White Sox Minor Keys: June 17, 2018

Intimidators Stadium in Kannapolis (Jim Margalus)

In the end, all the Kannapolis Intimidators needed to do was win one of their last five games of the first half to secure a postseason berth.

In the end, they couldn’t do it. A 3-1 loss to Greensboro gave Lakewood the first-half crown.

All hope is not lost — they can still make the postseason by winning the second half or having the best overall record should Lakewood win both halves — but when you look at the fun Winston-Salem experienced by taking care of that business early, Kannapolis missed out a little.

Norfolk 11, Charlotte 4

  • Leury Garcia made his first start in the field and went 2-for-3.
  • Avisail Garcia started and right and went 2-for-4 with a double, wlak and two strikeouts.
  • Jordan Stephens: 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

Wilmington 10, Winston-Salem 1

  • Gavin Sheets went 1-for-4 with a walk.
  • Micker Adolfo, 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
  • Yeyson Yrizarri was 1-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
  • Blake Ruthford, 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
  • Joel Booker was 2-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
  • Alex Call, 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.

Greensboro 3, Kannapolis 1

  • Luis Gonzalez went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
  • Luis Robert tripled, singled, walked and struck out.
  • Carlos Perez was 0-for-3 with a K.
  • Evan Skoug struck out as a pinch hitter.
  • Lincoln Henzman: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
  • Tyler Johnson: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K

More:

*Video of Robert’s triples speed:

Helena 9, Great Falls 8 (Game 1, 8 innings)

  • Lenyn Sosa went 3-for-4.
  • Amado Nunez, 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
  • Gunnar Troutwine’s debut was thunderous: 2-for-3 with a homer and a walk.
  • Codi Heuer: 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Helena 9, Great Falls 2 (Game 2, 7 innings)

  • Amado Nunez went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
  • Lenyn Sosa, 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
  • Romy Gonzalez singled twice and struck out once.
  • Jhoandro Alfaro was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
  • Bennett Sousa: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 WP

Birmingham vs. Chattanooga, PPD

 

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
33 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Trooper Galactus

Wow, Stephens really hit a wall in that fourth inning. Hope everything is okay with him. Disappointing that Kanny couldn’t bring home the first half crown, especially given Henzman and Johnson combined for eight innings of one run ball. Still, lots of encouraging movement in the system of late, and hopefully Kopech can have another post ASG resurgence like he did last season.

Jason.Wade17

<a href="

Little Monday morning #ScoopCity on MiLB movement coming up:

Cease, Basabe, Call, Booker up to Birmingham

Eloy, Hamilton, and Seby up to Charlotte after their all star games#TheWhiteSoxAreComing

— whitesoxdave (@barstoolWSD) June 18, 2018

“>

lil jimmy

the fans of the Charlotte Knights say “Thank You”

joewho112

Seby up before Collins? Surprising, no?

PauliePaulie

Sounds like they prefer Seb’s! improvement on D. The promotion allows Collins and Seb! to each get more reps behind the plate.

35Shields

Seby’s older and, although his bat isn’t as advanced as Collins, his defense seems to be much better (3.9 FRAA vs -8.6 FRAA).

The call up allows them both to get more playing time, while keeping Collins at a level where he doesn’t have to worry about hitting and can focus on his defense.

Eagle Bones

Yep. The framing specifically is grading out in Seby’s favor so far.

Marty34

I think developing these pitchers is more important to the success of this rebuild than having Collins be an offense first catcher. I don’t see him turning into even an adequate catcher and the Sox staff is really hard to catch. Move him to 1B, DH and spend money on the best receiver you can find in order to give these pitchers ever possible advantage they can get.

PauliePaulie

Any idea how they’re going to fit Basabe, Call and Booker in that BHam OF?
Is Fisher a goner?

MrTopaz

Probably just rotating guys in and out of DH, I’d imagine. I don’t think sending Fisher down to W-S would really solve anything, as far as playing time is concerned, what with Robert moving up.

Jason.Wade17

No idea, but highly doubt Fisher is a goner. I think it’s much less of a logjam with those three fighting for playing time with Fisher/Polo, than it was at WS with Rutherford/Adolfo.

And I could see Fisher getting at bats at 1B if they wanted to make sure everyone got at bats.

Josh Nelson

Let’s wait until Wednesday to see what the White Sox actually do.

Jason.Wade17

Where’s the fun in that. I want to predict lineup cards now and discuss it to no end.

Sophist

Amen. Anybody want to start the discussion of how they’re going to manage playing time for Jimenez, Robert, Adolfo, Rutherford, Basabe, Booker, Walker, Anderson* and Call at the major league level in 2 years? They don’t have enough first bases to handle that!

zerobs

Sounds more like Barnum is a goner.

Trooper Galactus

He and Basto would be my choice for the chopping block.

mikeyb

That video of Robert is fantastic. The dust kicking up as he runs out of the box, like a cartoon character speeding off, really makes it.

