Let's Get Ready for Opening Night!
Roster previews, upcoming schedules and more
The last year has trained us all to be on pins and needles waiting for bad news to drop, especially when it comes to minor league baseball. We’ve had cancellations, deaffiliations, delays and more delays, a stubborn rumor that refused to die that the schedule would get pushed back yet again.
That’s not going to happen! And tomorrow, for the first time since Caleb Baragar started the Triple-A Championship game on September 17, 2019….WE WILL HAVE MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!
That’s right, Charlie Brown, the big day is finally here! And this year, it should be a grand one for the Giants minor league system. No more of this:
This year the Giants will field their most exciting group of affiliate teams in more than a decade, since the halcyon days of Buster, Bum, Brandon and Brandon, and Zack.
So let’s check out the new rosters, set up the week to come, and get you all set for the excitement that’s just a bit over 24 hours away…
Sacramento River Cats — Triple A West
Alright, so this is a slightly anticlimactic place to start, as the Triple A season won’t start until Thursday and, consequently, this is the one roster we don’t have yet. But given everything we learned about the other affiliates this weekend, we can put the major puzzle pieces together. Let’s take a look at who’s here, and what’s on tap for the defending Pacific Coast League and Triple-A champs. All prospect rankings listed below are via Baseball America.
Top Prospects on the Roster: Joey Bart (#2), LaMonte Wade Jr. (17), Gregory Santos (22), Kervin Castro (23)
Sleeper Prospects: Tyler Cyr (RP), Bryce Johnson (CF)
Who’s Missing? Heliot Ramos, Sean Hjelle, Melvin Adon (IL)
Manager: Dave Brundage
Upcoming Schedule: @Las Vegas, May 6-11, @Oklahoma City, May 13-18
Sacramento won’t be the prospect summit of the Giants system, at least not to begin with. Bart is the only top 10 prospect to start the year with the River Cats, and behind him the young fireballers Santos and Castro provide the most exciting arms. The River Cats roster will be filled with big league depth however, in players like Jason Vosler, LaMonte Wade Jr. (currently on the Giants IL, but he did make an appearance in an Alt Site scrimmage this weekend) and Conner Menez. You could argue the team is “missing” Heliot Ramos, but returning him to Double-A, where he spent less than a month in 2019, was always the conservative play. Melvin Adon continues to rehab from offseason shoulder surgery.
The Triple-A schedule is going to be slightly different from the other classifications. Like other levels, they will play a single opponent for a six-day series, but, unlike the other levels, their series go from Thursday to Tuesday with their regular off days coming on Wednesday. Sacramento will be one of the few teams in the minors to start the year with back to back road series, which means that their home opener at Sutter Field won’t come until May 20 against Reno.
Manager Dave Brundage returns to the team he guided to the PCL and Triple-A championships in 2019. It will be the fourth year as Manager of the RiverCats and 15th consecutive as a Triple-A manager. In all, Brundage has spent 23 seasons as a minor league manager, including stints at every full season level.
How’d I Do? Accountability is important, so I thought I’d measure my “Way Too Early” roster previews from last December against the final version. The Sacramento roster was the least well formed when I did the roster previews, with many current Alt Site players not yet signed by the organization. Still, I was mistaken in placing Heliot Ramos, Vince Fernandez, and Sean Hjelle on the Sacramento roster, while failing to place Santos and Castro here. I’ll give myself a C- on this one.
Richmond Flying Squirrels - Double-A Northeast
Top Prospects on the Roster: Heliot Ramos (3), Tristan Beck (12), Sean Hjelle (13),
Sleeper Prospects: Matt Frisbee (SP), Sam Long (SP), Sandro Fabian (OF)
Who’s Missing: Heath Quinn, Jake Wong, Jose Marte
Manager: José Alguacil
Upcoming Schedule: vs. Hartford, May 4-9, @Harrisburg, May 11-16
The Giants have said all along that they wanted to be conservative with player placement at the beginning of the year and let players find their footing and get into a rhythm after a twenty-month absence from competitive play. Ramos is the best example of this as he gets returned to the Double-A level he saw briefly in 2019, despite having a torrid spring. He likely won’t spend too much of 2021 in Virginia, but Richmond fans can console themselves with some of the talent that will likely find its way to Double before the season is over. And Richmond should be a very competitive club given its very strong pitching staff, both starting and relief.
This roster doesn’t have too many surprises, but Heath Quinn’s absence raises eyebrows. The 2016 3rd round selection has been plagued by injuries and inconsistent performance in his minor league career. Two members of the 2019 San Jose Giants rotation did not get the Double-A assignment for different reasons: Jake Wong had offseason surgery, while Jose Marte was sent back to High-A to try to produce better results.
