SF Giants Minor Lines 6/3/19: Meet Adolfo Valdez

Congratulations to Hunter Bishop and Logan Wyatt, the newest Giants.

Perhaps they’ll have a pro debut to remember in a few weeks, but will it be as memorable as Adolfo Valdez’s? Doubtful.....

There are players the Giants signed in last year’s J2 cycle whose debuts you’ve long been anticipating. I’m fairly certain that Adolfo Valdez wasn’t one of them! The 19 year old (who will turn 20 in the last week of the season) was signed out of Mexico barely 8 weeks ago. He didn’t play in the season opener and started yesterday’s game on the bench, only entering as a Pinch Runner midway through.

Adolfo waited longer than most of his contemporaries for his pro debut — but he made the most of it!

Who knows what fates lie in Adolfo’s future. But for one day, his entire career has been perfect. He’s homered every time he’s ever stepped to the plate as a pro. And that has to feel pretty darned cool.

HIGHLIGHTS: Ismael Munguia had 4 hits; Adolfo Valdez homered twice in 2 PA.

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Sacramento had an off day

They’re heading to Oklahoma City to face off against the Dodgers very talented AAA affiliate. But hey, off days are good for catching up on highlights, so please enjoy watching the flight of this exceptionally well struck ball:

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Richmond won at Reading Fightin’ Phils, 4-2
splitting their series, 2-2

The ol’ Education Day special. Nothing players love more than getting out there on the field for the 9:30 am starts (don’t @me players — I know you hate it!). But at least Jonah Arenado was raring to go. The 24 year old picked up three more hits to push his average up over .300, and showed off some nifty moves on the defensive side of things as well

Thattaway to get the juice flowing early in the morning, Jonah! The 3b hit just .200/.244/.303 last year in his first attempt at AA. Two months into his second attempt those numbers are boosted way up (.303/.363/.423) and he’s also posting the lowest K rate (16%) and highest walk rate (8%) of his career. Jonah knows how to get noticed in the new reality!

The big hit of the game came from minor league Free Agent Zach Houchins, late of the Angels org, who will be playing the role of K.C. Hobson (or possibly Caleb Gindl!) for this year.

Caleb Baragar’s peripherals aren’t all that pretty in AA — he has a 24/11 K/BB ratio in 30 IP and sports a FIP about two runs higher than his ERA. He’s been keeping runs off the board though, mostly due to an extraordinarily low .164 BABIP. But the somewhat elevated walk rate is mostly the result of one funky outing in which he walked 5 in 5 innings. Otherwise he’s been pretty good at keeping runners off the bases, as his 0.93 WHIP attests.

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San Jose also had an off day

Let’s see.....any off day news to catch up on for the Li’l Giants? Well there is this one item...

You may just want to make plans to head to Excite tonight!

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Augusta won at Asheville Tourists (Rockies), 9-8

Ah Asheville — the Coors Field of the Sally. Always a fun series to circle if you’re a hitter. The Greenjackets banged out 13 singles, but had to hang on for dear life to nail down the one-run win. Augusta had nearly twice as many hits as Asheville (15 to 8) but the Tourists drew 7 walks against Augusta pitching to help them keep coming back and coming back. Augusta hitters didn’t control the strikezone quite so well, striking out 9 times while walking just one time.

But while they were swinging aggressively, they were definitely barreling up some balls. Leadoff hitter Ismael Munguia had four hits in this one, pushing his average back up towards the .300 mark (.292). Diego Rincones had three hits including one of the team’s two extra base hits.

In something of a statistical oddity, every member of the lineup scored exactly one time. The tough win kept Augusta in 2nd place, just 3 games back of Charleston with two weeks to play in the 1st half.

One last note, Frankie Tostado’s torrid series against Columbia was recognized with a Player of the Week award. Nice going Big Crunch!

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DSL Giants beat DSL Colorado, 6-3

The DSL team evened their record at 1 apiece, thanks to a power display. Most notably, as we highlighted at the top, that display came from 19 year old Adolfo Valdez who had a pro debut to remember. Valdez was signed April 1 out of Mexico, and that’s significant because MLB banned all signings out of Mexico from June of 2018 until an agreement was reached with the Mexican League in March. The Giants had likely been waiting for negotiations to work themselves out so they could bring Valdez on board.

Omar Medina, who is playing in his third DSL campaign, also homered for the Giants — the first of the 19 year old’s career.

However, the biggest news from this game came in the form of an 0 for 4 from Luis Matos. The 750k J2 signing had to leave the Giants first game after being HBP, so it’s good to see him right back in the lineup.

RHP Willian Suarez, starting his fourth DSL season with the Giants, struck out 3 batters in 1.2 IP. Suarez struck out 26 batters in 28.2 IP last year. He had thrown just 7 innings in his first two seasons combined.

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento (Carlos Navas) @ Oklahoma City (Tony Gonsolin)
Richmond (Conner Menez) @ Portland (Konner Wade)
San Jose (Aaron Phillips) vs. Modesto (TBD)
Augusta (Jesus Ozoria) @ Asheville (Shelby Lackey)
DSL Giants (TBD) vs. DSL Royals2 (TBD)

Did I mention that Joey Bart is coming back from the IL today? And that Heliot Ramos and Bart should be hitting 2-3 or 3-4 in San Jose’s lineup for the first time since April 15. So maybe you should head to San Jose to see the Giants.

Go....shoo!

(Also, keep watching for more draft updates as the picks roll on)