Fun time in Richmond last night!

HIGHLIGHTS: Jacob Heyward was named All Star Game MVP; Sean Roby reached base 5 times; Abdiel Layer had four hits, including double, homer.

The AAA and AA All Star games were both held last night and all Giants representatives ended up on winning sides of things.

In El Paso, the PCL All Stars dispatched the International League All Stars 9-3. Sam Selman and Fernando Abad each had scoreless appearances. Selman threw and inning with 1 K and a hit. Abad finished the game up, throwing the final 0.2 innings, walking two and striking out 1.

In Richmond, the hosting Squirrels enjoyed themselves immensely. The West All Stars won a 5-0 whitewashing, and hometown boy Jacob Heyward was named MVP after hitting the game’s lone HR.

G NE.



Our own @jwardhuncho goes deep to left



In the sixth, the West leads the East 5-0 pic.twitter.com/wjVpOZp9Ce — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) July 11, 2019

Three Richmond pitches took part in the shutout, with Caleb Baragar starting and Tyler Cyr and #FutureGiantsCloser Melvin Adon finishing up the final 1.1.

Tyler Cyr takes care of business, and now he's handing things over to his Richmond teammate Melvin Adon to try and finish this off



West leads the East 5-0 in the 9th pic.twitter.com/HPVh8dUn3b — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) July 11, 2019

A little from Melvin Adon#AllStarRVA pic.twitter.com/Vs9GlEhYNq — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) July 11, 2019

Melvin Adon sighting. #SFGiants flamethrowing RHP bumped 102 tops, sat 99-101 w/ filthy upper-80s SL. When he throws strikes and has his breaking ball, it’s closer stuff. Consistency, control always have been question marks. pic.twitter.com/pROENgwagF — Adam McInturff (@2080adam) July 11, 2019

Nasty, Melvin! Afterwards, the Richmond players stuck around and soaked up the love from their hometown fans. Pretty nice night in the RVA!

The hometown heroes sticking around some All-Star autographs ✍️ pic.twitter.com/19eW9w9GAf — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) July 11, 2019

San Jose beat Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Dodgers), 5-2

Heliot Ramos crushes one over the 401 sign in straightaway center in Rancho Cucamonga for his team-leading 10th home run of the season. 10 HR in 54 games with the #SJGiants this year (hit 11 HR in 124 games last season with Augusta). — Joe Ritzo (@JoeRitzo) July 11, 2019

Heliot Ramos went deep for his first home run in more than two weeks, inching him closer to setting a new career high and pushing his SLG back up to .500. Ramos .875 OPS would be third in the league were he qualified, which he should be getting closer to doing.

San Francisco Giants #2 prospect Heliot Ramos hit his 10th of the season 7/10/19. @ClubhouseCorner @SJGiants pic.twitter.com/Tio5p9WxSw — TheJerryEspinoza (@JEspinoza1634) July 11, 2019

The Giants also got two hits and an RBI from Sandro Fabian and three hits from Courtney Hawkins, helping them to a successful start to the road trip.

Dereck Rodriguez was sent to the bus leagues so he could keep on a normal schedule over the All Star Break, and he pretty successfully dominated the Quakes. Though he did allow two early solo HRs, D-Rod punched out 9 Quakes over 4.2 innings and gave up just 4 hits.

Joey Bart’s struggles at the bat continued with an 0 for 5 day, as he’s down to .234/.291/.423 line. Looking good though!

Augusta won at Columbia Fireflies (Mets), 2-0

Indy League refugee Adam Oller threw 5 shutout innings to help Augusta sneak by with a 2-0 win in Columbia. The 24 year old former Pirates farmhand struck out 8. He has a 1.57 ERA in the second half.

The offense was led by leadoff man Ismael Munguia who had three hits, including his 17th double. But the team lost its best hitter right out of the shoot as Diego Rincones left after being HBP in the first inning. Hopefully, Diego’s alright and will be back soon!

20 year old LHP Luis Amaya has had a quietly effective year in the Augusta bullpen. He’s allowed just 7 earned runs over 30.1 IP while striking out 13. The control’s been a little wobbly with 13 BBs and 6 HB. It feels like Amaya’s been around a long while at this point, but he’s still just a kid.

Salem-Keizer beat Eugene Emeralds (Cubs), 6-5

The Volcanoes top of the order did all the work last night as the 1-2 guys kept setting things up and the 3-4 guys ordered the RibEyes. Sean Roby reached base 5 times with 3 singles and two walks. Combined with leadoff man Tyler Fitzgerald the pair reached base 7 times and scored 4 of the teams. runs.

Ricardo Genoves only had one hit but he was the big RBI bat for the night. His 3-run homer in the 5th gave the Volcanoes an initial lead. After Trevor Horn blew that lead in the late innings, Genoves followed Franklin Labour’s game tying single with a walk off Sac Fly. Genoves HR was his 6th of the year — the Volcanoes dominate the NWL HR Leaderboard as Labour (11), Tyler Flores (7) and Genoves are the league’s top three. The Diamondbacks scintillating prospect Kristian Robinson breaks up the Volcanoes dominance in 4th place.

