Nick Swiney dazzles in debut
May 7, SF Giants Minor Lines
I’m still fired up about the return of Minor League ball! So, since we had a short week starting up the season, let’s get in a bonus Saturday post to round it out! Occasional Saturday posts are free for all! But I won’t have too many of these, so if you like what you see, consider a subscription! My Opening Week sale of the year for $49.99 is still on through the weekend!
So grab a friend, snuggle up! And let’s dig into all the action from last night:
[NOTE: No Lucianos or Matoses were hurt in the making of this clip]
HITTER of the Night: Logan Wyatt, 2 for 4, 2 BB, .714 OBP on the season
PITCHER of the Night: Nick Swiney, 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K
Sacramento won at Las Vegas Aviators (A’s), 6-4
The newcomer is making quite an impression as former Yankee Thairo Estrada once again wielded a big stick, blasting a Grand Slam to secure Sacramento’s 6-4 victory.
Estrada had four hits including a homer in the opener, and then backed that up with another two extra base hits last night. Loyal reader Lyle pointed out to me that I hadn’t really given the backstory for Thairo, so let’s make up for that right now. Estrada has long been a mid-level prospect in the Yankees system, typically falling in the #15-30 ranked prospect range. He’s played shortstop, but often has also moved around to 2b or 3b in deference to hotter prospects like frequent teammate Gleyber Torres. Thairo (that’s pronounced “Thai” just like “Thailand” with a “row” at the end) saw his prospects rise after a terrific season in Double A Trenton when he batted .301 while being one of the league’s youngest hitters. However, he suffered an awful health crisis that winter, when he was a bystander to an armed robbery attempt in his native Venezuela and ended up being shot in the hip. Worse yet, the initial surgery went badly, and he ended up playing the entire 2018 season with the bullet still in his hip. As you can imagine, this isn’t exactly optimal physical condition for playing baseball. His health and his performance really suffered. A second surgery was performed which has, hopefully, alleviated all health concerns.
This spring the Yankees needed to clear a 40-man spot when they acquired Texas’ DFA’d 2b Rougie Odor, and Estrada drew the short straw. The Giants had been looking to acquire middle infield depth for the upper minors and picked up Estrada for cash considerations. Two games in and the new guy is looking like he’ll fit in just swell!
Another Sacramento newbie got the River Cats on the board early, when speedy switch-hitting OF Bryce Johnson decided to bust out his power stick.
That’s just Bryce’s 7th career home run in 303 minor league games (all of them left-handed btw)! The PCL is Dead! Long Live the PCL!.
Starter Nick Tropeano had a Jekyll & Hyde sort of night. He struck out 6 of the 16 batters he faced.
That’s right, Homer. It is! However, he also allowed six hits and a walk. That’s bad! To be fair, Tropeano wasn’t helped much by his defense, which made two errors in the 1st inning and three overall.
Tropeano got out of that jam with back-to-back strikeouts and, was generally able to use the swing and miss to dance through the fire, but he was out of the game after just 2.2 innings and 66 pitches.
That’s 2021 baseball though, isn’t it? There were 26 strikeouts in this game to just 17 hits and 7 of the 10 runs scored came as the result of the long ball.
Speaking of which, Las Vegas’ video setup is awful, but the Giants, of course, have much better feeds and are giving them to us generously! Keep an eye out on @SFGProspects for their official game feed videos, like Joey Bart going deep on Thursday night (this feed does tend to drop videos a day or two after the event):
Richmond’s game with Hartford was rained out
No Heliot Ramos highlights this morning, folks. But the Squirrels will attempt to make it up with a double-header this evening so perhaps we’ll get double our pleasure Heliot dingers tonight!
Richmond has announced its first roster move of the season with infielder Peter Maris heading up to Sacramento and veteran catcher Ronnie Freeman joining the Squirrels. Richmond had started the year with backup catcher Bryan Torres who had never played above rookie ball. Maris, a former minor league Rule 5 pick out of Tampa Bay’s system, spent 2019 bouncing between San Jose, Richmond, and Sacramento.
Eugene won at Spokane Indians (Rockies), 8-4
The Emeralds offense has rolled into the season as a seemingly unstoppable force! As a team, Eugene has knocked out 54 hits in its first four games and is producing a team slash line of .346/.429/.571! That’s basically a lineup of nine Mookie Bettses over the first four games. Spokane can be forgiven for wanting to get this team out of town.
Once again the largess was spread like peanut butter across the entire linescore. Only CF Ismael Munguia had more than 2 hits, but six of the nine hitters reached base safely at least twice. Only Carter Aldrete failed to reach base at all.
The chief culprit for all of the on base hijinx was once again 1b Logan Wyatt, who is absolutely living up to the Giants platonic ideal thus far. Wyatt reached base four more times in this game thanks to two singles and two more walks. He’s now walked eight times in his first four games and added seven hits — all singles. His slash line is an almost cartoonish .538/.714/.538.
Today’s Emeralds home run was brought to you by Will Wilson, who went deep for the first time on the year. As with the Joey Bart homer above, look for the Giants proprietary view of this blast to drop on the Giants Prospect twitter account in the next day or two.
Wilson was serving as DH, as manager Dennis Pelfrey got several members of the team their first starts of the year, including Aldrete who played 3b, and Jacob Gonzalez and Javeyan Williams in the OF. Tyler Fitzgerald saw his first action at SS (he’s also played 2b and 3b). With Patrick Bailey getting the night off, the hot hitting middle infielder was also raised to the top of the lineup where he produced two more hits and a walk.
