The South Atlantic League's target player demographic is players drafted out of high school the previous summer entering their first full pro season. Typical age for these players is 18-19 yo. You will also see some lower round college draftees from the previous summer and a few JC draftees. The SAL is generally pitcher friendly and Augusta has been an extremely difficult environment for hitters, although not quite as severely so since moving into the new stadium last season.
The 2019 Augusta Greenjackets had a strong season finishing in first place overall in the Southern Division(3'rd place in the first half) with a record of 77-61. They then lost out in the first round of the playoffs to the Lexington Legends.
OF Diego Rincones(20 yo) was the top hitting performer with a slash line of .295/.346/.415. He tied with 3B/1B Jacob Gonzalez to lead the team in doubles with 25. Gonzalez(21 yo) was repeating the level and struggled to a .679 OPS up a tick from his .627 in 2018. 20 yo OF Ismael Munguia(20 yo) showed off his scrappiness all season with a .286/.343/.376 line adding 13 SB's but with 5 CS. 20 yo C Ricardo Genoves was a late add who hit .292 with 2 HR's in 65 AB. 1B Frankie Tostado(21 yo) led the team in HR's with 18 on a .259 BA. Several 2019 draftees reached the level in their first summer of pro experience, all from the college ranks including 1B Logan Wyatt(.233), SS Tyler Fitzgerald(.264) and IF Simon Whiteman(.269, 16 SB).
On the pitching side, the big story is LHP Seth Corry(20 yo) who had a breakout season after getting his command issues under control. He went 9-3, 1.76, 122.2 IP, 58 BB, 172 K's. The Giants were conservative with their 2018 college pitching draftees and assigned them to the Greenjackets to begin the season. RHP Sean Hjelle(1-2, 2.66, 40.2 IP, 9 BB, 44 K's) and RHP Jake Wong(2-1, 1.99, 40.2 IP, 11 BB, 34 K) were eventually promoted to A+ San Jose. Converted C RHP Jesus Tona(23 yo) was the closer for the first half of the season and garnered 16 Saves and 60 K's in 42 IP. RHP Kai-Wei Teng(20 yo), a big kid from Taiwan made a splash after being acquired in trade(3-0, 1.55, 29 IP, 7 BB, 39 K).
Team Leaders:
BA: Rincones .295, Munguia .286, Tostado .259.
HR: Tostado 18, Gonzalez 10, Aaron Bond/Shane Matheny 7.
SB: Whiteman 16, Munguia 13, Bond 8.
Wins: Corry 9, Keaton Winn 7, JJ Santa Cruz 6.
K's: Corry 172, Winn 99, Adam Oller 93.
Saves: Tona 16, Sandro Cabrera 8, Ryan Walker 7.
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