José Alguacil returns to manage the club he skippered in 2015-16, before serving on the Giants big league coaching staff. Alguacil was a minor league infielder in the Giants system for much of the 1990s and later joined the Giants development staff as a roving infield instructor in 2007. Brandon Crawford, Ehire Adrianza, and Pablo Sandoval all credited Alguacil for helping develop their defensive skills as they rose through the minors.
Tristan Beck will start the team’s opening night game on Tuesday and reported he’s feeling healthy, strong, and ready to go. In a zoom call last night, Alguacil set the rest of the rotation as well: Beck will be followed by Sam Long, Sean Hjelle, Matt Frisbee, and Gerson Garabito. I’ll be on hand for the first three games of the series to report back on the Beck/Long/Hjelle starts and, of course, see how Ramos responds to returning to Double-A. He was certainly looking focussed last night when he took part in the team’s first workout at the Diamond. He’s come a long way from the 18-year-old I first saw taking inconsistent hacks in the batting cage back in 2018.
How’d I Do? My way too early roster preview was, as noted above, missing Ramos and Hjelle, included Bryce Johnson and Gregory Santos, and I mistakenly promoted Jose Marte and, more egregiously, Sean Roby (which I’ll admit, seemed dumb at the time). But I got nine members of the pitching staff and six position players right. I’ll give myself a B- for this one.
Eugene Emeralds — High-A West
Top Prospects on the Roster: Hunter Bishop (6), Patrick Bailey (7), Seth Corry (9), Will Wilson (10), Logan Wyatt (15), R.J. Dabovich (26), Jose Marte (30)
Sleepers: Kai-Wei Teng (SP), Caleb Kilian (SP), Sean Roby (INF), Diego Rincones (OF)
Who’s Missing? Blake Rivera, Keaton Winn, Nick Swiney, Casey Schmitt
Manager: Dennis Pelfrey
Upcoming Schedule: @Spokane, May 4-9, @Hillsboro, May 10 (DH), vs. Hillsboro, May 13-16
The two A ball teams are the Giants version of “Super Friends” (maybe that should be “Avengers” or “League of Justice” to sound a little fiercer.) As I noted in the way too early roster previews, the basic dividing line for the Giants best inexperienced prospects is that the college group is heading to Eugene and international and high school kids are going to San Jose. A lot of focus so far has been on San Jose’s incredibly talented group, but Eugene is no slouch either, accounting for four of the Giants top 10 prospects — most of the back half of the top 10, in fact! The trio of 1st round picks — Bishop, Bailey, and Wilson — will command much of the attention for this squad as long as they’re here (which might not be long).
There’s also some interesting pitching depth on this squad to keep an eye on. Kai-Wei Teng has long been one of my favorite sneaky deep prospects in the system and was perhaps the most surprising big league camp invite, and Caleb Kilian and Jose Marte have intriguingly strong arms. The starting rotation is missing several arms that could have made it truly powerful, however. Nick Swiney will start the year in Low A. Beyond him, however, are a couple of absences that cause concern, as Blake Rivera and Keaton Winn should have been headed to High-A this year and, instead, are absent from any Active Roster, which smells like “Injured List” status.
Dennis Pelfrey is set to make his Giants debut as a manager and his affiliated debut as well, as Pelfrey has spent his entire professional career thus far in Independent Leagues.
Eugene has some early season schedule funkiness. Instead of returning home next Monday following their first six-game series, they’ll detour over to nearby Hillsboro for a one-day double header on Monday the 10th (where it looks like they may be the “home team” even though they’ll play on the road). Following unusual off days on Tuesday and Wednesday, they’ll return home to continue against Hillsboro with four games at home. Possibly this is due to the fact that Eugene shares their facility with the University of Oregon’s baseball team. Following this opening week however, they’re schedule will conform to the “six day series from Tuesday-Sunday” format that governs A ball and Double-A schedules this year.
How’d I do? Not too bad! I correctly guessed 10 of the 14 position players on the roster, though only six of the 16 pitchers. Had Rivera and Winn been active, I feel sure that I’d have made it to a 50/50 split of the pitching staff! My biggest goofs here were including Casey Schmitt and Nick Swiney as well as my inexcusable failure to place Teng on any roster (which was obviously an inexcusable oversight). I’ll give myself an A- for this one!
