AAA: Sacramento River Cats smothered the Salt Lake City Bees 7-1.
Max Stassi C- 3 for 3, HR(1), BB. BA= .245.
Hunter Bishop RF- 2 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .214.
Osleivis Basabe 2B- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .237.
Carson Whisenhunt LHP- 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.00.
Kai-Wei Teng RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 6.23.
Stassi was activate today from the IL which started 4/29 retroactive to 4/26. This was Carson Whisenhunt's 4'th consecutive 7-inning Quality Start. He has not allowed an Earned Run in his last 2 starts. Over the 28 innings of those 4 starts he has 28 K's and just 2 BB's. I think a commenter yesterday said The Whiz is knocking at the door. Yes, I would say so.
AA: Erie Seawolves downed the Richmond Flying Squirrels 7-4.
Diego Velasquez 2B- 1 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .281.
Cal Mitchell CF- 1 for 2, HR(2), BB. BA= .158.
Aeverson Arteaga SS- 1 for 4, HR(2). BA= .207.
Braxton Roxby RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.93.
A+: Eugene Emeralds topped the Spokane Indians 3-1.
Bo Davidson CF- 1 for 2, 2 BB, SB(4). BA= .336.
James Tibbs III RF- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .226.
Cole Foster SS- 1 for 2, HR(2). BA= .156.
Shane Rademacher RHP- 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 1.94.
Esmerlin Vinicio LHP- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 6.00.
A: Stockton Ports outscored the San Jose Giants 7-6.
Walker Martin SS- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .235.
Robert Hipwell 3B- 2 for 4, HR(3). BA= .204.
Gerelmi Maldonado RHP- 2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 4.32.
Tyler Switalski RHP- 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 4.86.
Maldonado threw 48 pitches in the first two innings which I am sure is why his start ended then. Robert Hipwell is batting .302/.434/.558 for the month of May so far after hitting just .133 in April.
Is it worrisome that the 5 Giant farm teams are collectively 78-95, and only the SJ Giants are standing tall above water while the Flying Squirrels are hopelessly grounded?
ReplyDeleteOr is it OK that at each level there are at least a few (or more) legit prospects, and that there seem to be some rising stars spread throughout the system?
It is comforting that there is a lot of pitching also spread out in the system, which, if nothing else, can be traded for some more hitting.
Or is this just overreacting?
Ideally we want the farm teams to win and the recent drubbings and almost total lack of hitting in AA is definitely an issue of concern. On the other hand, the minor leagues are all about player development and there are legit prospects performing well at every level so not as bad a situation as the overall W-L record might indicate.
DeleteWhat worries me is the total lack of bats at AAA and AA outside of Eldridge and maybe Velasquez, Hopefully Davidson can continue his excellence when he moves up to Rich...and we wait for the bats in SJ to move up...still the Giants have to beef up this part of their organization even if it takes dealing pitching, which I am quite happy with, for it.
DeleteSpeaking of that, if Verlander has a legitimate injury, who is the next man up for the rotation after Birdsong replaces Hicks?..WHIZ or Harrison (who may be better off in the bullpen where the Giants need another LHRP).
Also, eventually Hicks and Doval and Walker might be overkill in the bull[enand one could be used to beef up another area
Will be interesting ..great to have young pitiching depth (both starters and relievers).
SteveVA
The Giants seem to have done better with international signings over the past 3 years but those players are still at the lower levels and it remains to be seen whether top signees Rayner Arias, Jhonny Level and Josuar Gonzalez develop into highly ranked prospects at higher levels.
DeleteWe will not see a lot of impact bats in the minors at the upper levels because Farhan's group concentrated on pitchers in the MLB draft up until the 2022 draft (that was the Reggie Crawford and Whisenhunt draft). In 2023 and 2024, they pivoted to position players. Farhan did go after position players early in his tenure but the higher draft choices were injured (Bishop) or ineffective (Wyatt). Evaluating players for the MLB draft is harder because it takes years for player to develop and unlike NFL or NBA, many of the first rounders don't succeed and most players drafted don't make it. Drafting can only go so far, then development or luck take over. The lack of bats at upper level is somewhat by design because Farhan's group drafted pitchers in the first nine rounds in 2021 and 10 pitchers in the first 12 rounds in the 2022 draft. Also, they've had bad luck with their first round picks (Bishop, R Crawford, and Bednar) so that puts a lot of pressure on the organization to get more out of the players selected in the later rounds.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of bats is at AAA and AA is concerning because free agent hitters tend to not want to come to play in Oracle Park and there is a greater importance to have to develop hitters from within.
It s still too early to really tell on evaluating drafts 2021 and after because of the effects of COVID on minor league systems. When they picked Bednar in 2021, Jackson Merrill and Mason Miller were still on the board but a lot of other teams had a chance to pick those two but did not. In the 2022 Crawford draft, they had a chance to pick Dalton Rushing but probably did not because they already had Bailey. Its not like Farhan whiffed on those picks but more that MLB draft is more of an inexact science. MLB doesn't have guys like Mel Kiper researching all the prospects and most of the good information I get is from DrB's "scouting the draft" posts that he did in January.
ReplyDeleteBaseball America and MLB Pipeline are the two best sources of MLB draft information, IMO. BA is behind a paywall. MLB Pipeline is free. I used to find good stuff about high school prospects on Perfect Game but they have put almost all their information behind paywalls now.
DeleteGiants have Ramos, Lee, and Matos through 2029, Luciano, Encarnación, McCray, and Meckler through 2030, Bericoto (Sac) for longer, could sign YtY for a year or ?
ReplyDeleteFor those Jon Oliver fans, he has been doing some pieces on his show regarding the names and mascots of minor league baseball teams. He offered any minor league team who wrote in a chance to have his show rebrand the name of the team and their mascot with the caveat the minor league team had no say in the final decision.
ReplyDeleteOver 40% of minor league teams wrote in wanting the opportunity and they ended up choosing the Erie Seawolves ( in part because there is no "sea" near Erie) and will unveil their new name and mascot soon. Been a lot of fun watching and has highlighted the fun than minor league baseball offers. Will be interesting ( and I am sure probably clever) to see what they come up with! As a side note, I didn't realize he was a huge Mets fan!
Billy Baseball