Speaking of the top of the order, it’s been interesting to watch this year how the Giants are prioritizing getting their best hitting prospects the most Plate Appearances. Heliot Ramos has been leading off in Richmond. Marco Luciano has led off in San Jose, followed by Luis Matos. And for the first three games, Eugene has run out an order with catcher Patrick Bailey at the top followed by his fellow 1st rounders Wilson and Hunter Bishop. The Giants, quite reasonably, are prioritizing getting the most reps for their best hitters rather than trying to build minor league versions of a “traditional” lineup.
The Giants 2020 4th round pick R.J. Dabovich made his second appearance in this game, and he took is having something of a Jekyll & Hyde open to his year. He’s now whiffed 5 of the 9 batters he’s seen, but he’s allowed a solo home run in both outings. Hopefully the K numbers are more sustainable than the Home Runs!
San Jose defeated Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies), 9-4
2020 supplemental 2nd round pick Nick Swiney was sensational in his pro debut, leading San Jose into the Win column (as Joe Angel used to say) for the first time this year. One night after right-hander Carson Ragsdale (acquired from the Phillies in the Sam Coonrod deal) made his outstanding debut, Swiney produced a nearly identical line, allowing just one hit over four innings and striking out 6. Swiney leaned heavily on a terrific curve to get swings and misses — he threw more off-speed pitches than fastballs last night. And he was producing against the best Fresno had to offer. In his final inning, Swiney went right through the heart of the Grizzlies order, striking out the 3-4-5 hitters on 11 pitches. That included Zac Veen, the high school hitter Colorado selected with the 9th overall pick in the 2020 draft and Rockies #15 prospect Drew Romo.
You’ll notice there was only one fastball in that sequence (the first pitch on the outside corner to the final batter). Swiney doesn’t light up the radar gun with his fastball velocity, he was only throwing about 88-89 last night, but there’s some deception in his delivery and he’s always missed bats at a high clip. We’ll see if we can dredge up some pitch characteristics data on his somewhere along the line this year to see if there’s more under the hood of that fastball than the radar gun is seeing.
Swiney’s opposite number was his fellow ACC alum Sam Weatherly, who the Rockies selected out of Clemson 14 picks after the Giants took Swiney out of NC State. Weatherly was also making his pro debut, but he was much shakier than Swiney. And to their credit, the young Giants hitters let Weatherly dig himself into trouble. Weatherly issued 3 walks in just 1 inning of work. With two outs in the bottom of the 1st, Ricardo Genovés walked to load the bases and Armani Smith promptly unloaded them.
Smith’s triple was kind of a good process/good luck event. That ball should have been caught (and would have at higher levels) but it was also scorched. So, chalk one up to a bit of well-deserved fortune for Smith who ended the night with four RBI.
Three innings later San Jose took advantage of yet more Fresno wildness as Matos, Brett Auerbach, and Alex Canario walked in successive at bats. And once again, a Giants hitter cleaned it all up as Genovés drilled a double down into the LF corner.
I’m sure it feels good for Lenn Sakata’s group to finally get a victory. Hopefully that calms everyone down and starts to get them feeling their game a little bit more. Matos shook off his first hat trick with three hits and a walk last night. Slowly but surely guys are starting to get into a groove. This is too talented a group of players to put up too many Ls.
What’s On Tap
Sacramento (Conner Menez) @ Las Vegas (Grant Holmes), 7:05 pm
Richmond (Matt Frisbee) vs. Hartford (TBD), 1:35 pm GM 1
Richmond (Gerson Garabito) vs. Hartford (TBD), GM 2
Eugene (Conner Nurse) @ Spokane (Karl Kauffman), 6:30 pm
San Jose (Kyle Harrison) vs. Fresno (Will Etheridge), 6:00 pm
The highlight here from a pitching perspective is clearly young Kyle Harrison making his much-anticipated pro debut. The Giants have been conservative in the early going, so don’t expect the 19-year-old to go much beyond 3 innings, or maybe 40-50 pitches. In other words, get to Excite Park early!
Conners Menez and Nurse get starts for Sacramento and Eugene. Conner Nurse is a tall (6’6”) young high school draftee from the 2017 draft who the Giants have really slow-played thus far in his career. He’s making his full-season debut tonight nearly four years after being selected in the 34th round out of the Florida High School ranks. UNC Greensboro’s Matt Frisbee gets to make his 2021 debut (delayed by last night’s rainout) after spending his spring somewhat surprisingly in big league camp.
Enjoy a Saturday night at the ballfield everyone! It’s sure to bring thrills. I’ll see you all bright and early Monday morning with all the weekend’s action! Remember, subscribers get the round up five days a week (and sometimes six)!
Gosh, it’s just great to see the kids playing ... OMG, that Eugene squad? Wow!
Interesting note about the reasoning for Ramos, Bailey, Luciano leading off. I hadn't put two and two together when I saw the batting orders but giving them as many AB's as possible makes a lot of sense.
Swineys velocity caught my eye. I know the trend has been to draft guys who don't have high end velocity and to work with them on adding a couple mph if they can. Harrison comes to mind as an example. It doesn't sound like at this point Swiney has added any juice on his fastball since he was drafted. Is that correct? Have you heard anything about what if anything they're doing to try and and add some mph there?
Thank you