Week 5 Roundup: Have You Noticed all the Ks? Funny thing about that...
You’ve all seen this by now, of course, but I can’t start without touching on this stunning and truly chilling announcement. A lot of great Giants players have provided us with moments or games or years of pure pleasure over the years, but Duane Kuiper, along with best friend and wingman Mike Krukow (Frank Robinson used to refer to them corporately as “Kruper!”), has provided us all with literally decades of pleasure. Somewhat improbably, the Giant who has stood above generations of Giants is the spindly-legged, light-hitting backup 2b whose knees were already shot when the Giants acquired him so many years ago (so long, Ed Whitson).
Frank wanted Kuiper, even without good knees, because he felt Kuip was a good man in the clubhouse. Frank didn’t know the half of it, as it turns out. We all have benefitted from his company, long after the career petered out. There’s simply nobody who has come to define this organization more than Kruk and Kuip have, and nobody who has given the fans more time and wisdom and laughs and love and passion. Kuip says he’s remaining positive and so I’ll follow his lead. I can’t wait to have you back full time and full strength, Duane. Nothing that happens on the field is as important as that. Be well.
That was the morning’s announcement, the evening’s was momentous in an entirely different way.
I literally just watched this guy appear in his first game above the Low-A level ONE MONTH AGO! That’s a sentence that needs six more !!! and about three degrees more black ink in the BOLD font to accurately convey the sentiment. We know that Long hasn’t pitched more than 4 innings (or 63 pitches) in any game this year, so it’ll be fascinating to watch how the Giants use him. But regardless, this is an incredible story that is about to get thrust to a whole new level of ….something — awesomeness, whistfulness, grimacy “I’m not really disappointed but this is a wee bit disappointing-ness?” Who knows. Baseball never tells. But good luck, Sam. Go out there and ace ‘em. Slay ‘em and stick, and don’t come back to the bus leagues! I’ll dust off my “Is Sam Long the Pitching Yaz” piece again. Hell, replay your Triple-A debut and I might just get some “Pitching Yaz” t-shirts made up!
Amazingly enough, we hit the quarter mark of the season this weekend. That’s right! After the agonizing 2-year wait to see minor league ball again, we’ve only got 75% of the season left already. It’s going by in a flash!
And that means — it’s time to start looking for trends! So….let’s look around and see what we can find!
Hey, you’re right Kervin! That really IS a trend!
Giants Pitchers are Striking Out the World
Does it feel like I’m writing about big strikeout totals virtually every day here? Well, you’re not imagining things friend, the Giants minor league pitchers are striking out extraordinary amounts of batters. But it’s 2021, so you might think this is just “new normal” stuff. Well there you’d be wrong, because the Giants four affiliate teams are performing at Best of Class levels when it comes to inducing the WHIFF.
Here’s how the four affiliate pitching staffs stack up in their leagues in terms of team strikeouts.
Sacramento: 1st in the 10-team Triple-A West (302)
Richmond: 3rd in the 12-team Double-A Northeast (317)
Eugene: 1st in the 6-team High-A West (358)
San Jose: 1st in the 8-team Low-A West (380)
How about if we go up a level?
Sacramento: 2nd among 30 Triple-A teams (Durham Bulls have 331)
Richmond: 6th among 30 Double-A teams (Dodgers affiliate Tulsa Drillers lead w/ 331)
Eugene: 1st among 30 High-A teams — second highest trails them by 27!
San Jose: 1st among 30 Low-A teams — Modesto has 379 and 3rd highest is 362.
Yup, the Giants affiliates are the Kings (or at least, in the royal court) at every level of baseball in terms of throwing the speedball by ya and making you look like a fool, including having two of the three most prolific staffs in the minors. Holy spin rates, Batman!
Basically, every Giants affiliate game looks something like this:
with a side of this:
or basically, one continous loop of this:
No, no, Heliot! Not you. This is a pitchers-only type of thing!
There we go, that’s more like it!
Now, it’s important to note that these K-rific proclivities aren’t necessarily transferring to universal success. Nor are the staffs showing consistency in other key elements of pitching — Sacramento also leads Triple-A West in walks, for instance, while the other three staffs sit fairly comfortably in the middle of their leagues in free passes. Sacramento is also the worst staff in terms of ERA with a 5.46 team ERA that sits 5th in the league — a stat that is worse even than it looks considering four of the five teams below them play in high altitude Rocky Mountain launching pads.
