Category: minors
Former Giants minor leaguer Justin Dowdy suspended for 50 games…all because he doesn’t live with his mom
Not many 28-year-old men still live with their parents. Former Giants minor league pitcher Justin Dowdy probably wishes he did, though. Dowdy just found out that he was suspended by Major League Baseball because he "refused to take a drug test." Only, he ...
Giants sign Travis Blackley
The San Francisco Giants have signed left-handed pitcher Travis Blackley to a minor league contract, according to TheAge.com, an Australian newspaper. Blackley, 29, just finished up pitching for the Melbourne Aces in the Australian Baseball League. For those of you who ...
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Giants sign Eric Hacker to minor league deal
The San Francisco Giants have re-acquired right-hander Eric Hacker, according to Sosnick Cobbe Sports. Hacker, 28, spent the 2010 season on the Giants' Triple-A squad, where he went 16-8 with a 4.51 ERA, 1.467 WHIP, 7.0 SO/9 rate and 3.4 BB/9 ...
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Bob Mariano to manage Fresno Grizzlies in 2012
Three new faces will join the Fresno Grizzlies coaching staff in 2012. The San Francisco Giants' Triple-A affiliate announced today that Bob Mariano will become the Grizzlies' skipper next season, replacing Steve Decker, who will become the Giants' new organizational hitting ...
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Links and stuff
Forgive the lackluster post title. (What do you want? It's just a blog.) While you ponder that, here are a few links to keep you up to date on Giants-related stuff going on right now... Remember Travis Ishikawa? Appears the Giants have ...
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Star pitching prospect Chuck Lofgren to become hitter
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Giants minor league pitcher Chuck Lofgren will be stepping up to the plate again. The former national pitching prospect will make the switch from pitcher to hitter. Lofgren has spent the past seven years ...
Waldis Joaquin clears waivers
Right-handed pitcher Waldis Joaquin has cleared waivers after he and outfielder Darren Ford were left unprotected by the Giants on Nov. 18 -- the date team had to make final revisions to their 40-man rosters in preparation for the Rule ...
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Brown, Hembree named Topps’ Class-A All-Stars
San Jose Giants outfielder Gary Brown and reliever Heath Hembree were named to the Topps Class-A All-Star Team, it was announced today by Minor League Baseball. Brown, who also was awarded the George M. Trautman award by Topps for Player of the ...
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Giants sign Gregor Blanco to minor league deal
According to a tweet from Matt Eddy over at Baseball America, the Giants have signed 27-year old outfielder Gregor Blanco to a minor league deal. Blanco played for three seasons in Atlanta (2008-'10), where he batted .252/.361/.309 in 204 games with ...
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Giants re-sign Wilmin Rodriguez
According to FOX Sports' Jon Paul Morosi, the Giants have re-signed left-hander Wilmin Rodriguez to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. He was one of the Giants' 17 minor league players granted free agency earlier this month. (See ...
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Villalona drops lawsuit, rejoins Giants organization
According to The Associated Press, former Giants first base prospect Angel Villalona is now back to "current" status with the organization. Villalona, 21, was signed by the Giants for $2.1 million when he was just 16 years old, but fell into ...
Brown, Surkamp named to Baseball America’s 2011 Minor League All-Star teams
Baseball America, the industry authority on all things minor league, has released its 2011 Minor League All-Star team and two Giants prospects are on the list. Outfielder Gary Brown, who batted .337 and posted an amazing .407 on-base percentage at ...
Giants recall Belt
Belt was tearing it up in Fresno (.324, 7 HR, 29 RBI).On a day that the San Francisco Giants were very busy tinkering with their roster, the club has announced that it is recalling Brandon Belt from Triple-A Fresno. ...
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Ford placed on DL after breaking wrist in collision
Ford (right) with Hinshaw, Apr. 12, 2011. (Photo by Dave Nelson)According to a tweet from Ellen Ward, media relations specialist with the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies, outfielder Darren Ford has been placed on the 7-day disabled list after breaking his wrist in ...
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Espineli back with Giants
The San Francisco Giants signed left-handed reliever Geno Espineli to a minor league contract Friday.Espineli, 28, was waived by the Colorado Rockies organization earlier this week. In just 2.1 innings for the Triple-A Sky Sox, he allowed 9 runs (8 ...
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After batting nearly .300 as a rookie in spring training, and impressing both San Francisco Giants veterans and coaches alike, Brandon Belt was given a well-deserved shot in the big leagues."It was a very exciting thing and I wasn't ...
