Hello to all my once-a-weekers! Welcome to Free For All Tuesday. What have you missed? Well, stuff like this didn’t come out of nowhere, you know!

San Jose Giants @SJGiants

For the third week in a row, we have a Low-A West player of the week - this time for Jairo Pomares! Full story ➡️ atmilb.com/3jqNKZI

Eugene Emeralds @EugeneEmeralds

A three-homer week for a first place team that just went 10-2 over a 12-game homestand? Yeah, that'll do. Congrats to @Tyler_Fitz10 on being named the High-A West Player of the Week! #GoEms

Not at all, we’ve been watching this pair getting frisky all week long! And not just these two — no,no! We’ve had walk offs, we’ve had big bombs and defensive gems — we’ve had a game-ending appeal play that took the tying run off the scoreboard! Just like the Giants!

Eugene Emeralds @EugeneEmeralds

Remember this play from Tuesday night? The umpires did a GREAT job catching this moment at 3rd base, but if you didn't see the runner miss 3rd then maybe it's time to call @pclearvision, the official Lasik Doctors of the Eugene Emeralds!

So join in the fun as we look back on the week that was!

Before we get started, since we’re entering one of my favorite weeks of the season (and definitely the best Baseball Holiday), I’m gonna celebrate by bringing back the $49.99 annual subscription offer, now through next Tuesday. If you’d like to get daily There R Giants posts covering the entire Giants farm system at a reduced rate, now’s your chance!

4th of July Subscription Spectacular!

PLAYER of the Week: Frankie Tostado (Rich), 11 for 25, 3 HR, 3 2b, 6 Runs, 10 RBI,
PITCHER of the Week: Caleb Kilian (Rich), 2 GS, 11.1 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 15 K

Richmond hasn’t gotten a ton of Player of the Week love from me this year, but these played such a huge role in the Squirrels’ dismantling of Hartford that they take the prize. There were a lot of huge hitting weeks in the system — Jason Krizan collected 11 hits in a span of 14 ABs! Pomares and Fitzgerald were obviously on fire as well. But nobody else hit come-from-behind game winning homers in the 9th inning on two consecutive nights, did they? Hmmm? The Hartford announcer hadn’t even finished noting that Tostado had been up in an identical situation the night before when the left-hander produced an identical swing. “You gotta be kidding me” indeed! (Excellent sound of disgust, Mr. Announcer!)

Kilian hit 98 with an elevated fastball in the first inning of Sunday’s performance, then settled in for his usual assortment of 92-94 sinkers and cutters, mixing speeds with his very slow curve and occasionally mixing them even more with a reach-back 97. The result was a truly impressive 15 to 1 K/BB ratio for the week, though he did also surrender the first HR of his professional career (to old friend Cory Snyder’s son Taylor). Kilian’s not blowing hitters away with pure gas and location mistakes can get hit, but his ability to mix and match and hit his spots has given him a pretty seamless transition from High-A to Double-A so far.

Fate of the Draft Classes

The big news of the week was obviously the bombshell that dropped in Eugene early Sunday morning:

There’s no denying that it’s been a tough start to the year for much of the draft classes from Farhan Zaidi’s first two years in charge of the organization. Let’s take a quick look at some of the low lights:

2019 1st round pick Hunter Bishop played just 3 games before heading to IL with a shoulder strain, recent news suggested he re-aggravated the issue working out in XST;
2020 1st round pick Patrick Bailey has now joined Bishop in Scottsdale after hitting just .185/.290/.296 over 33 games and dealing with back issues;
2020 2nd round pick LHP Nick Swiney pitched just one game before hitting the IL with concussion symptoms way back in Week 1. His current situation is unknown;
2019 2nd round pick 1b Logan Wyatt is hitting just .222 in High-A, which hasn’t eased concerns about his ability to impact the ball, even with his OBP near .400;
The Siren’s Call of the Mendoza Line has also reeled in 2019 5th rounder Garrett Frechette (.214/.268/.291), 2020 supplemental 2nd rounder Jimmy Glowenke (.186/.273/.257), and 2020 2nd rounder Casey Schmitt (.220/.286/.441), though in Schmitt’s case, the underlying strikeout and flyball rates suggest better things should be coming and, indeed, we’ve seen a little of that improvement already.
2019 3rd round pick Grant McCray, 6th round pick Dilan Rosario, and 11th round pick Trevor McDonald (who signed a major overslot deal) failed to make a full season club out of camp and will start their third professional seasons in the Arizona Complex League.

