Hey everybody! It’s the Week in Review, coming into your browser in the nick of time, just like our friend Braden Bishop here.
There’s been a LOT that happened this week and I’m sure you need to catch up. It’s been a tremendous weeks of highs and….well, really mostly highs! This was a week that featured milestone dingers (like Will Wilson’s first in Double-A)…
stylish dingers (like Luis Matos with that distinctive one-handed, cross-legged finish)…
drama-filled dingers (like Patrick Bailey giving the boys the late lead) …
and much more! So come on in, sit a spell, and catch up! After all, we’ve got Heliot Ramos hitting a ball over the batters’ eye… you know, if you’re into that kind of thing.
And, if you like what you see here, you might want to subscribe for more of the same every day! Cuz you never know when the dingers will break out!
The Week That Was
HITTER of the Week: Heath Quinn (Eug), 9 for 18, 4 HR, 8 R, 12 RBI, 3 BB, 4 K
PITCHER of the Week: Prelander Berroa (SJ), 10.2 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 14 K
It was an incredibly tough week to pick a top performer on the hitting side. Vince Fernandez slugged .941 with an OBP over .500, hitting 3 home runs and driving in 9. Tyler Fitzgerald beat that by slugging 1.118! Jairo Pomares had a .994 OPS. Marco Luciano’s was 1.320 and he walked as much as he struck out! Still in a week of outrageous performances, nobody was hitting out loud more than the 2016 3rd round pick Heath Quinn, who led the farm with 4 HRs and slashed a cool .500/.591/1.167. Quinn has battled a long list of injuries that have stymied his development over the last few years — he first reached High-A in 2017. But here he was to remind us that he still possesses a formidable power bat when healthy. Quinn bashed four home runs in just three games, while hitting .500 for the series. Now that’s a call back!
The pitching side had much less competition (and ain’t that just the way of things these days), but Prelander Berroa’s two-start week stood pretty clearly above the rest. The little guy with the big arm held a talented Modesto lineup down twice this week, striking out 14 over two starts, including giving Seattle’s #5 prospect, 19-year-old Noelvi Marte, a hat trick on Sunday.
Sacramento River Cats: 27-37
(2-4 Week)
Transactions:
Add C Joey Bart (optioned by San Francisco)
Delete RHP Logan Webb (transferred to San Jose)
Delete and then Add C Fabian Peña (re-assigned to and from San Jose)
Delete RHP Jay Jackson (contract purchased by San Francisco)
Add and Delete INF Jason Vosler (optioned and recalled by San Francisco)
Delete OF Mike Tauchman (rehab assignment ended, recalled to San Francisco)
Add RHP Sam Wolff (reinstated from IL)
Delete LHP Scott Kazmir (placed on Temporary Inactive List)
Add RHP Aaron Sanchez (rehab assignment moved from San Jose)
Add RHP Ty Weber (re-assigned from San Jose)
Add C Chadwick Tromp (optioned by San Francisco)
Add LHP Caleb Baragar (optioned by San Francisco)
Even a return to sea-level can’t help Sacramento’s depleted pitching staff — which has, in faith, given all of its best pieces to San Francisco over the course of the season. Following a rough altitude trip to Las Vegas and Salt Lake, the River Cats returned to Sacramento … where they proceeded to give up 33 runs in 4 games to the Round Rock Express. The team’s 5.79 ERA is now 6th in the Triple-A West sitting ahead of only noted launching pads of the desert: Reno, Albuquerque, El Paso, and Las Vegas. At one point this week, the River Cats had just one pitcher on their active staff with an ERA under 4.00 — though they added significantly to that number when they activated Sam Wolff and his 0.00 ERA and got curveball specialist Ty Weber transferred up from San Jose.
Still, things are pretty grim, with a critical mass of the pitchers sitting with ERAs above 6.00. The upwards gravitational forces have been particularly rough on starters coming up from Richmond, as Matt Frisbee (8.31), Gerson Garabito (5.96) and Akeel Morris (11.03) have all seen a brutal reversal of their pitching fortunes on the left coast. Even Kervin Castro, who had gone eight straight games without allowing a run, has suddenly succumbed to the peer pressure, surrendering four runs in his past two appearances (4.2 IP).
