The SF Giants Prospect Roundup: How Players Are Responding To Call-Ups

Who has responded to the late call-ups?

The new Farhan Zaidi regime has done a lot of new things, but here in the farm system, one of the most interesting things has been a series of early August callups to top prospects. While a few are not unheard of, the amount of which Zaidi and Kyle Haines did has not been seen for a long time.

Almost all of these callups have been players who have been dominating, and anything they do in the last few weeks of the season will be too small a sample size to really judge too much by…much less a little more than a week.

But heck, let’s do that. Let’s see who has responded well to the push they got…and who is struggling. Unfortunately, it’s more struggle than success.

Joey Bart - 9 Games, .172/.219/.276

According to some first hand reports, Bart has been hitting the ball well but right into gloves. But Bart now has a four game hitless streak coming out of this weekend.

Heliot Ramos - 10 games, .176/.300/.294

Well, at least Ramos is walking (5 walks), but he also has 14 strikeouts in 34 at-bats, so his eagerness is affecting him. But he is one of the youngest players in the league.

Sean Hjelle - 2 G, 8.38 ERA, 1.76 WHIP, 9.2 IP, 14 H, 3 BB, 8 SO

In both of Hjelle’s starts, he’s been good the first few innings of the starts before giving up a bunch of runs. But what has been most notable is how many hits he’s given up, and his 1.63 GO/AO ratio in Richmond is less than half of the 3.74 ratio he had with San Jose.

Diego Rincones - 6 games, .200/.259/.200

San Jose’s lone major call-up has struggled a bit at the new level. He was batting .295/.346/.415 in Augusta.

Tyler Fitzgerald - 6 games, .217/.333/.217

Fitzgerald hasn’t gotten any of his line drives to go for extra-bases in Augusta yet like he did in Keizer (11 doubles and two triples in 26 games), but he’s got four walks to six strikeouts so far.

Sean Roby - 6 games, .091/.231/.136

Roby won the home run derby in the Northwest League All-Star game, but hits of any kind have been a struggle. He does have four walks against 12 strikeouts in the six games.

Logan Wyatt - 7 games, .238/.433/.429

Wyatt is true to his reputation, he controls the strike zone. He has seven walks to five strikeouts, even if he’s only got five hits in seven games. He does have one double and one home run among them, though.

Franklin Labour - 17 games, .211/.286/.281

Salem-Keizer’s home run leader has found things difficult in the South Atlantic League, with just four doubles accounting for all his extra-bases. He has 21 strikeouts against five walks in 17 games.

Ricardo Genoves - 11 games, .342/.390/.605

The 20-year old catcher has been the best responder to getting pushed. He was batting .252/.322/481 in Salem-Keizer with seven home runs, so he’s improved on all his numbers.

Marco Luciano - 7 games, .192/.323/.269

Okay, okay, he’s still 17, and he’s up in Salem-Keizer, where he came in as the youngest player in the league. But he has four hits in his last three games, so maybe he’s coming around.

Jairo Pomares - 7 games, .148/.233/.185

The 19-year old also has had trouble getting hits to fall in, with just a double to account for all the extra bases. He has just one walk against 10 strikeouts.

Connor Cannon - 2 games, .286/.286/.286

Even less sample size here, as he hasn’t played in a week, but at least for the 21-year old, he’s at the level he should be at.

Roger Had Some Video For You

Earlier this week, Roger took some time to go check out the top prospects in the system playing for Richmond, as they visited the Bowie Bay Sox. And Roger came through with some video of one of Joey Bart’s biggest hits in Double-A so far, plus a certain tall pitcher.

Go give Roger a follow, and get more great videos. And you should give Dalton a follow, too, he’s a good follow. Also maybe @sflunaticfringe as long as you’re following people, but that guy will probably spam you too much.

Good Reading on the AZL Prospects

Jason Pennini got a good long look at the talented Giants Orange team before last week’s callups, and he put together a great look at more than just the top names you know like Luciano and Pomares, but also looks at underrated guys like PJ Hilson and Caleb Kilian, among others. This is a great read, and I definitely recommend it.

