Yesterday’s action on the farm.
Four games for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates on Wednesday, as all of the A-Ball affiliates were in action, while the Arizona Complex League team had the day off.
Let’s dive into the action.
Link to the 2024 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)
All listed positions are the positions played in that game.
AAA Sacramento (21-14)
Sacramento River Cats lost to the Salt Lake Bees (Angels) 11-7
Box score
This game was really only good for one thing: home runs. Other than that, it was a highly forgettable game for the River Cats, who were without their best hitter this year — outfielder Heliot Ramos (No. 13 CPL) — after Ramos was sent to Denver to join the Giants.
Lately there’s been a lot of talk about having catcher depth, in part because of Joey Bart’s success with the Pirates (which, it’s worth noting, has cooled off dramatically), and in part because Patrick Bailey and Tom Murphy were injured on back-to-back days over the weekend, forcing both of Sacramento’s backstops (Blake Sabol and Jakson Reetz) to jump to the Majors.
But perhaps there’s more depth than we thought. The movement of Sabol and Reetz prompted the activation of catcher Brandon Martorano, who started the year on the IL. And in his first 3 games, he hit 4-12 with a home run, which is filling in just fine, thank you very much.
And then Wednesday happened. Martorano made one hell of a fifth catcher audition tape, as funny as that sounds, hitting 2-3 with a pair of big flies — a 3-run shot and a 2-run shot — while also drawing a walk.
What a day!
HE DOES IT AGAIN https://t.co/RXBc7r9cSN pic.twitter.com/wpk23vkwIl
— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) May 8, 2024
Like so many hitters, Martorano apparently loves the Pacific Coast League. His only other stint there came in 2021, when the 2019 16th-round pick was called up for emergency action and had exactly one at-bat … which he hit over the fence. Even for the dinger-happy PCL, 4 homers in 16 at-bats is a pretty nice way to make an impression.
Martorano did commit 2 errors, so it wasn’t all pretty, but I’m not going to complain or nitpick about someone who was supposed to be in AA being activated from the IL to move up a level and is ripping pitchers to shreds.
Which brings us to some negativity. I try to avoid negativity as much as possible in this space, though one cannot avoid it entirely if they want to provide honest coverage, and that’s especially true this season, which hasn’t exactly been a great one on the farm. Martorano hitting 3 home runs in 4 games is super duper cool. But it also serves as a data point for how much the rest of the offense is struggling through 35 games. Those 3 dingers are 4th on the roster, tied with Luis Matos (supposed to be the best hitter on the team) and David Villar (supposed to be a dinger-masher). They’re 3 times the number of homers that power prospect Marco Luciano (No. 2 CPL) has hit. I hate to use someone’s good day as a discussion prompt for bad ones, but Martorano’s offensive surge, while awesome, simply stands out more than it should on this team.
Which brings us to Matos, the center fielder in this game, who did finally add to his total. Matos hit 2-5 on the day and smashed a solo shot to lead off the 5th inning, which raised his OPS to .671 and his wRC+ to 68. No one would have thought when Spring Training ended that Ramos would supplant Matos on the depth chart, but here we are.
For Matos, it was his first home run since his AAA season debut back on April 3 … a span of 125 plate appearances without a big fly. Not ideal given that the muscle he put on over the offseason was one of the biggest storylines at camp, but then again let’s savor the good day on Wednesday instead of whining about what preceded it.
MATOS MADNESS
Luis mashes our 3rd homer of the day! pic.twitter.com/NzbfABu8Ib
— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) May 8, 2024
And finally it was designated hitter Trenton Brooks who got in on the home run party, smashing a leadoff shot in the 4th inning, which ties him with Matos, Villar, and Martorano on Sacramento’s list (they trail Brett Wisely’s 4, Casey Schmitt’s 5, and Ramos’ 8 dingers).
BROOKS BOMB pic.twitter.com/R30A2Vqlfm
— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) May 8, 2024
Brooks, who finished the day 1-3 with a walk and a strikeout, has average numbers this year, sporting a .795 OPS and a 100 wRC+. He’s not forcing the issue, but he’s not here to force the issue, either. And as Reetz showed, players in that position — Minor League journeymen who are capable talents but you can afford to add to the roster and DFA — are only ever one break away from the Majors.
No one else did much on offense, though right fielder Yusniel Díaz and left fielder Ismael Munguia (No. 35 CPL) both reached base twice. Schmitt continues to cool off, as he hit hit 0-4 while committing an error at third. He’s now 5-31 with just 1 extra-base hit since his unreal hitting streak came to a close, and his numbers have dropped to a .748 OPS and a 79 wRC+. Villar, playing first, has also been slumping hard, and hit 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout in this game. It’s been a rough go of it for Villar, who has been held hitless 6 times in his last 7 games, and hasn’t had an extra-base hit since April 24.
And just for good measure, Luciano had another blah game, hitting 0-3 with a walk and his 7th error at shortstop, dropping his OPS to .770 and his wRC+ to 104.