At least Camilo Doval gave the crowd a thrill by lighting up the radar gun!
Of course, this being the 2021 River Cats, even when Doval hit 103 things somehow went badly.
And yet despite all of that, the River Cats still have their league’s third best Run Differential, which suggests that the pictures are brighter over on the hitting side, and, indeed…
Arismendy Alcántara thought that Jaylin Davis’ “home run a day” act was so cool, he’d replicate and surpass it! The former Cub has now stolen the team lead in dingers away in just 35 games. He has 20 total extra-base hits in that time, driving a .679 slugging percentage (and astounding me yet again that Barry Bonds could post a major league SLG of .863!). Alcántara also has 37 RBI over that time, putting him just five off the team lead in that category as well. I still think this dude is going to make himself some money in Japan.
1b/OF Joe McCarthy had a 14-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday. During the course of the tear he hit .333/.387/.587 with 4 home runs. It was McCarthy’s second 10-game hitting streak since June 1. That streak could get matched tonight, as Braden Bishop currently has a 13-game streak intact, during which he’s hit .367/.457/.600 with three home runs! The power Bishop has been displaying so far this year with Sacramento is really unlike anything he’s done previously in his career. His .568 SLG is .082 points higher than he’s ever hit at any level before.
The team is also getting impressive contributions from a host of minor league veterans. Thirty-two year old do-it-all Jason Krizan leads the team with 116 total bases, despite hitting just 6 home runs. Former NY Mets prospect Mitchell Tolman is fourth on that list (93) and has an .808 OPS, and the former Tampa Bay minor leaguer Peter Maris has a .946 OPS. Both Tolman and Maris were acquired in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft (along with several other notable performers in the system right now).
Joey Bart got to spend a little pre-All Star time in San Francisco (two hits!), but back in Sacramento, he’s posting a .333/.395/.558 line with 8 home runs.
Prior to Sunday’s game, Drew Robinson announced that he would be retiring from the game and taking a job in the Giants front office as a mental health advocate. Robinson’s story has been an inspiration to all who have suffered from depression and other mental health issues and I’m hoping that he can carve out a real role for himself in the organization.
Sacramento will finish up its home series with Round Rock tonight before heading out to Tacoma to take on the second place Rainiers.
One other significant development for Sacramento and all Triple-A clubs was announced earlier this week — they’ll all be getting 10 extra games at the end of the season (making up for the delay at the start of their year). This is mostly to help Triple-A owners who were smarting over the lost revenue possibilities, but it also allowed MLB to announce the most confusing tournament-award thingy ever!
Richmond Flying Squirrels: 37-29
(4-2 Week)
Transactions:
Delete LHP Phil Pfeifer (placed on 7-Day Injured List)
Add INF Shane Matheny (reinstated from 7-Day Injured List)
For the second consecutive week, Richmond knocked a team off of their first place perch — and with a road series in Akron this week, they’ll get a chance to make it 3 for 3.
Richmond faced off against a Somerset team that brought the best staff ERA in all of affiliated ball to the series — and the Squirrels blasted away! It started slow, with Richmond dropping a 3-2 game in the opener. But by the end of the week, the Squirrels had averaged an incredible six runs per game against a staff that allows just over three.
Vince Fernandez, the big left-hander plucked out of the Rockies system in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft, ignited things with a huge four-hit, five-RBI night that included a mammoth blast into the parking lot behind right-center field. That kick-started a week in which Fernandez would homer three times in four nights, drive in nine runs, and reach base in more than half of his at bats.