San Jose Giants — Low A West
Top Prospects on the Roster: Marco Luciano (1), Luis Matos (4), Kyle Harrison (5), Alexander Canario (8), Luis Toribio (11), Casey Schmitt (14), Nick Swiney (16), Ricardo Genoves (25)
Sleepers: Garrett Frechette (1b), Armani Smith (OF), Jimmy Glowenke (MIF), Carson Ragsdale (RHP)
Who’s Missing? Jairo Pomares, Grant McCray, Ghordy Santos, Dilan Rosario, Trevor McDonald
Manager: Lenn Sakata
Upcoming Schedule: vs. Fresno, May 4-9, @Stockton, May 11-16
As exciting as Eugene’s roster is, however, San Jose’s collection of young, high upside talent is one of the best, not just in the Giants’ system, but in the entire minor leagues. Starting with their top prospect (and a top 10 prospect in baseball) in Marco Luciano, adding two more organizational top five prospects including the top pitching prospect (according to Baseball America, anyway) in Luis Matos and Kyle Harrison, and then topping things off with four more of the top 16 makes for an absolutely scintillating core of talent. San Jose becomes the only affiliate in the system with two of Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects (with Matos currently on the list at #92) and possibly the first in the Giants system since Buster and MadBum formed a battery in San Jose way back in 2009. And, of course, since many of these guys are just 20 years or even younger, it’s the kind of roster that gets a prospect lover’s heart racing. Alexander Canario’s return from shoulder surgery is a particularly exciting turn of events — he was initially supposed to be out until sometime in June. However, that early return from injury is offset by the injury-related omissions of Jairo Pomares, who is nursing a sore back (he’s supposed to join the team relatively soon), and Grant McCray (who will be rehabbing an undisclosed injury for at least a month, we’re told). Still, getting to watch Luciano, Matos, Canario, and Toribio swinging it every night should make San Jose games appointment viewing for all!
The inclusion of college draftees Nick Swiney and Casey Schmitt is somewhat surprising, though hardly unprecedented — Sean Hjelle and Jake Wong likewise reported to Low-A to begin their careers — and perhaps helps inject a note of experience into the roster. Seeing how Schmitt and Toribio share the 3b duties will be one of the more interesting aspects of the daily roster. Two years after lefty Seth Corry cut a swatch through the South Atlantic League, the Giants Low-A affiliate will once again be led by a young left-hander, as Kyle Harrison makes his much anticipated pro debut. The Northern California native should be a crowd favorite with plenty of friends and family on hand to encourage him. I’m a bit concerned about the absence of Trevor McDonald, as that feels like it could be an injury issue as well.
Lenn Sakata returns to San Jose for his fifth different stint managing the Giants. Sakata is a member of the California League Hall of Fame and holds the record for career Wins as a manager in that now-defunct league (which bears a strong resemblance to this current league). I’m not sure if his Hall of Fame status ports over to this new, blandly monikered Low-A West league. Sakata originally helmed San Jose way back in 1999. He’s twice guided the Giants to California League championships.
In a bit of “past meets future” scheduling, the Giants open their year against the relegated Fresno Grizzlies which has been a Triple-A team since 1998. The last time Fresno fielded an A ball team was way back in 1987 when they played the final year in a 30-year affiliation as the Fresno Giants.
How’d I Do? Not quite as well. I moved nearly all the college guys up to Eugene, which leaves me with just 8 correct guess from the 16 man position player group and seven of the 16 pitching staff. Well, I’ll be kind to myself and assign a B to this effort.
There R Giants
Upcoming Schedule: DAILY MINOR LEAGUE UPDATES!
And, of course, while we’re getting set for the upcoming season, I can’t leave without letting you know what’s going to be happening here at There R Giants. With the resumption of minor league play, I’ll finally get to produce what I originally intended with this site — daily updates of the Giants minor league system.
Starting Wednesday, I’ll send out posts every Monday thru Friday with full coverage of every team and every game. For now that will be the four full season clubs, but I’ll expand coverage to include the AZL and DSL teams when those seasons start up, for a total of eight teams (two each in the rookie leagues).
These daily posts will predominantly go to subscribers only, but I will do a weekly “roundup” post that will go out to everyone on my email list. Those free posts will go out on Tuesdays, since three of the four levels will have a regular break on Mondays. I’ll also keep producing the podcast regularly and that will go out to everybody on the email list as well.
I’m hoping you’ll join me on the full daily journey, however, by subscribing to There R Giants. And since Opening Day is putting us all in a celebratory mood, I’m offering an “Opening Day” sale for new annual subscribers to get your full year for just $49.99. This sale will last for the first week of the season through May 10, so tell your friends and don’t forget to take advantage of it yourself!
If you’ve liked the content I’ve produced without any games, I’m sure you’ll enjoy what’s coming. Let’s all get ready for some baseball! There R Giants beginning to stir.
Thank you for the Whose Missing portions. I was wondering what happened to guys like Mcray when I saw some of the assignments announced