Whoa, what a busy weekend coming up! With the Futures Game and the opening round of the 2021 MLB draft both happening tomorrow night, there’s going to be a LOT to talk about Monday morning. So how about we do a quick roundup of the Friday night action with a little Saturday Supplemental! There won’t be too many of these, so if you like what you see, why not subscribe for daily posts?
HITTER of the Night: Heliot Ramos (Rich), 4 for 7, HR (8), 2b (12), Run, 4 RBI, SB (7)
PITCHER of the Night: Caleb Kilian (Rich), 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, BB, 4 K, CG ShO
Sacramento lost @ Salt Lake Bees (Angels), 10-7
Game time temperatures last night in Salt Lake were 105° — combined with the 4,000+ feet of elevation, that sounds like a recipe for far flying balls to me. And that’s exactly what happened to a preponderance of Matt Frisbee’s offerings, as literally half of the eight hits he allowed escaped the confines of the yard. Frisbee, who dominated Double-A hitters for 29 innings at the start of the year, has been throwing BP in Triple-A. And you can see he’s wearing it at this point. Look at his reaction to Preston Palmeiro taking him out last night — the third home run he’d allowed on the night and second in two pitches in the 3rd inning (the second one in this clip):
That’s the reaction of a player searching for answers and learning some tough lessons. Both of the shots in that clip came on poorly located high fastballs, which has been the primary culprit for him. He surrendered a second homer to long-time big leaguer Drew Butera on a badly hanging curve. Frisbee has now allowed a stunning 12 long balls in just 33.1 IP with Sacramento, helping balloon his ERA up to 8.37 in Triple-A. It’s gotta get better, Matt!
If you skimmed the box score above carefully, you’ll notice that every pitcher the River Cats used had an ERA over 6.00. That’s not an accident — most of the staff has ERAs that don’t look very good on a baseball card right now. The only pitchers currently in Sacramento with ERAs lower than 5.00 are Yunior Marte (4.09), Trevor Hildenberger (3.75), Gerson Garabito (3.63), Kervin Castro (3.22) and the spotless Jay Jackson (0.00). Eleven pitchers on the staff have ERAs north of 6.00. This is why Sacramento is sitting in the basement with the league’s best offense.
Speaking of that offense, Arismendy Alcántara is going Hulk-mode on the league. He hit his 10th homer of the year last night in just 28 games! And this was one he could really enjoy. That’s ok, Arismendy, when you hit it off your own picture, soak it up and take in the moment!
Jason Krizan also provided a solo shot. But despite their 11 hits, the offense couldn’t keep pace with the pitching, leading to a season-high fifth straight loss. One of the runs Sacramento did score came on back to back balks which moved Mauricio Dubon from 2b to home without virtue of a pitch being thrown. You don’t see that every day!
Sacramento also had a flurry of roster maneuvering yesterday, as you certainly know by now. Joey Bart was called up to the Giants to take Buster Posey’s place, as the All Star very sadly heads to the IL. Bart is in the Giants’ lineup today. Logan Webb, who performed brilliantly coming off the 60-day IL in yesterday’s Giants game, gets optioned back to Sacramento to make room for Bart. The All Star break gives cover to much of this churn, as the team will get four free days of inactivity before they have to figure out how to cover the next round of the rotation and, hopefully, get Posey back and healthy. They’ll also be able to keep Webb on regular work.
Catcher Fabian Peña rejoined Sacramento to cover Bart and Chadwick Tromp’s absence. In an interesting non-transaction, Sacramento originally announced yesterday that Tommy LaStella was starting a rehab assignment, but in a later amendment deleted that transaction. Not sure what happened to scotch that deal, but it looks like we’ll have to keep waiting to see the return of LaStella.
Richmond split a double header @ Bowie BaySox (Orioles)
Winning 6-0 in Game 1, 7 inn
Losing 3-2 in Game 2, 7 inn
When Heliot Ramos was named to this year’s Futures Game last week, the honor came amidst one of his most difficult stretches in his pro career. But things turn around quickly sometimes, and with the last few swings of his bat, Ramos will now be landing in Denver today on a high note. After his mammoth blast Wednesday night helped Richmond snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, he seemed to have an extra skip in his step last night. He blasted his 8th HR of the year well out to left field (pull side power!) in his first at bat and then just kept on hitting throughout the double header.
That came off rehabbing Orioles’ ace John Means, by the way! Ramos added an RBI single in the following at bat, and then belted two more hits in the second game, including an RBI double off the base of the wall.
