SF Giants prospects rundown 5/22: Caleb Kilian almost perfect

Starting pitchers dominated throughout the SF Giants system, but none more than Caleb Kilian.

Make sure to revisit our daily SF Giants prospect rundowns to keep up with each of their minor-league affiliates. If you do not feel well acclimated to the prospects throughout the farm system, you might want to revisit our prospect week articles that detailed the system from the top prospects to lower-level fringes. If you’re just interested in the biggest names, then the preseason SF Giants top 31 prospects list is the one-stop shop for you.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/22: Triple-A

Reno Aces 3 at Sacramento River Cats 4
Performance of the Game: Shun Yamaguchi (6.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 9 K)

River Cats starter Shun Yamaguchi was cruising along before the seventh inning. After only allowing two baserunners through his first six innings of work, things unraveled in the seventh. The Aces mounted a comeback when Camilo Doval came in to relieve Yamaguchi, but two runs were charged to the starter. The Aces lineup took advantage of Doval’s inconsistent control and tied the game up at three.

In the ninth inning, Bryce Johnson took matters into his own hands. With one out in the ninth, both Johnson and shortstop Thairo Estrada walked to put the game-winning run in scoring position. The Aces put in catcher Bryan Holaday. On the very first pitch, Johnson went off to steal third base. Holaday threw the ball to the hot corner but the throw was off-line into the far glove-side of the third baseman. Johnson broke home easily towards home plate to score the go-ahead run for the walk-off victory.

The three runs scored by the River Cats before the walk-off were all via the long ball, with second baseman Mitchell Tolman hitting his third home run of the season in the third inning and both Jason Krizan and Joe McCarthy hitting their second home runs of the season in back-to-back fashion during the fourth inning. Both Thairo Estrada and LaMonte Wade, Jr. drew two walks and even the pitcher Yamaguchi had a base knock in this game.

Yamaguchi is one of those AAAA-type pitchers in the system but was having a poor season before this stellar start. His slider and splitter were working well on Saturday and he was executing with his fastball. The Aces lineup took advantage of Doval’s shattered confidence after a pretty disastrous cup of coffee in the big leagues. It will be interesting if the Giants do decide to bring down Doval even down to AA to re-gather his footing.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/22: High-A

Eugene Emeralds 1 at Tri-City Dust Devils 0
Performance of the Game: Caleb Kilian (7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K)

It was a pretty special night in Pasco, Washington for the Emeralds as the trio of Caleb Kilian, Ryan Walker, and R.J. Dabovich combined to pitch a one-hitter. Kilian retired the first 20 batters of the ballgame before giving up a two-out double to Dust Devils third baseman Brendon Davis in the seventh inning.

It was Kilian’s finest effort as a professional and I want to talk about him a little bit. After four starts, his ERA is a measly 1.24. Want to talk about his peripherals? His strikeout rate is 42.67% while his walk rate is just 1.33%. He has a 32:1 strikeout to walk rate. His opponent’s batting average is just .122 and has induced more groundouts than flyout.

On the eye test, I can see three reasons why Kilian is very successful against High-A hitters. First, Kilian sits in the mid-90s with his fastball, touching 98 MPH. Second, Kilian has the ability to not only fill the strike zone easily with his fastball but also command and execute his heater to the four quadrants of the strike zone. Third, his mechanics are not straightforward: his tempo is tough to time and he has some crossfire in his motion.

Even though Kilian is pitching at a really high level at the moment, I do have some concerns with his secondary pitches. He rounds out his repertoire with a cutter, curveball, and a changeup that all flash as only average. It will ultimately be the deciding factor on whether Kilian can take the next step as a true rotation piece at the big league level.

All in all, Kilian would easily make my Top 30 if I update it after today’s games with his plus fastball, above-average command, and average secondaries all accounting to a 40 FV, even a 45.

On the offensive side of the ball, Franklin Labour‘s first inning opposite-field single to drive in Will Wilson proved to be enough, as the Emerald’s hitters were only limited to just four hits with two belonging to Labour.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/22: Low-A

San Jose Giants 5 at Fresno Grizzlies 4
Performance of the Game: Clay Helvey (3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K, W)

It was a great comeback win for the San Jose squad, as they fought from a three-run deficit that went to extra innings. With the infamous “runner on second base” extra-inning rule in effect, baserunner Jimmy Glowenke was called safe in a bang-bang call when he tagged up to third base after shortstop Abdiel Layer hit a flyball to left-center field. Glowenke then scored pretty easily after a wild pitch thrown by Grizzlies reliever Fineas Del Bonta-Smith.

Third baseman Luis Toribio led the comeback in the seventh inning with a double to center field, first baseman Garrett Frechette drove him in with a base knock, Glowenke doubled, and Luis Matos singled in the pair. Both Frechette and catcher Ricardo Genoves had two hits. Layer also hit a lead-off home run to begin the game. Layer now has an organization leading five home runs on the season, an incredible feat when considering how much less playing time he’s gotten than most other prospects.

Giants starter Carson Ragsdale struck out a career-high nine hitters in five innings of three-run ball. It was a pretty good outing overall that only got blemished with a three-run third inning by the Grizzlies offense. His fastball and curveball were working well, but the command fans should expect from a Low-A pitcher does leave him at risk.

With the game tied, Clay Helvey was faced with the gargantuan task of keeping the game tied and giving the Giants offense the opportunity to take the lead. It was one of the most nail-biting pitching appearances that I have ever watched this season as he induced inning-ending double plays in both 7th and 9th inning. Even though it was far from perfect, his clutch three-inning outing last night earned him my POG vote.

We’ll be back looking at the SF Giants farm system throughout the minor-league season with daily rundowns on the entire organization’s minor-league affiliates.