Yes, I understand. None of that is particularly great news. But here at There R Giants, we like to accentuate the positive, so while it’s easy enough to point out the disappointments, how about we celebrate players from the last two drafts who are doing much better than expected? Because we do have some of those guys, too! So let’s give some love to the draft guys who are thriving in 2021:

2019 4th rounder Tyler Fitzgerald’s average hovered in the Mendoza range for much of the first month as well, and his strikeout rate ballooned. But all along, his underlying hard hit rate (currently 47%) suggested some poor luck was playing a part in the low numbers. As Eugene Manager Dennis Pelfrey said on the podcast this week, Fitzgerald’s been the team’s most productive hitter in June and the overall numbers have been on the rise. His OPS is now up to .820 after going 9 for 20 with five extra-base hits this week, good enough to merit those Player of the Week honors.

I mentioned 2019 7th rounder Armani Smith in last week’s hunt for sleepers in the system, but he also fits right in with this topic. When he was drafted, Smith was considered a plus athlete with elite raw power but a big question mark when it came to making contact. Instead, we’ve seen an all-around player whose strikeout rates are, in the context of 2021, quite modest at 20%. He’s been a .300 hitter as a pro, shown excellent power, speed, and defense. So far he’s been the steal of the 2019 draft from the hitting side.
The steal of the 2019 draft from the pitching side is obviously 8th round pick Caleb Kilian — see above! But before he got injured, 14th round pick Nick Morreale, out of Georgetown, was showing an intriguing ability to miss bats, with 18 K in just 12 innings. Eugene surely misses the big Hoya!
Speaking of guys who hail from schools not necessarily considered baseball hotbeds, who would have guessed 9th round pick Simon Whiteman would be the first hitter up to Double-A from the 2019 class. Whiteman has used speed and defense as his ticket to move quickly — following the ol’ Kelby Path! Of course, Whiteman moved up to Richmond with the first player to reach Double-A from the 2020 class as well, reliever R.J. Dabovich (4th round pick). Dabovich’s slider/fastball combo has been so devastating that he’s struck out 40 of the 65 batters he’s faced in pro ball.
The Giants may have found a gem behind the plate out of the North Carolina collegiate ranks — no not Bailey, I’m talking about the 2019 16th round pick from UNC Brandon Martorano! Sharing the Eugene catching duties, Martorano has been one of the biggest pleasant surprises of the year, posting a 1.000 OPS thus far this year. He walks a lot, hits a lot, shows a little power, and has handled the defense chores just fine so far. Not bad for a 3rd day pick!
And what about the guys who weren’t even drafted? Undrafted jack of all trades Brett Auerbach has quickly surpassed some of his drafted colleagues on the San Jose roster (like Glowenke, whose playing time has been reduced some to get Auerbach into the lineup more). Auerbach’s .943 OPS is the second highest (after Martorano) offensive line coming out of the 2019-20 draft classes this year. And he’s giving Farhan Zaidi all the versatility he could want, playing C, 2b, 3b, and LF. Other undrafted free agents from last summer who have looked good include RHP Ty Weber and his gorgeous curve, and Carter Williams, who just joined the San Jose squad and has already begun to show why Eric Longenhagen was so interested in him at XST.
There’s also this kid named Kyle Harrison, but…perhaps you’ve heard about him already.

Of course, one thing that all members of the draft classes have in common is difficult financial situations. So since I’m highlighting Brett Auerbach and his fellows, perhaps you should read this to see what their lives are really like!