Add it all up and you have Heliot’s best day at the plate since back in the heady days of May. After going more than a month without a single multi-hit game, Ramos now has three of them in his last five games — he also has three HR and two doubles in that stretch including two massive shots to the pull field. He’s even upped his base stealing game lately — he stole his 7th of the year last night with only 1 CS. That’s by far the best ratio of his career. He’s only reached 10 SB once — his rookie campaign in the AZL.
Ramos had to have gotten on the plane this morning feeling more like the dynamic young power hitter that he is, with the weight of June something he could leave behind him. It’s a tough and lonely road, as Doug Clark reminded us on the podcast. It’s nice to think that this leg of the journey was a happy flight.
Another Squirrel feeling good about himself must be Brandon Martorano, who just continues to hit. B-Mart crushed his 2nd homer since joining Richmond last night deep to CF. Bowie is a good place to hit, but these guys are really sending some missiles out of Prince Georges’ Stadium this week.
Richmond also got great starting pitching in the double header. Though he ended up the losing pitcher, Michael Plassmeyer tied a career high with 9 K in the nightcap. Once again, the lefty utilized excellent command of his fastball (particularly spotting it on the outside corner) and a strong change up to load up on Special K. He did allow two home runs, including the ultimate game winner to the game’s top prospect Adley Rutschman.
In the opener, Caleb Kilian threw his first professional shutout and second complete game — both 7 inning performances as a part of double headers. Kilian completely mastered the league’s top offense, surrendering just three hits in his 7 innings of work. This wasn’t a big strikeout game for the right-hander (4), but he’s been stingy on the scoreboard lately. Kilian has allowed just three hits in each of his past two starts, and just one run over that time. He’s allowed 1 or 0 runs in five of his eight starts with Richmond, and no more than 3 in any of them. That’s how you build up a 2.09 ERA! With the exception of Sammy Long, I really don’t think any pitcher in the system has shown as much development as Kilian so far this year.
One last plaudit for the night — Will Wilson collected his first Double-A hit in the opener. May you have many more, Will!
Eugene lost to Everett AquaSox (Mariners), 8-2
Eugene had hoped to use this home series against Everett as an opportunity to seize 1st place back and assert themselves atop the league standings. Instead, it’s Everett doing most of the asserting, as the AquaSox have taken three straight games by a combined score of 28-8.
Given that stat, it’s not a big surprise that the culprit last night was once again the starting pitching. Kai-Wei Teng got knocked around for the second straight start, putting himself in hitters’ counts all night long (or as much of the night as he was around). Teng threw barely half his pitches for strikes (36 of 64). That’s been an unexpected issue for Teng in several of his starts this year, as he’s often had trouble commanding his fastball and loses the feel for one or another of his breaking balls from game to game. The result last night was predictable against a strong offense: he got himself into bad counts, gave up too many free runners, and then got burned with missed locations in the zone, allowing two home runs, including a back breaking three-run homer to recently promoted Rockies’ prospect Cade Marlowe. Teng has now allowed five home runs in his past three starts. Since returning from his suspension for using illegal substances on June 16, he has posted a 6.64 ERA, surrendered six home runs, and walked 13 batters in 30.1 IP.
That was mostly that. Eugene’s offense collected just three hits on the night and was never really able to get the home fans into it. Sean Roby did keep his charge on the Mendoza Line heading forward as he lashed his 7th double of the year.
Ryan Walker continued his excellent full season debut, striking out 3 batters in 1.1 innings. Walker has 42 strikeouts to just 5 walks this year in 27.2 IP. The funkmeister might need to move it on up soon!
San Jose lost to Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies), 6-5
Pretty classic stuff: on the day that I give a big shout out to the San Jose bullpen, Clay Helvey gives up three 9th-inning runs, leading to a gut-punch of a loss to the Grizzlies. Helvey is another of those San Jose relievers throwing in the mid-90s who has done so much to help make the Giants the class of the league, but he’s had a few blow ups this year, and last night’s blown save cost San Jose sole possession of 1st place. Helvey was an out away from closing it down when he coughed up a two-run homer on an 0-1 pitch to let the Giants’ lead of both the game and division slip away.
Prior to that, the Giants’ offense jumped out to a lead by scoring solo runs in five of the game’s first six innings. Luis Matos had his second consecutive strong game with two hits, including his 5th home run of the season.
Matos has five hits in the last two games, and in the month of July he’s hitting .276 with two doubles, a triple and a home run. For the year, the 19-year-old is posting a very strong .294/.336/.445 slash line. I know some are underwhelmed with Matos’ power this year, but aside from the afore-stated fact that he’s just 19, and power isn’t his predominant tool, I present this little nugget for you to truly appreciate Matos’ efforts this year:
The red-hot Jairo Pomares also tore the cover off another ball last night, probably wrapping up his Player of the Week honors at this point.