Fernandez drove in the game winner with an 11th inning single on Wednesday night and, two nights later, did the same with an 8th inning home run. By the weekend, the whole team was jumping in on the act. Richmond rode four homers to a rain-shortened victory on Saturday, including the first Double-A home runs from both Will Wilson and Diego Rincones (along with Simon Whiteman’s second). And on Sunday, they secured the series win with a dinger-fueled come-from-behind win, that saw Sandro Fabian, Heliot Ramos, and Rincones go deep in three consecutive innings. For both Ramos and Rincones, it was their second shot of the week, and Rincones’ shot made both fans and dugout delirious!
Seriously, I wasn’t kidding around with the title of this thing! We are here to watch dingers! Give me the danged Oscar right now!
It was a remarkable surge for a team that came into the week in 8th place in the league in home runs and seventh in runs scored. For Ramos, it’s a welcome return to a power stroke that vanished entirely during a miserable June, in which he slashed just .155/.261/.268. Over his last 11 games, Ramos is hitting .310 with five walks and just nine K (a tidy 19%). During that time he’s slugging .762 with nine of his 13 hits going for extra bases. And he’s climbed into the double digit homer club, putting the smile back on everyone’s face.
Speaking of Heliot, we have some Breaking News!
On the pitching side, Richmond is struggling to cover innings, working with just four true starters on the team. Of those four, Sean Hjelle is still working his stamina back up after a stint on the IL and Trenton Toplikar had his start pushed back two days thanks to back stiffness. It’s been a struggle to cover innings as the team has had to rely on long relief efforts from Ronnie Williams and others.
Fortunately, the Squirrels tend to get length when Caleb Kilian goes to the mound. Kilian leads all Giants minor league pitchers with 74.2 IP, and has two complete games on his record this year (both 7 innings). On Thursday night, Kilian was throwing a power cutter that had the Somerset hitters breaking down swings and muttering to themselves. The off-speed pitches are still a work in progress, but the four-seam, two-seam, cutter combination is really working and should make a major league arm of some profile even without any of the other pitches developing. With a 1.93 ERA over two levels and an incredible 84 K to 8 BB ratio on the year, Kilian has asserted himself into the front line of Giants pitching prospects. If I can name drop just a bit, let me tell you that I watched Kilian’s start sitting next to Bruce Bochy himself and the Skipper really likes him some Caleb Kilian — as does the entire Giants organization, and with good reason. In/out, up/down, on the edges, darting off the edge. There’s a big league package here.
Eugene Emeralds: 38-27
(4-2 Week)
Transactions:
Delete RHP Nick Morreale (sent to ACL Giants Orange on rehab assignment)
Yet another dinger-soaked series — if dingers were bullets and baseball were westerns, this series would have been brought to you by Sam Peckinpah. The Emeralds averaged nearly three homers per game in a wild series that saw at least one of the two teams score in double digits in every single game. Six different Eugene hitters — Franklin Labour, Brett Auerbach, Heath Quinn, Tyler Fitzgerald, Ricardo Genovés, and Carter Aldrete — had at least two long balls in the series, with neither Fitzgerald nor Quinn stopping at that point.
Clearly, Quinn’s week was the one that nobody saw coming. How unexpected was it for Heath Quinn to take the High-A West Player of the Week award? Let Alex Stimson explain:
But Quinn’s resurgence wasn’t the only unexpected performance of the week. Ten days ago Legacy Giant Carter Aldrete was hitting .207 for the year with one home run. In seven games since then, he’s hit four home runs and driven in ten runs. Genovés was hitting just .200 and slugging just .244 in 15 games since his promotion to High-A. Then he homered in back to back games. Auerbach didn’t go to that extreme, but he was hitting just .250 with a .751 OPS since his promotion — after four games against Spokane his OPS jumped up .125 points! It’s like the whole week was an extended image reclamation tour.
