Minor League round up, May 24

We’re not too far away from the ACL and DSL seasons starting, but until then, it’s just the San Francisco Giants AAA, AA, High-A, and Low-A teams in action. Here’s what they did on Tuesday.

Link to the 2022 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions are the positions played in that game.

AAA Sacramento (21-22)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Salt Lake Bees (Angels) 3-2
Box score

A win, but admittedly not the most interesting game for Sacramento. Offensively there were just 5 hits and 1 walk, with no one reaching base more than once. But they only struck out 4 times!

All of the runs came on a single swing of the bat, as designated hitter Isan Díaz hit a 3-run blast in the 2nd inning.

Díaz has a .941 OPS and a 127 wRC+ since the Giants acquired him at the end of April. It’s good to have depth of that caliber, especially given how banged up the team currently is.

LHP Enmanuel De Jesus had another strong start, allowing 4 baserunners and 1 earned run in 5 innings. He’s had some bumps this season, but in the last 2 starts he’s pitched 9.1 innings and allowed 4 hits, 5 walks, and 1 run, with 17 strikeouts.

LHP Jake McGee had his 3rd rehab appearance and scuffled for the first time, allowing a hit, a walk, and a run in 0.2 innings of work, though he had 2 strikeouts. In his first 2 AAA outings, McGee pitched 2 perfect innings with 5 strikeouts, so he’s now struck out 7 of the 10 batters he’s faced on his rehab assignment.

AA Richmond (22-18)

Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies) 4-3 (10 innings)
Box score

RHP Matt Frisbee bounced back from his worst outing of the season in a big way, pitching 6 scoreless innings, allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk, and striking out 5. Frisbee had a nice start to the season but had really gotten roughed up in May, so it’s great to see him have such a dominant performance.

Also a nice showing from RHP R.J. Dabovich (No. 16 CPL), who got stuck with the loss after allowing the Manfred Man to score. Despite that, he gave up just 1 hit and no earned runs in 2 innings, while striking out 3. Dabovich’s strikeouts have not been on pace with the absurd numbers he put up a year ago, but he’s starting to find some rhythm.

The offense didn’t do too much. Center fielder Michael Gigliotti homered, and homers are always cool.

But it’s still been a rough season for the offseason addition, as he has just a .705 OPS and a 105 wRC+, despite being 26. It’s also been a rough season for designated hitter Diego Rincones (No. 15 CPL), who hit 0-4, lowering his OPS to .441 and his wRC+ to 24, a year after destroying AA (.878 OPS, 140 wRC+) following a midseason promotion.

Rincones’ season has been super bizarre. On the good side of things, he’s striking out just 13.3% of the time, which is a wildly low number, especially for someone having a bad season. And his BABIP is .211, suggesting he’s probably gotten pretty unlucky this year.

On the bad side of things, Rincones had 10 home runs, 1 triple, and 8 doubles for Richmond last year, in 213 plate appearances. In 113 plate appearances this year? 0 home runs, 0 triples, and just 2 doubles.

But while Gigliotti and Rincones may be struggling this year, first baseman Frankie Tostado is not. He hit 2-4 with a double in this one, raising his OPS to .823 and his wRC+ to 139.

High-A Eugene (18-17)

Eugene Emeralds beat the Tri-City Dust Devils (Angels) 4-2
Box score

As the Giants have proven over the last two days, sometimes all you need is one hitter to catch fire. And for Eugene, that hitter was first baseman Carter Aldrete, who did his best Joc Pederson/Evan Longoria impression by hitting a pair of home runs.

Aldrete had just a .445 OPS in April, but in May it’s been .889, bringing his season number to .815 and his wRC+ to 130.

Speaking of bounce-back Mays, the only other Emerald to reach base multiple times was catcher Patrick Bailey (No. 9 CPL), who hit 1-3 with a walk. It’s not been a good year for the 2020 1st-round pick, but a .777 OPS in May sure looks nicer than a .509 OPS in April.

RHP Wil Jensen had a fairly clean outing, allowing 3 hits, 1 walk, and no runs in 5 innings, with 4 strikeouts. He now has a 2.96 ERA and a 4.02 FIP, with 31 strikeouts to 7 walks in 24.1 innings.

RHP Clay Helvey struck out 4 in 2 scoreless innings, allowing just 1 hit. He currently has 30 strikeouts to 7 walks in just 18 innings, with a 3.00 ERA and a 2.16 FIP.

All of the players I just mentioned are pretty old for this level though, so it would be nice to see if some of them can convert their nice Tuesdays into nice AA outings.

Low-A San Jose (24-16)

San Jose Giants lost to the Modesto Nuts (Mariners) 3-1
Box score

If I told you that the Baby Giants score one run, and asked you to predict how, you’d probably have a pretty quick and easy guess (assuming you’ve been following San Jose this season): a Vaun Brown home run.

You’d be right, as the left fielder went yard for the 11th time this season (while also drawing a walk), raising his OPS to 1.037 and his wRC+ to 168.

Those numbers, combined with the fact that he’s about to turn 24, really paint the picture of someone who should probably be promoted soon.

It was a so-so start for RHP Eric Silva (No. 38 CPL), who gave up 2 hits, 4 walks, and 2 earned runs in 4.2 innings, with 3 strikeouts. Silva’s run prevention hasn’t been great (4.50 ERA, though a 3.46 FIP), but 36 strikeouts to 10 walks in 28 innings is worth being excited about, seeing as how he’s still many months away from his 20th birthday.

Speaking of RHPs that are still a ways away from their 20th birthday, Manuel Mercedes (No. 23 CPL) is starting to put things together after a tough beginning to the year, and he had 2 no-hit innings in this game, though he issued 2 walks and struck out just 1 batter. It was his 2nd straight strong outing after some rough appearances to start the season.

Home runs

AAA Isan Díaz (5)
AA Michael Gigliotti (2)
High-A Carter Aldrete, 2 (5)
Low-A Vaun Brown (11)

News

The Giants added a MiLB depth piece.