Unlike Heliot Ramos, Marco Luciano leaves for the Futures Game after a fairly lackluster week in which he went just 2 for 16 with two ground singles.
Arizona Complex League
Giants Orange lost to ACL Rockies, 9-3
Giants Black won @ ACL Athletics, 12-6
Aeverson Arteaga’s amazing power surge continued last night as he homered for the fourth straight game and added his 4th double. It’s been an eye-opening debut for the athletic Venezuelan shortstop whom the Giants signed for $1.2 million in 2019. Arteaga has a very strong defensive reputation but scouts have projected only a modest offensive ceiling for him in a best case development scenario, so blowing the roof off of the complex league is a big statement for the youngster. I can’t wait to see him when I visit the complex in a couple of weeks!
Unfortunately, aside from Arteaga’s big night, the Orange lineup didn’t add much else. Recently demoted Garrett Frechette had two singles in his fall from Low-A grace. And another former San Jose hitter, Edison Mora, added a solo shot. RHP Trevor McDonald had his worst start as a pro, coughing up 5 earned runs and allowing his first professional home run, while striking out just 1. McDonald’s ERA is now up to 4.85. It’s just three starts, but given that it was something of a disappointment when McDonald failed to secure a full-season assignment in May, the rough start back in rookie league isn’t promising. It’s hard to avoid noting the obvious: the Giants’ 2019 draft strategy was to carve money out of three underslot deals on college players (Hunter Bishop, Tyler Fitzgerald, Logan Wyatt) and use that money to sign overslot deals with a solid group of high school players: Grant McCray, Garrett Frechette, Dilan Rosario, and Trevor McDonald. So far in 2021, the early returns have been rough, as none of the quartet has been able to escape a return to rookie league and none have particularly stood out even there in the first weeks of the season.
The Giants Black lineup last night had to be the oldest team in the league, as it not only included players such as 24-year-old Javeyan Williams and 23-year-old Najee Gaskins, but also some recent arrivals sent down from the High-A Eugene team: former 2nd round pick Jacob Gonzalez and last year’s 1st round pick Patrick Bailey. Bailey saw his first game action since being re-assigned, playing DH for the Black and getting two hits. I presume the last week has been spent working on his swing and trying to correct some of the habits that have led him astray this year.
Not from last night, but I noticed that good friend @GPT is at the morning game today between the two teams, and he posted a clip of RHP Manuel Mercedes getting Bailey out swinging.
Gonzalez, whose demotion just days before the draft certainly seems to suggest his Giants’ career is in jeopardy, responded to the new level with zeal, knocking a three-run homer and a double in helping lead the Black to the easy win.
What’s On Tap?
Sacramento (Gerson Garabito) @ Salt Lake (Dillon Peters), 5:35 pm, MiLBTV
Richmond (Sean Hjelle) @ Bowie (Grayson Rodriguez), 3:35 pm, MiLBTV
Eugene (Solomon Bates) vs. Everett (George Kirby), 7:05 pm, MiLBTV
San Jose (Wil Jensen) vs. Fresno (Sam Weatherly), 6:00 pm, MiLBTV
Giants Black (Esmerlin Vinicio) vs Giants Orange (Manuel Mercedes) 11:00 am
Some terrific pitching challenges tonight! It’s a shame Heliot Ramos isn’t still in Bowie, as Richmond takes on a pitcher many think is the best pitching prospect in the game today in hard-throwing Grayson Rodriguez. Down a level, Eugene gets someone who isn’t that far behind in Mariners’ prospect George Kirby. Kirby flirts with 100 well into games and has some hammer secondaries as well.
The Complex League game is nearly complete at this writing, with Black leading 2-1. It’s been a real pitcher’s duel between Mercedes and Vinicio, as the three runs have scored on an error, a passed ball, and a ground out. No homer from Arteaga yet today.
Enjoy the weekend everyone. It’s gonna be a wild one!
Remember, if you’d like to receive There R Giants posts Monday through Friday, feel free to grab a subscription!
I feel bad for the 2019 HS draftees. No games for them last year, and then now no short-season NWL to play in.
I took a special break to watch Tyler Beede's appearance yesterday and it wasn't pretty but I wonder if half the problem isn't the pitch calling. For the life of me, I don't understand when you have a guy that throws 95-97 with movement and control issues you don't give him a chance to establish the fastball before having him throws 50% off speed pitches.