Down on the Farm: 4/20/2022

AAA:  Oklahoma City Dodgers outscored the Sacramento River Cats 9-8:

Luis Gonzalez DH- 2 for 5, SB(4).  BA= .283.

Heliot Ramos CF- 2 for 4.  BA= .235.

David Villar 3B- 3 for 5, 2B.  BA= .283.

Austin Dean RF- 1 for 5, HR(2).  BA= .162.

Ricardo Genoves C- 1 for 4, HR(2).  BA= .237.

Bryce Johnson LF- 2 for 4, SB(6).  BA= .300.

Patrick Ruotolo RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K.  ERA= 0.00.

Patrick Ruotolo makes his first AAA appearance a success.  He has a lot of fans among Giants prospect watchers. 

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AA:  Erie Seawolves defeated the Richmond Flying Squirrels 6-2:

Matt Frisbee RHP- 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 3.38.

Frisbee got hit with the L in his first start of the season despite allowing just 1 run and the Squirrels scoring 2.

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A+:  Eugene Emeralds at Vancouver Canadians Postponed.

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A:  San Jose Giants blanked the Visalia Rawhide 1-0:

Victor Bericoto 1B- 2 for 3, BB, SB(1).  BA= .242.

Nick Sinacola RHP- 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K's.  ERA= 3.00.

Keaton Winn RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 7.20.

Trevor McDonald RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 0.00.

Per Twitter reports and video Sinacola featured a wipeout slider on most of those K's.  Keaton Winn reportedly hit 100 MPH with the FB.  McDonald now has 13 K's and 2 BB's in 7.2 IP over 4 appearances.

Game Wrap 4/20/2022: Giants 5 Mets 2

 The Giants ran up a 5-0 lead behind 5 innings of shutout pitching from Carlos Rodon LHP and coasted the rest of the way to get back on the winning side of the W-L ledger.  

Mike Yastrzemski RF- 2 for 5.  BA= .200.  Maybe a couple of singles is what YtY needs to get going?  Unfortunately he got thrown out at 2B trying to stretch one into a double.

Brandon Belt DH- 1 for 3, HR(4), BB.  BA= .282.  Belt homers on his birthday.  

Joc Pederson LF- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .333.  Pederson stays hot.  So far, he's been the bargain of the offseason after what seemed like almost a desperation signing by the Giants. 

Joey Bart C- 0 for 4, 3 K's, Throw Out(Starling Marte at 2B).  BA= .207.   The K's are really starting to pile up for Bart.  He still made a big contribution to this win by gunnnning down Marte, who is no slouch at stealing bases, like he was playing catch with 2B.

Carlos Rodon LHP- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 1.06.  95 is a lot of pitches for 5 innings but if Rodon pitches 150 innings over 30 starts with a 1.06 ERA, the Giants will consider his contract a bargain.

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Giants try for a series split in an early game tomorrow with Anthony DeSclafani RHP facing Carlos Carrasco RHP.

Down on the Farm: 4/19/2022

AAA: Oklahoma City Dodgers pounded the Sacramento River Cats 10-4:

Luis Gonzalez CF- 1 for 5, HR(3).  BA= .268.

Heliot Ramos DH- 0 for 2, 2 BB, HBP.  BA= .200.

Jaylin Davis RF- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(2), BB.  BA= .295.

Arquimedes Gamboa SS- 2 for 3, BB.  BA= .290.

Sean Hjelle RHP- 3.2 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 2.19.

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AA:  Richmond Flying Squirrels vs Erie Seawolves postponed.

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A+:  Eugene Emeralds edged the Vancouver Canadian 6-5:

Marco Luciano SS- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(2).  BA= .345.  

Armani Smith LF- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .348.

Luis Toribio 1B- 2 for 4, 3B, HR(2).  BA= .250.

Seth Corry LHP- 0.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 3.86.

Nick Avila RHP- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's, Save(1).  ERA= 1.92.

