Luciano, Harrison, continue to shine!
SF Giants Minor Lines, May 20, 2022
Was it really ten years ago that I was writing about Joe Panik leading the San Jose High A team? It goes too fast, man! Congratulations on a too-short, but wonderfully memorable career, Joe!
HITTER of the Night: Marco Luciano (Eug), 2 for 4, HR (7), 2 R, 2 RBI, K
PITCHER of the Night: Kyle Harrison (Eug), 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K
It’s a pretty great night when the system’s best hitting prospect and best pitching prospect are both taking center stage on the same field! That makes it a great time for a Saturday supplemental! Get your coffee, grab some pancakes, and let’s take a spin around the system for a Friday night, Fun night at the ol’ ball yard!
Sacramento lost to Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners), 2-0 STATCAST
Sacramento was shut out for the second consecutive night, and overall as been outscored by Tacoma 21-8 so far this week, so Tacoma is definitely getting the “we’re better off without you guys” side of these Friendlies. On a night when David Villar, Heliot Ramos, and Kevin Padlo were all on the bench (though all would make a pinch hitting appearance), the lineup failed to find much traction against Tacoma starter Konner Wade, a classic soft tosser, who led with his changeup and mixed in a high 80s sinker with guile and craft. They only scratched two hits off of Wade in his six innings of work and had virtually no hard contact off of him. One of the hits was a Bryce Johnson bunt single, the other, a 76 mph dribbler off the bat of Donovan Walton.
The best swing anybody got off Wade was probably Jason Vosler, who got into a sinker and drove it to the warning track in deep right-center — at 100 mph and 39°launch angle, it had the raw ingredients of a homer if he’d pulled it a little more. Maybe the humidor got him!
The most successful swing of the night came from New Guy Stuart Fairchild, who gave the fans one last glimmer of hope, blasting a two-out double in the bottom of the 9th to bring the tying run to the plate. At 108.9 mph off the bat, it was the hardest struck ball of the night — hard enough to wake up those fans that the bats had been lullabying to sleep all night.
Sadly, there was no more excitement left, as Ramos flew out harmlessly to right field to end the game. Villar put a good swing on a fastball in his pinch hit appearance earlier, but got under it too much and ended with a towering, but hard hit, fly ball out. Most of the noise on this night was created by the post-game fireworks, sadly.
But let’s not let a little offensive futility obscure the best Triple A start of Tristan Beck’s young career. Beck, who was rocked for five runs in each of his previous two starts with the River Cats, definitely found the living easier in Sacramento than he had in EL Paso, going a season high 6.0 innings, and allowing just two runs. He ran into some trouble in the 2nd, when he gave up his hardest contact — a leadoff double smoked off a fastball, and then a changeup he left up at the thighs that was ripped into right for an RBI hit (in my opinion, incorrectly scored a double as well). In the third inning, he personally gift-wrapped Tacoma a run, walking a batter and uncorking two wild pitches that brought him all the way around from 1b to score (yes, one of them was so wild it was two-base WP — that’s WILD!).
Aside from those small detours, however, Beck’s path through the Rainiers lineup was strong and efficient. He mixed his full four-pitch assortment effectively, flashed his really good curve a couple of times (the come and go nature of what used to be his best pitch is still something of a mysterious element to his season thus far), and got whiffs on everything. A third of his pitches were either swinging or called strikes, and his whiff rate (percentage of swings that came up with nothing but air), was 36%. He ended the night with six punchouts, including giving former 1st round pick Evan White a one-man hat trick. His final pitch of the night was a gorgeous, biting slider that left Jarred Kelenic slamming his bat down in frustration. All in all, this was definitely a night that Beck should feel good about!
Usually, when big leaguers go to the minors to rehab, they don’t pay too much attention to results — they’re just there to get the work in and feel good physically. Jake McGee, however, appears to be here to SHOVE. Perhaps taking the opportunity to vent a little frustration at the way his season has gone so far, he’s punished these Triple A hitters mercilessly, striking out five of the six batters he’s faced so far in his two outings, on a total of just 24 pitches. Last night, he threw nothing but fastballs, peaking at 96 mph, and consistently hitting 94-95 on the gun. At one point, he got four swinging strikes in five pitches — the fifth was a called strike. It was Cobra Kai pitching — No Mercy!
We should be seeing Jake back soon. And probably we’ll see Yunior Marte again (multiple times — but not too many multiples!). In the meantime, he’s slinging gas at Sutter Field Park, wracking up four of the five hardest pitches thrown in the game in a fairly easy 1-2-3.
Richmond lost @ Altoona Curve (Pirates), 12-4
A second consecutive week on the road seems to be draining the hop from Richmond’s step, as wipeouts are coming a little too frequently lately. The Squirrels have now lost four of their last five games and, most disturbingly, have allowed 12 runs in three of those losses. They’ve been outscored 35-16 so far in this series, as the pitching staff really isn’t making these games competitive this week.