The Emeralds scored an average of 10 runs per game in the series (on an average of just more than 10 hits per game), yet the series was taut throughout and they only ended up outscoring Spokane by a 60-53 margin. Which brings us to a pitching staff that is suddenly, and rather shockingly, the possessors of the worst team ERA in the High-A West (5.11). Like Richmond, Eugene is really struggling to cover innings. With Kilian on to better things and Nick Morreale having been on the IL for nearly two months (though he made a rehab appearance in the complex league this week), Eugene has been forced to insert Aaron Phillips (6.80 ERA) and Nick Avila (7.22) into the rotation. Worse yet, the guys who had been stalwart at the start of the year are seeing their ERAs slide into no man’s land as well: Kai-Wei Teng (6.09), Conner Nurse (6.14), Seth Corry (5.93). It’s been an ugly run the last month. And with the team sending the meat of its back-end bullpen up to Richmond as well (Jose Marte and R.J. Dabovich), things are starting to get pretty depleted on the Ems staff.
There are plenty of arms in San Jose that would seem to offer an upgrade, but the problem is there’s nowhere for San Jose to replenish those arms, except for, potentially, the incoming draft class. We’re still waiting for the first signing to come — the system could sure use the fresh arms.
With the series win, Eugene sits 4.5 games out of first place. They come home to face the woebegone Hillsboro Hops for a week, looking to make up some ground.
San Jose Giants: 43-23
(6-0 week)
Transactions:
Add C Patrick Bailey (re-assigned from ACL Giants Black)
Delete C Ronaldo Flores (re-assigned to ACL Giants Black)
Add and then Delete C Fabian Peña (re-assigned from and to Sacramento)
Add and then Delete RHP Logan Webb (re-assigned from Sacramento and re-called to San Francisco)
Delete RHP Ty Weber (re-assigned to Sacramento)
One bit of potential good news for the pitching shortage in Eugene came from my friend Marc Delucchi over at Sound the Foghorn (and more about Marc in a few moments):
Getting Swiney back on the field would obviously help the A ball innings crunch a bit and, even more importantly, be a positive sign towards getting his talented arm back in the development queue.
But sticking with the action on the field, San Jose got back off the mat after their tough series with Fresno and delivered an absolute drubbing to the 3rd place Modesto Nuts. How big a drubbing, you ask? The Giants outscored Modesto by 39 runs! Just to repeat that — they didn’t score 39 runs over the 6 games, they outscored Modesto by 39 runs. In total, the Giants scored 56 runs over the six games — nearly matching Eugene’s ten per contest.
And, yes, as per today’s theme, there were dingers! San Jose, you say? Dingers, you mention? I know what you want to see. Yes, indeed, Marco Luciano took part in the festivities:
That’s #15 for Marco, which allows me to drop this little nugget from Baseball America’s Josh Norris:
Yep, pretty danged good! After a lackluster week against Fresno returning from the Futures Game, Luciano cranked it up this week, hitting .435 (10 for 23) with a homer, two doubles, six walks (7 K), a stolen base and 100+ mph exit velocities galore. His 15 homers lead the Low-A West and are two off the Low-A level lead (only four off the minor league lead as well). His Isolated Slugging is an extraordinary .271!
The Giants got an equally hot week from Luciano’s 19-year-old old running mate, Luis Matos, who exploded for 12 hits during the series (.429), including two doubles, a homer, and a stolen base. That SB gives the all-around Matos 16 for the year (against just 3 CS), so let’s drop a Josh Norris fact for Matos as well:
That nugget is slightly outdated, but still relevant! Matos now has 16 SB and 17 doubles! He also has a sterling 14% K rate which is — maybe not quite Ismael Munguia-level crazy low — but one of the lowest in the organization. Quite a talent! And honestly, it’s just a fun swing to watch!
The Giants also got a strong week from the suddenly revived Jimmy Glowenke (9 for 25 with four doubles), Casey Schmitt (6 for 18 with four doubles), and Jairo Pomares, who saved his best for last.
After simply bludgeoning the Nuts by outscoring them 46-9 over the first four games, San Jose went in for a sadistic kill in the final two nights. Down by two runs in the top of the 8th on Saturday, San Jose scored three runs with a Patrick Bailey homer (shown at the top) putting them over the top for a 5-4 win. And then on Sunday….they did the very same thing! Going into the top of the 9th, San Jose had scored their lone runs on a couple of wild pitches, but down 4-2 and down to their last strike, Luciano boomed an RBI double off the batters’ eye and then Pomares delivered the dagger with a two-run shot to the opposite field — his second home run of the week and 9th in 27 games.
