The Arizona League is a "rookie" league designed as an entry level experience into pro baseball for players drafted out of high school and for DSL graduates. The target age, so to speak, for the league is 18 yo(compared to 17 yo for the DSL). Over the past several years, the Giants and many other organizations also send their college draftees there for a few PA's or IP before sending them up to Salem-Keizer and the Northwest League which targets college draftees for their first pro experience. The AZL tends to be very hitter friendly and a tough environment for pitchers.
For the past 2 seasons, the Giants have fielded two AZL teams dubbed Orange and Black. This season, Giants Black was the less successful of the two finishing 6'th place overall in the AZL East. Again, the point of all this is not to win minor league championships but to develop players for the MLB team and Giants Black had several interesting young players to dream on. Giants Black had their share of passing-throughs including OF Harrison Freed(25 AB), 1B/OF Logan Wyatt(24 AB), SS Tyler Fitzgerald(11 AB), IF Carter Aldrete(66 AB), OF Tyler Wyatt(58 AB), C Brandon Martorano(21 AB) and OF Armani Smith(19 AB). We'll talk about them more in the Salem-Keizer review.
OF Jairo Pomares, one of the "big 3" July 2, 2018 international signings was in his age 18 season(turned 19 yo on 8/4). He started the short season with a 12 game hit streak and ended with a stat line of .368/.401/.542, 10 2B, 4 3B, 3 HR, 5 SB. He got a late season promotion to Salem-Keizer where he had more modest numbers in a very small sample. OF Grant McCray(18 yo) was the Giants 3'rd round draft pick. He started off slow with a .114 BA in June but then came on strong with a .292 in July and .321 in August. He hit .400 over his last 10 games. His final line was a respectable .270/.379/.335, 5 2B, 2 3B, HR, 17 SB. He showed strong plate discipline with a 13.6% walk rate. 1B Garrett Frechette(18 yo) was the Giants 5'th round draft pick. He showed a sweet swing and put up a respectable .290/.364/.366, 7 2B, 2 3B line. IF Ghordy Santos(20 yo) struggled in 2 DSL seasons but had no trouble in the AZL slashing .314/.398/.430 but his season was cut short on July 27. No word on why. Finally, SS Dilan Rosario(18 yo) was the Giants 6'th round pick. He showed some speed and pop with 5 HR and 9 SB but struggled to make contact with a .214 BA.
Much like the DSL Giants, Giants Black struggled mainly due to poor pitching. The most effective SP for the Black was RHP Jasier Herrera(21yo) with a line of 6-1, 1.99, 54.1 IP, 8 BB, 48 K. LHP Sonny Vargas(18 yo) struck out 57 batters in 53.2 IP, but with an ERA of 5.03.
Team Leaders:
BA: Pomares(.368), Frechette(.290), McCray(.270).
HR: Rosario(5), George Bell(3), Pomares(3).
SB: McCray(17), Santos(10), Rosario(9).
Wins: Herrera(6), Ben Strahm(3), Jose Cruz(2).
K's: Vargas(57), Herrera(48), Cruz(45).
Saves: Brooks Crawford(3), Randy Rodriguez(2), Strahm(2).
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