Sunday, July 18, 2010

Down on the Farm: 07-18-2010

AAA Fresno Grizzlies mauled the Las Vegas 51's 12-2:

Emmanuel Burriss- 3 for 5, 2B. BA= .301.
Ryan Rohlinger- 1 for 3, HR(4), 2 BB. BA= .317.
John Bowker- 2 for 5, HR(10). BA= .304.
Jesus Guzman- 3 for 5. BA= .308.
Brett Pill- 2 for 5, HR(11). BA= .282.
Brock Bond- 2 for 5. BA= .295.
Tyler Graham- 3 for 5. BA= .346.
Jackson Williams- 1 for 3, HR(1). BA= .161.
Matt Yourkin- 7 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.39.

Burriss is hitting .350 over his last 10 games and is 6 for 10 in his last 2. Pill had been slumping badly and is hitting just .118 including tonight's hits. I don't know what kind of stuff Yourkin throws, but he's a big LHP and I really like the lines he's put up lately. He's run off a string of 6 consecutive Quality Starts. His line over that time: 2-1, 1.98, 39.2 IP, 3 BB, 40 K's. He's 29 years old as of July 4, but hey, look at what Andres Torres has done as a late bloomer!

AA Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Bowie Baysox 4-2:

Darren Ford- 3 for 4, 2B. BA= .239.
Thomas Neal- 2 for 4. BA= .287.
Conor Gillaspie- 1 for 2, 3B(6), 2 BB. BA= .273.
Craig Westcott- 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 2.50.
Rafael Cova- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, Save(16). ERA= 2.34.

Conor Gillaspie is hitting .424 over his last 10 games. Craig Westcott's stock would seem to have taken a big step up this season pitching successfully as a starter at both High A and AA levels.

High A San Jose Giants stomped the Lancaster Jethawks 7-1:

Juan Perez- 3 for 4, 2B. BA= .301.
Ehire Adrianza- 2 for 5. BA= .259.
Charlie Culberson- 4 for 5, SB(18). BA= .331.
Johnny Monell- 2 for 4, 2B, SB(10). BA= .239.
James Simmons- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .228.
Eric Surkamp- 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.11.
Ryan Verdugo- 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA- 2.61.
Brian Anderson- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.41.

Surkamp came out after a comebacker or bunt was ruled a basehit. I assume he was shaken up on the play. Maybe it's about time for Charlie Culberson to get his feet wet in AA? Only reason to not do it is it would displace Nick Noonan. Juan Perez has it going again with 4 multi-hit games in his last 5.

Low A Augusta Greenjackets topped the Charleston River Dogs 3-1:

Chris Dominguez- 2 for 4, HR(14). BA= .264.
Chris Heston- 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 4.52.
Wilmin Rodriguez- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.86
Jose Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(7). ERA= 0.94.

Short Season Vancouver Canadians smacked the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 7-4:

Chris Lofton- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .284.
Jose Medina- 2 for 4, SB(2), OF Assist. BA= .291.
Kevin Couture- 5 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.47.
Matt Graham- 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 8.04

At least Graham's K's are encouraging. He's 20 years old, but gotta remember this is his first pro experience out of HS against mostly college draftees, some from last year!

Rookie AZL Giants shut out the Rangers 3-0:

Jose De La Cruz- 2 for 4, OF Assist. BA= .396.
Rafael Rodriguez- 1 for 3. BA= .200.
Kendry Flores- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 6.04.
Kelvin Marte- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.05.

Look over on my list of links to the left and click on azgiants.com. Joe Pun has some great pics up from a recent game between the AZL Giants and the Royals. The thing I'd like to point out is the athleticism of several of the players, RafRod, De La Cruz, Charlie Jones and Windster stand out for me. Put those with the Brandon Belts, Thomas Neal's and Charlie Culberson's in the higher levels and compare it with the days when Nate Schierholtz, Fred Lewis and Dan Ortmeier were the most athletic looking players in the system. It looks to me like the Giants are doing a much better job of scouting, drafting and signing good athletes who can also play. They may be a bit more raw and take longer to develop, but the ones who make it all the way will be much better MLB players than more polished guys without to tools. Assuming we sign Jarrett Parker, I'd include him in the type of player I'm talking about here. Although Gary Brown has a ton of speed and is obviously very athletic, I don't see him in the same light because I don't think he projects for a lot more power in the future.

DSL AL All-Stars scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9'th inning for a come from behind win over the NL All-Stars 4-3:

Christian Paulino- 0 for 2.
Leonardo Fuentes- 1 for 1, 2B, BB.

3 comments:

  1. Sorry, but Yourkin just smells like a AAAA pitcher at this point, he should be totally shutting the hitters down if he were any good. No use getting people's hopes up by pointing out Torres.

    But Bowker, wow, do you think they will bring him up when they send down a pitcher, or will Burriss get the call? I would hope Bowker, but suspect Burriss because of the MI situation.

    Don't know anything about Cova, what's the good (or bad) word about him?

    Didn't Culberson play a lot of 3B last season? Maybe he can come up to AA and play there as well as 2B? Plus maybe a little SS too? Or they could provide Gillaspie to AAA to play 3B?

    Thanks for the observation about more athletic prospects in the system. I did not know that. Would you credit that to John Barr's influence?

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  2. Culberson played 3B last year, but not very well. He made a ton of errors. I think that's why the Giants moved him to 2B where he looks much more comfortable.

    Not sure I agree on Yourkin. The PCL is a pretty extreme hitters league and not just because the pitchers are bad, Brian Sabean's comments notwithstanding. Usually PCL numbers translate pretty evenly to the majors, at least until MLB hitters get a book on the pitcher in question.

    Cova is another guy who's been around awhile. Don't know too much about him, but I think I've read that he throws pretty hard and he's put up good numbers.

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  3. As for the Barr influence and athleticism, hard to say. The Giants seem to have several layers of authority in scouting/playerdevelopment. Maybe it's this guy:

    http://baseballbeginnings.com/2009/08/31/mapson-qa/#more-2592

    ReplyDelete