The other three clubs, however, are all getting excellent overall success from their pitching staffs. All three are near the top of their leagues in average runs per game (Richmond is third, the other two second). San Jose is posting the best staff ERA in the system (3.19), and one place they shine outside the strikeouts is in home runs allowed. They have given up just 14 home runs — second best in the Low-A West — while hitting 29, second best in the league.
Interestingly, the hitters aren’t showing the same organizational consistency as the pitchers. While the San Jose bats have struck out the least of any team in the Low-A (272), Sacramento’s offense has the most Ks of any team in the Triple-A West. Doesn’t seem like everyone’s getting with the program on the hitting side! Strike guys out, don’t strike out yourself. Don’t issue walks (nice going, Mr. Frisbee), draw lots of walks yourself! Hit lots of homers, don’t give homers up. It’s pretty simply. As Old Pete Beiden used to say: take outs quicker than you make outs! San Jose’s on it!
Pitcher of the Week: Kyle Harrison (SJ): 2 GS, 9.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 7 BB, 11 K, .194 opponents avg
Truly, if Sam Long’s Triple-A debut had come two days later, he’d be the choice for Pitcher this week, given his 7.2 innings of work with Sacramento in which he’s struck out 16 of the 24 batters he’s faced (while allowing just 2 to reach base).
But with that caveat out of hand, I wanted to take Kyle Harrison’s two-start week as an opportunity to highlight a few things about the start of his professional career. Yes, the control continues to be an issue, particularly his fastball command. But I honestly don’t believe that in the long run he’s going to be a wild child. I think he’s going to dial in his fastball in time, as he grows into his new body and his new stuff. But the other stuff — the stuff he’s doing well? That stuff I think is going to continue. So let’s just look at a couple of interesting numbers in Harrison’s portfolio:
.190 — that’s his opponents batting average so far. Just 15 of 105 opponents have collected hits.
4 — that’s the number of extra base hits Harrison’s allowed so far, which means…
.241 — that’s his opponents SLUGGING percentage on the year!
74% — that’s the percentage of plate appearances that end in either a strikeout or a groundball. Those are basically the two best outcomes a pitcher can have, and Harrison is producing them in nearly three-quarters of all confrontations with hitters this year. That’s good!
So, yes, it would be nice to see the control come around lest he morph a little too closely into his good buddy Seth Corry, but let’s remember that Harrison is one of just three teenagers currently competing in the Giants system (along with Marco Luciano and Luis Matos). This is a tremendously exciting debut for the young lefty and there’s so much good to build on here going forward.
Hitter of the Week: Joe McCarthy (Sac): 10 for 23, 3 HR, 4 2b, 5 BB, .435/.536/1.000
At the beginning of the year, Joe McCarthy was buried deep on the Giants OF depth chart and it was all too easy to assume that that .000 career batting average was going to be a permanent part of his record. The depth chart still isn’t in his favor — with players like Steven Duggar and Lamonte Wade Jr. taking advantage of opportunities to solidify their positions in the organization — but if the UVA alum keeps performing like he is, he’s going to get another opportunity with somebody!
McCarthy’s career best slugging percentage — even including his college career — is .461. But after 100 plate appearances this year he’s slugging a robust .681. And it seems to be heading upwards. The LF is currently crafting an 11-game hit streak in which he’s slugged .837 with 5 home runs. His 7 home runs on the year is not only leading Sacramento, it’s tied for 3rd in the Triple-A West, despite playing his home games in one of the less-homer friendly parks in the league. After struggling through several years in which back troubles robbed him of his power, his athleticism, and the fluidity of his swing (and left with just his fabled batting eye), McCarthy appears to be healthy again, and the bat is re-introducing itself — and it’s definitely not singing “meet the new Joe, same as the old Joe.”
Joe Mac is surging, and if his year keeps on going this way, I’ll wager that he gets himself a batting average in the big leagues at some point.
