Minor League roundup, August 28: Marco Luciano, Bryce Eldridge, Zander Darby bring the BOOM

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

There are only four San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates still playing, as the season is over in the ACL and DSL. But all four of those teams were in action on Wednesday. Let’s dive into it!

Link to the 2024 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

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News

Just a tiny bit of mostly informal news: High-A Eugene placed a pair of prospects — shortstop Cole Foster (No. 30 CPL) and outfielder Alexander Suarez — on the 7-Day IL. While this makes their injuries “official,” it’s been clear that both players are dealing with ailments, as Foster hasn’t played since August 10 and Suarez since August 7.

Hopefully they heal up quickly, but at this point it’s probably a decent bet to assume that their seasons are over.

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AAA Sacramento (68-60)

Sacramento River Cats lost to the Las Vegas Aviators (A’s) 9-8
Box score

There was some question when Robbie Ray hit the IL if RHP Tristan Beck, who had recently started his rehab following a very, very lengthy IL stint, might replace him. It seemed unlikely that the Giants would turn in that direction so quickly and indeed, that was confirmed on Wednesday, when Beck got the start for Sacramento.

It was another excellent one for Beck. He lived in the strike zone, pitched efficiently, and struck out 5 batters in 3 innings, while allowing just 2 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run. Beck was fantastic in his 1st pair of rehab starts, but then got blown up in the last pair of outings, so good to see him get back on the right track. I still expect him to fill-in for Ray at some point in September, but the Giants are clearly working him back slowly … as they should.

Another potential to give the rotation some September innings is another player who started the year injured: RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 20 CPL). McDonald was the piggybacking starter and it didn’t go nearly as well for him: in 3.2 innings he gave up 9 baserunners and 5 runs, struggled to find the strike zone, and struck out just 2 batters.

McDonald is still waiting to make his MLB debut, and it may have to wait until 2025. But unlike most Rule 5 protections who don’t make their debuts that year, I doubt the Giants have many regrets about rostering McDonald. They may be wondering if he would have gone unselected, but I can’t imagine there’s any thought about getting him off the roster: he looks like he’ll be a big part of the team for years to come, this rough outing notwithstanding.

The offense showed some fireworks, and they came from some exciting places. Most notably, second baseman Marco Luciano (No. 2 CPL) flashed his power, hitting 2-4 with a walk and a truly sensational home run.

I’ll say it as many times as I need to: do not give up on that bat, folks. Luciano’s power was mysteriously absent in the first half of the season, but he’s re-found it lately, and the visuals match the stats, which isn’t always the case with Minor League home runs. Most of his power swings, be they doubles or dingers, would have that same result in a Major League stadium, against a Major League defense.

Luciano has handled the clunky up-and-down treatment from the Giants well, and in his last 8 games has caught fire: he’s 11-30 with 2 home runs, 1 triple, 5 walks, and just 6 strikeouts. If a team claims Thairo Estrada, who was placed on irrevocable waivers on Wednesday, might the Giants finally just give Luciano a few weeks of extended action at second base and see what happens?

Probably not. But I can dream.

In all likelihood, if Estrada is claimed, the Giants will probably turn to shortstop Brett Wisely who, in fairness, had a damn good audition as well. He also bopped a ball over the fence, finishing 1-4 with a walk and a strikeout as well.

Like Luciano, Wisely has been a hit machine lately: he’s rocking a 7-game hit streak, during which time he’s 10-30 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 3 walks, and just 4 strikeouts. He initially was excellent in filling in when Estrada got injured, before tailing off, so it would be nice to see him get some more run.

Another option is veteran Cavan Biggio, who was the DH in this game and went 0-2 with 4 walks and a strikeout. We know the Giants love walks!

Rounding out the home run party was catcher Blake Sabol who had an utterly delightful day, hitting 3-5 with his 2nd home run in as many days.

Sabol is surely super disappointed with his season, and fearing for his future on the 40-man roster, but there’s still time to end things on a high note. He’s got a 6-game hit streak going, and in the last 11 games is 13-42 with 3 home runs, 1 triple, 1 double, 3 walks, and 8 strikeouts. Finish the year strong, Blake!

Speaking of finishing the year strong, another nice game for left fielder Hunter Bishop, who went 2-5 with 2 doubles, albeit with 3 strikeouts. Bishop is starting to rebound from a brutal summer, although it’s unfair to punish him too much for that, since he was pressed into emergency action in AAA ahead of schedule.

Even though his overall numbers are poor (.708 OPS, 74 wRC+), Bishop should feel good about his season. He showed a lot of flashes of what made him a 1st-round pick and, after missing all of 2023 due to injury, has responded by blowing past his career highs in games and plate appearances. The best ability is availability, and hopefully Bishop has worked his body back to a place where he can just focus on letting his talent shine through in 2025.

