The SJ Giants won a tight game 7-6 in 10 innings to take their second consecutive California League Championship winning the 5 games series with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 3 games to 2:
Juan Perez- 1 for 6, 3B. After a tough night, Perez tripled in the top of the 10'th and scored the winning run on a SF.
Jose Flores- 2 for 4, 2 BB.
Johnny Monell- 1 for 4, 2 BB.
Charlie Culberson- 2 for 5, 2B, SF. Culberson's SF was the game winner.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 3, HR, 2 BB, S. Is Crawford ready to challenge for the starting SS gig in SF next spring? I say he needs AB's in the minors due to too much missed time this season from injury.
Justin Fitzgerald- 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. Fitz was pitching on 3 days rest.
Wilmin Rodriguez- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K's.
Jose Casilla- 1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 1 K.
Jason Stoffel- 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. Casilla and Verdugo couldn't get out of the 8'th. Stoffel came in and kept it to a tie and then brought it home into extra innings. Stoffel has been inconsistent and pitched in some bad luck this year, but he was nails in this game.
Mike Trout- 2 for 3, BB, SB. Trout again impresses here. I remember there was some talk about the Giants looking at him for the 2009 draft. I'm not unhappy with the Wheeler pick at all. He's the best pitching prospect in a Giants system that is suddenly thin at pitcher, but my goodness! Trout is widely considered the top prospect in baseball going into next season and he certainly backed up that notion with his play in this series. The Angels CF of the future!
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Not that I don't enjoy championships, but why was Brandon Crawford playing there after playing in AA for the past year and a part? Not that he has done particularly well there, but still.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for a great season of reporting on the Giants minor leagues and the swell discussions!
Hopefully the MLB level can duplicate! :^)
It's not at all unheard of for organizations to send players DOWN for the minor league playoffs. In one extreme example, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes started MLB pitcher Joel Piniero in one of the earlier rounds because he needed the rehab start. A few years ago, Kevin Frandsen started out in San Jose and got promoted first to AA and then to AAA. He asked to go back to San Jose for the playoffs because he enjoyed playing with the other guys on that team so much. In Crawford's case, he missed a large chunk of the year with an injury and I'm sure the Giants wanted him to get some AB's before the season ended.
ReplyDeleteSorry that I didn't explain more of my thought, had a busy, busy day yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI'm aware that the Giants have done this before. In fact, they have done it so much (I think they did it with Fred Lewis too one season) that one or more of the Cal League teams complained about this, as they did not think it was fair of the Giants to essentially bring in ringers to win the championships. From what I read, the Giants had moved away from doing this, so that is why I was surprised by the Crawford usage.
I guess we don't get a SS spot in the AFL this season, else Crawford could go there and rehab instead.
I think there is some rule that a player can't go to AFL two years in a row or something like that.
ReplyDeleteOh really? I didn't know that. Thanks!
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