And with that, let’s take a tour around the affiliates:
Sacramento River Cats: 12-16
Transactions (a LOT — not counting recalls and options to/from SF):
Add INF Arismendy Alcantara from IL
RHP Shun Yamaguchi released
RHP Nick Tropeano designated for assignment
Add RHP Matt Frisbee transferred from Richmond
Delete LHP Phil Pfeifer (transferred to Richmond)
Add RHP John Russell – transferred from High-A Eugene
Add RHP Ty Weber – transferred from Low-A San Jose
Delete RHP Jasier Herrera – transferred to High-A Eugene
Add RHP Aaron Sanchez on rehab assignment
Add RHP Gerson Garabito — transferred from Richmond
Add C Ronnie Freeman — transferred from Richmond
Yep, can’t tell the players without a scorecard as the ushers used to say!
Spoiler Alert: here’s another trend I’ve spotted — every team in the organization has a positive run differential so far this year. And, yes, that includes the somewhat woebegone River Cats who, by this measure at least, are underplaying their production. That the River Cats have been able to even hold their head above water is a credible achievement, giving the massive amount of coming and going that’s going on here — remember, the list above does NOT included the ups and downs to and from San Francisco. With this week’s DFA of Nick Tropeano and Scott Kazmir falling on the heels of Shun Yamaguchi’s release, Sacramento is also running dangerously short on pitchers — and several of the ones currently on the roster have seen precious little time in A-ball and none in Double-A. It’s a precarious situation.
Most of the team’s troubles have come at the start of games as the starters have ballooned their ERA up to 5.76 for the year. In games where Sacramento is ahead or tied after 5 innings, their record is a sterling 11-3. But if the Cats are trailing at the 5th inning mark? Close the shop down, Shirley, this team is 0-13 at that point. These guys are not shopping at the local Comebacks R Us outlet. Or, perhaps better said: There Rn’t Giant comebacks in Sacramento, it appears.
There have, however, been some supplemental pieces showing up lately. Arismendy Alcántara came off the IL to make his long-delayed season debut and promptly knocked out nine hits in his first four games. And who would have guessed three months ago that first home run this year hit by a Giants prospect named Bishop wouldn’t come from Hunter?
Sacramento will need all the help it can get as the big league club continues to need depth. Thairo Estrada has been the biggest bat in the River Cat lineup from opening night on, and his absence will be felt. The biggest bat currently in the lineup, as noted at the top, has been McCarthy, who was deservedly named Triple-A West Player of the Week for his dynamic efforts. Joey Bart is having a solid year, hitting .310/.365/.534, but he was out of action for nearly 10 days with a tight groin and has gone just 5 for 21 with one extra-base hit since returning [UPDATE: BART GO BOOM last night — see below]. Bart is also striking out in nearly a third of his plate appearances and has 20 K against just 4 walks this year.
The team is getting a classic Three True Outcomes season from former Marlin Death Fog culprit Justin Bour, who is hitting .214/.353/.452. Forty-nine of Bour’s 102 PA have resulted in either a strikeout, a walk, or a homer. Former Mets farmhand Mitchell Tolman is also providing power, somewhat surprisingly, with 6 homers and a .540 SLG.
Bryce Johnson’s hot start at the plate has slowed down somewhat, but he’s still doing this dang near every night. Help, police! I’ve just been robbed!
Richmond Flying Squirrels: 17-13
Transactions:
Delete RHP Matt Frisbee (transferred to Sacramento)
Add LHP Phil Pfeifer (transferred from Sacramento)
Add C Andres Angulo (from Developmental Assignment)
Delete RHP Gerson Garabito (transferred to Sacramento)
Delete C Ronnie Freeman (transferred to Sacramento)
Add C Bruce Maxwell (acquired from NY Mets)
Since getting off to a blistering 8-1 start, Richmond has gone just 9-12 the past three weeks, including another series loss to Altoona last week. And speaking of depleted rosters, Richmond started out a month ago with one of the most promising rotations in the organization. But just a few short weeks later, Sam Long and Matt Frisbee have gone on to better things, and opening night starter Tristan Beck hasn’t pitched in 18 days. Beck’s battling a bad back, which is the last thing I want to be writing about a pitcher whose promising college career was significantly derailed by a stress-fracture in his back. Hopefully the scary monster stays under the bed and Beck is back soon and looking like the 2019 version.
