Larry profiled some of the low-level minor leaguers who are off the radar but worth keeping an eye on, which, in turn, reminded me that I never processed the video I shot of Nevin Griffth.

So, here’s video of Nevin Griffth (and here’s the brief scouting report from last month):

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Friday’s minor league roundup:

• Jacksonville 8, Birmingham 1
  • Dayan Viciedo went 2-for-3 with a walk and an error.
  • Jordan Danks went 0-for-5 with a strikeout; C.J. Retherford went 1-for-5 with a double.
  • John Shelby singled, walked and threw out a runner at the plate.
  • Clevelan Santeliz gave up two runs on three hits in an inning of work, striking out two.
• Salem 6, Winston-Salem 4 (10 innings)
  • Brent Morel went 2-for-5 with two strikeouts.
  • Justin Greene went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
  • Seth Loman hit a solo shot; Dale Mollenhauer had two singles, a double and a walk.
  • Jacob Rasner pitched well: 6 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K.
  • Nathan Jones struggled, allowed two runs on two hits and a walk while retiring just one batter. He also allowed an inherited runner to score.
• Billings 4, Great Falls 1
  • Jarrett Coker struck out 10 batters over 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on one swing.
  • Johny Celis went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
  • Trayce Thompson went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.

Through his first two innings on Friday night, I figured I would see how Daniel Hudson ended up with his unimpressive line in his Triple-A debut on Sunday (4 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K). He fell behind hitters, and couldn’t really come back with anything besides his fastball.

And then he found his slider.

Hudson finished by retiring 16 of the last 17 Norfolk batters he faced. The only batter to reach did so on a bloop single over the head of the second baseman, and he was erased on a 5-4-3 double play.

Here’s the video of his night.

Some things I noticed (and you might, too):

*Through the first three innings, Hudson’s fastball registered between 91-93 on the radar gun.  Over the last four, he was around 89-90, with an occasional 91.

Dan Hudson (Sox Machine)

However, I believe (I’m pretty sure, but didn’t keep count) that a majority of his strikeouts came on the fastball, even later in the game.  The aforementioned effectiveness of the slider helped keep hitters off-balance.

He looked like he used to a two-seamer (85-87), a change (82ish) and a slider that he added to and subtracted from. The slowest one I saw clocked in at 78, the harder ones 81-82.

*He’s seen a decrease in groundouts during his ascension, and Friday was no exception: just three groundouts to 12 flyouts.

*When he misses, he misses down. He didn’t work up in the zone that often (although he managed to pump three fastballs above the belt past a batter later in the game). That might explain how he’s given up just four homers over 134 1/3 innings this year.

Really, there wasn’t a single ball hit hard against him all night.  The Norfolk lineup produced several legitimate flies, but none that caused a heart to stop. He induced more pop-ups, flares off the end of the bat, etc., than anything resembling a well-struck ball.

*He works pretty quickly. He also does a muted Ryan Dempster-type glove waggle from the stretch.

The $64,000 question: Can he contribute to the Sox this year?

I would hesitate to say he would hit the ground running.  Given his unimpressive debut and his slow start on Friday, I don’t know if we can judge Hudson’s progress for one more start. He lacks a “wow” factor — at least until he gets rolling — and most major-league lineups probably would’ve punished him for working from behind in the count and missing his best off-speed pitch. At least for more than one run, which was unearned thanks to an Andy Cannizaro error (on his first chance, to boot).

Still, Hudson definitely put on a show — one that will certainly keep his name in the conversation after another Jose Contreras meltdown, and could possibly get him penciled in to the 2010 rotation before the month is over.

Here’s the rest of the box score.

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Minor league roundup:

• Birmingham 11, Carolina 6
  • Lee Cruz homered and drove in four
  • Christian Marrero and Jim Gallagher walked three times apiece.
  • Dayan Viciedo doubled in five at-bats; Jordan Danks went 0-for-4 with a walk.
  • John Ely improved to 11-2 despite a mediocre start: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K.
• Winston-Salem 4, Frederick 1
  • Brent Morel hit his 15th homer, his 27 th double and drove in two.
  • Justin Greene went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
  • Justin Edwards allowed one run over six innings, but didn’t strike anybody out while walking three.
• Asheville 8, Kannapolis 4
  • Josh Phegley doubled, walked and scored two runs.
  • Jared Mitchell and Jon Gilmore both went 1-for-4.
  • Stephen Sauer met the minimum for a quality start.
• Elizabethton 4, Bristol 3
  • Robert Vaughn homered twice and drove in all three runs.
  • Trayce Thompson went 1-for-4.
• Great Falls 13, Kannapolis 4
  • Jordan Cheatham fell a homer short of the cycle and drove in six.
  • Johny Celis doubled twice, hit a solo homer and scored three runs.

Jared Mitchell (Sox Machine)

After watching Jared Mitchell in action for the first time since joining the White Sox organization, one word comes to mind: Patience.

If I put together all the footage I had of Mitchell for the video below, 90 percent of the experience would be watching him take pitches.  He struck out on a check swing, struck out looking, grounded to second, and drew a walk on a 3-2 count.

Mitchell provided far more excitement in the field, as you’ll see in the middle of that compilation. He helped out Nevin Griffith by making a diving catch to a slicing liner in right-center in the second inning, and then made another diving catch in the left-center gap to end the fourth inning.