Kervin Castro continues to have an excellent season in the Volcanoes rotation. He’s allowed more than 1 run in just ONE of his six starts this year, striking out 26 and walking just 7 in 30 IP. And it’s worth really thinking about just what kind of a leap the 20 year old has made this year. Not only is he jumping from the DSL to the NWL — he’s thrown just one inning since 2016. So he’s jumping from the DSL to the NWL while rehabbing from Tommy John with virtually no competitive experience in three years. Pretty remarkable!

With just a little more sustained success, the Volcanoes can nab themselves a 1st half title and put themselves back in the NWL playoffs for the first time since 2015 and just the second time this decade. At 18-8 they hold a 2 game lead over Hillsboro with an elimination # of 11.

AZL Giants Orange beat AZL Cubs1, 13-8

AZL Black lost to AZL Royals, 8-3

Jose’s little brother Abdiel had a huge night, picking up four hits including a double and his second homer of the year to help Team Orange to another drubbing and a tight hold on 1st place.

Doubles were popular for the Giants rookie squad last night. In addition to Layer, Marco Luciano, Hunter Bishop, Logan Wyatt, Richgelon Juliana, and a rehabbing Ryder Jones all picked up two baggers.

Bishop continued his daredevil ways on the basepaths, getting those wheels in fine working condition.

In the 6th inning for AZL Giants Orange, OF Hunter Bishop doubled, moved to third on a pop up caught by the first baseman, then stole home on a double steal. He stole second base earlier in the game as well. Bishop is 3-8 on the year, all three hits are doubles. — GPT (@giantsprospects) July 11, 2019

He should be joining Salem-Keizer quite soon.

The pre-draft report on AZL #Giants 1B Connor Cannon was that he had some of the best raw power in the draft. We just saw it with his 7th AZL HR over the LF bullpen at Sloan Park. — Bill Mitchell (@billazbbphotog) July 11, 2019

Very large human Conner Cannon hit his 7th HR of the season last night — there’s now a three-way tie atop the AZL HR leaderboard with teammates Cannon, Luciano, and erstwhile teammate Alexander Canario all leading the league.

That power has helped spark the Orangemen to a 15-4 record and a 3.5 game lead in the East division. They are closing in quickly on a 1st half title which they could conceivably clinch before the week is out.

For Team Black, Garrett Frechette and Jairo Pomares kept on hitting. Frechette has at least one hit in 10 of his 12 pro games — and two hits in five of them. The lefty swinger has just three XBH so far, but he’s getting bat to ball well. Same could be said of Pomares who has hits in 14 of his 15 pro games, though Pomares is slugging .500 so far. Both of the LHH are 18.

Number of prospects 19 years or younger with a 300/400/500 slash. Minimum 50 PA



1. Marco Luciano, 368/456/779

2. Jairo Pomeras, 367/415/517

3. Wander Franco, 332/403/534



*Franco more PA's than both Luciano or Pomeras combined#ProspectOne — The Welsh (@IsItTheWelsh) July 10, 2019

Good company!

DSL Giants beat DSL Royals2, 4-1

After they finished up blowing their suspended game yesterday — which two weeks ago they had led by four runs in the 9th, and yesterday finished losing in the 10th — the DSL Giants played some kind of Freaky Friday game. Luis Matos failed to record a hit, and the pitching was terrific. Who stole our DSL Giants?

The Giants scored four runs despite being held to just 3 hits. They did have six walks and two HB, because, after all, this still was a DSL game. Jose Mullings and Willians Suarez combined on a four hitter of their own, allowing just the one run. Suarez is in his fourth season in the DSL and has really struggled to translate pretty decent stuff into success. He’s been gradually lowering his ERA this year after a rough start, but it just yesterday climbed below 8.00

Today’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento (Enderson Franco) vs. Fresno (Joe Ross)

Richmond (TBD) @ Harrisburg (TBD)

San Jose (Jake Wong) @ Rancho Cucamonga (Michael Grove)

Augusta (Gregory Santos) @ Columbia (Simeon Woods Richardson)

Salem-Keizer (Jacob Lopez) vs. Eugene (Eduarnial Nunez)

DSL Giants (Jason Bonilla) vs. DSL Pirates (TBD)

Two hard-throwing teenagers create a spectacular Sally League matchup with the Giants #7 prospect taking on the Mets #8, last year’s 2nd round pick Simeon Woods Richardson. Fantastic opportunity to see some good young arms on MiLBtv! Meanwhile the first place RiverCats start the second half taking on the oft-injured Joe Ross, who’s on a rehab assignment trying to work his way back to the Nats’ rotation.

Lots of “1st place” chatter in this Minor Lines. The Giants’ system currently has four 1st place teams (Sacramento, Augusta, Salem-Keizer, AZL Orange). Still midseason, but it’s still a great sign for a system that was one of just two organizations with no post-season appearances in the minors last year, and too many last place affiliates over the past couple of seasons. I’ve said before, I’ll say it again: the Giants minor league champions of the ‘00s built their major league champions of the ‘10s. (So get a move on San Jose, you’ve got some important pieces there that need to learn to start winning!)

Finally, since All Star Breaks are traditionally the time for reflecting on important moments from the first half, I feel ok reposting this clip that I will never, ever get tired of watching:

Somehow the AAA All Star game didn’t include either of these guys! Gimme a break!