One of the few remaining from the opening rotation is Sean Hjelle, and he is seemingly getting better and stronger with each outing. While Hjelle doesn’t boast Long’s pure stuff or Frisbee’s extraordinary ability to hit the corners, he’s seventh in the Double-A Northeast league in strikeouts and he’s producing ground balls at nearly a 60% clip. More than the stats, he’s proving that he can turn a lineup over and attack guys two and three times in a night. He pitched into the 7th inning for the first time at this level in his last start, and has gone at least 5 innings in four of his last five starts, allowing just 7 earned runs over 24.2 innings in that span. If he keeps this up much longer, he’ll be seeing his once and future rotation-mates again soon. Which is good because, as discussed above, Sacramento has a crying need for some quality starters, especially with Long now gone (I suspect they’ll be getting an additional starter today or tomorrow, though not Hjelle).
Richmond has gotten some reinforcements to the pitching staff, though. High-A West Pitcher of the Month Caleb Kilian has stepped in to make two starts, and he brought the sensational right-handed arm of Jose Marte along with him on the ride from Eugene. Richmond only took two games from Altoona last week, but in one of those, Marte provided one of the most thrilling moments we’ve seen this season. As described by Giants Coordinator of Pitching Sciences:
My own experience seeing Marte for the first time this season wasn’t quite what I was hoping for — in fact, I caught his only appearance so far this year that wasn’t best described by three 🔥 emojis. I got the version of Marte that hit 101 on the radar gun, but struggled to throw strikes and couldn’t put hitters away. Even so, there was a sonic force resulting from some of his pitches that I hadn’t felt (nor seen) from any other arm in the system this year. Marte is a charter member of the Giants “Hundred Club” (which also includes his friends Camilo Doval and Gregory Santos).
Richmond’s struggles have predominantly come at the plate this year. They’re ninth in the league in scoring, at just 4.13 runs per game. While they do a reasonable job avoiding stikeouts, the offensive unit comes in at either 9th or 10th in the league at all of: HR, Hits, BB, SLG, and Total Bases. Or basically, all the building blocks of a modern offense. No hitter on the team has an OPS as high as .850 — team leader Jacob Heyward’s .822 OPS is good for just 37th in the league. And virtually nobody on the team has been hot, indeed there are more epic skids going on than tepidly warm streaks. David Villar is just 9 for his last 64 and Vince Fernandez broke up a 1 for 27 streak with two-hit game on Sunday. It hasn’t helped any that Andres Angulo, one of the more pleasant surprises on the team so far, has been gone for the last week playing with Colombia’s Olympic qualifying team. He should be back this week, hopefully bringing some good mojo with him.
One under the radar performance on the Squirrels club this year is coming from Shane Matheny. Stuck between the lackluster .200 batting average and .300 slugging, Matheny boasts a robust .343 OBP, thanks to his sixth best in the league total of 18 walks. He’s also played a pretty smooth shortstop in Ryan Howard’s absence.
As for Heliot Ramos, the .287/.369/.435 line hides a host of fascinating developments. Earlier in the week, I wrote this about Ramos, who’s still top 25 in the league in OPS despite being one of the ten youngest players:
The education dance continues for Ramos. Early in the year after he’d pounded a couple of balls to left, pitchers began soft-balling him away and getting him to chase breakers outside or in the dirt, or both. Ramos’ adjustment has been to look away and start beating sliders to right field. Now Double-A pitchers are exploiting him with a new pitch and this is the next adjustment that he’ll need to make — maintaining discipline over the high fastball. Hopefully we’ll start seeing him let these babies by in the near future, and pounding the ones that are a little bit lower to the pull side.
The next day he ripped two balls to the pull side, one a clean single and one snared on a nice play by Altoona star Oneil Cruz. The power has dipped while he’s going through this learning curve — he has just one home run since the third game of the season. But he’s learning the lessons that the level has to teach. That’s the important thing.
Eugene Emeralds: 19-11
No, I don’t know why the High-A West standings page won’t show up on MiLB.com, but I suppose it’s the least of the issues that website has going on this year.
