Things you probably didn’t expect to read this year: Giants prospects are dominating the HR leaderboards!

Giants prospects lead or are tied for the lead in home runs in three leagues:



NWL:

1. OF Franklin Labour: 5

2. C Ricardo Genoves: 4



Third best in league is just two HR.



AZL:

1. OF Alexander Canario: 4

2. (tied) SS Marco Luciano: 3



DSL:

1. (tied) OF Luis Matos: 5 — GPT (@giantsprospects) June 25, 2019

That after Matos homered twice yesterday to continue the week’s trend, while Heliot Ramos dusted himself off and picked himself up in San Jose.

HIGHLIGHTS: Heliot Ramos singled, doubled and homered; Gregory Santos allowed 3 hits, 4 Ks in 4 IP; Luis Matos hit 2 HRs; Victor Bericoto reached base four times.

Sacramento lost at El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres), 12-11

For some reason, this story came to mind while watching this game:

Yes, the baseball is different — again. Astrophysicist @Bbl_Astrophyscs studied this season’s balls and found a number of changes that, taken together, may explain the current home run surge. https://t.co/dg2L7aj6lk — The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) June 25, 2019

For the first time in their history Sacramento allowed 20 hits in back to back games, dropping the opening game in El Paso in a real PCL doozy. The game saw seven lead changes among its 23 runs scored.

Chris Shaw and newly acquired Joey Rickard provided 6 hits at the top of the RiverCats lineup to lead the offense. That included Shaw’s 6th PCL bomb, one of three homers Sacramento hit in the game.

Chris Shaw loves El Paso. That’s one inviting target in the Big Dog House! pic.twitter.com/THfHVXFWPE — Roger Munter (@rog61) June 26, 2019

Sacramento went to the Opener strategy with Ray Black starting things off. His two-hit, one-run inning turned out to be one of the more successful pitching lines of the day. Ty Blach was hounded mercilessly (see what I did there?) by the Yapping Dogs, surrendering 8 runs on 13 hits. Still he got the ball to Williams Jerez with an 8th inning lead, but Jerez couldn’t find the missing 3rd out, giving up three runs and the game.

Richmond lost to Altoona Curve (Pirates) 5-1

Lots of changes for the Richmond team this week. Ryan Howard returned from Sacramento while Brandon Van Horn headed back down to San Jose. Peter Maris and Bryce Johnson are both coming up from San Jose, which should add to the team speed.

But on the field the results were woefully similar as Richmond fell to a league worst 20 games below .500. The Squirrels are likely to become the only team in the league with 50 losses sometime in the next week and nobody’s particularly close to catching them.

Caleb Baragar managed to pitch around control problems for the first four innings, but he crashed and burned in the 5th, sandwiching two doubles around his 5th and 6th walks of the day, leading to a four-run rally that decided things.

Once again, the only moment of joy for the Richmond fans came from the thundering bat of Gio Brusa.

Brusa is now hitting .300/.375/.600 from the left side in AA. The strikeout rate is sky high at 30% but he pairs it with a 12% walk rate. Could the 25 year old from Lodi possibly make a platoon partner for some RHH OF at some point?

Brusa’s hot bat in June has been counter-balanced by the titanic slumps of Jalen Miller and Jacob Heyward. Miller is hitting just .182/.242/.267 in June while Heyward’s June numbers are .143/.264/.242. Brutal. Let’s hope July turns the page for these two.

San Jose beat Modesto Nuts (Mariners), 8-4

Hey, we have a “Triple short of a cycle” sighting! Heliot Ramos bounced back from his recent skid with a huge night against the Nuts, picking up three hits including his 11th double and 9th HRs of the year. Ramos once again showed off his willingness to go the opposite way and the power to do so with authority when he ripped a double into the RF corner.

Top @SFGiants prospect @HeliotRamos continues to use the opposite field, barreling this 89 mph fastball off the right field wall for a double. 8.15 seconds home to second, capped off with a fiery hip thrust celebration pic.twitter.com/67ZVeWACAn — Jacob Zweiback (@TheReelJZ) June 26, 2019

In the 6th, facing a funky sidewinder Ramos again took an opposite field approach — until the funky sidewinder hung a 1-2 slider in his eyes. Then he turned on it and punished it for the wrong it had done.

HELIOT RAMOS HAS LEFT THE YARD! @HeliotRamos tees off on a 1-2 slider and launches an absolute high into the San Jose night. He’s a triple short of the cycle: single up the middle, double to right, homer to left. ⭐️ performance for the @SJGiants tonite pic.twitter.com/AprcS8o6z7 — Jacob Zweiback (@TheReelJZ) June 26, 2019

You can see the entire At Bat at Jacob’s twitter feed as well, if you’d like the extended play.

Joey Bart didn’t have quite as loud a night, but he did manage to show off the easy opposite field power that is a big part of his game in one of the better swings of the night.

Joey Bart showing @SJGiants fans what the hype is all about (@JBart9GT). Unloads on a 2-0 fastball (89 mph from Penn Murfee), driving it about 370 feet to right center and showing off surprising speed for the RBI triple pic.twitter.com/kaWYezrNSa — Jacob Zweiback (@TheReelJZ) June 26, 2019

The Giants also got a 3-hit night from Manuel Geraldo who’s finally starting to awake from a painfully slow start. Geraldo has hit .310 with a .747 OPS in the month of June.