Ann Killion @annkillion

Playing through debt and desperation, minor-league players pursue big-league dreams sfchronicle.com/sports/giants/… via @sfchronicle

Playing through debt and desperation, minor-league players pursue big-league dreamsMinor-leaguers like Brett Auerbach of the San Jose Giants are tied to deals making far...sfchronicle.com

Sacramento River Cats: 20-26
(3-3 Week)

Transactions:

Delete 1b Justin Bour (released)
(And as usual, many players shuttled back and forth to/from San Francisco, like the happily returned LaMonte Wade, Jr.)

I suppose it is true that the River Cats have had their share of blowout victories this year (see Sunday’s 16-7 dismantling of Reno). Still, every week I post this expanded standings graphic and stare confusedly at the disparity between their positive run differential and their negative record. I know it doesn’t matter a great deal, but it sure looks weird! How are they making so little out of so much?

So what does matter in Sacramento this week? Rehabs are coming to a conclusion! Multiples of them!

Specifically, Jaylin Davis’ rehab concludes tonight which means the Giants are going to be forced to either make room for him on the 40-man or expose him to the waiver process. Davis has been making his case for 40-man inclusion with a thunderous hammer, bashing six homers — including two grand slams — in 12 games. The Athletic’s Andy Baggarly noted today that the Giants right-handed platoon hasn’t been producing great results lately, and specifically that Austin Slater has really fallen on tough times, so perhaps it’s not just the 40-man roster that Davis’ is pushing for. He’s still striking out a lot, but homers, athleticism and defense can really take you places!

Minor League Baseball @MiLB

A couple numbers for @SFGiants No. 26 prospect Jaylin Davis with the @RiverCats since June 10: Two grand slams, six homers in 12 games.

Secondly, by my count Tyler Beede must now be at the point where he’s going into his third and final 10-day extension, which means two more starts and a decision point will have finally come for the mercurial right-hander. Beede has posted a 6.89 ERA in his 11 rehab starts, driven primarily by his 28 walks and 5 HB in 32.1 innings. Command of both his fastball and secondary pitches have come and gone throughout his starts, with a tantalizingly sharp inning giving way to a painful inability to send the ball where he wants it.

The 2015 Prospect Handbook began its writeup of Beede with this line:

Beede has tantalized scouts for years, but even after four years in the spotlight, he's still an intriguing blend of talent and risk

Six and a half years later, that’s as true as ever. Sacramento manager Dave Brundage gave an in-game interview yesterday with the River Cats’ CBS crew, and made some fascinating comments on his long history with Beede.

Courtesy CBS Channel 13

Ok, let’s check out the stat lines for the River Cats hitters to see who’s hot (most everybody!). Please be so kind as to not notice the weird “0” found everywhere on these charts — I have no idea why this is happening! We’ll look in on the pitchers next week.

Sacramento is getting tremendous production up and down the lineup. I mentioned yesterday that Baseball America’s Kyle Glazer reported on a recent podcast that he’s hearing tremendous reports from scouts on Joey Bart’s season. And Thairo Estrada has been having such a strong year that you have to wonder if the Giants will ever give him a look over the struggling Mauricio Dubon.

But nobody is hotter than 31 — oops, 32-year-old vet Jason Krizan (happy birthday Jason!), who threw himself a quite a party this weekend!

rivercats @RiverCats

Help us celebrate the birthday boy and his ridiculous stat line! 🥳 Krizzy is tied for second in Triple-A West with 5️⃣7️⃣ hits, has 1️⃣1️⃣ hits in his last 1️⃣6️⃣ ABs (.688) and 1️⃣6️⃣ hits in his last 6️⃣ games! 🤩 @JasonKrizan | #ClawsUp

Sacramento finished up their series with Reno today and then heads back to Las Vegas, where they started the year off with a bang. Hopefully, the Aviators will be a congenial host once again.

Richmond Flying Squirrels: 26-22
(4-2 week)

Transactions:

RHP Ryan Halstead assigned to Richmond’s 60 day IL

Richmond stumbled out of Somerset last week, losers of five of six games to the first place Patriots, facing yet another week on the road. Fortunately, that week came at the site of one of the weaker teams in the league, the Hartford Yard Goats and, after a strong week in which they ….well…got Hartford’s goat… Richmond, too has a positive run differential for the season (in fact, all four of the Giants’ affiliates do at this point, which is a pretty positive development).

