Bryan covered this well yesterday, but (not for the first time) in a season that seems to be all about setting up for the future, the Giants yesterday traded a 23 year old flyer for a veteran depth piece who has extremely little chance of providing value to the next decent Giants’ team. It’s of little consequence long term I imagine, but I’m not entirely sure I get it.

Trade alert!



The Giants have added minor league outfielder Alex Dickerson from the Padres (via @PavlovicNBCS) https://t.co/QBduGHQJDk pic.twitter.com/Infk8Cc11u — SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 10, 2019

(hmm... that was a grouchier way to start the morning than I intended. Sorry about that!)

HIGHLIGHTS: Chris Shaw doubled, homered, walked, and was HBP; Heliot Ramos, David Villar, and Diego Rincones all had three hits with a double.

Sacramento won at New Orleans Babycakes (Marlins), 7-2

winning their series, 3-1

Sacramento said “goodbye” to the Big Easy — possibly forever — with a series win, as they continued to use the longball to pound ‘Cakes pitching into dough. The RiverCats went deep four more times last night, including two from catcher Francisco Peña who twice went deep on an 0-2 pitch (Pitching Coaches everywhere shake their damn heads).

Ya boy Peña has done it again! Second home run of the night and the team's 8th player to have two or more homers in a game this year. #ClawsUp pic.twitter.com/HvE8QrrkLy — Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) June 11, 2019

It was a particularly good night for Chris Shaw, who reached base in four of his five plate appearances. Shaw, splitting his time between 1b and LF in the game, walked, doubled, was hit by a pitch, and returned the favor by hitting a pitch real hard like:

Starter Andy Suarez is enjoying the road trip to some of the fairer environs in the PCL — for his second consecutive start he allowed just 1 earned run after having allowed 17 runs in 9 innings in his previous two starts (one in the majors, one in Sacramento). He fought his command a bit yesterday, walking a season high 3 batters, but surrendered just 4 hits. He did get in a jam in the 4th, when two singles and a walk set New Orleans up for a potential big inning, but the ol’ At’em Ball got him out of things when a liner to 3b resulted in a double play.

Richmond had an off day

But the team still made some news as new Squirrel Zach Houchins was named the Eastern League Player of the Week for his torrid road trip.

+ + + = EL Player of the Week



➡️ https://t.co/x7SNNKTsXR pic.twitter.com/vyTRzfHWCH — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) June 10, 2019

San Jose won at Stockton Ports (A’s), 4-2

Olbis Parra worked out of bases loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the 10th inning by striking out the A’s #6 (Lazaro Armenteros) and #11 (Jeremy Eierman) prospects consecutively helping to propel San Jose to a dramatic 11th inning victory. The do or die showdown was setup by back to back IBB, looking for an inning-ending double play, but Parra’s way of worming out of things worked too.

In the 11th, David Villar led off with his third hit of the night — a double that gave the Giants a 2-1 lead. Back to back two-out wild pitches would help boost the rally to three runs and Parra hung on in the bottom of the 11th for the dramatic victory.

Going into extras, the game was tied 1-1 with Bryce Johnson accounting for the Giants only run with his second HR of the season. San Jose got sterling pitching throughout the night from five pitchers, including rehabbing Rule 5 lefty Travis Bergen.

Though he didn’t contribute to the scoring at all, Heliot Ramos had another fine game, going 3 for 4 with his 9th double of the year and a walk. Ramos was perfect through regulation, not making his first out of the game until the 10th (a three pitch K). Ramos has doubled in four of his past six games, and has been on fire since returning from the IL.

Heliot Ramos having a big night here in Stockton. 3–for-3 with a double and a walk thus far to raise his season AVG to .321. Ramos is hitting at a .395 clip (17-43) since coming off the injured list. — Joe Ritzo (@JoeRitzo) June 11, 2019

The 19 year old’s 1.026 OPS would lead the Cal League by some 30 points if he qualified. Only one qualified hitter in the league has an OPS above .900 (and no qualified hitter who doesn’t play home games in Lancaster). Ramos’ SLG would lead the league by about 50 points. The youngster is really blossoming so far in 2019.