Kai-Wei Teng had easily the worst start of his career — allowing a career high 7 runs in just 3.2 IP, while striking out just one batter. Teng was hit hard, with half of the eight hits he allowed going for extra bases, including two triples and a towering home run. Things might have been even worse were it not for a Sports Center Top 10 worthy double play to end the 2nd, turned by a high-flying Simon Whiteman and Shane Matheny:
Knuckle-balling John Russell and Travis Perry later collaborated on a five run inning that put things firmly into laugher territory.
The offense has been scuffling a bit on the road trip as well, with some of the power sources drying up. As usually happens at any point in the season, some guys are heating up while others are going through troubled times. Since a powerful three-hit game in Harrisburg last week, Sean Roby has hit the skids with an 0 for 21 that includes 12 strikeouts. Ouch! Similarly, Diego Rincones is just 3 for 27 on the road trip, Jacob Heyward is 4 for 30 with 12 strikeouts, and Michael Gigliotti is 4 for 24, albeit with seven walks. There are some doldrums going on!
On the happy side of the coin, Armani Smith is doing his best to prove this is where he belonged all along this year. Since coming to Richmond last weekend, Smith is 6 for 15, including an RBI single last night.
Frankie Tostado has hit .351 on the trip and continues to lead the Eastern League in hitting at .325. He doubled and scored on a Shane Matheny single. That left both hitters with a .500 SLG for the season — a season that’s trending in the positive direction for both players. Tostado’s 41 hits is just one off of the league lead in that category as well — though he could use to draw a few walks, as the OBP of .356 isn’t far outstripping his .325 average.
That’s definitely NOT true of Matheny, whose .407 OBP is now 7th in the league, and his .907 OPS is 9th. His RBI single in last night’s game gave him 16 consecutive games reaching base. Shane’s really bringing it this year!
Richmond also got an RBI double from Auerbach — which was, quite surprisingly, his first double of the season! Auerbach had an Isolated Slugging of .276 in Eugene last year, but it’s just .138 so far this year, as he’s managed just four extra-base hits on the campaign. He does have an excellent 15.5% walk rate helping his overall line. Certainly missing two weeks with illness hasn’t helped him get into a groove at the plate, but he’s showing signs of life this week, going 4 for 15 with four walks and three RBI.
Eugene lost @ Spokane Indians (Rockies), 4-3
Is the mass non-video setup of the Northwest League annoying anybody else as much as it has me? It’s really made it so hard to get good information on what’s going on with so many of the Giants’ best prospects. And sadly, I wasn’t able to listen to last night’s radio broadcast (which aren’t quite as informative as I’d like either, to be honest), so we’re pretty much victims of the box score with this one.
But one thing we can glean from that box score is that Marco Luciano and Kyle Harrison continue to be the most exciting prospects in this organization — and both show no signs of stopping their rolls. Luciano homered for the third straight game, a line shot to left field that broke 0-0 tie in the 6th inning. Luciano is now tied for the league lead in home runs (with teammate Casey Schmitt) and he’s one of just five players in the league with a .300 batting average. He’s combining his elite raw power (.250 ISO so far) with better contact ability than we saw from him last year, even in his outstanding California League action. His batting line is about 60% better than league average, with a wRC+ that’s fourth best in the league (speaking of which, Schmitt’s 190 wRC+ is pretty incredible — two more hits for Schmitt last night while playing shortstop!). The bottom line on Luciano — he’s good! We knew that….but it’s always nice to be reminded! Now let’s get him on video once in awhile NWL!!!
Same goes for Harrison, whose brilliance toiled in obscurity last night. Yet again he put up zeroes — he’s been scored upon in just two of his seven starts, and is currently working on a 15 inning scoreless streak. And yet again, he piled up the Ks — eight of them. That gives him 38 punchouts in his last four starts, covering just 18 innings. He’s walked just seven in that stretch, and gotten even stingier with the free passes lately. In his last two starts, he’s K’d 17 while walking just two. Sadly, little insight into his pitch mix last night, but given the way he’s been simply throwing his fastball by hitters at this level, I’d imagine he leaned on the heater plenty. He didn’t get to face the best hitting prospect in this lineup, but the left-handed Zac Veen saw plenty of Harrison last year and never did seem to like the experience of facing Harrison’s low lefty slot with explosive stuff.
We did get a comment from a There R Giants reader who saw Harrison’s outing last night, so let’s go to the field correspondent. Thanks CDub80!
I saw Harrison pitch on Friday. I mostly saw fastball/slider with the rare change up. It didn’t really matter the pitch, the stuff is electric. The fastball was 92-96 on the stadium gun and jumped on the hitters. The slider was thrown for strikes and missed bats. He had a little control issues in a couple of innings, but was dominant overall. He has major league stuff right now.
Harrison leads the NWL with 59 strikeouts, and his 1.55 ERA is fifth best. He leads all pitchers in the minors with a minimum of 20 innings in strikeout percentage, having whiffed a ridiculous 50% of the 118 batters he’s faced on the year. Get this kid a new challenge!