Buoyed by all the run support, San Jose’s starting pitching didn’t have to sweat the week too much, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out how much this hard-throwing quintet is dominating the Low-A West. The five-some dominates the league strikeout board with five of the top seven spots: #1 Carson Ragsdale (94), #2 Ryan Murphy (93), #3 Kyle Harrison (87), #5 Wil Jensen (76), #7 Prelander Berroa (71). By CSW% (Called or Swinging Strike), my new favorite stat, they are 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9 with all five falling between 36% (Ragsdale) and 31% (Berroa). That’s about one-third of their pitches being a strike that goes untouched by the opposition.. That is real dominance!
But if I asked you to line up the group by ERA, would you think to list Berroa as the second lowest in the group? His 2.75 ERA is just behind Jensen’s at 2.54. Quietly, Berroa has recovered from a messy beginning to take some significant development strides. Though there’s still the occasional over-throw — the slider that bounces in the grass, the fastball that zooms to the backstop, he’s been in the strike zone much more frequently of late with a power arsenal that has him throwing 98 with his heavy four-seam fastball very late into outings — as late as the 7th inning in a recent start. Outside of Harrison, there really aren’t any other arms in the system that hold that kind velocity that late into outings, sitting up in the upper 90s the entire night (Caleb Kilian also has the ability to reach back for a 97 late in starts, but he typically sits in the 93 range for most of his outings). It’s time to recognize the slight right-hander as one of the really special arms in the system — and quite possibly the key pickup in the Sam Dyson trade (as both of the other two pieces — Jaylin Davis and Kai-Wei Teng —are having more difficult years in their own ways).
Ah, heck, let’s complete the trilogy by dropping a Josh Norris nugget on the pitching side, too.
Their big week still left San Jose two games behind the equally incendiary Fresno Grizzlies (who are now 9-1 over their last 10 games), which means this is no time to let up on the gas. They head home to take on a Stockton Ports team that they have really taken advantage of so far this year. Now is no time to stop that trend.
Those games will, as always, be called by the inestimable Joe Ritzo, so let’s take a moment to recognize that not all great achievements happen on the field. Ritzo had quite a nifty accomplishment of his own this week!
Rookie Leagues
ACL Giants Black, 9-6
ACL Giants Orange, 6-9
Transactions:
Delete C Patrick Bailey (re-assigned to San Jose)
Add C Ronaldo Flores (re-assigned to ACL Giants Black from San Jose)
Add INF Diego Velasquez (assigned to ACL Giants Black)
Add LHP Marvin Brown (assigned to ACL Giants Black)
Delete 1b/OF Victor Bericoto (placed on 60-day IL)
Add 2b Yeiver Torrealba (re-assigned to ACL Giants Orange from DSL Giants Orange)
Add RHP Nick Morreale (transferred from Eugene to Giants Orange on rehab assignment)
DSL Giants Black: 3-2, T-1st, San Pedro Division
DSL Giants Orange, 2-3, 5th place, Northeast Division
The Dominican Summer League got up and running last week giving us the full eight-team contingent of teams playing for the rest of the summer. The new level got off with a bang as Yeison Lemos, one of the best of the new class of prospects, homered in his very first professional game. You might remember Joe Salermo singling out Lemos as a name you needed to know when he visited on the podcast.
But the headliner of the DSL’s first week was young Javier Francisco who exploded with a homer, two doubles, a triple, four walks —- AND NO STRIKEOUTS! Francisco is a fascinating story: signed out of Fernando Tatis, Sr’s academy for just $10,000 at the very end of the 2019 international cycle, Francisco’s team has been heavily promoting him as he’s gotten his start in pro ball. A seemingly tireless worker and strong hitter, I’m really interested to see how he’ll fare in pro ball — maybe there’s a real bargain here. For sure, the first impressions were very strong!