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Belt misses game with sinus infection
According to the Fresno Bee, San Francisco Giants top prospect Brandon Belt had a sinus infection and was scratched from Tuesday night's lineup against the Reno Aces in Fresno.Belt won the starting job in San Francisco but was optioned ...
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Giants sign Mathis
The San Francisco Giants have signed right-handed pitcher Doug Mathis to a minor league deal. He's already reported to Triple-A Fresno. The 6'3" 220-pounder was released by the Cleveland Indians last week.Mathis, 27, was originally drafted by the Texas Rangers ...
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Peguero to miss 6 to 8 weeks
According to San Francisco Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly, another one of the Giants’ top minor league prospects has gone down with an injury.First, shortstop Ehire Adrianza needed surgery to repair a torn thumb ligament. Then, infielder Nick Noonan ...
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Kroon accepts minor league assignment
San Francisco Giants pitcher Marc Kroon confirmed (via Twitter) that he has decided to remain with the organization and report to Triple-A Fresno. The right-handed reliever said at various points this off-season that he might retire that than accept a demotion ...
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Giants sign Brian Lawrence to minor league deal
According to a tweet from beat writer Hank Schulman, the San Francisco Giants have signed ex-San Diego Padres starter Brian Lawrence to a minor league deal. Lawrence, 34, pitched for the Florida Marlins' Triple-A team in New Orleans last ...
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Giants sign Elmer Dessens
The San Francisco Giants have signed relief pitcher Elmer Dessens to a minor league contract according to the right-handers' agent, Fernando Ballesteros.Dessens, 40, can take home as much as $600,000 if he spends the entire season in the majors, ...
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Belt, Bucardo named Giants’ "Organizational Players of the Year"
Doug Miller and Jonathan Mayo over at MLB.com announced Brandon Belt and Jorge Bucardo as the San Francisco Giants' "Organizational Players of The Year" for the San Francisco Giants in this article from earlier today.They write that "the Giants' ...
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Giants sign Jesus Christian to minor league deal
It doesn't matter if most of the San Francisco Giants' employees were shaking hands and kissing babies at the largest turnout ever for the team's annual Fan Fest Saturday. The front office guys were treating it like any other day.The ...
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Baseball-Intellect ranks Belt No. 1 Giants prospect
Alex Eisenberg released his 2011 Top Giants Prospects list this week and -- to no one's surprise really -- Brandon Belt is ranked at the top of the list. Belt ranked #17 on Eisenberg's list last year.Eisenberg, who runs ...
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Giants announce minor league manager choices
The 2011 Augusta GreenJackets will welcome a familiar face in a new role this April. The Class-A GreenJackets, in conjunction with the World Champion San Francisco Giants, announced today that Lipso Nava will serve as field manager for the upcoming ...
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Post-season review: Baseball Intellect’s Top Giants’ Prospects
Eisenberg, on Posey: "as good as one could hope."Alex Eisenberg runs a fantastic website called Baseball Intellect that allows its readers to really dig into the mechanical and scouting aspects of baseball. The site employs a staff of former professional ...
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Giants sign Northern League MVP Jake Blackwood
Blackwood batted .331 with 31 HR, 86 RBI.Just found this on T-BonesBaseball.com:The contract of 2010 Northern League MVP Jacob Blackwood has been purchased by the San Francisco Giants. Blackwood, who nearly captured the league’s first Triple Crown since 2000, led the Independent Northern ...
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San Jose Giants win Cal League championship…again
The SJ Giants are the first Cal League repeat in a decade.When San Jose's Juan Perez dug in at the plate in the top of the 10th inning of Monday's decisive Cal League Finals Game 5, he knew he ...
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San Jose Giants blast Quakes in opener of Cal League Championship
Fitzgerald struck out 9 batters in 7 scoreless innings Thursday.Justin Fitzgerald tossed seven scoreless innings and the San Jose Giants erupted for eight runs over the seventh and eighth frames en route to a dominant 10-0 victory over the ...
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GreenJackets and Giants renew affiliation through 2012
The Augusta GreenJackets and San Francisco Giants announced today that they have renewed their player development contract, which will keep the GreenJackets as the Giants’ Low-A affiliate through the 2012 season.The GreenJackets had the best overall record in the South ...