Augusta won at Lexington Legends (Royals), 8-5

The first two Greenjacket batters in the top of the 5th were retired in what seemed like it would be another quick inning. But then the next 8 batters would reach base — three walks and five singles — in a stunning two-out six-run rally. The big frame pushed Augusta to a huge come-from-behind victory that brought them to within 1 game of the division lead with just six games to play.

Lexington — who is between Charleston and Augusta, a half game back — had to think it was on its way to jumping into first place after building up a 5-1 lead in the early going off Adam Oller. The recently acquired right-hander hasn’t exactly been the salve for the rotation that the Giants might have hoped when they picked him up. He’s been bashed by Sally hitters to the tune of 17 hits in his last 8.2 IP. The 24 year old now has a 5.59 ERA in the Sally.

Augusta rapped out 12 hits, along with 4 walks themselves. Diego Rincones double was the team’s lone extra base hit. But the team did damage with ducks on the pond, going 6 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

Both Lexington and Augusta got a gift of the schedule as Charleston faced off against Dallas Keuchel, making his 2019 debut, and was completely stifled by the former Cy Young Award winner. But Charleston has the benefit of watching their two closest rivals stand off against each other for the next two nights. A split of the next two games keeps the RiverDogs in command of their position. But Augusta can do themselves a great deal of good if they were to sweep the three game set.

And before we leave, Augusta’s play by play man Rylan Kobre weighs in on Van Gurp.

Van Gurp didn’t truly start pitching till his junior year of college. He was a former catcher. Can spin the slider and definitely has a lot of upside. Numbers don’t tell the whole story with him. https://t.co/1der37t2em — Rylan Kobre (@RylanKobrePxP) June 10, 2019

DSL Giants beat DSL Mariners, 10-6

The Giants have surged to the top of the voluminous Dominican Summer League’s offensive statistics with huge back to back games. They are tied (with the Dodgers Shoemaker team — what the hell kind of name is that?) for second in the league in runs, second in total bases, fourth in HRs, third in SLG, fourth in hits.

All of this is due more to breadth of production, rather than heights. No Giants player is in the top 25 of the league in OPS (Victor Bericoto checks in at #30, with a 1.069). But the team had five players in their lineup yesterday topping the .300 mark. Of course, this is all tiny sample size — they’ve literally scored half of their runs in the last two games — but it’s still good to see the offense pumping.

16 year old Diego Verbel (who is not secretly Keyser Söze), picked up three hits to push his average to .300 with an .817 OPS. Verbel is one of the youngest players in organized ball this year (the day’s starting pitcher Luis Castillo is probably the very youngest) and he’s been holding his own thus far with 6 hits in 20 AB including two doubles and a .417 OBP.

Luis Matos doubled twice, doubling his doubles total to four for the year (one off the league lead). And Adolfo Valdez, who hadn’t had a hit since homering in his first two professional plate appearances, picked up two more hits including his first triple and stole his 3rd base.

On the pitching side, 18 year old LHP Marvin Brown was the star of the day, striking out five over his 2.1 IP, while surrendering just two hits and no runs.

With six wins in their last seven games, the Giants find themselves at the top of the Northeast Division.

Today’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento: OFF DAY

Richmond (Alfred Gutierrez) vs. Harrisburg (Tyler Mapes)

San Jose (Sean Hjelle) @ Stockton (TBD)

Augusta (Keaton Winn) @ Lexington (TBD)

DSL Giants (Jose Mullings) vs. DSL Mariners (TBD)

Keaton Winn tries to keep Augusta’s hopes alive, while Sean Hjelle tries to keep San Jose rolling. Hopefully we get the full Dynamic Duo back in Stockton tonight after a rest night for Joey Bart.