SF Giants Minor Lines 8/16/19: Jaylin Davis homers 3 times

I originally date my fascination with Logan Webb to his sensational playoff start for Salem-Keizer against Hillsboro way back in 2015 (a game that featured dramatic 9th inning homers from Chris Shaw and Miguel Gomez). But it was spring training 2018 when Logan Webb really announced to me that he was going to be a major leaguer someday. Just 17 months later, here we are. Go get ‘em Logan!

HIGHLIGHTS: Jaylin Davis hit 3 home runs; Chris Shaw went 3 for 6 with HR; Luis Toribio doubled and walked three times; Rayner Santana homered for the 6th time in two weeks.

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Sacramento won at Reno Aces (Diamondbacks), 17-7

Sacramento and Reno attempted to replicate their parent clubs wild match last night — they couldn’t generate the extra innings wackiness, or have quite as many HRs, but they did mix in a 3 homer night!

Sacramento got huge production from the middle of their lineup, as all of the 3-6 hitters had at least three hits including an XBH in the game. The real beef was in the 3-4 spots where Jaylin Davis and Chris Shaw collectively went 6 for 11 with 4 HRs and 8 RBI. Three-quarters of those HRs came from Davis, who was the third Giants’ prospect to record a three-homer game in 2019 (Mac Williamson, Rayner Santana).

Of course, you might think that would make Davis unique, but no, he was one of a crowd!

Yes, there were three three-homer games in the PCL last night — four if you want to count Phoenix! Crazy.

Davis has been a mashing machine since coming over from the Twins. In just 13 games with Sacramento he’s hit 6 HRs and 5 doubles — good for an .854 SLG! He’s also hitting .375 for the RiverCats — he seems to like it here! Overall this year, Davis is hitting .307/.400/.597 with 31 homers. Don’t know when the roster churn will spin his way, but I’m excited to see what he can do when it does.

After a torrid July in which he posted a 1.018 OPS, Shaw has been a little quieter so far in August. But he made a lot of noise last night, picking up three hits with his 23rd homer of the season, and 16th with Sacramento. That kicked off 10 runs of scoring in the final two innings for Sacramento.

You probably saw this excellent piece on Chris Shaw waiting for his second chance:

Hopefully soon, Chris!

The big win boosted Sacramento’s division lead back up to 7 games. They’ll knock their magic number down into single digits with another win in this series.

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Richmond’s game was postponed due to wet grounds

They’ll play yet another double header (third in a week) tonight

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San Jose lost to Inland Empire 66ers (Angels), 7-5

Sandro Fabian is certainly making the most of his return to the Cal League. After suffering through a woeful 2018 in which he hit just .200/.260/.325, and then getting a late start to the 2019 season after undergoing surgery for a thyroid condition, he’s having a late season renaissance since rejoining San Jose. In 35 games back in the Cal, the 21 year old is hitting .309/.364/.439. He’s slashed his K rate down to 18% (it was 24% last year) and even seen a small boost in his BB rate (up to 7%). Nice second act for the one-time #7 prospect in the system.

Camilo Doval has been feeling it lately. Since July 13 when his ERA had ballooned up to 5.66, Doval has allowed just 1 run over 10 appearances and 14 IP. He’s struck out 23 in that time and walked just 5, while getting his fastball up as high as 100 mph. Last night Doval K’d 4 of the 6 batters he faced. He’ll be a major 40 man decision for the front office this winter, and I’d think there’s a good chance they’ll add him.

San Jose was the only team in their division to lose a game last night, sinking them to the bottom of their Wild Card chase, 2.5 games back of Stockton.

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Augusta lost at Greensboro Grasshoppers (Pirates), 4-3

Augusta got an early three-run homer from Frankie Tostado (his 17th of the year) but then couldn’t add anything on, and late runs in the 7th and 9th dropped them to defeat and out of first place.

Seth Corry’s magical run finally came to and end in the bottom of the first when he allowed his first run since July 13. Corry had allowed just six walks in his previous seven starts, but he’d struggle with his control throughout in this game. He walked the leadoff batter on four pitches and that turned into a run when he surrendered a two-out double. Corry would end up throwing 90 pitches in just 4 innings, with 56 of those being strikes. He walked three and hit two more batters, while the four hits he allowed equaled his last three starts combined (17.2 IP). Still, at 1.74 his ERA is still in the running for lowest in all the minor leagues in 2019 and his 155 Ks (7 more yesterday) leads the Sally but a comfortable margin (next closest is the ChiSox Davis Martin with 140).

And you probably want to see Franklin Labour swing the bat, too

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Salem-Keizer lost at Eugene Emeralds (Cubs), 9-2
losing their series 0-3

It’s been a tale of two halves for the Volcanoes, who still own one of the NWL’s best records for the year despite having gone just 9-13 in the second half and 3-7 over their last 10 games. They were swept out of Eugene yesterday with a fairly noncompetitive game, trailing 8-0 into the late innings and picking up just six hits overall.

