Minor League round up, September 16-17

With the Minor League Baseball season winding down and fewer games to cover, I combined Friday and Saturday’s games for the San Francisco Giants affiliates. Let’s jump into it.

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

All listed positions are the positions played in that game.

AAA Sacramento (61-77)

Friday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks) 9-2
Saturday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks) 8-4
Friday box score
Saturday box score

A pair of pretty uneventful games for the River Cats, with not many memorable performances. Designated hitter/second baseman Jason Krizan played pretty solidly, hitting 1-4 with a homer on Friday, and 1-3 with a double and a walk on Saturday.

Krizan’s been hitting better lately, though it still hasn’t been a great year for him, as he has a .833 OPS and a 101 wRC+. But he’ll always remember the year since he made his MLB debut.

Also homering was left fielder/center fielder Austin Dean, he went 0-3 with a walk on Friday, but 2-4 with a big fly on Saturday.

That was a solid response after the Giants optioned Dean after just 9 plate appearances but, like Krizan, his season numbers are pretty mediocre: .804 OPS, 97 wRC+.

Center fielder Heliot Ramos (No. 4 CPL) doubled on Friday before getting called up to the Majors for a third stint.

Pretty bad pitching performances all around. RHP Ronnie Williams, making his 8th appearance of the year for Sacramento on Friday, got rocked, allowing 8 runs (7 earned) in 4 innings. LHP Joey Marciano, who was having a really nice season for the first few months, continued the downslide that his peripherals had been predicting, as he allowed 3 runs in 2 innings of work, raising his ERA to 4.29 and his FIP to 5.13. Since the start of August, Marciano has allowed 18 runs and 16 earned runs in 17 innings.

AA Richmond (65-71)

Friday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) 10-3
Saturday: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) 5-1
Friday box score
Saturday box score

Friday was home run central for the Flying Squirrels. Despite playing in a low-offense league, Richmond bopped 5 home runs against Erie, and there were 3 players who had exceptional offensive performances — amusingly enough, they were the Nos. 6, 7, and 8 hitters in the lineup.

Catcher Ricardo Genovés (No. 20 CPL) had arguably the strongest day, hitting 2-3 with not 1, but 2 home runs, and also drawing a walk.

Genovés followed it up by hitting 1-2 with a walk on Saturday, which puts his OPS at .660 and his wRC+ at 81. Not eye-popping numbers, but Genovés is A) a catcher, B) turned 23 this season, C) a very strong defensive prospect, and D) playing his 1st year of AA, with a decent amount of AAA experience already. He’s worth being excited about, though he was desperately in need of these games: prior to Friday, Genovés was hitting just 2-30 in September, with no extra-base hits.

I said that Genovés’ day was “arguably” the best, because left fielder Carter Aldrete made one helluva argument. Aldrete hit 3-4 with a home run and 2 doubles on Friday, and followed it up on Saturday by scoring the team’s only run with a solo homer.

After thoroughly dominating High-A to start the year, Aldrete is finding his foot in AA, and now has a .704 OPS and an 88 wRC+.

Speaking of finding footing in AA, first baseman Riley Mahan hit 2-4 with a home run and a double on Friday, but left Saturday’s game after 2 plate appearances ... hopefully it wasn’t injury related.

Mahan has been stellar in his 22 games since getting promoted, as he has a .917 OPS and a 149 wRC+. He’ll be 27 when next season starts, but my guess is he’ll be in Sacramento and have a chance to show what he can do at MiLB’s highest level.

Center fielder/third baseman Brett Auerbach (No. 28 CPL) had the other home run on Friday, as part of a 2-hit day for the super utility player. He has a .711 OPS and a 94 wRC+, and has been finding his groove after a brutal summer.

A tough pair of days for the middle of the order hitters, as second baseman/shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald (No. 35 CPL) hit 1-8 with 4 strikeouts and a triple, designated hitter Diego Rincones (No. 15 CPL) hit 1-8 with 3 strikeouts, and shortstop/second baseman Will Wilson (No. 18 CPL) hit 1-8 with 4 strikeouts.

RHP Kai-Wei Teng (No. 44 CPL) had one of his strongest starts of the year, allowing just 2 hits and 2 runs in 7 innings on Friday, while striking out 9 batters. He is a true strikeout artist, but is still greatly struggling with command, as he walked 4 batters. In 136.1 innings this year, Teng has struck out 169 batters, but issued 85 walks. You have my permission to be very excited or very concerned. The 169 strikeouts set a Richmond franchise record.

RHP Keaton Winn was so-so on Saturday, allowing 3 runs in 5 innings.

A few interesting relief appearances. RHP Melvin Adon pitched a scoreless inning on Friday, and it is so, so good to see him healthy. RHP Nick Avila pitched a pirfect inning on Saturday, and now has 27 strikeouts to 6 walks in 27 innings in AA, with just 4 runs allowed. And RHP Blake Rivera, who barely played last year due to injuries, made his first appearance since late July, returning from injury to throw a scoreless inning, walking 1 and striking out 2.

High-A Eugene

Eugene Emeralds beat the Vancouver Canadians (Blue Jays) 9-7 (10 innings)
Championship Series Game 3 — Emeralds win 3-0
Box score

They needed extra innings, but the Emeralds won the game, swept the series, and are league champions. And talk about a rude way to do it: including the postseason, the Emeralds ended the season by playing the Canadians 9 straight times, winning 8 of them.

The winning hit came in the 10th inning, when third baseman Jimmy Glowenke (No. 43 CPL) hit a 2-run home run.

RHP Tyler Myrick shut the door in the bottom half of the inning, making the Emeralds champs once more.

Also homering was first baseman Luis Toribio (No. 39 CPL), who added a double and a walk.

Toribio, who ended the season with a .738 OPS and a 104 wRC+, had an awful August, but bounced back in September in a big way. Including postseason games, Toribio hit 12-41 with 2 home runs, 4 doubles, and 4 walks in September. The strikeouts remain a big issue (he had a 35.2% K rate this year), but a lot to like from Toribio, who turns 22 at the end of the month.

Also homering was center fielder Grant McCray (No. 34 CPL).

RHP Nick Zwack, part of the Darin Ruf trade, was given the start and had mixed results. He struck out 5 in 4 innings, but gave up 3 runs. RHP Brooks Crawford had a nice outing, with 2 scoreless innings to follow Zwack.

Home runs

AAA Austin Dean (17)
AAA Jason Krizan (14)
AA Brett Auerbach (17)
AA Ricardo Genovés, 2 (7)
AA Carter Aldrete (6)
AA Riley Mahan (3)
High-A Luis Toribio (22)
High-A Jimmy Glowenke (13)
High-A Grant McCray (3)

Notes

Injury updates are hard to come across in the Minors. LHP Rohan Handa, the team’s 5th-round pick in 2021 who has yet to make a professional debut, kindly shared an update on his status.

Sunday schedule

Sacramento: @ the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks)
Richmond: vs. the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers)
Eugene: Season over
San Jose: Season over
ACL Orange: Season over
ACL Black: Season over
DSL Orange: Season over
DSL Black: Season over