Oh the drudgery, the unending toil of searching for a lede, trying to find some new way to capture people’s attention at the top of the post in the dog days when there’s just no news of interest going on at gaaaaah......HELLO there breaking news!

BREAKING: According to source close to situation #SFGiants have called up top prospect Heliot Ramos to the @GoSquirrels from the @SJGiants — Marc Delucchi (@maddelucchi) August 8, 2019

The biggest story possible to start a Minor Lines there couldn’t possibly be anything mooooooo WOAH MEIN GOTT THERE’S MORE!

My story on #SFGiants promoting top prospects Bart, Ramos, Hjelle to Double-A, with comments from farm director Kyle Haines. https://t.co/CYr0Pt6Z1W — Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) August 8, 2019

Live look at Giants fans reacting to the news:

Now that’s a lede!

HIGHLIGHTS: Gio Brusa singled, doubled, tripled; Logan Wyatt hit his first professional HR and drove in three;

Sacramento beat the Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 5-2

Back to back doubles from new RiverCat Joe McCarthy and Levi Michael keyed a three-run rally against the Cardinals #4 prospect Genesis Cabrera. That gave Sacramento an early 4-0 lead and strong pitching made that lead stand up.

McCarthy had a two-hit night, as did Abiatal Avelino. Sacramento also got a monster home run from Francisco Peña who began the year playing for this Memphis squad. Nothing like exacting a little revenge on the club that gave up on you! It was Peña’s 15th HR of the year.

No sco no mo pic.twitter.com/CWXPJvJEia — Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) August 9, 2019

Ryan Dull made his organizational debut, giving up 1 run in his lone inning of work.

With a 9 game lead, Sacramento’s counting down to the playoffs, with a Magic # of 16. Hot!

Cristhian Adames, for your viewing pleasure #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/UyIXWvRHw1 — Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) August 9, 2019

Richmond lost at Altoona Curve (Pirates), 2-0

losing their series, 1-3

Help is on the way, Richmond! Another lugubrious road trip drew a close, not with a bang but with a whimper.

Gio Brusa was holding up his end of the offense, picking up three hits and falling just a home run shy of a cycle but none of his teammates seemed inclined to contribute to the effort.

Gio Brusa is 3-for-3 so far tonight!



2nd inning ➡️ Double

4th inning ➡️ Single

7th inning ➡️ Triple pic.twitter.com/ZKpuy3z6Df — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 9, 2019

Richmond got mostly strong pitching from a trio of arms, including Caleb Simpson, the 27 year old reliever with a big big arm and a long long injury history. Simpson has stayed mostly healthy this year, with just one extended stint on the IL, and has performed well, striking out 40 (though with 26 walks) in 33 IP.





Nasty pitch from Caleb Simpson to close out eighth inning pic.twitter.com/7BXsxs2k0d — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 9, 2019

And now, the 42-72 Squirrels suddenly become the most interesting club in the system for the season’s final weeks. Time for a road trip!

San Jose was OFF

Of course, the loser in that transaction is San Jose, whose path to the playoffs just got a little harder. But they don’t seem to be holding any grudges:

Congratulations to Heliot Ramos, Sean Hjelle, and Joey Bart on being promoted to Richmond! Good luck guys, it’s been a pleasure..... pic.twitter.com/JHQRLJqg5e — San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) August 9, 2019

Augusta lost at Rome Braves, 7-0

Augusta started a crucial series in Rome by laying an egg. Adam Oller was blitzed with a 6-run 2nd inning and 8 of the 9 batters in the lineup failed to record a hit. That’s a pretty successful recipe for a big loss and yes, indeed, it was so. They did scatter six walks, but could never seem to put two base runners in the same inning. For the game they took just two at bats with a runner as far as 2b.

The loss dropped the GreenJackets into a tie for 1st place with Asheville with three weeks to go. The Rome Braves are right on their heels as well just three games back. They were in an almost identical position in the first half and fell just shy in the final week. Push through to the end, Jackets! Get ‘em tomorrow!

Salem-Keizer beat the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks), 3-2

Jasier Herrera, who’s had an excellent campaign for the AZL Black Team, finally made his way out of the desert as the 21 year old RHP was called up to bolster the Volcanoes rotation. In his second year in the AZL, Herrera had posted a 1.99 ERA with 48 Ks against just 8 BBs in 54.1 IP. He drew a tough assignment in the Hops, but Jasier responded, allowing just 1 ER in 5 innings. Just one strikeout, and uncharacteristically two walks, but he limited the traffic. Excellent opening effort, Jasier!