In the Arizona league, a much higher bonus signing is also making a huge first impression. Aeverson Arteaga was supposed to be a defensive whiz at shortstop, not the second coming of A-Rod! Even Giants’ officials tended to give muted opinions when talking about his offensive ceiling to journalists, but so far his power has been the talk of the Arizona Complex League! See more below!
The Giants have also gotten a strong start from young Panamanian catcher Adrian Sugastey, who is hitting .318 (though with limited power) and Luis Matos’ cousin Alexander Suarez (.286/.333/.482 with 3 HR and 6 SB). LHP Esmerlin Vinicio and RHP Manuel Mercedes have both shown their serious swing and miss stuff, though both got knocked around this week. The more surprising performance this week came from RHP Jorge Garcia, who punched out 11 of his fellow camp-mates in a Black on Orange contest Saturday morning. The 19-year-old Garcia is second in the ACL with 26 strikeouts in 21 IP. RHP Luis Moreno, who started the year in San Jose, is fourth in the league with 23 Ks.
About Last Night
Sacramento lost vs Round Rock Express (Rangers), 7-5
Notable Lines:
Braden Bishop CF: 2 for 5, 3b (4), Run, RBI
Joe McCarthy 1b: 2 for 4, 2 2b (14), Run, RBI
Peter Maris 2b: 2 for 4, HR (7), 2 Runs, 2 RBI
Norwith Gudino: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 WP
Silvino Bracho: 2.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HR
Sacramento is another team struggling to cover innings. Last night they went to the bullpenning strategy with Sam Selman taking down the first two innings, followed by Norwith Gudino, Yunior Marte, and Silvino Bracho. Together, the group held the line pretty well, allowing just three earned runs on the night. That kept them in a tight battle, supported by the offensive efforts of Peter Maris, Braden Bishop, and Joe McCarthy. McCarthy produced a run-scoring double one night after seeing his 14 game hit streak snapped.
The River Cats looked to be heading to the bottom of the 9th in a 5-5 tie when Silvino Bracho induced a two-out fly ball to LF, but Arismendy Alcántara misplayed it into a crucial run-scoring error that dropped the game as well as the ball. It was the second error of the game for Alcántara, who normally plays the infield but has seen plenty of OF time as well — even at the big league level. It was an unfortunate night for a guy who has given the team a real lift the last couple of weeks.
That said, there was a much more memorable catch that was secured last night, so let’s focus on Drew Robinson’s brilliant play in what was the penultimate game of his career.
Robinson will officially end his playing career in this afternoon’s finale.
ACL Giants Black lost @ ACL A’s, 6-0
ACL Giants Orange lost vs. ACL Rockies, 11-9
Notable Lines:
Grant McCray (O) DH: 2 for 3, 2 Runs
Aeverson Arteaga (O) SS: 3 for 5, 2 HR (6), 2b (6), 3 Runs, 6 RBI
Diego Velasquez (B) SS: 0 for 4
Sonny Vargas (O): 5.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR
Rafael Martinez (B): 4.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, HR, 2 WP, HB
Marvin Brown (B): 0.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K
Jose Mullings (B): 3.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
What in the world is going on with Aeverson Arteaga??? The suddenly Bondsian young shortstop produced two more homers and a double last night and now leads the Complex League in homers (6) and total bases (46). He’s also second in hits (22) and third in slugging (.836) — and nobody above him is 18! The Papago Sports Complex is supposed to play big with a wind whipping through the red bluffs (and it certainly did in last night’s 11-9 affair) — but nobody else is crushing a home run per game out there!
Grant McCray, who is still being limited to DH and removed from the game after 2 or 3 at bats, got his first hits of the year. LHP Marvin Brown saw his first game action of the season. The hard-throwing Brown struck out 46 batters in 47 innings of work in the DSL in 2019.