Augusta beat Asheville Tourists (Rockies), 4-2

When talking about the teenaged talent in the system, don’t forget about 19 year old RHP Gregory Santos. The Giants have been careful with the talented right arm since returning from the IL, but yesterday he hit a season high in pitches at 73. That only got him through 4 innings as he struggled a little with a tight zone, but he was as effective in reducing base runners as ever.

Since returning from the IL Santos ha thrown 13 innings, allowing just 1 earned run (2 runs total) on just 9 hits. He hit a season high with 4 Ks yesterday, while also piling up the ground balls, including two double play grounders to help him out of innings. Santos, who turns 20 the week before Heliot Ramos, primarily relied on a mid-90s fastball with a power breaking ball that was sitting around 88 to break down the power Tourists lineup.

Gregory Santos uses 88 mph power slider to pick up one of 4 Ks yesterday pic.twitter.com/1Hum6SVnB5 — Roger Munter (@rog61) June 26, 2019

All Star closer Jesus Tona closed things out with 2 near-perfect innings, striking out 4 of the 7 batters he faced.

A three-run rally in the bottom of the 1st provided Santos and Co. with all the support they would need. That rally was punctuated by Frankie Tostado’s 11th HR of the season. Play by play man Rylan Kobre was digging into Tostado’s numbers in a recent game, and it seems like the Achilles Tendon to his season has been a high chase rate that has taken him out of the zone too often. He’s shown power to both his pull side and the opposite field which is encouraging — but stay in the strike zone Frankie, if you want to go far!

Salem-Keizer lost to Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks), 7-0

Whoa, the good times most definitely did not keep on rolling! Coming home fresh off a 6 homer performance, and sending a pitcher to the mound who had only allowed one baserunner in two starts this year, Volcanoes fans could be excused for anticipating a wee more excitement last night than they ended up receiving.

Instead, D-backs #6 prospect Kristian Robinson greeted Jacob Lopez with a 1st inning HR to put the team in a 3-0 hole, and the offense was throttled, collecting just two harmless singles in the game.

Of course it was the Hops, the Northwest League’s version of Visalia Rawhide (both D-backs affiliates!). Oh Hillsboro! From Hell’s Heart I Stab At Thee!

The AZL Giants teams had their regular 4th day off

But you probably wanted to watch Alexander Canario whack a curve ball out the opposite way with a completely off-balanced swing anyway, right?

DSL Giants beat DSL Colorado, 8-3

Apparently it took awhile for word of the Theme of the Day to reach the Felipe Alou Academy, as Luis Matos waited until today to hit his two home runs. https://t.co/U7TqM2VdxI — Roger Munter (@rog61) June 25, 2019

Hey, no use re-creating my best material, right? Yes! A day after Ricardo Genoves, Alexander Canario, and Sandro Fabian all hit two homers, Luis Matos jumped in on the trend as well. That ties Matos for the DSL lead with 5 HRs on the year. Could he be following Luis Toribio’s path towards double digits? Matos was supposed to be an advanced hitter, but with 13 XBH out of 19 hits on the year, he’s showing surprising pop as well — to the tune of a .667 SLG (second best in the league).

Matos (1.045) and Bericoto (1.043) sit 6th and 7th in the league in OPS but they’ve taken decidedly different routes. While Matos’ OPS is being driven by his SLG, Bericoto’s is primarily boosted by his .500 OBP. His 24 BBs are also second in the league. We shall see which of those two methods are more meaningful as they reach upper levels. Both are showing a great feel for putting bat on ball anyway.

Rafael Martinez continues to solidify his place as the team’s best starter. Over his last three starts the RHP has allowed just 2 runs on 9 hits over 13 IP. He’s K’d 6 in each of his last two starts and for the year has 21 Ks to just 4 BBs in 19 innings.

Today’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento (Conner Menez) @ El Paso (Dietrich Enns)

Richmond (Brandon Beachy) vs. Altoona (TBD)

San Jose (Jake Wong) vs. Modesto (Austin Hutchison)

Augusta (Blake Rivera) vs. Asheville (Colten Schmidt)

Salem-Keizer (Luis Moreno) vs. Hillsboro (Marcos Tineo)

AZL GIants Orange (Wilkelma Castillo) vs. AZL Athletics Green (TBD)

AZL Giants Black (Freddery Paulino) @ AZL Indians Blue (TBD)

DSL Giants (Odue Civada) vs. DSL Colorado (TBD)

Couple of long-time organization members were released yesterday. A Minor Lines remembrance and best of luck to Jean Angomas and John Riley. We really wish you guys the best at your next stop, whether it’s in the game or out. Remember dreams come in many forms.

Giants released OF Jean Angomas (24.0Y). He was a 2013 IFA signing out of the Dominican Republic. First two seasons in the DSL. 2015 in the AZL. Most of 2016-18 with Augusta. 45 games with SJ this season. 381 games in the org. — GPT (@giantsprospects) June 26, 2019