All Star Day always makes for one of the shortest game slates of the year. Just three games yesterday and only one at night. Nice to let the minor leaguers watch the ASG and dream, but not so great for filling content here at Minor Lines — especially when the games that did occur were on the “offense free” side.

Anyway, I’m guessing you probably want to fill up the empty content by watching every blasted BP swing that Heliot Ramos and Joey Bart took at the All Star game. And I am so here for you!

San Jose lost at Modesto Nuts (Mariners), 4-1

losing their series, 1-2

Despite getting their two middle of the order bats back from a quick jaunt to Cleveland, the San Jose offense stayed steadfastly in the “Snooze” position. They went from the leadoff batter of the 3rd inning on Monday to the leadoff batter of the 5th inning on Tuesday without collecting a single hit. And following Sandro Fabian’s 3-run blast with 0 outs in the first inning Monday, they scored just 1 run over the course of the succeeding 54 outs.

That’s not so great!

That one run scored with two outs in the bottom of the 9th yesterday, thanks to David Villar’s 17th double of the year and Manuel Geraldo’s RBI single. Though I haven’t focussed enough on the efforts of this pair, if you peruse the daily box scores closely enough, you may have noticed that both have been hot for awhile now. But maybe you’re not sure exactly how hot?

3B David Villar (22.5Y), before his elbow injury, for San Jose: 63PA .211/.286/.246, 37K%, 8BB%, 0HR.



Since returning: 197PA .295/.371/.491, 26K, 9BB%, 6HR. — GPT (@giantsprospects) July 9, 2019

Manuel Geraldo continues his midseason turnaround with the #SJGiants as he blasts a two-run triple off the wall in right center. Geraldo was batting .168 on June 8. Has since raised his average 60 points to .228 (.373 AVG last 20 games). — Joe Ritzo (@JoeRitzo) July 7, 2019

One of these days these pieces should start to click together. This is not that day as the 8-12 Giants currently reside in the basement of the Northern Division once again, so far in the second half.

Augusta lost at Columbia Fireflies (Mets), 4-1

Augusta had the inverse game from San Jose. Instead of waiting until 2 outs in the 9th to score their lone run, they pumped it right out with two outs in the 1st. A Frankie Tostado single was all the run scoring they were going to do on this night. And though the pitching was mostly stalwart, Columbia inched ahead in the 4th and gave themselves the breathing room they needed with two in the 8th.

Interestingly, both of the Columbia rallies included outs on the bases, making the final score a little more respectable. Diego Rincones complemented his two hit game with another OF assist at 3b in the middle of the 8th inning rally. I think I’ve warned people about this — do NOT run on Diego Rincones.

And the 4th inning actually ended with an interesting CS at home. It looked to these eyes (and those of the Fireflies Manager) like Keaton Winn balked in response to Sherwyn Newton’s steal attempt — flinching out of his motion and I think stepping off the rubber before his throw home. Newton, the Mets #7 prospect, was a serious annoyance to Winn in this game, doubling off him twice and stealing a bag.

I would have called this a balk personally. pic.twitter.com/J14nIzmUQQ — Roger Munter (@rog61) July 10, 2019

Despite the loss, Augusta maintained a spot at the top of their division, tied with Rome and with Columbia just a game back. It’s really somewhat amazing how competitive this somewhat threadbare roster has been this year.

DSL Giants lost to DSL Royals2, 11-4

The Giants have now dropped 15 of their past 20 games, a stretch that has seen them fall from an early share of 1st place to 12.5 games back and basically buried for the season. And blame can be directed to the vicinity of the pitcher’s mound. The arms have allowed the third most runs in the DSL and the fifth most earned runs. They’ve issued the third most walks. They’ve surrendered the fifth most hits. Any bad result that can issue from pitching a baseball — they’re high on the list of that result. FWIW, they have been a bit above average at striking out hitters, sitting in the 10-15 range most of the time in that category. Not good enough to be among the leaders, but above the median anyway.

Luis Matos kept his 11 game hit streak alive by drilling his 12th double of the year. He managed just the one hit, however, breaking a six-game streak of have multiple hits.

Victor Bericoto and Rayner Santana each reached base safely three times via a combination of hits and walks. Santana’s included his 9th double of the year. The sixteen year old continues the Giants long tradition of finding strong catching prospects in Venezuela.

OF Luis Matos and RHP Yoniel Ramirez have been selected to the DSL NL All-Star team. Game is on July 4th.



Matos (17.5Y): 127PA .363/.417/.628, 14K%, 4BB%, 5HR, 8SB, 175wRC+. Fifth best ISO in the league (out of 309 qualified players).



Ramirez (18.1Y): 15.1IP 13H 9BB 12K. — GPT (@giantsprospects) July 9, 2019

Matos inclusion on All Star roster is no surprise as he’s been the team’s — and one of the league’s — best player. But Yoniel Ramirez causes something of a double take. In 5 games, the 18 year old RHP has a 4.67 ERA with 9 ER in 17.1 IP, and 9 BB to 13 Ks. But pitching stats in the DSL are a particular type of inscrutable, so perhaps this honor is indication of some legitimate stuff behind those pedestrian numbers.

Today’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento: ALL STAR BREAK

Richmond: ALL STAR BREAK

San Jose (Dereck Rodriguez) @ Rancho Cucamonga (Austin Hamilton)

Augusta (Adam Oller) @ Columbia (Tyler Megill)

Salem-Keizer (Kervin Castro) vs. Eugene (Kohl Franklin)

AZL Giants Orange (Jesus Gomez) @ AZL Cubs1 (TBD)

AZL Giants Black (Ivan Armstrong) vs. AZL Royals (TBD)

DSL Giants (Jose Mullings) @ DSL Royals2 (TBD)

Yay, short-season clubs are back! More Luciano and Canario and Toribio. And a strong slate of arms with Dereck Rodriguez, Kervin Castro, and Jesus Gomez heading to the hill. The DSL Giants will begin their day by finishing up a game suspended 8-8 with two outs in the bottom of the 9th and the potential game winning run on 3b — a game which would have already been over when the floods came had they not wasted time blowing a 4-run 9th inning lead. Sigh.

Anyway, excitement’s coming back tonight:

Marco Luciano hit .440/.481/.920 last week with 3 homers.



He already has 7 homers in 64 ABs



Luciano has become a fixture in our Hot Sheet and is a prospect we hope to see at the 2020 Futures Game.



Hot Sheet: https://t.co/99kbyPRrMq



2020: https://t.co/MUSe54iHki pic.twitter.com/QBNoM5AWVD — Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) July 9, 2019