DSL Giants Black lost to DSL Rangers2, 4-2 (7 inn)
Notable Lines:
Mauricio Pierre CF: 2 for 4, Run, RBI, 2 K
Yeison Lemos SS: 2 for 4, RBI, K, E
Estanlin Cassiani RF: 2 for 3, K
Jose Rojas: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K
Jan Caraballo: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, WP, L, BS (1)
Yeison Lemos (pronounced “Jason) continues to wield a hot bat for the Black, picking up 2 more hits and driving in one of the team’s two runs. Lemos is off to a .412 start on 7 for 17 hitting with a double and homer. He also has 4 walks to 4 K, so he’s showing a solid control of the zone for an 18-year-old (Lemos turns 19 in September). Lemos did make his 3rd error of the young season. Another top signing off to a strong pro start is the Panamanian CF Mauricio Pierre, who is now 7 for 21 with three doubles. Pierre’s K/BB is a little more one-sided with 7 K to just 1 walk. RHP Jan Caraballo got in his third game, but so far he’s struggled to make it through an inning. Caraballo got the top signing bonus for the pitchers in this most recent class, but the Giants are easing the tall thin right-hander in. He’s appeared in three games and pitched just two innings.
For undisclosed reasons, DSL Giants Orange’s home and home set with the DSL Orioles2 was cancelled prior to play. Given the current climate, one has to wonder if there was a COVID element to that situation.
What’s On Tap?
Sacramento (Matt Frisbee) vs. Round Rock (TBD), 12:05 pm, MiLBTV
Richmond (Michael Plassmeyer) @ Akron (TBD), 3:35 pm, MiLBTV
Eugene (TBD) vs. Hillsboro (Blake Walston), 7:05 pm, MiLBTV
San Jose (Carson Ragsdale) vs. Stockton (TBD), 6:30 pm, MiLBTV
ACL Giants Black (Freddery Paulino) @ ACL Rockies (TBD), 6:00 pm, No Video
ACL Giants Orange (Trevor McDonald) vs. ACL Cubs (TBD), 6:00 pm, No Video
DSL Giants Black (TBD) @ DSL Rangers2, 7:30 am, No Video
DSL Giants Orange (TBD) vs. DSL Orioles2: CANCELLED
Matt Frisbee attempts to end the River Cats’ series on a positive note and turn his season back around in a matinee affair in Sacramento. Michael Plassmeyer hopes to keep the good vibes humming for those 1st Place-killing Flying Squirrels. And Carson Ragsdale tries to reset the strikeout bar and keep his total juuuuust a bit higher than his rotation-mates. The last time the Emeralds saw Hillsboro’s Blake Walston it resulted in a two-homer game for Armani Smith (in Walston’s High-A debut). Right-handers Freddery Paulino and Trevor McDonald start in the desert tonight — and McDonald is one who really needs to get his season on track. He’s issued far too many walks and been hit around a bit in a disappointing start to his 2021 year.
Remember, these Free For All Tuesdays come around just once a week, so if you like what you see, why not subscribe for daily content, where you can see all the Patrick Bailey backpicks your heart desires!
Finally before I got today, a little treat will be landing in your Inboxes a little later today. My fellow Giants prospectors Marc Delucchi, Wrenzie Regodon (both from Around the Foghorn), Kevin Cunningham (my fellow McCovey Chronicle’s writer, currently manning his site Giant Futures), and Brian Recca (SF Draft Talk) got together for a little Round Table where we each drafted a team out of the Giants’ farm system and talked about our picks. It was great fun! Marc already has the full chat out in podcast form at Sound the Foghorn, and I’ll be putting it up as a special edition of There R Giants pod later today! It’s on the long side, but I hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it! It was a blast to get together with my fellow Giants’ prospect fans, and it’ll give you a chance to hear a different take on some of these youngsters!
Have a great “Beat L-A” type of day, everyone. After all, the Giants are in 1st place (I just like saying that).
Feel free to name drop Bochy anytime you like.
With the trade deadline fast approaching trade scenarios are all the rage on Giants boards. Ive been having this discussion with a few people and I'd love your thoughts on this.. Regardless of the return if SF had to trade Hjelle or Kilian to close a deal which guy would you hope they keep?