40-man performance updates: right fielder Luis Matos hit 1-5 with a strikeout, center fielder Wade Meckler (No. 11 CPL) hit 0-4 with a walk and a strikeout, and first baseman David Villar hit 0-4 with a walk and 3 strikeouts. Matos also had an all-time highlight reel for the great catch/awful call-off department.

That works, but it could’ve worked a lot more easily!

AA Richmond (55-67)

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

A very mild-mannered game for the Squirrels. It was an awful day on offense unless your name was Andy Thomas: the catcher hit 2-4 with a home run, providing not just the only run of the game for Richmond, but two-thirds of their hits as well.

It probably hasn’t been exactly the season Thomas was looking for, as he is spending the whole year in AA for the 2nd consecutive season, and has essentially repeated his performance. But it hasn’t been a bad season either for the 26-year old, who has a .649 OPS, a 90 wRC+, and a sub-20% strikeout rate, while doing quality work behind the dish.

On the mound it was a decent enough start for LHP John Michael Bertrand, who gave up 7 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs in 5 innings, while striking out 6 batters. Bertrand doesn’t have overpowering stuff and thus pitches to contact quite a bit, so there are simply going to be times where that contact means a lot of runs and times where it means very few runs, and this performance nestled somewhere in the middle. He has a 4.20 ERA and a 3.96 FIP on the year, with 7.4 strikeouts per 9 innings, 2.5 walks per 9 innings, and a 50.9% groundball rate.

Excellence from RHPs Mat Olsen and Nick Garcia out of the bullpen. Olsen allowed a hit and a hit batter in 1.2 scoreless innings, with a strikeout, while Garcia gave up just a hit in 1.1 shutout innings, while striking out 3. Garcia really struggled during his midseason attempt at AAA, but in AA has been nothing short of dominant, with a 1.47 ERA, a 1.89 FIP, and 35 strikeouts to 8 walks in 30.2 innings.

High-A Eugene (55-66)

Eugene Emeralds lost to the Everett AquaSox (Mariners) 7-5
Box score

The world belongs to first baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 3 CPL). We’re all just living in it. For the 2nd time in as many days, the 2023 1st-round pick smacked both a home run and a double, as he finished the day 2-3 with a walk and a strikeout.

That is a truly ludicrous home run.

Time to update the tracker from yesterday. Eldridge has now hit safely in 19 out of his last 22 games, and in that span has gone a blistering 36-102 with 8 home runs, 1 triple, 6 doubles, 20 walks, and 29 strikeouts. I mean …. come on.

He leads the organization in home runs by a comfortable margin and, among 78 Northwest League hitters with at least 150 plate appearances, he’s 2nd in batting average (.317), 1st in on-base percentage (.427), 1st in slugging percentage (.553), 1st by a mile in OPS (.980), 1st in wRC+ (170), 3rd in walk rate (16.1%), and 3rd in isolated slugging (.236). I mean …. that’s kind of everything you can do with a bat.

Crucially, Eldridge is nearing the plate appearance mark that he had in Low-A San Jose when he got promoted (he had 229 plate appearances in San Jose vs. 199 with Eugene). Pair that with his dominant performance, and it seems pretty safe to assume that he’ll be in Richmond soon.

Also a delightful day for designated hitter Sabin Ceballos, who hit 1-3 with a home run, a walk, and a strikeout.

Ceballos, who came over in the Jorge Soler trade, has fit in quite nicely with Eugene, where the 2023 3rd-round pick has an .811 OPS and a 125 wRC+. It’s a small sample, but he’s finding more power in the Giants organization: his 3 dingers with Eugene have come in 96 plate appearances, after having just 3 homers in 377 plate appearances with Atlanta’s High-A affiliate this year.

What Ceballos is doing is extra noteworthy because he only had 50 combined plate appearances last year between rookie ball and Low-A, before jumping straight to High-A in his debut full season.

Right fielder James Tibbs III is still trying to figure out High-A after his ultra-quick promotion following dominance in Low-A. He went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts, and is now just 1-26 with 12 strikeouts since his promotion. Shortstop Aeverson Arteaga (No. 14 CPL) is also still trying to find his rhythm after a lengthy injury absence, though Wednesday was a small step in the right direction: he hit 1-4 with a walk, a stolen base, and 2 strikeouts.

It was the meat of the pitching sandwich that performed well, as the bread largely struggled. LHP Dylan Carmouche got the start and allowed 9 baserunners and 4 runs in just 4 innings, though he did strike out 7. RHP Hunter Dula, who has been lights out this year, had a rare hiccup, giving up a trio of 9th inning runs on a 3-run shot by AquaSox left fielder Jared Sundstrom, whose family I grew up with (keep making our small town proud, Jared, just …. maybe do it against other teams, okay?).