Sacramento Litter Box

• Mauricio Dubon had been slow to warm up to being a River Cat, but he had his best day yet. He had his first 4-hit day as a River Cat, and second of the season…his first being the third game of the season. He’s now batting .302/.380/.444 as a River Cat.

• Jaylin Davis did not play, having reached his Reno quota for home runs with six in the last three games.
• Justin Haley, meanwhile, looked at the altitude of Reno and laughed, despite making just his second appearance of the season. He allowed just one run in six innings, after allowing seven runs in 2.2 innings in his first start at regular old Sacramento.
• Chris Shaw hit his 17th home run in Sacramento in the 9th inning, getting a second home run in while the team is in Reno. The home run is his 24th total on the season, matching his minor league high reached in both 2018 and 2017. He hit one in the Majors in 2018 as well.

Richmond Nuthouse

• Jalen Miller had three hits, just his fourth multi-hit game since July 16th, a span of 32 games. Miller had hit .270/.349/.500 in April, but his August is his second-best month so far this season, at .237/.328/.288.
• More 0-for-3’s for Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos at Double-A, although Ramos took a walk.
• Alfred Gutierrez set season highs with 10 strikeouts and six innings to get this win. Gutierrez has only allowed one earned run over his last 12 innings of work.

San Jose Footprints

• Aaron Phillips had his first career complete game shutout, giving up just one hit in what was the 22-year old’s most dominating start of his career. Phillips has been the rock of the San Jose bullpen, slowly whittling down his ERA sincfe the start of the season.
• Trivia Question: that’s the first 9-inning shut out for San Jose since…who, and when? Answer at the Wrap Up!
• Sandro Fabian picked up a pair of hits, and his second double in San Jose, his 38th game back at the level. Fabian is batting .306/.358/.435 in San Jose, with five home runs, but just two doubles and a triple.

Augusta Putt-putt Course

• Keaton Winn had the start Augusta needed for the win, giving up just one earned run in seven innings for the second straight start. Winn has a .200 batting average allowed in August, his lowest month so far, and a .250+ allowed for the rest of the summer.
• Ricardo Genoves had a pair of singles to raise his Augusta batting average to .342, now batting 13-for-38 in 11 games at the new level. Genoves has neither struck out or walked in the last six games.
• Tyler Fitzgerald picked up his first multi-hit game at Augusta, his sixth since his promotion.

Salem-Keizer Crater

• Marco Luciano had his first multi-hit game at Salem-Keizer, getting close to getting back above the Mendoza Line. He also walked and scored each time he got on base. Luciano is batting .192/.323/.269 in seven games in S-K.
• Hunter Bishop now has two straight games with home runs (after sitting out on Saturday). Bishop is now batting .207/.411/.390 in 24 games at the level.
• Alexander Canario has had some days it looks like he’s breaking out in Salem Keizer, but his 3-hit day is his first with back-to-back multi-hit games in 38 games at S-K.
• Jasier Herrera allowed four runs for his second straight game, in his third game at Salem-Keizer. He had a 1.99 ERA with the AZL Black team, but now has a 5.06 ERA in S-K.

Arizona Black Adders

• Grant McCray has three straight multi-hit games, raising his average from .235 to .261. He’s picked up doubles in his last two games, being his only extra-base hits in his current 6-game hit streak.
• Dilan Rosario had his first multi-hit game since July 27th, and his batting average has dropped from .247 to .221 over that span.
• Chris Wright took the start, and allowed his first run (earned or unearned) since July 18th, a span of 11.1 innings, a mix of relief and starts.

Arizona Orange Order

• Najee Gaskins still is hitting and getting on base. Gaskins now has an OBP of .484, with 19 walks to 18 strikeouts in 33 games. In fact, he has as many steals as strikeouts on the season. And that’s with him striking out seven times in his last six games without any steals.
• Abdiel Layer collected his fifth home run of the season, and is now batting .282/.340/.489 in 34 games this season.
• Two errors in the fifth inning gave Nick Avila five unearned runs, but none on his record. In 20.1 innings, he’s given up 16 hits and six walks against 11 strikeouts.

The Wrap-Up:

Your Trivia Answer: The last SJ Giants 9-inning shutout was by Eric Surkamp, on May 16, 2010.

See you all this week in Minor Lines!