Much of the Squirrels’ success came from a trio of scorching hot hitters — Tostado, who we recognized at the top, Sandro Fabian, who went 6 for 19 with 2 home runs and 7 RBI, and 3b David Villar, who has really found his groove. Villar went into an extended power outage after homering three times in the season’s first week, but once he rediscovered his power stroke, he hasn’t let go of it again. The right-hander spent his entire two-week road trip making pitchers feel like this:

Homer after homer after homer! He’s now climbed to 8th in the Double-A Northeast in homers (Cory’s kid is first with 14) and in the top 20 in Double-A overall. Quite a climb for a guy sitting on 3 jacks for most of the first month of the season. Villar can hit for power and play defense — that’s something to build on. If he can improve the swing decisions and cut down on the strikeouts, you can see a path forward for him to succeed.

Of course, the flip side of Villar’s ascent has been the long lingering slump of Heliot Ramos that has extended through nearly the entire month of June. Ramos entered the month with an OPS just a hair under .900, but as we leave the month, he hovers just a hair over .700. There were some indications in the series against Harrisburg that he might be turning things around, but a 5 for 46 road trip sent him spinning off Recovery Road. Ramos’ walk rate has continued to be strong and his strikeout rate hasn’t worsened (in fact, at 27% it was a fraction better), but the hits just haven’t come this month. Ramos had no hits in 7 of his 12 games played on this trip and hasn’t had a two hit game in the month of June. By Fangraphs’ wRC+ measurement, he’s now performing at a below league average level for the season. Giants minor league hitting coordinator Michael Brdar recently talked with The Athletic’s Melissa Lockard about the importance of Ramos’ keeping an even keel whether he goes 4 for 4 or 0 for 4, but man, this is a stretch that will test anybody’s mental capacities! Stay strong, Heliot!

Richmond has one of the lowest performing offenses in the league (only Hartford and Harrisburg have scored fewer than their 203 runs) and it shows in their individual lines where most of the players are performing below league average. The team does continue to have scheduling on its side, however. Coming home after a long two weeks, they’ll get their first look at the 15-31 B-Mets, who come to Richmond toting a team ERA of 5.41. It will be the third time in the last four weeks that the Squirrels have faced an opponent with a winning percentage below .400. Time to get healthy!

Eugene Emeralds: 30-17
(4-2 Week)

Transactions:

Deleted OF Diego Rincones (Temporary Inactive List)
Added INF/OF Carter Aldrete (activated from Injured List)
Added RHP Cole Waites (reassigned from Arizona Camp)
Delete C Patrick Bailey (reassigned to Arizona Camp)
Add C Ricardo Genovés (reassigned from San Jose)

As the Giants were the first team in the majors to 50 wins, Eugene was the first team in the High-A West to 30 wins. About the same, right? After taking four of six from Vancouver, Eugene pushed the Canadians down out of the two-team mix at the top of the charts. It continues to look like this league will come down to a grudge match between Eugene and Everett (though Everett just lost their star player, the incandescent Julio Rodriguez, to promotion). After two weeks at home, Eugene enjoys what should be a fairly mild trip to nearby Hillsboro, home of one of the league’s weaker squads.

The Emeralds have dominated their league, but they’ve rarely dominated games, specializing in thrilling comebacks and one-run squeakers — the kind of games where you see emotion like this:

That’s Ismael Munguia just doing what he do — providing a spark and, occasionally, a game-winning home run!

The horseshoes that are apparently part of the standard-issue Eugene unis this year are strong enough to snatch victory from even the most ravenous jaws of defeat. Just watch this lunacy!

By and large, if you look up and down Eugene’s offensive stat sheet, what will jump out at you is not necessarily the hits or the averages (they’ve struggled a little bit in those categories), nor even the long balls where they’re a solid 3rd best in the league. No, what jumps out at you are the walk rates.