Transactions:
Delete RHP Nick Morreale (to IL)
Delete RHP John Russell (transferred to Sacramento)
Add RHP Jasier Herrera (transferred from Sacramento/Temporary Inactive List)
Add OF Ismael Munguia (from Temporary Inactive List)
No official word yet, but I’d assume Diego Rincones should rejoin the club again this week as well as Munguia, and having that pair re-inserted in the lineup should help an offense that has struggled at times lately. I mean, they’re in first place so I suppose “struggles” is a relative term here. In addition to their pitchers dominating the K board, Eugene’s offense has been one of the highest performing units in the High-A West. They sit second in the league in Runs, Hits, Doubles, Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, OPS, and Total Bases. In each of those categories they are second to the team they begin playing for league supremacy tonight — the Everett AquaSox. They also have avoided strikeouts well, as they have the second least K in the league. The only categories where they fall more into the middle of the pack are, surprisingly, walks (apparently Logan Wyatt can’t carry them to the top of the leaderboard by himself), and home runs (where they’re third, nine off the AquaSox pace). Essentially, they’re a high functioning contact and gap doubles kind of team that mixes in enough home runs to make it all work.
Hard hit data continues to suggest that there’s some ill-fortune going on in the lineup, particularly for Tyler Fitzgerald, who has a hard hit rate of 60% but just a .216 average, and Patrick Bailey, with a more modest but still solid 32% hard hit rate to go with a .211 average. Of course, both of those players are striking out 30% of the time, so it’s not all ill-fortune! Shortstop Will Wilson is still sitting pretty, fifth in the league in OPS with a .270/.373/.540 line. Wilson has also hit some mammoth 400+ foot home runs this year, and seems particularly keen to beat up on hanging breaking balls up in the zone.
Eugene’s other hitters in the league top 20 in OPS might be a little more surprising, as it’s Simon Whiteman (.788 OPS), Franklin Labour (.782), and Ismael Munguia (.773) sneaking onto the leaderboard over some of their higher touted teammates. They get there in different ways — Munguia is a high average hitter who puts everything into play, Labour is a very low average hitter (.227 avg) with the sixth highest walk rate in the league and enough power to make it interesting, while Whiteman does a little of both, using his speed to boost a .271 batting average while also posting the second highest walk rate in the league (18%). Whiteman is also third in the league in stolen bases, having been successful in 14 of 15 attempts. Speedy guys don’t strike out 27% of the time though, Simon!
Logan Wyatt, who is also high on the BB% leaderboard at 16.7%, hit his first HR of the season this week, giving him now four extra hits on the year. Just a curious fella that Wyatt, hard to know what to make of a 1b with a .287 slugging percentage. Patrick Bailey, on the other hand, has reached extra bases with nearly half of his hits (10 of 23) and his eight doubles is tied for 7th in the league.
The offense should soon have its biggest stick back again with the return (for a couple of weeks, anyway) of Rincones who is really having a breakout season. Rincones’ 1.042 OPS would lead the league by a significant margin if he were a qualified batter. Instead, he’s been off doing this for his native land:
The Emeralds starting rotation is another one that’s in a bit of trouble to cover innings lately. In rapid succession, they lost Caleb Kilian to promotion, Kai-Wei Teng to suspension (let’s hope those high K numbers aren’t a product of the sticky stuff!), and Nick Morreale to an unreported health issue. Aaron Phillips was added to the roster, and Nick Avila and Travis Perry moved out of the bullpen to absorb the starts, though as of yet that trio hasn’t done much to prevent Ems fans from missing the gone guys.
But while we’re discussing Ks, we can’t overlook the performance of Eugene’s bullpen. In particular, left-hander Chris Wright is giving an amazing performance this year with fully one-quarter of all his pitches resulting in swinging strikes! He doesn’t light up the radar gun, but scouts always say “the batter will tell you how well he’s throwing it,” and so far A ball batters are saying Wright’s throwing some nasty stuff at them. R.J. Dabovich has also produced swinging strikes on more than 20% of his pitches (as had Jose Marte before his promotion). Wright and Dabovich are both striking out just a hair under 60% of all batters they face! Funk-meister Ryan Walker is another who doesn’t throw hard but throws it by them anyway. Walker is boasting a 40% K rate out of the pen. Frankly, John Russell belongs in this same conversation of soft tosser/hard throwing results (though his velocity is up a tick this year), but Russell’s up in Sacramento now.