Greensboro hitters had a field day taking balls to the gap, meaning that a lot of wallbangers were far out of Mitchell’s range.  Anything he had a chance to catch, he caught.

Here’s what I saw:

Several of his Kannapolis teammates joined Mitchell in having off nights.

*Nevin Griffith was clocked at 94 with his fastball, but Greensboro hitters didn’t have any problems squaring it up.  He threw a couple different curves — one in the high-70s, and one in the low-70s.  He seemed to have better luck when pitching backwards.

Click to continue »

Below is Clayton Richard’s start against Richmond tonight condensed into roughly three minutes and 45 seconds.

When Charlotte Knights manager Marc Bombard said that Richard worked faster than anybody he’d ever seen during his last start against the Triple-A Braves affiliate, I doubt he was exaggerating.  When the elements are right — that is, when the batter doesn’t step out after taking a pitch — about six seconds pass from when the ball hits the catcher’s mitt to when Richard releases the ball again.  He does not dick around.  The video ends with a three-pitch strikeout that I condensed slightly, but in real time, he disposed of the hitter in 23 seconds.

It appeared that the Braves tried to knock Richard off his game early by stepping out or calling time in the box and making Richard wait on the rubber — which he will do.  He looks a little like Paul Byrd, rocking back and forth on the mound while waiting for the batter to set.  In fact, it’s the only way he looks like Byrd.

They fazed him not, unless you consider Richard walking his first batter in 21 innings at Triple-A a victory.  He walked the leadoff batter in the second inning, and got into a little subsequent hot water when he gave up a double to the next batter, but worked around it with a soft lineout, strikeout and pop-out.

He looked to be a three-pitch pitcher — two-seam fastball, curve and a change.  His sinker had a lot of movement on it, and he appeared to do a nice job of keeping his change away from right-handers, while using the curve against lefties.  There were four hard-hit (fair) balls on the night — three are on the video, and the other was a liner that ended up in Javier Castillo’s mitt at third.  He induces plenty of weak contact, which is why he’s confident enough to be efficient as all get-out.  He needed only 72 pitches over six innings.

The only pickoff move Richard made appeared to be a show-me version that you’ll see on the video.  He has to have a better one — at least I’m hoping.  The same small sample size can be applied to his defense.  He fielded three chances cleanly, but his soft throws looked a little awkward.  One of them pulled Royce Huffman off the bag, and he barely got back in time for the out.

The biggest caveat is that Richmond’s lineup was not stacked with hot prospects or even AAAA hitters.  But given that context, he did exactly what he had to do.  Outside of one bad fastball that resulted in a two-run homer, he didn’t let bad hitters beat him.

A couple other notes on Charlotte’s 9-3 victory over Richmond:

*Jason Bourgeois had two triples on the night, but one should’ve been a lineout to center.  The problem is that in Richmond’s stadium around 7:10 p.m. (he was the first batter of the game), the center fielder is looking directly into the sun on balls hit right at him, while right field and left field are in the shade.  He lost a hard-hit but catchable ball off contact, and Bourgeois made it to third easily.

The second triple, however, was all his bat and speed.  He smoked some liners today.

*Cole Armstrong made his Triple-A debut and went 5-for-5.  I thought he only had four hits, because a liner to second that was effectively dropped was initially ruled an error.  He had three solid liners and one seeing-eye single through the hole on the left side.

*I have video of Chris Getz and David Cook, and will get to them when I get home.  Cook hit two warning-track shots the opposite way, while Getz got two cheap RBI early and then made better contact later.

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Minor league roundup:

• Mississippi 6, Birmingham 1
  • Kyle McCulloch was rocked for 11 hits and six runs over 3 2/3 innings.  He walked three and struck out three.
  • Shaun Babula (3 1/3 IP) and Ryan Rote held the Braves hitless the rest of the way.
  • Victor Mercedes had one of the Barons’ four hits, the only extra-base hit (a double) and the lone RBI.
• Lynchburg 8, Winston-Salem 7
  • John Shelby doubled, tripled and scored twice.
  • Brandon Allen hit a solo homer, his 13th; Brett Bonvechio drove in two.
  • Anthony Carter continues to struggle in High-A ball, giving up six runs on six hits (including two homers) in four innings.
  • Kanekoa Teixeira blew the save by giving up two unearned runs.
• Kannapolis 20, Greensboro 6
  • Eduardo Escobar led the onslaught with four hits (two doubles), four runs and four RBI.
  • Mark Fleisher joined Escobar with four hits and four driven in.
  • Christian Marrero and John Curtis each had three hits, a homer and three RBI.
  • Lucas Harrell struck out four over three shutout innings, allowing three hits and a walk.
• Bristol 14, Bluefield 4
  • Brandon Short drove in six runs as he fell short of the cycle by a homer.
  • Jorge Castillo went 3-for-4 with four runs scored.  Andrew Garcia also had a three-hit day.
  • Gregory Infante allowed one run over six innings while striking out seven.
• Billings 4, Great Falls 2
  • Frank Rosario struck out seven over six innings of one-hit ball.
  • Ronald Morales fanned three over two scoreless innings of relief.
  • Brent Morel and Doug Thennis each had two hits.