Sabin Ceballos Makes a Strong First Impression!

SF Giants Minor Lines, July 31, 2024

Photo Credit: Eugene Emeralds

Wow! We’ve got some dingers today! Dramatic dingers. “Introduce yourself” dingers. GRAND dingers! And “keep the streak going” dingers. Dingers of all sorts. So, if you enjoy watching guys take a slow trot around the bases while pointing out to the bullpen, today is the Minor Lines for you!

Before we jump into today’s post, however, let me quickly answer a question that came in from a reader yesterday:

joe

Why not just send James Tibbs III to San Jose? I see other early college draftees already playing in Low a and High A

This is obviously regarding my post of the Tibbs highlight from the ACL continuation play. I’m sure others of you beyond Joe have this same question, so let’s address it quickly. I would imagine that we will see Tibbs and Dakota Jordan (and maybe others) in San Jose at some point, but there are two reasons for not doing so immediately.

First, it’s always been standard practice for the Giants to “onboard” new draftees for a short period in Scottsdale — introducing them to the facilities and staff and organization, taking them through assessments and starting to build player development plans, all while getting them a few low-intensity professional reps to get their feet wet. Even the highest draft picks (even Buster Posey!) have typically spent a few games in the AZL/ACL before heading on to other levels. So that’s part of why Tibbs is not in San Jose yet.

But the other looming issue is the 165-player maximum — which is the driving force behind shifting the ACL schedule earlier and creating this new Bridge League. This is going to work to help get the new draftees some professional playing time without having to add them to the domestic reserve list for the time being. Players who don’t play at an official level won’t have to be added until after the major league season is completed. And currently, the Giants are very close to a “one in/one out” situation with their list. Yesterday, they did add three new players to the domestic reserve list (two who came in through trades: Sabin Ceballos and Jacob Bresnahan) and one minor league free agent arm (say hello to old friend Drew Strotman). Even though they deleted Eric Silva from that same list, that still seemed to necessitate one player release (so long, Mauricio Pierre! I’ll always wonder if you might have advanced a little more had you not suffered that knee injury that wiped out 2023). So likely, as players do go up to San Jose at this point, we are going to see other player releases accompany those moves. And that is why this unofficial league exists — to lessen the need to lose players.

Hope that answers your question, Joe!

HITTER of the DAY: Sabin Ceballos (Eug), 4 for 5, HR (4), 1 BB, 5 R, 3 RBI
PITCHER of the NIGHT: Carson Seymour (Sac), 6.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR

We’ll get to a Wednesday Bryce Eldridge swing a bit later, but another reader sent in his baseline view of Eldridge’s swing that nearly produced a Grand Slam on Tuesday (but instead turned out to be just a very long two-run single). I love the field reports and will always include them if you folks send them my way. Thanks to Craig Elkins for this shot! Totally understandable that you got so excited the rest of the video was of your feet, Craig!