Saturday, June 21, 2014

Down on the Farm: 6/20/2014

AAA  Fresno Grizzlies defeated the New Orleans Zephyrs 7-3:

Gary Brown(CF)- 2 for 5, SB(9).  BA= .269.
Joe Panik(2B)- 3 for 5, 2B, SB(3).  BA= .321.
Nick Noonan(SS)- 2 for 5, 2B.  BA= .236.
Travis Ishikawa(LF-1B)- 2 for 4, HR(5).  BA= .264.
Mike Kickham(LHP)- 6 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 4.07.

Brownie is now hitting .333 over his last 8 games.  Panik keeps peppering the field with hits.  Kickham follows up possibly his worst start of the season with possibly his best.

AA  Richmond Flying Squirrels edged the Erie Seawolves 4-3:

Tyler Graham(.284), Kelby Tomlinson(.244), Ryan Lollis(.236), Jarrett Parker(.243)- 2 hits each.
Myles Schroder(.251)- Solo HR.
Austin Fleet(RHP)- 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 3.45.
Hunter Strickland(RHP)- 1 IP 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 3.72.
Cody Hall(RHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(6).  ERA= 3.09.

Graham and Tomlinson got picked off 3 times between them.  It looks like Cody Hall has inherited the closer role in Richmond from the injured Derek Law.

High A  Visalia Rawhide beat the San Jose Giants 5-3:

Brian Ragira(DH)- 2 for 4.  BA= .233.
Elliott Blair(LF)- 2 for 2, 2 BB.  BA= .292.
Alberto Robles(SS)- 2 for 4. BA= .198.
Pat Young(RHP)- 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 5.57.

Low A  Asheville Tourists defeated the Augusta Greenjackets 4-3:

Chris Lofton(CF)- 3 for 4, 2B.  BA- .227.
Ty Ross(Catcher)- BA= .233.
Rando Moreno(SS)- 2 for 4.  BA= .226.
Keury Mella(RHP)- 6 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K's.  ERA= 3.93.
Carlos Diaz(LHP)- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.11.
Ray Black(RHP)- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 2.51.

Does Mella have another double digit K game this year?  I don't think so.  Dominant secondary numbers for the young fireballer.  It looks like Carlos Diaz is the odd man out of the rotation with Joan Gregorio taking his spot.

Short Season  Hillsboro Hops outpitched the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 2-1:

Johnshwy Fargas(CF)- 3 for 3, 2B, HR(1), BB.  BA= .381.
Nick Gonzalez(LHP)- 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 3.38.
Raymundo Montero(RHP)- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00.

Huge game for Fargas who I am so darn excited to have the the Giants system.  Nick Gonzalez, also a favorite of my from last year's draft, has a strong second start after a shaky first one.

Rookie Arizona  Giants topped the D'Backs 5-3:

Richard Amion(CF)- 0 for 2, 3 BB.  BA= .000.
Julio Pena(RF)- 3 for 4, HR(1).  BA= .750.
Jonah Arenado(3B)- 2 for 4.  BA= .500.
Michael Santos(RHP)- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K's.  ERA= 0.00.
Brandon Farley(RHP)- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 0.00.

I believe Amion is the first 2014 draftee to appear in a game.  Pena is a holdover from last year.  He is 21 years old.  Michael Santos might have been the best pitcher from last year's DSL squad but was shut down after just 4 games.  He is just 18 years old.  Farley pitched last year for Augusta.  He might be on an injury rehab.

DSL  Giants outscored the Rockies 10-9:

Mikey Edie(CF, 16 yo)- 2 for 4, BB, SB(6).  BA= .231.
Robinson Medrano(RF, 18 yo)- 2 for 4, BB.  BA= .329.
Miguel Gomez(C, 21 yo)- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(1).  BA= .333.

17 comments:

  1. That was definitely a career high in K's for Mella. According to David Lee, even the earned runs he allowed were a little misleading, and his defense kind of let him down last night. Lee said he wants to drive the Mella bandwagon train... I told him I'd better be riding shotgun!

    Great night for Fargas! All of a sudden, the Giants have some pretty interesting international talent. I went back yesterday and re-read his Perfect Game profile... "huge tools" was the common that caught my eye.

    Amion and Skyler Ewing were the 2 2014 picks to play for the AZL team. I really like Amion, and there he is taking 3 BB's. The Giants have some interesting leadoff profile players in the system right now. Very nice start for Santos... I remember hearing that he was put on a strength program in the DSL... Pretty sure he signed a couple years ago, but didn't actually pitch competitively for the organization until last summer. I'm also pretty sure he can hit mid-90's with his FB.

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    1. Well, there is an article up over at MCC which calls the Giants farm system a "nuclear wasteland" and that's before all the doom and gloomers take over in the comments section. I honestly don't see it that way.

      Most of the SP's who have struggled a bit are very young for their level and some of them have pitched some pretty good games recently. As far as I can tell, all of them still have good stuff and any or all of them could put it all together and run off a string of dominant starts anytime. Meanwhile, I'd rather have them face their first struggle while they are still developing than after they hit the majors.

      As for hitting, Panik, Duvall, Susac, Duffy and Galindo are all having good to excellent seasons. Get Mac back next year and another year of development for Fargas, maybe, possibly getting Gustavo back on the field(please, please, please), graduate Beltre and Edie to the states, I don't think the position players in the farm system are a wasteland at all. Probably not top 10, mind you, but far from a "nuclear wasteland".

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    2. Hilarious. I had to go check that one out. Do they have some idealized "perfect" farm system? The attitude is that the players that "make it out" somehow do this despite massive front office incompetence. That's always somewhere in the writing for all the site's authors, except the excellent Steve S.