The pitching started poorly, with RHP Carson Seymour (No. 22 CPL) having one of his worst starts of the year. Seymour couldn’t find the strike zone in this one, throwing just half of his 58 pitches for strikes, and amassing 4 walks and a hit batter in just 2 innings of work. In all, Seymour was tagged for 6 runs, though the outing actually lowered his ERA, since the aforementioned errors meant that just 1 of the runs was earned. Seymour has shown a lot of great things in his debut AAA season — especially a 51.1% groundball rate — but there’s a lot to work on, too. As should be expected!
Not very good outings for a pair of players trying to work their way into the MLB bullpen plans, as both RHP Kai-Wei Teng (No. 24 CPL) and LHP Juan Sánchez (No. 36 CPL) struggled. But RHP Justin Garza, a Minor League free agent, continues to excel, as he gave up just 2 baserunners and an unearned run in 2 innings of work, with 3 strikeouts. He’s lowered his ERA to 0.96, albeit with a 4.77 FIP. He’s a good depth option to have, and has MLB experience.
AA Richmond (12-17)
Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) 4-1
Box score
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That wasn’t the case for the Squirrels, who lost their 4th consecutive game. But it was the case for RHP Ryan Murphy, who found himself in a rare situation: starting for the 2nd time in 4 days.
Murphy started Sunday’s game for Richmond, but only pitched 1 inning before the game entered an hour-long rain delay, and he didn’t come out when the game resumed. His spot in the rotation was then moved up so he could still get a start this week, which happened Wednesday. And it went fantastically, as the 2020 5th-round pick struck out 8 batters in 5 strong innings, giving up just 3 hits, 0 walks, 2 runs, and a mere 1 earned run.
A two-for-one special
Ryan Murphy punches out his eighth batter of the afternoon to set a Double-A career high and gets the double play to boot! pic.twitter.com/ZKo6EK0ZCz
— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) May 8, 2024
It was a tough 2023 for Murphy, after a breakout 2022, and so far this year he’s looking more and more like the best version of himself. The strikeout stuff is still down — he’s at 8.0 per 9 innings — which is part of what made this performance so great. But Murphy’s ERA is sitting at just 2.57 and his FIP at 3.96, with a lovely 2.6 walks per 9 innings allowed. Awesome to see him re-establishing his prospect status.
The offense was a bit of a strugglefest, mustering just 3 hits on the day. Center fielder Grant McCray (No. 12 CPL) had a very Grant McCray day, hitting 1-3 with a double, a walk, and 2 strikeouts.
McCray has struggled mightily to put the ball in play this year in his AA debut: he has just a .141 batting average, and has struck out 39 times in just 107 plate appearances. But when he hits the ball, good things happen: of his 13 hits, a whopping 9 of them have gone for extra bases, the result of both his power and his speed.
Speaking of speed, McCray also stole a base, which was great to see. It’s been an odd year for him on that front: a year after attempting 62 steals, and being successful 52 times, McCray has tried to steal a base just 3 times (with a 100% success rate). Part of that is certainly due to the fact that he has just 4 singles and 14 walks, so hasn’t been on first base all that many times. But still odd.
No other notable offensive performances, but Richmond did welcome some hitters back. Second baseman Jimmy Glowenke (No. 39 CPL) played again, hitting 0-3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. Glowenke was injured on April 18 and activated from the 7-Day IL on May 1. But after playing on the day he was activated, he went another week without playing before returning on Wednesday.
And infielder Will Wilson had an at-bat as a pinch-hitter, which was his first appearance since May 3. Not sure what was going on there.
High-A Eugene (18-10)
Eugene Emeralds lost to the Tri-City Dust Devils (Angels) 6-1
Box score
A pair of notable performances in this game, one on each side of the ball. On offense, center fielder Quinn McDaniel continued his brilliant debut full season, hitting 2-4 and providing all of the offense with a solo home run.
A 21-year old right-handed hitter drafted in the 5th round of the 2023 draft as a middle infielder, McDaniel drew an aggressive assignment to High-A while also being tasked with learning center field. He’s handled everything brilliantly thus far, at a level that has stymied plenty of Giants prospects in the past.
The numbers for McDaniel have been excellent nearly across the board. Among 59 Northwest League hitters with at least 50 plate appearances, McDaniel (who has 109 plate appearances) is 5th in batting average (.314), 4th in on-base percentage (.450), 4th in slugging percentage (.453), 4th in walk rate (19.3%), 19th in isolated slugging (.140) and tied for 2nd in stolen bases (13). The only real knock is his 24.8% strikeout rate, which is 40th of those 59 batters. What a great debut.
On the mound, the star was LHP Seth Corry, who is having a nice year after losing nearly all of 2023 to injuries. We know that Corry struggles with command, and unfortunately this game didn’t really fix that, as he walked a batter and hit 2 more in just 2 innings. But he also didn’t allow a hit or a run in those 2 innings, and 5 of his 6 outs were recorded with strikes.
