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

Birmingham 3, Chattanooga 2

Winston-Salem 7, Down East 3

Hickory 4, Kannapolis 2

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.
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Eagle Bones

Has there been any word on why they moved Henzman back to the pen? Is this an innings thing?

Eagle Bones

Must have missed this, thanks Jim!

ParisSox

I love what Flores is doing at AA.  One of my old dibs making good.  

Eagle Bones

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.

Greg Nix

Here’s what Fegan’s article a few weeks back said:

Dash pitching coach Matt Zaleski described the tall and lanky lefty (6-foot-3, listed at 170 pounds, but Flores thinks he added 10 to 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason) as throwing a fastball between 90-97 mph in his debut professional season while sitting 92 mph. Last year he was down to 85-91 mph.

….

Flores described himself as a two-pitch pitcher in college, whereas Zaleski described the guy who debuted in the Sox system as a lefty with a good fastball, a good changeup that he slowed down too much to throw and a curveball with good movement that he could not locate for strikes. Now he’s learned to rely on those while also developing a slider, and of course, is back up to 89-94 mph after working on leg and shoulder strength all offseason.

https://theathletic.com/399228/2018/06/19/how-a-diminishing-fastball-helped-transform-bernardo-flores-into-a-strike-throwing-innings-eater/

Eagle Bones

Good pull, thanks for the info!

Patrick Nolan

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”?

NDSox12

Didn’t see last night’s game, so I can’t comment on that, but… he sure has had some rough first innings lately.

35Shields

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

Patrick Nolan

So, no comment on last night’s strike zone (the subject of the question) then?

35Shields

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.

Patrick Nolan

If he was walking hitters on pitches that are generally strikes then yes, you sure as shit can disregard it.

Smclean09

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).

Greg Nix

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.