This team is really making High-A pitchers work for their living, grinding their hopes down pitch by pitch, living for the mistakes of their opponents. That’s not surprising on a Zaidi-Giants team, and it’s not surprising on a team of mostly college experienced players (and it doesn’t hurt when Logan Wyatt’s on the squad either). And now they’ve added Ricardo Genovés and his newly discovered love of the walk (14% in San Jose)! Genoves walked three times in his first game in Eugene, fitting right in with his teammates. Maybe not the most exciting brand of ball, but walks and dingers, man, they’ll take you places. In Eugene’s case, some very wild places in fact!

What’s quietly been the real strength of this Eugene squad is their bullpen — the unit that has held the line allowing the Emeralds to complete so many comeback victories. While the team’s injury- and promotion-ravaged rotation is putting up some ugly ERAs (Seth Corry 4.91, Conner Nurse 4.95, Aaron Phillips 5.76, Nick Avila 7.76), the pen, led by Chris Wright, Ryan Walker, John Russell, and John Timmins, has made the second half of games the Emeralds competitive advantage. I have written endlessly about Wright’s amazing season — striking out 41 of the 76 batters he’s faced this year — but let’s give some love to Grandmaster Funk Ryan Walker who has the fourth most Ks on this staff (36 against just 5 walks in 24 innings). With Jose Marte and Dabovich both gone on to better things, Wright and Walker are picking up the slack and maybe even tautening the line a bit! Like the Ems social media folks said, imagine trying to hit this!

Honestly, all the bullpens in the system have some hidden gems — maybe I need to make that the theme of a future Week in Review!

Eugene says goodbye to PK Park after two extremely productive, winning weeks at home. But the schedule is still in their favor as well. They take the short drive over to Hillsboro today where they face off against the owners of the second worst record in the High-A West, the once proud (and still defending champion of the Northwest League) Hops.

Before we say goodbye to the Emeralds, let’s toast a guy who didn’t play in Eugene this week! Diego Rincones was once again fighting for the honor of his native land, and once again Diego did himself proud. Though they went down in defeat to the Dominican Republic in the final, must-win play-in game, Rincones definitely held up his end. The man continues to come up big in big situations!

WBSC ⚾🥎 @WBSC

🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪 Diego Rincones Fires a 3-Run Homer!!! ⚾💪 🔥 🇻🇪 VEN 3-0 DOM🇩🇴 #RoadToTokyo #Tokyo2020 @TeamBeisbolVe @FEVEBEISBOL

San Jose Giants: 33-15
(5-1 week)

Transactions:

Delete C Ricardo Genovés (reassigned to Eugene)
Add C Rodolfo Bone (reassigned from Arizona Camp — possibly reassigned back again?)

Here’s one way of looking at the Giants dominance this year. No other team in the Low-A West has a winning record against teams above .500 — the Giants are 20-10 against such teams! Of course, part of that is that every other team has to include their games against San Jose in that stat, which really dampens the ol’ winning percentage!

The Giants have to be on something of a hight right now — they just spent a week pounding on the only team in the Low-A West with a winning record. The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes came into San Jose a run differential of +42 and left with that battered down to +27. San Jose’s offense simply overwhelmed the Quakes’ pitching staff, scoring 48 runs in the six games on 61 hits — eight of which left the building.

San Jose enjoyed getting a couple of newcomers who immediately joined in the fun, including the Player of the Week, Jairo Pomares. With all the (deserved) excitement over Luis Matos’ development, it’s easy to forget that Pomares actually received the second biggest bonus in the Giants’ tremendous 2018 J2 class. The Cuban refugee has a long record of hitting against good competition, and is legitimately in the conversation for the best hit tools in the Giants system. So it’s been great to see him out on the field and showing his stuff once again. Pomares has hit five doubles and three home runs since his return to health, and was on fire against the Quakes, going 9 for 20 with five extra base hits.