San Jose Giants: 19-11
Transactions:
Add OF Armani Smith (activated from IL)
Delete RHP Luis Moreno (transferred to AZL Giants)
Delete RHP Ty Weber (transferred to Sacramento)
The Mariners system is providing some great “measuring stick” opportunities for Giants prospects lately. Starting tonight, the Eugene team will be facing Julio Rodriguez, the #3 prospect in baseball, with 1st place in the High-A West on the line in what should be a week of high entertainment. San Jose just had a similar experience, going up against the 1st place Modesto Nuts last week, featuring their star Mariners’ prospect Noelvi Marte, who’s off to one of the hottest starts in minor league baseball.
San Jose pitchers did well against Marte, holding him to just six hits for the week and striking him out 7 times (we’ll see a couple of those in a sec). They did, however, allow Marte to overtake Marco Luciano for the league’s home run lead — although, maybe it wasn’t exactly the pitchers who let that happen:
Ahem, as I say the pitchers handled him well! Brett Auerbach’s work in the OF left something to be desired there (though Auerbach’s defensive versatility has been a boon for the Giants so far on the young season).
San Jose got several big strikeout performances from their starters this week, and in this context its good to see that guys like Harrison and Carson Ragsdale weren’t just piling up those numbers against the soft underbelly at the bottom of the lineup — they were succeeding against the best as well. Ragsdale has been a particular revelation this year with his new organization. He’s utilized a full assortment of pitches, including a cutter, slider, and change occasionally, but his mid-90s fastball and sharp curve are producing most of the breeze from the batters box. Here he is shoving it on the top two prospects in Modesto’s lineup back to back.
San Jose has really been picking up steam of late. They’ve faced three of the best teams in the league over the last three weeks and gone 12-6 over that stretch, including winning eight of their last 10 games.
The winning recipe has been power pitching and power hitting. While their offense isn’t exactly “high flying” — especially with several pieces of the lineup still struggling to find their footing this year — the middle of the order has been a force lately, and they’ve used the league’s second highest home run total to maximize opportunities. Somewhat surprisingly, though the Giants are one of the most powerful lineups in the Low-A West, they’re also the most fully committed contact team in the league. As stated above, they’ve struck out the fewest times in the league and they have the second lowest walk total in the league, with only Fresno sneaking below them. Not very Giantsy, but it’s working so far!
Ricardo Genovés is producing a huge year with the bat, posting the second highest OPS in the league (.954). Genovés is really doing everything well at the plate this year, posting the league’s highest batting average (.354) along with the fifth highest slugging percentage (.512). He also boasts one of the more modest strikeout rates in the system (18%) paired with a healthy walk rate (10%). He’s really doing it all, while also handling a young pitching staff and showing off an arm that can control the running game (in a league that is running wild).
Here’s the ultimate highlight of the week against the Nuts — the ol’ “strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out,” with Harrison dispatching Cade Marlowe while Genovés guns down Marte.
I talked yesterday about Genovés’ issue with passed balls this season, but it’s the only blemish in what’s turning into a really nice season for the third big catching prospect in the system.
Of course, much of the attention with San Jose focusses on the two 19-year-olds, Luciano and Matos. Matos is one of the 10 youngest players in the league and Luciano is the 12th youngest, which makes their success all the more remarkable (especially if you listened to Eric Longenhagen talking about the significant challenges that Hispanic players face acculturating in their first full-season league).
The two prodigies both had sort of ho-hum weeks — no huge games, but a steady drum beat of solid, hard contact. Luciano didn’t put one outside the yard this week, but he still impressed, going 6 for 22 with three extra base hits and a whole lot of exit velocity!
Oh my! Matos is showing that he’s really a contact impressario as he’s pulling off a statistical oddity that is almost hard to conceive: he has the highest swing percentage in the league — swinging at fully 62% of the pitches he sees — combined with the second lowest strikeout rate (15.4%, just a fraction higher than teammate Casey Schmitt’s 15.3%). There’s probably a lesson he needs to learn in there, but it doesn’t seem like A ball pitchers are going to be the ones teaching it to him. Matos went 6 for 19 with two doubles and a homer this week, while walking twice as much as he struck out (4 to 2).
