White Sox Minor Keys: July 5, 2018
Nick Madrigal signed and made his pro debut with the White Sox on Tuesday, and that’ll get its own separate post.
Draft class aside, Thursday’s biggest news was the departure of Donny Roach. He stepped away from an All-Star season with the Charlotte Knights to explore opportunities in Japan.
He went 9-2 with a 2.65 ERA as the staff leader for Charlotte, giving up three homers in just 95 innings. He also just has 61 strikeouts over 95 innings, so if he were to get any action with the White Sox, it’d probably only come as a spot starter here in there. More MLB reps would be nice for him, but so would a guaranteed and healthy six-figure contract if he is indeed at the height of his earning potential at age 28, so I’ll be looking forward to see what he gets overseas.
Durham 6, Charlotte 3
- Jose Rondon went 1-for-3 with a homer and two walks.
- Seby Zavala, 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Michael Kopech: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 1 HR. All his walks came in the first inning.
- Thyago Vieira: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K
Birmingham 3, Chattanooga 2
- Joel Booker went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.
- Luis Alexander Basabe singled twice, walked one and struck out once. He was also caught stealing.
- Zack Collins went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Danny Mendick was 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Alex Call, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Bernardo Flores: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Winston-Salem 7, Down East 3
- Ti’Quan Forbes was perfect at the top of the order, going 4-for-4 with a double and a stolen base. He was picked off.
- Laz Rivera, 3-for-4 with a triple and two doubles.
- Luis Gonzalez was 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Micker Adolfo, 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Gavin Sheets went 1-for-4.
- Blake Battenfield: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 1 WP
- Lincoln Henzman: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K
Hickory 4, Kannapolis 2
- Luis Curbelo went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Michael Hickman and Carlos Perez were both 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
Great Falls 8, Missoula 5
- Lenyn Sosa went 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Corey Zangari, 0-for-4.
- Maiker Feliz was 2-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Jonathan Stiever: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
AZL White Sox 5. AZL Indians2 4 (10 innings)
- Nick Madrigal went 0-for-1 with two HBPs. He was picked off once.
- Camilo Quinteiro was 2-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Luis Mieses, 2-for-5 with two doubles.
- Lency Delgado went 0-for-2 with an HBP.
- Cabera Weaver was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Sam Abbott, 1-for-4 with a K.
- Anderson Comas was 1-for-4.
DSL Reds 5, DSL White Sox 4
- Jose Rodriguez went 1-for-4.
Author
Has there been any word on why they moved Henzman back to the pen? Is this an innings thing?
Yup, innings. He already blew past his previous high during the first half.
Must have missed this, thanks Jim!
It sounds temporary.
I love what Flores is doing at AA. One of my old dibs making good.
Has there been any reports on whether his stuff has bounced back? Despite some solid results last year, reports seemed to indicate that his velocity was down again.
Here’s what Fegan’s article a few weeks back said:
https://theathletic.com/399228/2018/06/19/how-a-diminishing-fastball-helped-transform-bernardo-flores-into-a-strike-throwing-innings-eater/
Good pull, thanks for the info!
So I read a lot of stuff about Kopech’s strike zone being horrid. Was it bad enough to just toss aside his line as a big “nothing to see here”?
Didn’t see last night’s game, so I can’t comment on that, but… he sure has had some rough first innings lately.
Since the start of June he’s had a 20.5% walk rate with 5 HBPs and 7 WPs.
Must have had a lot of horrid strike zones lately
So, no comment on last night’s strike zone (the subject of the question) then?
Before we started the podcast, Josh said Kopech wasn’t getting the low strike whatsoever.
Didn’t watch it. So I can’t say. But given his command problems in the last month, I don’t think you can just disregard last night’s line, bad strike zone or not.
If he was walking hitters on pitches that are generally strikes then yes, you sure as shit can disregard it.
Didnt see any of last night’s game so I can’t speak to that. But he has spotty command, may always have spotty command. But gets a way with it when in the zone. The fact he was pulled early worries me more.
The games he was blown up in, he just lost his release point and either threw pitches to the screen or 40 feet in the dirt. I’m hoping last night he was just squeezed and that will probably always effect him more since he is control over command (similar to a Rodon).
Getting pulled early is encouraging from a organizational standpoint, since long innings have a strong correlation to arm injuries and he was at 75 pitches through three.