Harrison and Roby Power Richmond to Playoffs!
SF Giants Minor Lines, June 25-26, 2022
CHAMPS!
Well, if not exactly “champs” then, at least, playoff bound! And that’s a big thing! The Richmond team hasn’t been to the Eastern League playoffs since 2014, and has only gone to the post-season twice in its history (which stretches back to 2010). Heck, they’d only had four seasons with a winning record coming into this season. Between 2016-2019, the Squirrels were 74 games below .500!
So, yeah, guaranteeing some home playoff games for one of the very best fanbases in the minor leagues (already the Richmond crowds have surpassed 200,000 this year — the first Double A team that has reached that mark), it’s a pretty cool thing! But it’s also nice to see a wave of players continue to win up through the minors. Tampa Bay’s full-season affiliates won three titles last year and appeared in four championship series — and that’s not coincidental to the organization’s development success. Twenty-two players on the Squirrels’ first-half roster were also members of the 2021 Championship Eugene squad. Two others were members of the 2021 Championship San Jose team. This year’s Eugene squad that rolled to their first half title is full of members of San Jose’s 2021 champs.
Winning is spreading upwards through the organization — and that’s a good and productive thing! Don’t get me wrong — all of these guys aren’t going to be winning playoff games for the Giants together. There won’t be a 26 man squad made up of homegrown players mowing their way to World Series titles. But some of them might! There might be a Sergio Romo here somewhere, a Pablo Sandoval, maybe a Nate Schierholtz! And hopefully, a Brandon or two, or a Matt Cain along the way would be a nice thing, too!
Congrats, champs!
HITTER of the Weekend: Grant McCray (SJ), 8 for 16, 2 HR (10), 4 2b, BB, 6 R, 5 RBI
PITCHER of the Weekend: Kyle Harrison (Rich), 7.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 11 K
If you missed it, I had a late Saturday Supplemental that covered the Friday night games, as well as a quick summary of the Saturday morning rookie league games. You can catch up on all of those games there.
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