But in between, RHPs Tyler Vogel and Josh Wolf shined. Vogel tossed 3 shutout innings with just 1 hit and 3 strikeouts, while Wolf threw a perfect frame. Both players have ERAs in the 4s (though Wolf just got to Eugene), so nice to see these performances.

Low-A San Jose (70-51)

San Jose Giants beat the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Dodgers) 9-5
Box score

A pretty fantastic day for the Baby Giants, with almost all the standout performances coming on offense.

Nobody had as good of a day as second baseman Zander Darby, who is wasting no time getting acclimated to professional baseball. Darby, the team’s 12th-round pick in July’s draft, was playing in just his 4th pro game and had a day he’ll never forget. He hit 2-4, drew a walk, and hit the 1st home run of his pro career … and then hit the 2nd home run, too.

Welcome to the pros, Zander! May your performance continue to be as good as your name!

Also homering was first baseman Guillermo Williamson, who hit 2-4 with a solo shot. Williamson, a lefty who doesn’t turn 21 until March, is still struggling in some basic areas … his batting average is down from .285 in the ACL last year to .235 this year, with his on-base percentage dipping from .415 to .338. But he’s still showing his slugging potential: he’s tied for 8th in the system in home runs, despite being 33rd in plate appearances, and he’s 22nd out of 93 Giants Minor Leaguers (minimum: 100 plate appearances) in isolated slugging. There’s a lot to build on next year, as he’s finally gotten his numbers to league average (.746 OPS, 100 wRC+).

Speaking of getting his numbers to league average, that’s what right fielder Lisbel Diaz (No. 42 CPL) did as well. Diaz hit 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout, and threw in 2 stolen bases for good measure, which brought him up to a .762 OPS and a 100 wRC+.

I’m just going to post the same splits I did yesterday, but with an update:

June 30 through August 4: 17-96, 1 home run, 5 doubles, 10 walks, 23 strikeouts
August 6 through August 28: 31-83, 4 home runs, 2 triples, 4 doubles, 3 walks, 11 strikeouts

That’s the improvement you love to see, and if you’re trying to get hyped about Diaz, this is your reminder that he won’t turn 20 until the halfway point of next season, and he has just an 18.4% strikeout rate … 21st out of 113 California League hitters with at least 150 plate appearances. Oh, and he’s more than 3 years younger than the average hitter in the league, so… yeah. Be excited.

And just to top it off, Diaz had an outfield assist for the 2nd day in a row, which brings him up to a whopping 13 already this season. Wow!

And a fantastic day for shortstop Walker Martin (No. 7 CPL) which, truthfully, isn’t something we’ve been able to say much this year. Last year’s 2nd-round pick reached base safely in all 5 of his plate appearances, knocking 2 singles and drawing 3 walks, while also stealing a base. What a day!

Walker’s issues in his debut season are well documented. Not only was this his 1st time in the last 15 games without a strikeout, but it was his 1st time in the last 15 games without multiple strikeouts. Still, he’s been finding ways to be productive lately, and in his last 4 games is 6-14 with 2 doubles and 8 walks.

RHP Ryan Vanderhei, the team’s 10th-round pick last year who is in his debut season, was effectively wild. He walked 3 batters and hit 2 more in 3 innings, but only allowed 1 hit, didn’t let a run score, and struck out 3. Perhaps not the most sustainable strategy, but hey … whatever works. That’s been his season so far: he’s walking way too many batters, but has done a good job limiting hits and runs. That’s something to work with, as Blake Snell can attest to.

RHP Kanoa Pagan pitched a scoreless inning with a walk allowed. It’s just great to see Pagan back on the mound, after once again starting the year injured. He’s up to 8 games and 9 innings this year, even though he entered the season having pitched in just 28 games and 42.1 innings …. despite being a 2019 draft pick. Let’s hope he can stay healthy!

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Home run tracker

AAA Marco Luciano (10)
AAA Blake Sabol (9, 8 in AAA)
AAA Brett Wisely (9, 6 in AAA)
AA Andy Thomas (5)
High-A Bryce Eldridge (19 total, 9 in High-A)
High-A Sabin Ceballos (6)
Low-A Guillermo Williamson (11)
Low-A Zander Darby, 2 (2)

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Thursday schedule

Sacramento: vs. Las Vegas, 6:45 p.m. PT
Richmond: at Erie, 3:05 p.m. PT
Eugene: doubleheader vs. Everett, 5:05 p.m. PT
San Jose: vs. Rancho Cucamonga, 6:30 p.m. PT

Reminder that Minor League games can be watched on MLB TV.