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San Jose Giants advance to Cal League championship
Crawford batted .545 in the division series.The San Jose Giants (San Franciso's Advanced Class-A affiliate) beat the Modesto Nuts 8-2 Monday at John Thurman Field and completed a sweep of the best-of-five North Division Series.San Jose will open the ...
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Epic meltdown: Grizzlies lose PCL division title
Bowker's trade to Pittsburgh didn't help Fresno's title hopes.The Fresno Grizzlies have been eliminated.Despite snapping their seven-game losing streak Friday night at Chukchansi Park by beating the Tacoma Rainiers 10-7 in 12 innings -- and despite being ...
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Eric Hacker named PCL’s top righty
Hacker was 16-7 with a 4.54 ERA and 1.475 WHIP in 28 starts.Fresno Grizzlies right-handed pitcher Eric Hacker -- the only Giants' Triple-A player named to the 2010 All-PCL team -- was recognized by Pacific Coast League managers and ...
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Giants agree to extended affiliation with Volcanoes
The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and San Francisco Giants have agreed to extend their player development contact through the 2012 season.The agreement extends the affiliation between the Giants and Volcanoes to 18 years. Salem-Keizer is the Giants’ short-season A affiliate in the ...
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Brandon Belt promoted to Triple-A
Belt is hitting .363 with 19 HR and 102 RBI this season.Brandon Belt, who I got to see a little of in spring training back in March, will be in Sacramento tonight when the Fresno Grizzlies visit the Rivercats. ...
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D-Train pulls into Fresno
Willis was promoted to Triple-A on Saturday.After a three-game tune-up for the Giants' rookie league in Arizona, southpaw Dontrelle Willis was promoted to Triple-A Fresno on Saturday.Willis, 28, was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2003 and ...
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Another Giants prospect added to MLB Futures Game roster
Augusta GreenJackets pitcher Zack Wheeler has been named to Major League Baseball's All Star Futures Game, GreenJackets manager Dave Machemer confirmed today.The 2009 first-round pick by the San Francisco Giants will play for the U.S. team in the annual game ...
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Rafael Rodriguez became a millionaire on his 16th birthday. That makes him unique among the 2010 Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.But Rodriguez, who grew up poor in the Dominican Republic, does not want to be defined by the $2.55 million signing bonus he ...
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Francisco Peguero to represent Giants in Futures Game
Center fielder Francisco Peguero of the Dominican Republic will represent the San Francisco Giants at the XM All-Star Futures Game, to be played July 11 at Anaheim. Peguero hit .276 with four home runs and 31 RBIs in his first ...
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The tease who is John Bowker
Have you ever had one of those relationships that never seemed to end? You know, the girlfriend in high school who you broke up with, got back together with, broke up again with, cheated on, got back together again.....?Well, that's ...
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Bumgarner effective in return from suspension
Madison Bumgarner is getting an advanced degree in pitching.While yielding two runs on eight hits over six innings in Fresno's 9-2 win over Portland on Tuesday, the 20-year-old was learning to win without his best stuff. "To tell you the ...
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Picture this: John Bowker in a Team Edward jersey
In what has to be one of the lamest baseball promotions ever, the Fresno Grizzlies are jumping on the coat tails of the hugely popular Twilight Saga and conducting a "Twilight Night" promotion at the Chuk later this month. In ...
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Fresno Grizzlies left-hander Madison Bumgarner – the San Francisco Giants' top pitching prospect – has been suspended three games and fined an undisclosed amount by the Pacific Coast League after being ejected from Monday's game.The suspension will begin Saturday, meaning ...
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If the Augusta GreenJackets are going to finish off their bid for a South Atlantic League first-half championship, they'll most likely have to do it without starting pitcher Zack Wheeler.The San Francisco Giants' 2009 first-round draft pick, who was placed ...
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Five San Jose Giants named to Cal League All-Star Team
Five San Jose Giants players have been named to the California League All-Star Team and will participate in a game versus the Carolina League All-Stars on June 22 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. First baseman Brandon Belt, outfielder Juan Perez ...
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Giants Triple-A pitcher Madison Bumgarner went ballistic after center fielder Eugenio Velez dropped a routine pop fly in last night's game against the Sacramento Rivercats. He later had a problem with the umpires. Here’s the report from an eyewitness:“Then ...
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Pat Burrell, whom the San Francisco Giants signed to a minor league contract last week, is feasting on PCL pitching right now and some Giants fans, desperate for anything resembling an offense, are wanting him to join the big ...