Hunter Bishop provided a small boost of excitement when he went deep for his 3rd homer of the year.

The one thing that graphic leaves out of the equation, of course, is the strikeouts which are, indeed piling up for Bishop. With two more Ks yesterday that’s a higher-than-you’d-like-to-see-it 25%. Strikeouts will always be part of the package for the toolsy 10th overall pick, but I’m sure there will be some swing work going forward to try to maximize his ability to do damage.

The other exciting swing of the bat came from Jairo Pomares, who ripped a double that shot past the RF to the wall like it was on astroturf. Like to see the Trackman reading on this baby.

About two more weeks for this version of the Volcanoes to try to get their game in order and prepare themselves for a run at a ring.

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AZL Giants Black swept a double header against the AZL Athletics Gold

Winning the first game, 5-3

Winning the second game 3-2

Third round pick Grant McCray is starting to show some signs of life with the bat. The 18 year old has a modest four game hit streak going during which he’s gone 7 for 16 with a walk. That brings his average up to .243 though his OPS is just .659. He also got CS yesterday for the 11th time this year which...dude, 50% success ratio int he complex league? Please report to Roving Instructor Antoan Richardson for tips on getting a jump, stat!

Francisco Medina got in one of the two games as a DH. His last appearance was his first pro game on the mound. It was something of a blowout, but I’m still keeping an eye on Medina next spring to see if he’s a conversion project. One might wonder whether down the line we’ll be thinking similar things about Richgelon Juliana. The 18 year old defensive wunderkind had two OF assists in yesterday’s game, but has hit just .208 so far this year.

Mac Marshall is once again trying to work his way back from injury. One wonders if he might be healthy enough to get an AFL assignment — speaking of which, roster announcements for this year’s AFL should be coming tomorrow. I anticipate that this will be one of the more exciting AFL contingents the Giants have had in many years.

AZL Giants Orange lost to AZL Cubs2, 8-5

The Giants Orange team lost for just the 10th time this year in 48 games. It’s almost surprising to see — had to do a double take on the box score. Rough outings from Juan Sanchez and Kanoa Pagan did most of the damage after the former Red Raider Caleb Kilian made his fourth start of the year without having given up a run.

Pagan is having a rough transition to pro ball as he now features a 6.75 ERA in the desert. The 19th rounder out of Mission JC documented his increase in velo over the past year on social media (like all the cool kids do these days) and that part of his game has shown up in rookie ball as he’s K’d 18 in 12 innings. More work to do though for the 19th rounder. The turning point in yesterday’s game was actually a little Pagan on Pagan action, as Kanoa allowed the Cubs Ezequiel Pagan to single and steal 2b, setting up the go ahead run which came in on a Sac Fly off Taylor Rashi.

The somewhat denuded Orange offense got a lot of patience from 3-4 hitters Luis Toribio and Abdiel Layer, who collectively walked 5 times in the game. It was a perfect day at the plate for Toribio who’s one swing of the bat produced a double.

PJ Hilson unleashed his second triple of the year and also drew a walk.

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DSL Giants beat DSL Pirates2, 8-4

It’s been pretty standard over the years to see a DSL kid jump out of the gate with a gaggle of home runs in June and then under the hot Dominican summer days the power wilts and basically the homers dry up the rest of the way. Even the sensational Luis Matos has hit just two home runs since July 1 after having hit 5 in the initial month of the season.

But just turned 17 year old Rayner Santana has trod a different path. Coming into August with just 2 professional homers, he has now hit 6 in the past two weeks, forging into the team lead (and just two behind the league leader)! Though his K rate is hovering dangerously close to 30%, the Catcher out of Maracaibo, Venezuela is having a monster debut season — based almost entirely off his August performance where he is slashing .389/.522/1.000 in 9 games played. Yowza! For the season, Santana is posting a .985 OPS. That’ll get you noticed on Minor Lines!

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Today’s Scheduled Starters:
Sacramento (Carlos Torres) @ Reno (Joel Payamps)
Richmond (Caleb Baragar) vs. Harrisburg (Mario Sanchez) Gm 1
Richmond (Alfred Gutierrez) vs. Harrisburg (Kevin McGowan) Gm 2
San Jose (Tristan Beck) vs. Inland Empire (TBD)
Augusta (Trent Toplikar) @ Greensboro (Winston Nicacio)
Salem-Keizer (Travis Perry) vs. Everett (Damon Casetta-Stubbs)
AZL Giants Black (Trevor McDonald) vs. AZL Athletics Green (TBD)
AZL Giants Orange (Jesus Gomez) @ AZL Cubs2 (TBD)
DSL Giants (Jason Bonilla) @ DSL Pirates2 (TBD)

I’m going to be leaving you in Kevin’s more than capable hands for a couple of weeks as I seek out a little R&R. When I come back I expect Kevin to have successfully rooted everybody into the playoffs. No pressure, Kevin!

Have a great time at the ballyard everybody! Find your personal star and hitch up your bandwagons!