Baby Giants

[Stokes1931]

Teh boy and I went to see the San Jose Giants play the Lancaster JetHawks last night in Lancaster. This is the second time we have seen the Baby Giants play this year, the first was at High Desert. (BTW, there might have been 200 in attendance last night in Lancaster, and about half that at High Desert a few weeks ago.) Our intention is to go see them again towards the end of August against Rancho Cucamunga.

Observations

1. Minor league baseball is a kick! And cheap. We sat in the first rwo by the Giants' bullpen last night, and paid $6 each for the privilege. The players play with a pretty high degree of enthusiasm, albeit without tons of skill at this level. But the baseball is pretty good, still.

2. Beware promotions! We were enticed by the $2 beers at High Dessert. They didn't tell us that the $2 beer was served in a Dixie cup! It actually would have taken four of the $2 beers to fill the cup of a $7 beer. What a bargain! Oh, wait....

3. Gary Brown hit OK last night, I think he had two hits, and made a spectacular play in center, sprinting in on a sinking liner and diving to make the catch. Saved a few runs in the process. However, his average has "plummeted" to .328. In addition, he came up twice with RISP and made very weak outs on the very first pitch he saw. Yup, he's a Giant for sure!

4. Adrianza looked VERY good last night. On "D", he had good range, quick hands, and a good arm. Made some very tough plays look easy. He also hit two home runs, his first two of the season. The first was a laser to right in the first inning with Brown aboard. The second was a shot to center that might have landed near the Space Shuttle. Not counting on the kid to have power, but he seems to be able to hit the ball a fair distance.

5. The starting pitcher (Vesseller or something) was awful. Big kid. Threw hard. Decent ERA coming in. Could not find the plate. Gave up five runs in four innings.

6. The relievers shut down the JetHawks (not hard to do, apparently, given Lancaster's abysmal record), which was good to see. Since they did not post the Giant relievers on the video projector and the bedsheet in left field, I didn't get the names. Got a good look at the relievers as they warmed up, and some of the kids can throw serious gas.

7. ToJo came in having hit 9 of his 17 homers against the JetHawks. He did not hit a homer, but roped a double deep to left. His defense was lackluster at best. Given that the starter was struggling with control, and given our vantage point down the left field line, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. But Lancaster scored two runs on wild pitches/passed balls. And it looked like ToJo did the "ole" defense, just stabbing at the ball with his glove rather than moving and getting in front of the ball.

8. Every Giant got a hit except the DH, Flores (who is batting .230). Burg and Parker hit homers, Parker's was the game winner in the 10th, a two run shot. Burg looked very good at the plate, with a good eye. 2 for 2 with three walks.

9. Being Giants, they were 0-3 with RISP. Natch!

The kids can play. Looking forward to seeing them on 8/26.

 

[calsnowskier]

Nice write up.

BA recently called ToJo the best defensive catcher in the Cal League. Did you see anything that would support this claim? Is it possible that that is more of an attack on the rest of the catchers than a compliment towards ToJo?

 

[tzill]

Thanks for the summary, and I love low minors ball: cheap, and easy to get great seats. How did Anders and Parker look?

 

[Stokes1931]

Nice write up.

BA recently called ToJo the best defensive catcher in the Cal League. Did you see anything that would support this claim? Is it possible that that is more of an attack on the rest of the catchers than a compliment towards ToJo?

I liked his arm. Strong throws to 2nd after warmups each inning. He hosed a couple of runners at High Desert, but no one last night, as there were no steal attempts.

He did seem a little lazy behind the plate though, but I had no angle for how bad the wild pitches/passed balls were. There were three wild pitches in the 3rd, when Lancaster scored 3 runs. It was tough to see. I am no scout, and as a former outfielder, I have no feel for the game behind the dish, but it seemed to me that he just wasn't making much of an effort to block those pitches, especially with a runner on 3rd.

It could be he was tired. Playing in that desert heat is draining. He DH'ed the first game, and caught the final three. San Jose's other catcher in the series was Burg, and he played 1st yesterday. The other catcher who just came up is Jesus Navarro, and he seems to have some injury to his finger (from what we saw in the bullpen).

 

[Stokes1931]

Thanks for the summary, and I love low minors ball: cheap, and easy to get great seats. How did Anders and Parker look?

Parker played last night and hit the game winning two run homer. He didn't have any really tough chances in the field, and did not attempt a stolen base. Seems like a pretty compact swing, though. He was 2 for 5 with the homer and a single. From his stats, he K's a lot, 110 in 416 AB's.

Anders did not play last night, but he hit a monster homer when we saw him at High Desert on 8/4. He seemed to move pretty well around the bag at 1st base, as I recall. He also K's a lot, with 75 in 316 AB's. Tall kid,, sort of a loopy swing, which you would expect from a 6' 6" lefty.