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Giants sign Burrell to minor league deal
The San Francisco Giants have signed Bay Area product Pat Burrell to a minor league contract. Giants' manager Bruce Bochy all but confirmed the deal by saying that "He's going down to [Triple-A] Fresno" so the team can assess his ...
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Giants’ first round pick Wheeler goes on DL
Augusta GreenJackets pitcher Zack Wheeler, the San Francisco Giants' first-round draft pick from a year ago, appears to have made his last professional start before turning 20.The 19-year-old right-hander, whose birthday is Sunday, was placed on the seven-day disabled list ...
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Prospect spotlight: Brandon Belt
Brandon Belt, 1B, San Jose Giants (A)Season stats: .381 BA (48-for-126), 3 HR, 29 RBI, 14 2B, 3B, 25 BB, 20 K, 9 SBMay 12 - May 18 stats: .375 BA (12-for-32), 3 2B, 3B, 13 RBI, 6 BB, ...
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Bumgarner is back!
Like most fans, I wasn't surprised when the San Francisco Giants sent Madison Bumgarner to the minors after a horrendous spring. Though greatly gifted, Bumgarner was not able to show the velocity and command that had made ...
Sanchez may join Giants on Monday
According to the Fresno Bee, San Francisco Giants 2B Freddy Sanchez is expected to join the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies in Oklahoma City on Saturday for the next step of his rehab assignment. The Grizzlies are set to begin a four-game ...
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Freddy Sanchez rocks in rehab assignment
Giants second baseman Freddy Sanchez went 2-for-4 with three RBI Tuesday night in his first game of a rehab assignment for Class AA-San Jose. Both hits were two baggers. Sanchez, who had left knee surgery late in the 2009 season and ...
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Slow but steady progress has been Zack Wheeler's path in his first year as a professional pitcher. But the San Francisco Giants' first-round draft pick and Augusta GreenJackets starting pitcher was anything but slow in his most recent outing.Wheeler hit ...
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Sabean: Posey not ready for majors
San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey remains in Triple-A Fresno because Giants officials are not convinced that he is ready to catch in the majors, GM Brian Sabean told Andrew Baggarly of The San Jose Mercury News. Sabean insists ...
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Gigantes sign Wellemeyer to minor league deal
According to Mychael Urban, "the Giants have signed free-agent pitcher Todd Wellemeyer to a minor-league contract and will bring him to spring training as a non-roster invitee, CSNBayArea.com learned from a Giants source early Wednesday morning."Mychael Urban from CSN Bay ...
Guzman slips through waiver wire; is back with Giants
Thirteen unlucky days ago, INF Jesus Guzman was the odd man out when he was designated for assignment to make room on the Giants' 40-man roster for the newly-signed Bengie Molina. Now, after somehow clearing waivers, Guzman is back with ...
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Giants sign Guillermo Mota
The Giants signed Guillermo Mota to a minor league deal today and invited him to big league camp. Mota, one of the game's top setup men in 2003-04, becomes the third right-hander with big league time to ink a ...
Ramirez signs minor league deal with Gigantes
According to Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants have signed left-handed pitcher Horacio Ramirez to a Minor League Deal.Ramirez, 30, was 0-2 with a 5.96 ERA in 19 games (1 game start) for the ...
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Thomas Neal, the 22-year-old outfield who put up some tremendous numbers for San Jose, will be one of 22 non-roster players invited to Giants spring training this year and a prospect I can't wait to see. Neal, a 2005 draft ...
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Minor league transactions
The San Francisco Giants made serveral minor league transactions yesterday, signing RHP Santiago Casilla, RHP Mike MacDonald, RHP Osiris Matos (re-signed), C Todd Jennings (re-signed), and OF Breland Brown. To make room, the Giants released RHP Javier Hernandez and ...
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Runzler wins reliever award
When he arrived in Arizona in January to start working out at the San Francisco Giants complex as he rehabbed a stress fracture in his foot, left-hander Dan Runzler's main goal was to be able to take the mound at ...
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San Jose Giants win MiLBY
It's not often a Minor League team has expectations to win placed on it before a season begins. With everything that happens over the course of a season in the minors, from injuries to promotions, it's even rarer for a ...
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Decker to manage Grizzlies
Former Major League catcher Steve Decker has been named manager of the Giants' Triple-A affiliate Fresno Grizzlies, the club announced Wednesday.Decker, considered a promising managerial candidate for the Major Leagues, will be joined in Fresno by hitting coach Ken Joyce, ...
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