and so did Marco.

That’s ten games and seven home runs for Canario, who is clearly the class of the AZL. The Cubs Zac Taylor is catching up, with five in six games, but this is all small sample size so far, and Luciano may not be long for the AZL. For the record, Canario’s batting line is .395/.435/.1.000.

In the next at-bat, Luciano added his fourth as part of a two-hit day, after a mini cool streak where he went 1-for-8 (but walked five times with five strikeouts). That’s good enough for the third best total in the AZL, and he has 13 strikeouts to seven walks over his first ten games.

The game also featured Abdiel Layer hitting his first home run in just his second game of the season, and PJ Hilson hitting his second. Hilson is 6 for 37 in nine games this season, so a way to look at it is that he’s had only four non-home run hits, right?

At the back of the batting order, Javeyan Williams broke a 2-game hitless streak with a 2-hit day, nudging his average back up to .345 in ten games. Williams only has two doubles for his total extra base hits, but has been getting on base at a good clip, and seven walks against nine strikeouts looks good as well, good for a .486 OBP.

Jesus Gomez had a great start for the team, striking out nine (a career high) in just four innings. Gomez has 16 strikeouts against nine walks in 10 innings, after walking five and striking out four in his last start. Last season, Gomez had a 2.68 ERA working mostly in relief in the DSL, with 60 strikeouts and 25 walks in 43.2 IP.

The game also featured two rehabbing pitchers. Sam Wolf made his first appearance in just over a month, giving up a run on a walk and one hit. Wolff had a 1.64 ERA in 15 games at Richmond before going down with an undisclosed injury. The 28-year old is still looking for his opportunity to break through into a big league bullpen.

Rodolfo Martinez made his fifth appearance in the AZL, continuing a good run in rehab. He struck out three in one inning of work, and has 11 strikeouts and two walks in six innings since coming back.

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The DSL Giants lost to the DSL Pirates2, 6-0

It’s rare, but there just wasn’t a lot to like in the DSL box score today. Only seven hits and three errors in the shutout. Rayner Santana did get two hits, including his sixth double of the season. The 16-year old catcher is batting .321/.424/.474 in 22 games this season.

The early star of the DSL team, Luis Matos, did get on base twice in four plate appearances. He got a hit and was hit by a pitch. The 17-year old increased his OBP to .375, and is batting .310/.375/.631 over 21 games this year.

20-year old Jason Bonilla had the solid start, going a season-high four innings, and allowing just one earned run (two overall). He has 15 strikeouts against eight walks in 15.1 innings to start his pro career, but he had his lowest strikeout rate of the season. The game got away when Yoniel Ramirez came in to pitch the fifth. He gave up three walks and two hits while getting just two outs, and not a single strikeouts. He has 12 strikeouts against eight walks in 13 innings so far this season.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento (Ty Blach) vs. Albuquerque (Jeff Hoffman), 1:05 pm PT

Richmond (Caleb Baragar) vs. Hartford (Matt Whitehouse) 1:05 pm ET

San Jose (Matt Frisbee) vs. Stockton (TBA), 5:00 pm PT

Augusta (Gregory Santos) vs. Lexington (Evan Steele), 7:05 pm ET

Salem-Keizer (TBA) at Boise (TBA), 4:15 pm PT

The top pitcher of the day is clearly Gregory Santos in Augusta, but it should be an interesting day for the system, as the countdown to the Hunter Bishop debut begins.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the best pants piping in all of baseball.