The aforementioned Carter Williams is another newcomer to San Jose making a positive first impression. In six starts over the last two weeks, Williams has gone 9 for 27 with three doubles and a triple. Williams is yet another player out of Draft Czar Michael Holmes’ back yard, but Williams spent his college time at the lesser known North Carolina Central University (did you know there was another university in Duke’s home town?). There Williams was in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s (MEAC) top 10 in OPS in his Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years. He finished his college life with a career .330/.412/.479 line and, you will not be surprised to learn, he had a near-equal amount of walks (81) and strikeouts (85) on campus. Very intriguing guy to keep an eye on going forward.

But with every hello, there come a goodbye and the Giants will now be without one of the pillars of this team. Ricardo Genovés finally got his long-due promotion to High-A and his absence will be felt. Genovés was, simply put, the best offensive performer in the Low-A West league this year, very nearly leading the circuit in all three slash marks with a .348/.462/.568 line. Only the SLG portion of that did not lead the league and in that category, Genovés ran a close second to Inland Empire’s bizarrely mis-assigned 27 year old Braxton Martinez. The Giants’ pitching staff will also be missing the steady hand of their leader. Genovés had some issues with passed balls early this year, but his pitch framing, arm, and leadership in handling the staff were substantial benefits for this young staff. For now, we’ll likely be seeing a lot more of Brett Auerbach behind the plate, along with Fabian Peña, who was recently reassigned from Sacramento.

Let’s check out the leaderboard! We have sort of a tale of two halves of the lineup going on here. And now with the top dog gone to Eugene, somebody from that lower half is going to need to step things up (of course, neither Pomares nor Williams is included here).

Though the super prospects Luciano and Matos continue to exceed expectations, there are several players on this team who are really struggling — particularly Glowenke and Garrett Frechette. Luis Toribio, Casey Schmitt and Alex Canario have all been slowly turning their season around lately, but obviously still have room for growth.

The whole group should have their eyes light up this week when the Giants make yet another trip to Stockton’s Banner Island. So far, in 12 games at that locale, San Jose hitters have bashed an astonishing 32 home runs! Somebody should eat well this week!

Ah, did you think I was going to leave you without a little Luciano highlight? Shame on you! What do you think of a little 115 mph howitzer off the bat? According to Baseball Savant, only 21 major leaguers have hit a ball as hard as 115 mph so far this year — and I can guarantee that you’ve heard of all of them! Also, none of them are 19.

About Last Night

Sacramento lost vs. Reno Aces (Diamondbacks), 6-5

Notable Lines:

Thairo Estrada LF: 3 for 4, 2b, Run, RBI, BB
Jason Vosler 2b: 4 for 5, HR (5), Run, 3 RBI, K

Matt Frisbee: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, BB, K, HR, L (1-3)
Conner Menez: 1.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 3 HR

One night after hitting five home runs themselves, Sacramento was victimized by a four-homer salute from the Aces — two of those coming from rehabbing major leaguer Kole Calhoun. Matt Frisbee had his finest start with the River Cats, throwing four shutout innings after surrendering a two-run homer to Calhoun in the first. That bomb scored Joe McCarthy’s little brother Jake, which reminds me that I haven’t managed to get a picture of both McCarthys hanging out at 1b all week! Shame on me.

In the interesting lineup construction aspect of the game, Thairo Estrada saw his first action this year in the OF. Hm….Mauricio Dubon plays both infield and outfield and hits right-handed. Interesting…. Elsewhere in the lineup, Jason Vosler got a start at 2b, the fifth time he’s played that position in Sacramento.

Conner Menez, who was looking so good in San Francisco not that long ago, has hit a rough skid — so rough that he skidded all the way down I-80 and then just kept on skidding. Menez was greeted quite rudely last night, surrendering home runs to the first three batters he faced, a sequence that ultimately swung the game in Reno’s favor.

