SF Giants pitching prospects week in review (6/27-7/3)

Make sure to revisit our weekly SF Giants prospect rundowns to keep up with each of the organization’s 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 Weekly Rundown: Triple-A

Notable Performers

Kervin Castro: 2 G, 2 W, 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 0.00 ERA
Matt Frisbee: 1 G, 1 GS, 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 1 K, 3.60 ERA
Sam Selman: 2 G, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 0.00 ERA

Kervin Castro is on a roll. After a rough May where the right-hander had more walks than innings pitched and an ERA of 6.00, he’s surrendered just two earned runs ever since and has thrown seven straight scoreless outings with a nine-to-two strikeout to walk ratio and has thrown 64% of his pitches for strikes. The 22-year old has separated himself from the duo of Gregory Santos and Camilo Doval, and has a big chance to pitch in the bigs at some point in the season.

After four excruciating starts, Matt Frisbee finally had a strong outing as a River Cat with five innings of two-run ball. He was efficient with only 66 pitches thrown and was helped by the BABIP gods this time. He only had one strikeout, the third time in five starts that he’s exactly had one K. I did not see any drastic difference in the way that he pitched in terms of approach, he was just more effective. His BABIP in AAA lowered from .352 to .310 after this start, an indication that there could be better days ahead. Still, he’ll need to find some punchouts soon.

Even though he’s already well-known to the Giants fanbase, Sam Selman still has prospect eligibility in some rankings. He was hitless this week and struck out four across three innings but it was the walks that have hurt him this season with a 17% walk rate, his highest in three years. Selman can still be an effective left-handed option out of the pen. But with the big league club trying to win now and potentially looking externally to help improve the back-end of the bullpen, he could be on the outside looking in.

SF Giants Prospects Weekly Rundown: Double-A

Notable Performers

Michael Plassmeyer: 1 G, 1 GS, 1 W, 5.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 8 K, 1.69 ERA
Ronnie Williams: 2 G, 1 W, 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 1 HBP, 3 BB, 9 K, 0.00 ERA
Norwith Gudino: 2 G, 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 0.00 ERA

Michael Plassmeyer made his home debut for the Flying Squirrels this week and struck out eight. Excluding his Richmond debut where he got tagged for seven runs, the left-hander acquired from Tampa Bay has been as expected, if not a bit more. In his last three starts, Plassmeyer has an ERA of just 1.65 with an 18-to-three strikeout to walk ratio across 16.1 innings pitched. A known strike-thrower, 71% of his pitches have been strikes with a CSW of 29%. There’s a good chance that the 24-year old will make my Top 30 prospects lists in mid-season.

One of the best pitchers on the team after two months of play is Ronnie Williams, with the right-hander pitching throwing one of his best outings in the Giants organization as he threw three hitless innings with six strikeouts. After a strong week, Williams’ ERA is down to a measly 1.08 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 33.1 IP. His 17 walks and five HBP stand out, but he’s able to get through trouble cleanly and throw multiple innings. The six-foot right-hander has big-league potential with his low approach angle to his low to mid-90s fastball and when he is on, his breaking ball flashes above-average.

Another one of the pitchers who was quietly dominant this season out of the bullpen for the Flying Squirrels is Norwith Gudino. The 25-year old has an ERA of 1.44 this season with a 39-to-10 strikeout to walk ratio in 25 innings pitched. The right-hander has been used as more of a set-up man after the promotions of both Jose Marte and R.J. Dabovich to the Richmond roster. He’s still more control and command for most of the year but he’s able to be effective against Double-A hitting with his mid-90s fastball and a fringe-average slider.

Before the start of the season, I had Luis Amaya as a potential break-out prospect that could potentially be the best left-handed relief prospect in the organization. After two months of play, that did not happen as his ERA is at 4.82. However, if the first two outings of his year were removed, his ERA would only be 3.31 as he had a seven-game stretch of shutout baseball. His strikeout rate is at a career-best 33% and there’s potential for improvement in the second half of the season as his BABIP is at a very unsustainable .429.

SF Giants Prospects Weekly Rundown: High-A

Notable Performers

Aaron Phillips: 1 G, 1 GS, 1 W, 7 IP, 7 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 HBP, 3 BB, 4 K, 1.29 ERA
Nick Avila: 1 G, 1 W, 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 0.00 ERA
Kai-Wei Teng: 2 G, 2 GS, 6.1 IP, 11 H, 8 R (8 ER), 2 HBP, 5 BB, 5 K, 11.37 ERA

It was a tale of role reversals this week as the two best pitching prospects on the Emeralds roster pitched poorly while two unheralded prospects twirled gems.

The first one who had a strong outing this week was Aaron Phillips, who pitched seven strong innings. While it was not Phillips’ finest outing this season as he threw six shutout innings back on June 1st, he threw the most pitches this week with 91, 58 of which were strikes. The 2017 9th round selection has an above-average curveball but currently posts the lowest strikeout rate of his career at 15%.

Nick Avila threw six shutout innings of three-hit ball and retired eight straight at one point. The soon-to-be 24-year old has been used in a piggyback role in his last three appearances, pitching after an opener, and his latest appearance is easily the best this season. He’s pitching to the tune of a 6.51 ERA but his FIP of 4.10 is an indication that better numbers could be on the horizon.

After twirling a masterpiece last week, Kai-Wei Teng pitched poorly this week where he pitched in a heatwave in his first start and has little to no feel for his slider in his latest start. His two innings pitched tied last night was tied for the shortest outing this season (the other one is where he was ejected for foreign substance). He should fare better in his next start.

The other top prospect who pitched poorly this week was Seth Corry, where he pitched five innings of two-run ball but allowed a season-high six walks. Corry has allowed more walks than innings pitched but his strikeout rate is also a career-high 35%. He has been an enigma this season and it is looking more and more that the Corry that we saw in the second half of 2019 is now well in the past.