Once one of the top pitching prospects in the system, Corry will need to limit free bases if he wants to see his Major League dreams materialize, but my goodness the ability to strike out batters and induce weak contact sure is there. As is a 1.26 ERA and a 3.89 FIP.
Speaking of strikeout pitchers, RHP Ben Madison is keeping the good times rolling, as he punched out a pair of hitters in 2 perfect innings. That actually represented a relatively awful strikeout day for Madison, who has a staggering 28 strikeouts in just 15 innings, along with a mere 6 hits, 4 walks, and 2 earned runs. Probably near time to see if he can handle AA better this year than he did last year.
Low-A San Jose (14-14)
San Jose Giants beat the Stockton Ports (A’s) 12-5
Box score
Some standout performances from some 2023 draft picks, which is always fun to see … especially since the Baby Giants haven’t always been too interesting this year. And it resulted in a whole bunch of runs, since the best performances came from the first 4 batters in the lineup. Let’s take them one by one.
Leading off was center fielder Jonah Cox, the A’s 6th-round pick that the Giants nabbed in the Ross Stripling trade. What a trade! Cox hit 3-5 with a triple, raising his OPS to .837 and his wRC+ to 139, while keeping his strikeout and walk rates both at 15.2% (a fantastic number for each). What an addition.
Then it was shortstop Cole Foster (No. 30 CPL), the team’s 3rd-round pick, who hit 1-3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout, while stealing his 4th base of the year in as many attempts. The switch-hitter is up to a .775 OPS and a 112 wRC+ and, perhaps most importantly, has nearly cut his strikeout rate in half from his stint in San Jose last year.
Batting 3rd was the team’s 1st-round pick, slugging fist baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 3 CPL), who hit 3-4 with a double and a strikeout. It hasn’t been a super smooth year for Eldridge, which is to be expected of a teenager in their first full season, especially one who has dealt with injury setbacks. He’ll want to improve the .220 batting average (Wednesday was a good step forward) and the 26.9% strikeout rate, which have contributed to the .674 OPS and 75 wRC+. None of that is concerning however, especially at this point in the season.
Bryce Eldridge (@SFGiants‘ No. 3 prospect) delivers a three-hit, three-RBI game for the @SJGiants. pic.twitter.com/Lyd3sTvPbv
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) May 9, 2024
And batting cleanup was catcher Luke Shliger, the team’s 6th round pick, who has kind of been under-the-radar relative to the quartet of middle infield prospects drafted right in front of him. A left-handed hitter, Shliger flexed some extra-base strength in this game, hitting 2-5 with a triple and a double. While he has just a .702 OPS and a 94 wRC+, Shliger has been fantastic lately: in his last 6 games, he’s 8-21 with a triple, 4 doubles, 3 walks, and just 4 strikeouts.
B7: Giants 6 | Stockton 5
Luke Shliger takes that ball for a ride to give the Giants their first lead of the night! pic.twitter.com/g6zbnnV8SX
— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) May 9, 2024
Also a nice game for right fielder Cesar Quintas, who hit 2-5 with a double and an outfield assist. Quintas has had a slow start to the year after a fantastic 2023 in the Complex League, so would be great to see him catch some momentum.
The pitching was fairly uneventful, led by another tough start from LHP Joe Whitman (No. 16 CPL), whose full-season debut hasn’t gone too smoothly. Whitman did make it through 5 innings, and he did allow just 1 walk while striking out 5. That’s the good! But he also ceded 10 hits on the day, with 5 runs, 3 of which were earned.
Whitman has a 5.16 ERA and a 4.42 FIP on the year, and while he’s avoided any catastrophe outings, he really only has had 1 good appearance in his 6 starts. It’s obviously very early in his career, though!
The bullpen was strong, with good outings by RHP Esmerlin Vinicio and Austin Strickland, who both pounded the strike zone. Vinicio pitched 3 scoreless innings, allowing 3 hits and striking out 2, while throwing 23 of 33 pitches for strikes, lowering his ERA to 3.94 and his FIP to 3.92. Strickland, playing in just his 2nd career game, allowed a hit in a scoreless inning, struck out 2 batters, and threw 10 of 16 pitches for strikes. In 3 innings as a pro, he’s yet to allow an earned run.
Home run tracker
AAA Brandon Martorano, 2 (3)
AAA Luis Matos (3)
AAA Trenton Brooks (3)
High-A Quinn McDaniel (3)
Thursday schedule
Sacramento: at the Salt Lake Bees, 10:05 a.m. PT
Richmond: at the Erie SeaWolves, 3:05 p.m. PT
Eugene: vs. the Tri-City Dust Devils, 7:05 p.m. PT
San Jose: vs the Stockton Ports, 6:30 p.m. PT
Reminder that Minor League games can be watched on MLB TV.