Giants hitting prospects face a double whammy upon arrival in AA level Richmond. First, AA is considered one of the bigger jumps in competition across the board. Two, the Eastern League, with the exception of Reading, is generally a friendly environment for pitchers and Richmond is the most pitcher-friendly yard in the league. Historically, it's been where hitting prospects hit the wall, never to be heard from again. The target player demographic for AA is HS draftees in their 3'rd full season and college draftees in their second with an age range of 20-23.
2019 was no exception for hitting challenges. It's just that the Flying Squirrels also did not get their usually strong pitching performances and the team struggled to the worst overall record in the EL by a significant margin finishing 55-84.
One bright spot was OF/1B Chris Shaw who took on the challenge of a disappointing assignment and played his way to a midseason promotion to AAA, .288/.368/.500, 7 HR, 160 AB. Another was the late season promotions of top prospects C Joey Bart and OF Heliot Ramos. Bart had struggled a bit after returning from a hand fracture in San Jose, but got the promotion anyway. His bat really took off with a .316/.412/.544 with 4 HR in 79 AB. Ramos was still just 19 yo when he arrived from San Jose. He managed to hold his own with a .242/.321/.421 line with 3 HR's in 95 AB.
2B Jalen Miller(22 yo) got of to a promising start but ground down as the season wore on finishing with a .216 BA. He did manage to hit 11 HR's and steal 27 bases. Hopefully he gets another season to try to get over the Richmond hump. OF Johneshwy Fargas(24 yo) hit just .249 but stole 50 bases. Unfortunately, he also had 223 CS. IF Ryan Howard(25 yo) and OF Jacob Heyward(24 yo) suffered rather severe regressions with BA's of .223 and .209 respectively.
The pitching side was a bit better. RHP Logan Webb(22 yo) started strong, but was hit with a PED suspension. He managed to come back and pitch well enough to get promoted first to AAA then the Giants. His Richmond record was 1-4, 2.18, 41.1 IP, 12 BB, 47 K. LHP Conner Menez(24 yo) also earned promos with a line of 3-3, 2.72, 59.2 IP, 20 BB, 70 K's. He also finished the season in San Francisco. LHP Caleb Baragar(25 yo) and LHP Garrett Williams(25 yo) continued to have control/command issues producing mixed results. Baragar pitched well in the AAA PCL playoffs after a late promotion. RHP Sean Hjelle struggled to an ERA of 6.04 after a late promotion from San Jose. RHP Melvin Adon(25 yo) adjusted to the Closer role with 14 saves, ERA= 2.60. RHP Tyler Cyr(26 yo), RHP Sam Wolff(28 yo) and LHP Sam Moll(27 yo) also showed promise out of the bullpen.
Team Leaders:
BA(100 AB): Shaw- .288, Fargas- .249, Bryce Johnson- .243.
HR: Gio Brusa- 12, Miller- 11, Heyward- 10, Zach Houchins- 10.
SB: Fargas- 50, Miller- 27, Heyward- 10.
Wins: Alfred Gutierrez- 9, Williams-7, Baragar- 5, Brandon Lawson- 5.
K's: Gutierrez- 120, Williams- 108, Baragar- 107.
Saves: Adon- 14, Cyr- 5, Raffi Vizcaino- 4.
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