SF Giants prospects rundown 5/28: Carson Ragsdale strikes out a dozen

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/28: Double-A

The Richmond Flying Squirrels game against the Reading Fightin Phils in Reading was postponed due to rain. The game is scheduled to be made up in a doubleheader on Saturday.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/28: High-A

Spokane 7 at Eugene Emeralds 1
Performance of the Game: Chris Wright (2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K)

Spokane convincingly beat the Emeralds in Eugene on Friday. The Emeralds bats were shut down by Rockies top pitching prospect Chris McMahon aside from a third-inning solo shot by Franklin Labour. Without much other offense though, the pitching staff needed to put together a nearly perfect performance to pull out a victory. That’s not what they got.

Emeralds starter Nick Avila gave up four runs in 4.2 innings and while righty John Russell ended a jam unscathed in the fifth inning in relief of Avila, he gave up a three-run home run in the sixth inning enabling Spokane to take a commanding lead that would never be challenged.

With two outs in the sixth inning, lefty Chris Wright made his Emeralds debut to fan out the flames. He did so by pitching a stellar 2.1 innings of relief with all of his outs via strikeouts and only allowing one baserunner via a walk. He was executing his pitches very well, filling the upper third and the arm-side third of the strike zone with his fastball that touched 95 mph and paired it with his curveball that he located in the dirt. He even threw a couple of show-me changeups.

There are only a few standout lefty relievers in the farm system and based on his performance this season, he is definitely one of them. For that reason, he received my vote for the performance of the game. Wright may have begun the year at Low-A, but relievers can always move quite rapidly through the minor-league ranks. Thus far, he’s definitely building that kind of momentum.

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/28: Low-A

Lake Elsinore Storm 0 at San Jose Giants 1
Performance of the Game: Carson Ragsdale (5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 12 K)

It was a pitchers’ duel on Friday in San Jose, as the Giants pitchers only allowed two hits and struck out 18 Storm batters. Their offense struggled in their own right, but Marco Luciano lined an eighth-inning double to score the only run of the ballgame. Luciano’s hit generated a fantastic exit velocity of 109 mph.

Giants starter and easily the performer of the game, Carson Ragsdale pitched very well. He only allowed two singles and a walk over 5.2 shutout innings. Yet, most impressively of all, he struck out a dozen hitters. He filled the zone with his low-90s fastball all night and his curveball consistently flashed plus. He even threw a vertical-breaking slider that at times flashed as average with some tight break. His north-south pitching approach gave the entire Lake Elsinore hitters fits.

After last night’s game, Ragsdale has struck out 35 batters in just 19.2 innings of work with a 7:1 strikeout to walk ratio. The Giants brass was certainly in love with him when he was still a college pitcher that they traded for him in exchange for Sam Coonrod. So far, so good for the right-hander and he firmly ranks among my top 30 prospects in the system.

There is not much to talk about offensively so I want to talk about a bit about the San Jose Giants defense so far. Luis Toribio tallied his first error of the season when he put a bit too much mustard on the ball and overshot the first baseman by a mile. I have actually been quite happy with Toribio’s defense at the hot corner this season. He’s been splitting time with Casey Schmitt and before last night’s error, doing all the fundamentals, and throwing the ball in a balanced position. Hopefully, it’s just a one-off thing.

The elephant in the room though is Ricardo Genoves. The catcher allowed his ninth passed ball of the early season, surpassing his total in 2019 of 8 in only half the total chances. There have also been a few wild pitches as well. In the games that I watched this season, Genoves was letting go of pitches that were in the opposite direction of where he set up to catch it. That’s most likely the reason why the passed balls have been at an alarming rate. The wild pitches also happen when he is blocking with only his glove and not utilizing his whole body. I still think quite highly of Genoves’ defensive chops, but it’s definitely something to watch for until the end of the season.

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.