Marco Luciano, rated the Giants top prospect by most analysts is quietly off to a great start in A+ at age 20.  Nick Avila had a couple of impressive appearances in spring training and turns in an impressive Save here.

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A:  San Jose Giants scored 5 runs in the 10'th inning to double up the Visalia Rawhide 10-5:

Victor Bericoto RF/1B- 3 for 5, 2B, BB.  BA= .200.

Dilan Rosario SS- 1 for 4, 2 BB.  BA= .333.

Eric Silva RHP- 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 1.93.

Esmerlin Vinicio LHP- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 10.80.

Evan Gates RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00.

Julio Rodriguez RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K.  ERA= 2.25.

Game Wrap 4/19/2022: Mets 5 Giants 4(10 innings); Mets 3 Giants 1

 The Giants dropped both ends of a twinbill in New York after a weather postponement yesterday.  Given all that, the outcome probably should not be a surprise.  I'll try to keep it short as the details are too painful to write up.

Bad News:  Alex Cobb RHP was cruising through 4 IP in game 1 then gave up a single, force out and consecutive doubles to start the 5'th inning then came out of the game with an adductor strain.  He was placed on the 10 day IL between games.

Joc Pederson LF hit his 3'rd HR, a solo shot in Game 1.

Logan Webb RHP didn't have command of his sinker in game 2 and had a rough start that ended after allowing 3 runs in 3.2 IP.  That's not going to get it done when you are facing Max Scherzer RHP.

Bright spot in this one was Yunior Marte RHP, added to the roster between games.  He pitched the 9'th inning throwing 98 MPH and striking out the side.

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Carlos Rodon LHP tries to get the Giants back on track tomorrow evening facing Chris Bassitt RHP.

Down on the Farm: What We Learned From Week 2

1.  David Villar 3B and Sean Roby 3B/1B hit home runs.  Villar quietly had a great season last year for AA Richmond and hit 20 HR's.  He already has 5 for the AAA Sacramento River Cats.  Roby just a quietly hit 19 HR's for A+ Eugene last year and tops Villar with 6 already for Richmond.  Despite all that, neither of them are frontrunners to be the Giants 3B of the future.  That would be Casey Schmitt 3B who is at at Eugene to start the season. 

2.  Brett Auerbach can play many positions.  Auerbach's primary position is catcher but he also played all 3 OF positions last year over 2 levels.  This season he's already played C, 2B, 3B, LF and CF for AA Richmond Flying Squirrels.  Even better he's slashing .294/.400/.471 in a tough hitting environment.  This week, Kap used Joey Bart as a DH on a day Curt Casali was the catcher.  The risk in that is if Casali has to come out for some reason they lose the DH for the rest of the game.  A utility player who can be more than an emergency catcher would largely eliminate that risk.

3.  Marco Luciano SS is off to a hot start in A+ Eugene.  Luciano is slashing .320/.357/.520 after 7 games.  It's still early but on the negative side Patrick Bailey C and Hunter Bishop OF are still struggling hitting .190 and .148 respectively.

4.  Kyle Harrison LHP's second A+ start was even better than his first.  Harrison's line for his first start was 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K's.  He bettered that for his second start, 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K's.  

5. Will Bednar RHP's second start went better than his first.  First a reminder that Will Bednar was the Giants first round draft pick last year.  His first full season start was marred by 2 walks and 5 HBP's in 3.2 innings of work.  More worrisome, his FB reportedly topped out at 92 MPH.  His second start went better was his FB was reported to be 93-95 MPH and he walked just 1 batter and struck out 5 in 4 IP.

Bonus:  Pace of Play rules work.  I haven't been able to verify this one but I saw a Twitter report that under new pace of play rules which were enforced over this weekend, average length of games was shortened by 30 min.  That's significant and would definitely make the game more enjoyable to watch.  The first game it was enforced at AA level, Giants pitching prospect Kai-Wei Teng RHP who is known to be a "deliberate" worker, was reportedly dinged with a ball call for taking too long between pitches.  It does work both ways as Pirates Prospect Nick Gonzalez 2B is said to have gotten hit with a strike call for taking too long.  That's all good.  Looking forward to some meaningful measures to shorten games at the MLB level.