All the great work from the Giants’ finest 20-year-olds went for naught, sadly, when Nick Morreale blew his second consecutive save opportunity. Trying to protect a 3-1 lead, Morreale got into immediate trouble, surrendering a lead-off double and then issuing a walk. After a sac bunt moved the tying run into scoring position, Morreale struck out the talented Veen, sent up as a pinch hitter. But any sigh of relief at getting through that scary situation was premature, as Morreale coughed up a walk-off three run homer on the very next pitch.
How shocking was this? It was the third walk off loss of the series for Eugene, which fell back into second place with the loss.
San Jose won @ Lake Elsinore 66ers (Angels), 7-6
It wasn’t quite as emphatic as the past two games — in fact, it was downright nail biting at the end — but San Jose keeps on winning. With a 7-6 win over the 66ers, the Giants have now taken three in a row and claimed Ws in eight of their past nine games.
There was a very scary moment in the game. Vaun Brown, who has been on such an electric tear of late, was hit in the face with a pitch and removed from the game. The ball appeared to hit Brown in the jaw area — with the ball bouncing far off to the side in something of a glancing blow rather than catching him flush. Brown walked off with the trainers, talking, and wasn’t noticeably bleeding, but still somewhat shaken, obviously. We’ll have to wait and see how long this will keep him out of the lineup. Hopefully, Brown’s ninja gaiter helped him miss the worst of it.
Will Bednar bounced back from the worst start of his career, with a solid 3.1 inning effort. While Bednar wasn’t as wild as he was in his previous effort (in which he failed to get out of the 1st inning), he still wasn’t showing great feel of his pitches, often missing high with his fastball. Undisciplined 66ers hitters helped him out a few times, chasing up above the zone on pitches that would have given a higher level of hitter easy takes. Still, he didn’t give up a hit and the lone run scored against him came on an Adrian Sugastey throwing error on a stolen base attempt at 3b. Bednar was removed at 52 pitches — presumably because of his short outing in his last effort. It is a little strange to see an experienced college pitcher like Bednar treated with such kid gloves, however, well into the season like this. The Giants have shown an extreme conservatism at stretching out their starters at the lower levels this year, even ones who you would think were ready for a bigger innings load.
The offense didn’t rely on the long ball in this one, giving them two straight games without a dinger following a string of 15 consecutive games with at least one. Instead, they worked the walk and mixed in a couple of big hits. Grant McCray and Aeverson Arteaga gave the Giants production at the top of the lineup. McCray walked twice and came around to score both times, once on a booming opposite field double from Arteaga. Though strikeouts are still a big part of his game, Arteaga has been taking much better at bats lately, and the results are definitely showing. He has 10 hits in his last 21 plate appearances. The double came on a breaking ball that hung out over the plate — the type of pitch that should be hit, and to his credit, Arteaga wasn’t fooled at all, stayed balanced and put a powerful swing on the ball. This is the kind of swing that really has you dreaming about Arteaga’s potential on the offensive side of things.
San Jose’s breakthrough inning was mostly a gift, as they received four walks in an inning — in fact, the first six batters in the inning failed to put a ball in play, with four walks and two strikeouts. Baseball 2022! They nearly wasted all the largesse, but down to a 1-2 count with two outs, Victor Bericoto delivered the big hit they needed, another opposite field double off the wall. It was a good bit of hitting from Bericoto, who went down and got a low fastball and smoked it to right. As with Arteaga, contact issues have been a problem for Bericoto, who is striking out 30% of the time. But he shows a lot of patience, and has an impressive opposite field approach. After a miserable April, he’s starting to heat up in May, hitting .322 with an .876 OPS. Pretty good for a 20-year-old who’s barely played in the last two years.
If walks helped them build their 7-1 lead, walks helped tear it down, too. Seth Lonsway has really struggled with his control this year — he’s leading the California League in walks, and has a frightening 23 to 32 BB to K ratio. Last night was no exception, as he consistently missed high with his fastball and had wavering command of his two breaking balls. Lonsway ended up walking five batters, hitting another, uncorking a wild pitch, and balking in his wild 2+ innings of work that saw the 66ers creep back into the game.
In fact, by the end of Lonsway’s night, they were doing more than creeping. Esmerlin Vinicio was summoned into a bases loaded, no out situation in the 7th. And although Vinicio did allow a two-run ground ball single to bring the game even closer, he limited the damage by striking out back to back hitters and inducing a pop up. The 19-year-old seems to be feeling more comfortable in this setting, and is really abusing these kids with his breaker of his.
Hunter Dula made it a scare-raising 9th, allowing an RBI double and getting the tying and winning runs on base, but a three-pitch See Ya ended things on a happy note!
Tonight’s Scheduled Starters
Sacramento (Plassmeyer) vs. Tacoma (Ponce de Leon), 6:37 pm, MiLBTV
Richmond (Brickhouse) @ Altoona (Ortiz), 1:00 pm, MiLBTV
Eugene (Murphy) @ Spokane (Rock), 5:09 pm, NO VIDEO
San Jose (Black) @ Inland Empire (Hidalgo), 7:05 pm, MiLBTV
There’s nothing like baseball on the weekends! Have a great time at the yard wherever you are!
Thanks for these Roger, I love getting to read these every morning!
Schmitt has played SS a few times now. Any thoughts on him at SS?