2nd round pick Logan Wyatt provided all the offense for the Volcanoes, driving in all three runs with a pair of hits. That included Wyatt’s first professional HR, a solo shot in the 4th that tied the game 1-1, and a two-out two-run single the next inning to give the Volcanoes the lead.

The Hops and the Volcanoes have been by far the class of the NWL this year — in fact, there’s only one other club (the North Division leading Spokane) that has a winning record on the year. That would seem to set up the mini-round of the playoffs as the real hurdle to a championship.

AZL Giants Orange beat the AZL Padres2, 5-1

AZL Giants Black beat the AZL Royals, 2-0

Team Orange can’t lose. Now 9-1 in their last 10 games, the Orange men have pushed their record to a league best (by a lot) 33-9. They look to be cruising their way to a first round bye. PJ Hilson reached base twice and stole his 11th base of the year, while Marco Luciano drove in two runs without a hit last night, while walking once.

And speaking of Marco, official “friend of Minor Lines” Jason Pennini dropped some fantasy-inducing video of the wunderkind yesterday — look for a lot more from Jason on the Giants camp in the coming days.

Marco Luciano crushing baseballs from just about every vantage point you'd want to see: pic.twitter.com/uKpK8s45Cw — Jason Pennini (@JasonPennini) August 8, 2019

Jairo Pomares got his usual allotment of hits, giving him an 11 game hitting streak. Just as a reminder: Jairo has as many 4-hit games this year as he has 0-hit games (2 each).

Nineteen year old RHP Ivan Armstrong has had maybe more downs than ups in his first year in Scottsdale, but over his last four efforts he’s clawed his ERA down from nearly 11.00 to under 7.00 — which is progress! And in his last two appearances he’s thrown 7 scoreless innings with 9 Ks and 0 BBs — which is definite progress! On the year he has 24 Ks and 17 BBs in 27.1 innings with 21 earned runs allowed.

Catcher Keybert Mejias has seen very little action this year after coming up from the DSL. He caught just 7 games with Salem-Keizer while backing up Ricardo Genoves, and yesterday played his 1st game in the AZL. That’s just 38 total At Bats for the 19 year old on the year.

DSL Giants lost to DSL Mariners, 10-4

If you thought pictures from Wednesday’s game were a treat — what would you say to streaming video? Seriously. I have video evidence!

Luis Matos smacks a single to open today’s DSL Giants game. You can watch the entire game ⁦@antoniopuesan⁩ twitter feed. Amazing! pic.twitter.com/SONELajkMm — Roger Munter (@rog61) August 8, 2019

What frabjous times we live in! You can watch the complete game — in which the Giants got out hit 16-5 so maybe you don’t really want to — here:

It’s a glorious time to be a prospect follower.

Today’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento (Yoanys Quiala) vs. Memphis (Daniel Ponce de Leon)

Richmond (Brandon Lawson) vs. Bowie (Tyler Herb)

San Jose (Jake Wong) vs. Modesto (TBD)

Augusta (TBD) @ Rome (Ricky DeVito)

Salem-Keizer (TBD) vs. Hillsboro (Ryne Nelson)

AZL Giants Orange (Nick Morreale) vs. AZL Royals (TBD)

AZL Giants Black (Cole Waites) @ AZL Athletics Green (TBD)

DSL Giants (Luis Castillo) @ DSL Tigers2 (TBD) Gm 1

DSL Giants (TBD) @ DSL Tigers2 (TBD) Gm 2

Coming down to the end, but still things to anticipate and excite before the autumn leaves come. Tonight’s anticipated debuts in Richmond are ones to savor. How rare is Heliot Ramos’ appearance in Richmond?

When Heliot Ramos makes his debut for Richmond, he will join WSH prospect SS Luis Garcia and NYY prospect RHP Deivi Garcia as the only teenagers to play in the Eastern League this year. — GPT (@giantsprospects) August 8, 2019

Ramos will be the first teenager who has ever played for the Richmond Flying Squirrels and the first teen the Giants have sent to AA since Madison Bumgarner played for the Connecticut Defenders back in 2009.

Go get ‘em kids! We’ll be watching here at Minor Lines. Always.