What We Learned in Week Two

 It's really the end of the first full week but since we did early takes on the first weekend, we'll call this week two.

1.  The pitching looks better than good.  Giants pitching had a good first weekend but it got even better this week.  We are approaching two trips through the starting rotation and the Giants have the lowest team ERA, FIP and fWAR in MLB.  So far, Logan Webb and Carlos Rodon have lived up to their co-ace status and the rest of the rotation has been solid.  Coming into the second weekend series the Guardians had the best offense in MLB by a large margin. The Giants pitching shut them down holding them to a total of 4 runs in 3 games.  If you break it down into component parts and secondary stats, it all looks sustainable and deep enough to withstand an injury or two down the road if necessary.

2.  The bullpen is still unsettled but coming into focus.  The bullpen had a rough opening day and a shaky first weekend but is showing signs of settling in.  Rather than rely on a single Closer, it appears Kap is either going with matchups or some sort of rotation system or maybe some of both.  Doval, Leone and McGee have gotten Save Opps.   It looks like those three will mix, match and rotate until/unless one of them emerges as more dominant than the others.  Doval is the guy who appears to have the tools to do just that, but is still working on trusting his stuff.

3.  The kids are still alright....sort of.  Joey Bart had a big night on Friday and Thairo Estrada leads the team in RBI's, but Heliot Ramos got sent back down, though not his fault, and Mauricio Dubon has all but disappeared.  Bart will continue to get every opportunity to establish himself as a start.  I expect we'll see Ramos back to stay before the season is out.  Estrada has positioned himself as the #1 infielder off the bench after rosters are reduced which may come at Dubon's expense.

4.  Brandon Belt is in the peak of his career.  Since the beginning of 2020, Belt has hit 41 HR's in 594 PA's.  That's pretty much one full season of PA's.  He is not just hitting for power.  Those HR's come with a cumulative BA of .288 and an OBP of .396.  The Captain just needs to stay healthy for a full season and we will see something special.

5.  If it looks to you like the Giants are hitting in bad luck, they are.  While the Giants are 13'th in BA but rank #3 in Average Exit Velocity and #4 in Barrel%.  BTW, guess who has the highest Average Exit Velocity in MLB:  That would be Joc Pederson at 102 MPH.  In short, the Giants hitting is better than it looks and should get better when regressions set in.

Down on the Farm: 4/17/2022

AAA:  Reno Aces blanked the Sacramento River Cats 1-0:

Mauricio Llovera RHP- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 0.00.

Unusual score for a ballpark that is usually a launching pad.  This was Llovera's 4'th appearance on the season.  He has 11 K's and just 1 BB in 7.2 IP. 

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AA:  Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Altoona Curve 6-2(10 innings):

Will Wilson SS- 1 for 5, HR(2).  BA= .242.

Tristan Beck RHP- 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 6 K's.  ERA= 4.00.

RJ Dabovich RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 6.75.  

Wilson's HR was a walk-off grand slam in the 10'th inning.

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A+:  Spokane Indians pounded the Eugene Emeralds 8-1:

Hunter Bishop RF- 1 for 5, HR(1).  BA= .148.

This game started out on a hopeful note as Hunter Bishop hit his first HR of the season leading off the Ems half of the first inning.  Not much else good happened here.

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A:  Fresno Grizzlies edged the San Jose Giants 2-1:

Aeverson Arteaga SS- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .267.

Matt Mikulski LHP- 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 1.13.

Mat Olsen RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00.

Trevor McDonald RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.

Giants took a 1-0 lead into the 9'th inning but the Grizzlies scored 2 unearned runs for the win.