Minor League round up, Sept. 19

A round up of the San Francisco Giants Minor League affiliates.

The Minor League season is quickly coming to a close. While the San Francisco Giants had four affiliates in action on Sunday, three of them (AA Richmond, High-A Eugene, and Low-A San Jose) were playing their final regular season games, though Eugene and San Jose are marching into the postseason. The Arizona Complex League is over, and the Dominican Summer League will play its final games today.

So there aren’t many of these posts left. Let’s dive into this one, though.

Link to the 2021 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions are the positions played in that game.

AAA Sacramento (51-64)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Las Vegas Aviators (A’s) 6-1
Box score

With Donovan Solano, Wilmer Flores, and Tommy La Stella all healthy, the Giants have had to send not just Mauricio Dubón but also Thairo Estrada back to Sacramento. Estrada will almost surely be the player whose name is called if the team needs infield depth during the postseason, but Dubón let the organization know he’s staying ready on Sunday, hitting 2-4 with a home run and a double, raising his AAA OPS to .884.

And speaking of home runs, center fielder Braden Bishop bopped another ball over the fence, giving him 2 in the last 3 games, and 6 in the last 20. His OPS is up to .914, including .939 since joining Sacramento.

But the star was the pitching staff. RHP Ronnie Williams got the start and pitched 4 innings, allowing just 1 hit, 2 walks, and 1 earned run in his third AAA appearance. RHP Norwith Gudino took over and struck out 4 in 2 innings of work, giving him 83 strikeouts to 21 walks in 56.2 innings on the year.

And then it was a pair of optioned Major Leaguers: RHP John Brebbia gave up a walk in a scoreless inning with 2 strikeouts, and LHP Sammy Long (No. 38 CPL) pitched 2 scoreless innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 walk, with a strikeout.

AA Richmond (57-56)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) 3-1
Box score

The Flying Squirrels finished their season off in style, with an exciting win that gave them their first winning season in quite a while.

The game was tied 0-0 going into the 9th inning, before third baseman David Villar gave the team a 1-0 lead with an RBI double, giving him an .881 OPS for the year (what a season!).

Designated hitter Sandro Fabian (No. 31 CPL) then doubled home 2 runs with his second 2-bagger of the day, giving Richmond a 3-0 lead and giving Fabian an OPS of .763.

Richmond would give a run back in the bottom half of the inning, but hang on for the win.

It was a dominant pitching performance, starting with RHP Akeel Morris, who pitched 5 strong innings, allowing 5 hits, 1 walk, and striking out 10 batters. In his final 6 starts of the year, Morris pitched 34.2 innings and allowed 27 hits, 4 walks, and 6 earned runs, with 44 strikeouts. Way to end the season.

Morris was followed up by 3 sensational bullpen appearances. RHP Ryan Walker pitched a perfect inning, putting his final AA line at 9.1 innings, 7 hits, 0 walks, 1 earned run, and 10 strikeouts. LHP Joey Marciano gave up a hit in his inning of work, but struck out the side, giving him 59 strikeouts to 16 walks in 46.2 innings.

And RHP R.J. Dabovich (No. 36 CPL) struck out 2 in a perfect inning, giving him 34 strikeouts to 7 walks in 19.2 innings, and ending his debut season with 62 strikeouts to 13 walks in 32.1 innings across 2 levels.

High-A Eugene (69-50)

Eugene Emeralds beat the Tri-City Dust Devils (Angels) 8-4
Box score

Also ending the regular season on a high note was Eugene, with a win that gave them a nice tally of 69 Ws. Unlike Richmond, Eugene’s season marches on, as they’ll begin a five-game championships series on Tuesday.

Ending the regular season in style was catcher Ricardo Genovés (No. 29 CPL), who had an 8th inning home run to pad the Emeralds’ lead.

A trio of Emeralds reached base three times: first baseman Sean Roby (No. 32 CPL) hit 2-4 to raise his OPS to .789, while second baseman Brett Auerbach and center fielder Kwan Adkins both hit 1-3 with a walk. Auerbach added a stolen base, and now has a .866 OPS, while Adkins stole a pair of bases and has a .744 OPS.

RHP Blake Rivera (No. 22 CPL) had one of his better starts in a year mired by injuries. He pitched 3 innings and allowed 5 hits, 0 walks, and 0 runs, while striking out 6 batters. RHP Ty Weber struck out 2 in a scoreless inning, giving him 63 strikeouts to 12 walks in 64 innings across 3 levels.

And RHP Austin Reich closed out the game with 1 inning, 0 hits, 0 walks, and 2 strikeouts, leaving him with a whopping 98 strikeouts to 14 walks in 60.2 innings across 2 levels.

Low-A San Jose (76-44)

San Jose Giants lost to the Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies) 7-4
Box score

San Jose didn’t end their regular season on a high note, but like Eugene, the journey is not yet over. They’ll begin a best-of-five championship series on Tuesday, against the same Fresno team they just played. And while the Baby Giants may have lost the season finale, they won the series 4-2, so they should have some confidence ahead of the postseason showdown.

There weren’t many standout performances, though second baseman Jimmy Glowenke (No. 34 CPL) homered, bringing his OPS up to .812. He’s ending the season strong. But San Jose did have some debuts from players coming over from the Arizona Complex League, so let’s check in on them.

Shortstop Aeverson Arteaga (No. 28 CPL) hit 0-3 with a strikeout. He’ll presumably start next year in San Jose, and he’s one to watch after a tremendous ACL season.

RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 23 CPL), who surely would have been in San Jose earlier in the year had his season not been derailed by injury, got roughed up a bit in the start, pitching 2.2 innings and allowing 4 hits, 3 walks, 7 runs, and 3 earned runs, with 2 strikeouts.

But things went better for 2021 12th round pick RHP Landen Roupp, who allowed 1 hit, 0 walks, and 0 runs in 2 innings, with 2 strikeouts.

Home runs

AAA Braden Bishop (11)
AAA Mauricio Dubón (4)
AAA Ronnie Freeman (2)
High-A Ricardo Genovés (7)
Low-A Jimmy Glowenke (13)

Monday schedule

Sacramento: vs. Las Vegas Aviators, 7:05 p.m. PT
Richmond: Season over
Eugene: Regular season over, postseason begins Tuesday
San Jose: Regular season over, postseason begins Tuesday
ACL Orange: Season over
ACL Black: Season over
DSL Orange: vs. D-backs2
DSL Black: vs. Mets2