      That particular author is still smarting that John Bowker got traded, and that the Giants didn't understand Freddy Lew's awesome OBP capabilities. Nobody on the site regarded Brandon Crawford as anything, taking the cue from Keith Law no doubt, and adopted Brandon Belt as somehow "theirs" because... of his OBP profile. I busted balls over there a few weeks back with the author - if it was up to him the Giants would have signed up Rafael Furcal. No Craw, no 2nd ring, no nothing. Got tired of the complete disrespect for the front office, who work hard as hell, got tired of getting stalked for not agreeing with doom and gloom, and also got tired of players themselves getting disrespected.

      It hasn't been a good year, and there have been a lot of injuries. You never know what the 2nd half will bring though, I think there's a lot of good things that will shine through. Matt Duffy, Steve Okert, Cody Hall, Joe Panik are already doing extremely well. Take your beats, don't whine about it, grind on. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Also: if that author knew anything about other farm systems he wouldn't be using that language, but its a lazy glance at the top 25 prospects in baseball, no doubt.

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    3. In the Sally, the Giants have 3 of the top 20 performing SPs, as a direct comp. The only "Name" pitcher in the top 20 is Lucas Giolito. Christian Jones and Mella have been quite effective. The other top 20 guy is Lujan, who is old for the league, but what is he supposed to do about that, he had TJ and went undrafted. He earned that SJ promotion quite well. In addition, the other starters (Carlos Diaz, Chase Johnson, Luis Ysla) have pitched OK with flashes of better than OK.

      There's a really interesting poster on Sickels who does some good stat crunching, he's doing the California league next. He told me Chris Stratton actually scored 7th highest. So go figure.

      Its a bummer that Blackburn is hurt. But Crick will stabilize, Blackburn will return from injury and Mejia is already figuring things out. I like all our young pitchers a lot. I expect a couple to shine through in the 2nd half.

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    4. I saw that this morning. What a joke. Hey, I thought Conner P was running the minor league show over there now... At least he puts a positive spin on things!

      To each his own. I suppose that's why the 3 of us run our own programming, huh?

      I can tell you this: I'm working on my mid-season updated prospects list, and there's definitely been a few shakeups. But overall, I'm still impressed with the Giants depth. No, there hasn't been any Belt-ish performances in the first half, you read the recent articles, and all the coaches still use the words Major League to describe a lot of these kids. They'll bounce back.

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    5. And Joe Panik gets the call! Now we'll see if he's a utility infielder or not. Great job Joltin' Joe!

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  2. And hell... let's look at some other teams.

    Ask the Yankees about all those OF bats they have, and how the Eastern is treating them.
    Ask the Braves about Lucas Sims.
    Padres? Austin Hedges can't hit his way out of the Texas league. Max Fried hasn't played.
    White Sox? Tim Anderson and Courtney Hawkins are side by side in the Carolina league, trying to rebound.
    A's? Addison Russell is finally healthy.
    The Rangers? Tons of ink on Joey Gallo, no doubt. How about Alfaro? OPS of 762 in the Carolina league.
    The Cards are always good for some good prospects though: Taveras got most his hits against Giant pitching, then got sent back. And he's the best prospect in baseball or at least top 5. Piscotty? I find it hard to get jealous of a corner OF hitting 310/370/439 in the PCL - those are JOE PANIK numbers!
    The Cubs? Don't talk about Javier Baez, it'll be a big old flame fest. Albert Almora, a top 10 draft pick? Hitting 243.
    The Rocks have David Dahl OPSing 812 in the Sally, just lost Eddie Butler. They have been collecting top 10 draft picks like clockwork.
    The Dodgers? Well, maybe this is the source of the angst. Seager has a 1K OPS in the CA league, Pederson 1017 OPS in the PCL. Urias is doing quite well in limited innings in the CA league also. But Zach Lee is getting hammered in the PCL, Chris Anderson is getting hammered in the CA.
    The Darling Rays? Absolute disaster this year, big club and farm.
    Actually, the unappreciated farm system is the Marlins. They are bringing up youths all over the place, and they're going to be good. Maybe even this year good.

    Thanks for letting me rant for a sec. I can't stand the grass is greener mentality.

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    1. Great round-the-league update Shank, thank you! It's always nice to have an alternate perspective on what happens in the other orgs...

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  3. The Giants farm has always sucked big time, only for the last years have they produced some star players which is great but its not like a common thing. Actually they have all been top 10 picks or very close (Buster, Bumgarner, Lincecum) besides that only Belt (position player) have the Giants produced out of their farm who has helped the big league team and looks like at least a solid avg player.

    It reminds me a bit of like Tampa Bay, who can only produce when they pick in the top 5 or 10.

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    1. Every farm sucks big time. That's the point. The closest to consistency is St. Louis. And they have plenty of misses as well.

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    2. Not top 10 pick or close:

      Crawford
      Belt
      Hector
      Pablo
      Romo
      Gillaspie (with the White Sox)
      Brian Wilson (with the Bums)

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  4. Scoop of the day:

    PANIK= NEW GIANTS 2BMAN.

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    1. Start the Gary Brown slump in 3...2...1...

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    2. Best wishes to the kid.

      He's suited for batting 2nd, but will they move Pence out and put him there?

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    3. Not a chance BLSL.

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    4. Hank Schulman wrote a nice article 3 days ago about the success that Conor Gillaspie is having with the White Sox, where Conor admitted that his immaturity held him back with the Giants. He felt a sense of entitlement being a high draft pick and credited a big part of his success due to an attitude adjustment he made after the trade by keeping his mouth shut and listening to the coaches.. Just speculating, but can't help but wonder if Gary Brown has these same issues and needs to make these attitude adjustments as well for him to get called up..

      LG

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    5. I would say that is a high probability of being correct, LG.

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