With most of the affiliates idle on Monday, let’s review the standings.
Charlotte Knights: 51-59, last place in the International league South.
Birmingham Barons: 23-22 in the second half, 2½ games behind Montgomery in the Southern League North.
Winston-Salem Dash: 26-16 in the second half, which is good for first place in the Carolina League Southern. They won the first half title, so they’re just gilding the lily at this point. They have the Carolina League’s best record at 67-45 overall.
As Luis Gonzalez observed, it’s not a bad place to be.
White Sox prospect Luis González had the same observation about the Winston-Salem Dash lineup as a league scout in attendance for one of their games last month.
“This team is unbelievable,” González said. “Everyone is hitting above .280 it feels like, so it’s a fun time to be with a fun group of guys.”
To be fair, the scout said everyone was hitting .300, which, 35 games into his term in High-A Winston-Salem, is a bar González is also clearing going into Saturday night (.311/.363/.497).
Kannapolis Intimidators: 23-18 in the second half, sitting third in the Northern Division, five games behind Lakewood. The good news? Lakewood is four games up on second-half Hickory. If the BlueClaws win both halves, the Intimidators are in position to get the second playoff spot, as they have a six-game lead over West Virginia in overall record (62-46).
Great Falls Voyagers: The Voyagers understand what the Dash don’t. They’re 1-10 in the second half, but they already locked up a first-half title in the Pioneer League North.
AZL White Sox: They’re 5-5 in the second half, tied for fourth place, but just 1½ games behind a three-way tie for first. That’s very on brand, because they’re 19-19 overall.
DSL White Sox: Don’t ask.
Birmingham 6, Mobile 4
- Luis Basabe went 0-fr-2 with a walk, strikeout and sac bunt.
- Joel Booker, 2-for-4.
- Zack Collins had his first big game in a while: 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk.
- Alec Call went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Danny Mendick, 3-for-4 with a double. He was caught stealing.
- Bernardo Flores: 6.2 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Winston-Salem 6, Myrtle Beach 3
- Luis Gonzalez went 1-for-2 with a double and two walks.
- Laz Rivera, 2-for-4 with a strikeout and a stolen base.
- Nick Madrigal went 0-for-3 with a sac fly.
- Gavin Sheets, 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Tyler Johnson: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K
DSL White Sox 4, DSL Blue Jays 2
- Harold Diaz went 2-for-5 and a stolen base.
- Jose Rodriguez, 1-for-5 with a steal.
- Jefferson Mendoza, 1-for-3 with a double.
- Wilber Perez: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K
Something I’ve been wondering about the last couple days is what’s going to happen with the OF logjam in the system next year?
This year it was at Winston-Salem, but next year it projects to be at Birmingham. Booker, Basabe, & Call are already there and it’s likely that the org will want to have Rutherford & Gonzalez there at the start of next year.
But how are they going to make room? Are they going to promote a guy like Tito Polo or Jameson Fisher to Charlotte just to free up a spot in the Barons outfield, even though neither of them has really performed all that well this year? Will they have to hold one of the guys still in W-S back again because they don’t have room, like they did with Gonzalez this year?
Eh most of these guys aren’t really THAT important. Start with the important guys and put them where they should be with FT ABs and work around that.
I agree. I would hope that the front office would have identified which are the real prospects and which aren’t. The real prospects should not be held down because of a logjam. But then that is assuming the front office has a clue about what they are doing. With their actions lately, I’m not sure they do.
Actually, most of them probably are important in the sense that those that aren’t going to be a part of the team when it’s competitive again still have value as trade prospects to help address other areas of the club.
Eh I don’t know that guys like Booker, Fisher and Polo have much value at this point. If they can find them PT, great keep running them out there and see what they can do. I don’t think it’s the end of the world if they end up in a time share or at the wrong level. AA does seem like the one place where there’s going to be a squeeze. Basabe probably goes back there, Rutherford should be there and Adolfo and Robert should probably be there at some point next year (if not right away). I suppose they can rotate those four through the OF spots and DH. Put Call at AAA. One of Robert or Gonzalez can start back at A+ until someone is ready to move up to AAA.
I would also imagine some of the second-tier guys will be involved in off-season trades.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they try to address the 3B position in FA in the next two years. With Burger’s injury, there’s not really a highly regarded 3B prospect in the system at this point.