Eagle Bones

Question for the group (or maybe a better idea for a front page post from Jim or pnoles). I was thinking the other day (after reading pnoles tweet about there not really being room in the ML rotation for Kopech for a little while) about when they start looking at moving some of fringe starters in the upper levels to the pen? Stephens and Fulmer were the two I was specifically thinking about. With the ML rotation currently full; Kopech, Stephens, Fulmer and now Adams at AAA; Dunning, Hansen, Guerrero, probably Puckett at some point and apparently now Cease at AA; do they start to look at converting some of these guys? Obviously injuries and poor performances will thin this out to some degree, but with so many guys starting to get clumped together in the upper levels, it seems like it bears getting a look at some guys in the pen to keep them moving (especially a guy like Fulmer that’s struggled so badly).

PauliePaulie

Pure speculation, but- I think the clock is ticking on Fulmer as a starter. If they’re able to trade some ‘Pen pieces, maybe they let Stephens get his feet wet in the Majors as a reliever. IMO- Kopech is stuck until Shields is gone. And those 3 keep the guys at the lower levels in a holding pattern.
PS- I also think the emergence of Cy Covey means MiGo gets cut.

Greg Nix

Seems like the front office is content to let the rest of the season play out as is, which makes sense to me. Most of those guys need innings to work on repeating their delivery and sequencing pitches, even if they’re ultimately going to end up as relievers. I’d imagine their respective roles next year will be dictated by rest-of-season performance, offseason moves, and spring training results.

Eagle Bones

Good point. I’m also trying to think back to past relief conversions and whether they happened during the season or after. I’m assuming this is something they are more likely to pull the trigger on during the offseason?

Trooper Galactus

Stephens has been killing it this season as a starter. Any move to the pen should just be to limit his innings or just give him late exposure to major league hitters.

Eagle Bones

We’re getting to the point where we’ll need to define terms like “killing it”, but you’re right, he’s pitched well. He’s also fairly old for these levels (AA at least), has a checkered injury history, has been said to have a reliever’s repertoire in the past and has a ton of guys in front of him (Rodon, Lopez, Covey and Giolito if he can get it together) and behind him (Adams, Dunning, Hansen, Cease, etc.) to contend with as starters. They’re going to need a bullpen too and I’m not sure you can keep a guy who’s already going to be 26 in September down at AAA for another year just in case. Right? I mean I’m all for depth, but it feels like maybe him and Fulmer need to move to the pen and clear the way for the more probable starters. Or maybe I’m just sick of seeing guys like Volstad and Beck come out of the pen…

sgp2204

Spencer Adams sucks, so you can take him off the list of contending arms. Not sure why people insist on putting him with the “potential starters” in our system. Maybe it’s because he was a “top” prospect when our system was horrible. At best, he’s an organizational filler/innings eater type guy with little upside. 

lil jimmy

Spencer just turned 22 and is pitching in AAA. The biggest problem young pitchers have is finding the strike zone. He does not have that problem. MLB has him at #14. Seems fair to me.

sgp2204

Spencer just turned 22 and is pitching in AAA because they don’t want to rush their actual prospects. When he gets a K/9 over 7, I might pay a little more attention to him. Until then, I won’t hold my breath on him developing into a big league pitcher. 

When they eventually re-do the rankings, I’d be willing to bet he’s closer to 30 than 14. 

Trooper Galactus

Adams will probably still be in the organization’s top-20 when the rankings are re-done. He’s advanced up the organizational ladder despite never having strikeout stuff. Limited ceiling, yes, but it’s not unheard of for a guy like him to force his way into a major league rotation and not look out of place.

35Shields

I think that timing makes it more-or-less a non-issue.

None of the pitchers in AA will be coming up this season for anything more than a cup of coffee. I’m lumping Spencer Adams in with those guys because he just got to AAA.

Fitting Fulmer into the starting rotation isn’t a concern because he’d actually have to be good at baseball for it to be.

That really only leaves Stephens, Kopech and MiGo as pitchers who could occupy spots in the starting rotation. I’m assuming MiGo gets cut unless a spot opens up in the rotation and Stephens and Kopech are both struggling.

One of Kopech and Stephens can be easily accommodated in the rotation, as the Sox are only carrying four starters at the moment (and the husk of Lucas Giolito). You only really have an issue if they’re both in need of a callup now, which -because of shaky recent performance (Kopech) or lack of AAA experience (Stephens) – seems remote. Even this constraint only exists if Covey continues to surprise us. And in a month or so, Shields will likely be traded.

ForsterFTOG

I see Zangari hasn’t played in any of Great Falls’ games yet. Wouldn’t he be a guy the Sox would want to see play?

soxfanpa

I think the biggest thing for the Voyagers is Michael McCormick’s sick mustache. Give him a couple of years of development in the minors, his floor is Tyler Saladino.

Josh Nelson

Almost Rollie Fingers-esque.

soxfanpa

Matthew Lillard in Scooby Doo in disguise.