ACL Giants Orange beat ACL Rockies, 2-1 (8 inn)

ACL Giants Black beat ACL Athletics, 6-3

Notable Lines:

Aeverson Arteaga SS (O): 2 for 4, Run, RBI, K, E
Adrian Sugastey C (O): 1 for 4, K
Rayner Santana DH (O): 3 for 4, 2b,
Najee Gaskins LF (Bl): 2 for 4, Run
Yorlis Rodriguez 3b (Bl): 2 for 3, 2b, 3b, 2 Runs, RBI, BB, K
Alexander Suarez CF (Bl): 2 for 4, 2 RBI, K, SB (1)
Dilan Rosario 2b (Bl) 1 for 3, 3b, Run, 2 RBI, BB

Trevor McDonald (O): 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, HB, WP 2
Sonny Vargas (O): 1.0 IP, 1, H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Freddery Paulino (Bl): 5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, BB, 6 K, HR, W (1-0)
Jose Mullings (Bl): 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K Sv (1)

The Giants opened up their Complex league schedule by collecting two wins. A sweep!

Trevor McDonald, the Giants big overslot signing from the 11th round of the 2019 draft had a strong start, allowing just two hits over five innings. McDonald was a little loose with the control, walking three and hitting a batter, but striking out three. It would be great to see McDonald pitch his way out of rookie ball by the end of the summer.

For the Black squad, Freddery Paulino also went five innings in the start and was mostly strong with the exception of one big mistake. My friend Kim Contreras was on hand for the A’s opener (naturally) and caught the A’s highlight on camera — I’ll have to reach out to her to see if she managed to get any shots of our guys!

Kim C @Cu_As

#Athletics catcher, Jose Mujica (2017 FA signee, Venezuela) hits a 3 run home run in the top of the 4th inning; Saul Sanchez and DJ Lee score

Twenty-one year old complex league vet Yorlis Rodriguez had the biggest night offensively, collecting two of the organization’s five extra-base hits. Rodriguez has been more of a contact-over-power player so far in his career, so the pop was good to see. Dilan Rosario also cranked out a two run triple for his lone hit. Luis Matos’ cousin Alexander Suarez was another standout for the Black team, picking up two base hits and stealing the only bag for the two teams.

For the Orange squad, Aeverson Arteaga made his professional debut, picking up two hits, a ground ball into center and an infield hit. Oddly, the smooth defender also picked up his first error, throwing a ball away. Adrian Sugastey also collected an infield hit to give himself a batting average as a professional. Rayner Santana played the DH spot (which may be his primary position) and led the two teams with three hits, including a double.

Neither Diego Velasquez nor Sammy Rodriguez was included on the rosters and I’m not entirely sure what to make of that. MiLB’s website doesn’t seem to be paying too much attention to the complex leagues so far, and complex league rosters are always fluid things, so it’s possible they are in the complex and just not listed, or they might have been returned to the Dominican Republic to play in the DSL this summer. Giants Minor League Hitting Co-ordinator Michael Brdar did specifically mention both as players he was looking forward to in the ACL in a recent story in The Athletic.

The Giants Orange team game was stopped after 8 innings without explanation (perhaps somebody ran out of pitchers). Another noteworthy thing from that game, Anyesber Sivira, who spent 2019 in Augusta, made his 2021 debut in the complex league, singled to lead off the game and was promptly replaced with a pinch runner. It seems possible that the speedy 2b is dealing with some kind of leg issues? He was replaced by P.J. Hilson who went 0 for 3 in the game.

Finally, if you want a little peak at the Giants new fields at Papago Park:

Kim C @Cu_As

Papago is still a beautiful setting.

What’s On Tap?

Sacramento (Scott Kazmir) vs. Reno (Corbin Martin), 7:05 pm, MiLBTV
Richmond (Phil Pfeifer) vs. Binghamton (Troy Miller), 3:35 pm, MiLBTV
Eugene (Taylor Rashi) @ Hillsboro (TBD), 7:05 pm, MiLBTV
San Jose (Wil Jensen) @ Stockton (TBD), 7:05 pm, No Video
ACL Giants Black (TBD) @ ACL Cubs, 6:00 pm, No Video
ACL Giants Orange (TBD) vs. ACL Rockies, 6:00 pm, No Video

Whew! Up to six games per night (and soon to be eight). Guess I’ll need to be a little less verbose going forward! But I always find so many interesting things to talk about. Problems, problems…

Enjoy the full slate everybody. And let’s BEAT L-A!

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Week 8 in Review: How are the Draft Classes…