Bryce Bush is offended.
Let’s see if he can stick at 3B.
I got more questions about the logjam in the infield. Michalzewski and Mendick better get out of the way as Rivera and Madrigal come flying past them.
They’ll probably be in Charlotte next year just as depth guys for the major league roster. That allows Rivera & Madrigal (if they want to start him there) to move to AA without issue.
Logenhagen with an update on Luis Robert and Burdi as he saw them in Arizona.
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/daily-prospect-notes-8-7-18/
Burdi…gulp!
That’s what working back from surgery tends to look like. Rodon was 90-92 in his first outings in Arizona.
Speaks to how ridiculously hard these guys throw that 93-95 is a cause for worry.
I am hesitant to ask this but, I would greatly benefit from a weekly (or biweekly or monthly) summary of prospect performances. The Sox have enough prospects now that it is tough to track everyone and remember who had a good day yesterday or a few days ago. For instance, I didn’t know Collins was due for a good day.
Do with this what you will. Thanks for all the great posts
Thanks for the suggestion. I may have an idea or two.
Thank you
You could go over to milb.com and look at the player’s performance for the last 10 days.
Sounds like a lot of work. I could look up their daily box scores too, but Jim provides a value added service collecting them in one place
Real curious as to why the Sox announced Madrigal as a SS at the draft play him there his first pro game and he’s been at 2B since. Also, if Moncada isn’t the long-term 2B should they move him to his new position asap?
Moncada should move to 3b. Madrigal is very likely to be the second baseman of the future, and there is no answer at 3b in the organization. And as Marty said, why not move him asap, so he is comfortable there when the championship window opens.
They’ll probably wait to move him until Madrigal is beating down the door and they’ve exhausted his possibilities at 2nd. No point in moving him when Madrigal might stalled at AA.
Agreed. No need to move a guy with superstar potential for a slap-hitter at low-A. Give it time.
High-A, but I still agree.
Is he really better than Yolmer? Not seeing it.
He better be. Hahn’s job security should be tied to Moncada. He needs to be at 3B, outside chance CF asap.
Why would a GM’s job security be tied to the success/failure of a single player?
Because that player was the centerpiece of the Sale trade.
There were 3 other players involved in that trade, 1 of whom is knocking on the door of the majors and has the potential to be the #1 or #2 member of a successful pitching staff.
Thats all well and good, but how often has a player as valuable as Sale (team friendly contract) ever been traded? You can’t whiff on the centerpiece of that deal.
If Kopech becomes Thor 2.0, Moncada doesn’t have to turn into anything more than he is now and it’ll still be a great trade.
Moncada has now been with the Sox for 158 games and totaled 2.2 fWAR. It would be great if he was a finished product on arrival, but being average to slightly above average isn’t the end of the world at his age.
Robinson Cano’s first 4 seasons
0.2 (132 games)
2.4 (122)
4.7 (160)
0.0 (159)
Reminder to all: development isn’t linear.
But if I had my druthers, it would be.
Yes. For all of his struggles he’s still had a better year at the plate than Yolmer. I think we know what Yolmer is at this point; Moncada hasn’t even approached his ceiling.
Moncada shows flashes of the player he can be. Unfortunately, right now those flashes are too infrequent. But he’s definitely part of the future. Yolmer’s future is a valuable bench piece at best.
Yolmer can be a quality utility infielder on a contending team. That’s about the maximum of his value.
Right now they’re very similar overall players offensively. Yolmer makes better/more consistent contact, Yoan draws more walks and has more power. However, Yolmer is 26 and has over twice the plate appearances. This is what Yolmer is as a largely finished product. Yoan has a lot of development left in him.
Consider that when Yolmer was 23 (as Yoan is now), he had a .595 OPS in 120 games and a lot of people wrote him off as a potential contributor on offense. Between last year and this year Yolmer’s posted a .712 OPS. If Yoan adds another 110+ points to his OPS over the next couple years, that’s a plus bat at a middle infield position.
Don’t think I’ve seen this posted anywhere. FutureSox is doing their midseason top 30 updated list. Here’s 16-30 and they also did a “just missed” list.
http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2018/08/top-white-sox-prospects-ranked-16-30-midseason-2018/