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

One offseason acquisition struck out a dozen in a dominant start while two of the three SF Giants minor-league affiliates pulled out victories.

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 5/28: Triple-A

Las Vegas Aviators 2 at Sacramento River Cats 7
Performance of the Game: Justin Bour (2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 K)

It was a solid victory for the River Cats against the Aviators powered by two home runs by the birthday boy and player of the game Justin Bour. Bour hit his home runs in consecutive innings, a solo shot in the fourth, and a two-run blast in the fifth. With the Giants continuing to pile up the injury list, the journeyman could have an opportunity to hit for the big league squad as a platoon option.

Four players tallied two hits in this game for the Sacramento squad, with Bryce Johnson, Thairo Estrada, and Mitchell Tolman joining Bour in the two-hit parade. Johnson, in particular, is continuing to build on his hot start to the 2021 season, posting a wRC+ of 156. However, with deep outfield depth and lefty outfielder Steven Duggar performing well it’s hard to envision Johnson receiving a big-league opportunity without a series of injuries.

River Cats starter Anthony Banda had a solid outing, throwing 5.2 innings of two-run ball with three hits, three walks, and four strikeouts. The bullpen also played their part, pitching 3.1 shutout innings to close out the game. I am particularly interested in Dominic Leone as a potential arm to get called up soon if he continues his good start to the season. He has now struck out 16 batters in nine innings with a 1.00 ERA.

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.