Luis Robert might not be in Winston-Salem long, but he’ll still be able to take Carolina League Player of the Week Award with him when he advances.
Robert earned the honors after hitting .475/.512/1.025 with five homers, two triples and 15 RBIs over his first nine games. The “week” spanned April 4-14, since the season started on a Thursday.
Gwinnett 9, Charlotte 8
- Charlie Tilson went 2-for-4 with a double, two walks and a strikeout.
- Danny Mendick had his first rough game of the season: 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and six stranded. He did reach via plunking.
- Zack Collins walked twice and struck out thrice.
- Seby Zavala was 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Ian Hamilton: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K
Jacksonville 5, Birmingham 1
- Joel Booker went 2-for-5.
- Laz Rivera went 0-for-4 and was picked off.
- Luis Gonzalez also wore the collar.
- Gavin Sheets went 2-for-4.
- Micker Adolfo, 0-for-2 with a walk, strikeout and an HBP.
- Blake Rutherford went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Ti’Quan Forbes was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, and was caught stealing.
- Kodi Medeiros’ season debut: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 K
Winston-Salem 9, Wilmington 8
- Luis Robert went 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Nick Madrigal went 3-for-4 with a double and an HBP.
- Carlos Perez, 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Alec Hansen: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 11 of 15 pitches for strikes.
More:
*Madrigal’s double was lined hard to left, for those following this particular concern.
Delmarva 8, Kannapolis 7 (10 innings)
- Steele Walker went 0-for-2 with a strikeout before being lifted for a pinch-hitter.
- Lenyn Sosa went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Amado Nunez went 1-for-3 with two walks and two strikeouts.
- Bryce Bush went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Luis Curbelo wore the golden sombrero as the Intimidators struck out 20 times overall.
- Kade McClure: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Thanks for the descriptor for Madrigal’s double.  I was assuming it was a misplayed slow roller to 2B.Â
So it looks like Hansen had control issues in just one of his appearances so far. Modest progress?
I wonder what their plan is with Hansen – if he finds continued success coming out of the pen, will they get him stretched back out to start or are they going to just try to bring him up the system as a high-power reliever? I hope they aren’t punting on him as a starter yet. Opposing batters deserve to see that terrifying pitch-face for six innings at a time.
No knowledge, but I imagine they’re trying to get him in, have success, get him out before something implodes. Let him get confident that his troubles are behind him before starting to stretch him out.
Can’t find the quote now but I think Getz recently said they intend to stretch him out for the rotation.
I hope so. I realize that he really imploded last year but a quality starter is so much more valuable than even a great bullpen guy. I’d like to see him slowly stretched out over the course of the year. If we could see him as a starter in a year or so it could make a difference.
Hansen’s intriguing. Very high swing and miss guy with rough command. Also, he is one of the easiest – if not THE easiest guy to steal on in the minors. I wonder if he’d advance faster/maintain confidence by staying in relief and potentially dominating. And revisit “Is he a starter” after he’s sad some sustained success and climbed some ranks this summer.
On the young season the low lights seem to be:
* basically everyone in Birmingham (Adolfo, Rutherford, Gonzalez)
* Where is Burdi?
* Ian Hamilton slow start.
* Seby Zavala has been a mixed bag
Highlights seem to be:
* Robert obviously
* Madrigal hit too flashing.
* Cease
* hansen looking alright so far.
Bryce Bush is off to a really rough start as well.
Burdi is still in extended Spring Training rehabbing a lat injury.
This may have been discussed and I missed it, but doesn’t putting Bush at Kanny this early seem like rushing a bit? I seem to recall them doing this with a couple of other HS guys their first full year in the system (Zangari is the one that jumps out in my mind). Still SSS territory obviously, but it seems like this move may be a little too aggressive.
If he’s on the Zangari plan, they may intend to send him down to short-season ball as soon as that gets underway. That said, if Bush is barely batting .100 by the end of the month, he may not be getting anything out of that kind of failure.
Zack Collins so far: 3 true outcome plate appearances (HR, K or BB) are 19/39 for 48.7% of his plate appearances. For reference Adam Dunn was at 49.9% for his 14-year career.
Adam Dunn’s batting Career as a defensively average Catcher would be a great career. The key will be keeping the Dunn line in the MLB and also actually being a catcher.
But can he pitch?
If Zack hits the currently projected 76 HR’s, I guess it would be OK.
Seems like the path to get Robert up to AA is becoming clearer now that Booker is hitting over .400 at Birmingham.
Question remaining is which of the Charlotte outfielders do you sacrifice in order to move Booker and Robert up a level respectively.
This is of course, assuming no injuries to anybody in the equation.
I say let Robert and Madrigal keep hitting well in high A… then come May 1 move them both up to AAA. Let them get about 350-400 at bats at AAA to really prep themselves for 2020.
…AA has better competition. If there’s a level to skip, it’s AAA.
Any chance we can send LouBob to nother team’s AA affiliate, and they can send him back when he’s ready for AAA?
Birmingham is scary.
Teams used to do that, right?
It’s been a fun ride Nicky…but
Personally, I think either Tucker or Guyer is more likely to be cut loose than Nicky.
Cut loose, yeah. But one have Nicky, Cordell, and Tilson have to lose their at-bats
Nicky can DH or play 1B. He’s not really an OF any more than Palka is.
Maybe this is a question for #POSox, but I’d like to hear a bit more about the plans and future prospects for two guys who have fallen from grace: Carson Fulmer and Alec Hansen. I had all but written Fulmer off, and mostly shrugged Hansen off as a lottery ticket that probably won’t hit, but the early results are encouraging. Â
Small sample size caveat… but both guys look great on the stat sheet so far. For Hansen, it’s 7K:2BB and 0 hits over 4IP. For Fulmer, it’s 11K:4BB and 4 hits over 7IP, plus the brief appearance in Chicago where he looked so…adequate.Â
For Fulmer: I assume the plan is to keep him in relief, but any chance the Sox try him at SP after his offseason work? And, if he is cemented as an RP, when do you think he’s back up in Chicago for good assuming he keeps up the good results?Â
For Hansen: I assume the plan is to stretch him back out at some point, but any sense as to when? I’m guessing they’ll take their time, but it would be nice to see a bounce-back season from him.Â
For both: the numbers are good, but have they passed the eye test? I know Fulmer has changed up the delivery some, but other than that are there any substantial changes that might lead us to believe the results are real (e.g. increased velocity, better movement, etc.)?Â
Both have a high walk rate still, and walks were basically their problems. I think they’ll stay where there are for now but with Fupmer having a chance at some point and Hansen moving back up the minors.
I moved to Austin 6 weeks ago (you might recall I was pissed re the Machado fiasco since I still have my season tix). Anyhow, I took my greyhounds to dog day for the Longhorns and both me and Hurley were proudly sporting White Sox gear. This woman walks up to me and asks whether I like the Sox or just the logo. I told her both and she says that her son is in the minors. Turns out she is Steel Walker’s mom. I told her we all thought she gave him an 80 name. Turns out he is the youngest and they had run out of family names that they liked and his grandfather’s best friend was a travelling minister named Steel. Pretty funny. I told her he’s off to a good start. She’s well aware that the Sox have too many outfielders. Thought I’d share. I’m rooting for Steel to join LouBob and Eloy some day.
Your dog is faster than Steele, but let us hope the outfielder has more stamina.
Mostly I’m commenting in the hope you will show a picture of your greyhound wearing Sox gear.