San Jose also got some very welcome news with OF Armani Smith finally returning from the IL after being missing in action for three weeks. Smith promptly delivered a four-hit night in his first game back.
San Jose gets what could be a chance to fatten up their record even more with a week against the only team in their division with a losing record, the Stockton Ports.
About Last Night
Sacramento lost at Reno Aces (Diamondbacks), 7-6
Notable Lines:
Joey Bart C: 4 for 5, HR (4), 2 R, 2 RBI
Braden Bishop RF: 4 for 4, 3b, R, RBI
Aaron Sanchez: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, HR
Ty Weber: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, BB, 3 K
Camilo Doval: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB
Trevor Hilgenberger: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, BS
Sacramento was agonizingly close to a three-game winning streak, but Trevor Hilgenberger couldn’t close down a two-run save, allowing three runs and a walk off in the bottom of the 9th in Reno. The key moment in the rally was a pop fly down the right field line that seemed to hang in the air for ever, but safely found a no-man’s-land to nest in. Hilgenberger has something of a funky Tyler Rogers vibe about him, so perhaps he gives up those occasional Rogers-esque dinky rallies as well. It was the second blown lead of the game for the River Cats, as Camilo Doval had earlier allowed a walk-fueled three-run rally that blew a 4-1 lead.
The night had opened with strong pitching, though. Aaron Sanchez made his first rehab start and looked strong for two innings, giving up just a solo blast. Sanchez was a little higher velocity than we saw from him in the majors this year, in the 90-92 range, but he mostly relied on a variety of offspeed and breaking pitches to fool hitters — again, as we saw from him. Following Sanchez, Ty Weber made his Triple-A debut and he too used a nifty breaker to keep the Aces off the bat. The undrafted free agent has looked like a real find so far this year — first with San Jose and now, at least for one night, up with the bigger boys!
The offense last night was a two man show with Joey Bart and Braden Bishop combining for eight hits. Bart started the scoring with a big shot over the right field bullpens for his fourth homer. Bart’s now hitting .349/.397/.603 in 17 games, with a strikeout rate of about 32%. I’ve been trying to pay attention to see if Triple-A pitchers have been trying to bust him inside with hard stuff — which we saw last year was Bart’s cryptonite with big league arms, making him vulnerable to soft stuff away as well. Though anecdotal, so far I’ve mostly seen him getting his hacks in on stuff that allowed him to extend his arms, a strength of his swing. The home run came on a pitch that was supposed to be down and away, but drifted up over the middle-away hit-me zone.
Hunter’s big brother has been a tremendous addition to the lineup so far, as he’s produced 20 total bases in his first 26 at bats. That’s good! Bishop’s also drawn more walks than Ks and boasts a .581 OBP and 1.350 OPS in his first week of work. Small sample sizes are always fun! Bishop also made Bart show off his speed last night with a run-scoring triple. Look at this big man digging deep!
What’s On Tap?
Sacramento (Anthony Banda) @ Reno (Zach Lee), 6:35 pm, MiLBTV
Richmond (Trent Toplikar) vs. Harrisburg (TBD), 3:35 pm, MiLBTV
Eugene (Conner Nurse) @ Everett (Juan Then), 7:05 pm, No Video
San Jose (Prelander Berroa) @ Stockton (TBD), 7:05 pm, No Video
Tough video week with both A ball teams off line. Sacramento tries to shake off the tough loss and finish strong in their finale in Reno. Meanwhile, Eugene gets its second straight week on the road against a 1st place challenger, and really the only other roster that appears to have as much talent as the Emeralds on paper. This should be a fun matchup, although you’d like to see the rotation at full strength for it. Prelander Berroa isn’t getting quite the hype of some of his rotation mates, and he’s not having the same level of success either, but he’s the only guy on the staff who can graze triple digits with his knuckles when he throws it, so there’s always something fun to watch when he’s on the mound.
It should be another great week of ball! Enjoy the games everybody, and as always I’ll be here to recap them all. So you if you like knowing what’s going on at every level of the system every day, why not subscribe for full coverage?
The pitching throughout the farm system has been a nice surprise.