White Sox Minor Keys: Aug. 25, 2019
The Charlotte Knights have a four-game lead on the Durham Bulls for the International League wild card with seven games to play, and, as luck would have it, they host Durham for three games starting tonight.
The task is simple: Win the series, win the wild card. Winning one of three reduces the magic number to 2 with four games remaining, which is still great shape, but it’s a lot easier of if they just take two right now.
Norfolk 8, Charlotte 1
- Nick Madrigal went 1-for-5 with a double and a stolen base.
- Danny Mendick was 1-for-4 with a sac fly.
- Luis Robert, 1-for-4.
- Yermin Mercedes went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Seby Zavala went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Tennessee 4, Birmingham 2
- Luis Gonzalez went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Luis Basabe was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Blake Rutherford and Laz Rivera both were 1-for-4.
- Gavin Sheets, went 2-for-4.
- Ti’Quan Forbes was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- John Parke: 5.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 WP
Potomac 4, Winston-Salem 0
- Steele Walker went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Andrew Vaughn was 0-for-4 with a K.
Kannapolis 5, Charleston 2
- Lenyn Sosa went 2-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout
- Corey Zangari was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Amado Nunez was 0-for-4.
- Davis Martin: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
Great Falls 4, Missoula 2 (Game 1, 7 innings)
- Cabera Weaver went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Luis Mieses was 1-for-4 with a double and a K.
- Lency Delgado went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Sam Abbott, 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Anderson Comas went 2-for-3.
Great Falls 10, Missoula 1
- Kelvin Maldonado went 2-for-4 with a stolen base.
- Sam Abbott doubled twice and struck out twice.
- Anderson Comas homered, singled twice and struck out once.
DSL Padres2 16, DSL White Sox 11
- James Beard came up a homer short of the cycle during a 3-for-5 night. He also walked and a stole a base.
- Sidney Pimentel was 2-for-6 with a double.
- Jose Rodriguez topped them all, going 5-for-6 with two doubles, a strikeout and a stolen base.
- Micker Adolfo went 1-for-5 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Bryan Ramos was 3-for-4 with a double and a sac fly.
- Anthony Coronado went 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Josue Guerrero singled thrice and struck out twice.
- Harold Diaz was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
Author
What’s up with the lack of action today?
Ive been really trying to come up with that young lefty power bat the sox could make a play for and one came up in my mind this weekend.
Whats the price tag on Joey Gallo… the rangers seem to be going nowhere fast, he has 3 years control… would a package starting with Cease open the door on a move like that? In theory the sox should sign a big time free agent starter, so they may have the flexibility especially with rodon and dunning eventually coming back to value a bat more then a young arm. Gallo also proved to handle CF so a move to RF with Robert in CF would dramatically improve the OF defense.
Cease, one of the young OF’s, one of the young catchers, and one of the young arms… is that enough? Too much? Thoughts?
I don’t know about Gallo. He looks like the kind of hitter who would crater with the White Sox. One thing the White Sox seem to do is increase hitters strikeout rates. If Gallo’s strikeout rate increases or his homerun rate decreases he is underwater.
I love that with every signing and trade we have to put into perspective the high likelyhood the player gets worse under sox coaching/management
From what I can tell, the biggest difference between last year’s Gallo and this year’s Gallo is he is swinging less overall (like way less), hitting the ball harder and hitting more line drives. I don’t know what any of that means though.
He was a 3 fWAR player prior to this year though so even if he reverts to something less than this season its still valuable. I don’t know if Cease is the right answer and I don’t know if the Rangers think they are going nowhere as they started their own rebuild a few seasons ago.
Gallo is a plus player for only 3 months at this point, I agree with the poster below that regression more likely with Sox. Even if plus going forward, I’d rather have Cease ++ rather than Gallo. They have to buy a LHB this winter.
I applaud your outside-of-the-box thinking knox, because I also am constantly searching for lefty OF options that can really hit, but I don’t know if Gallo is the guy. He’s such a polarizing player. Although he would immediately be the club leader in OBP and walks (not to mention SLG/OPS), which I would consider a huge plus, he strikes out at a pretty scary rate, a skill at which this club already excels. He’s always been a great SLG guy, but other than this year, his OBP has been kinda crappy. I don’t know what he’s like in the field so I won’t comment on that other than to note that he’s 6’5″ and not really fleet of foot. Also, I agree that a price could be tough to nail down, but any deal involving Cease is a non-starter for me. I think Cease has more upside and projectability.
He’s 6’5″ and not really fleet of foot, yet somehow plays a passable center field. Go figure.
I would be all over Gallo. Sure he does strike out a lot, but his walk rate is good and smacks the shit outta the ball. A guy coming into his prime as opposed to leaving. Cease ++ isn’t that far off, but depends on the ++. I could see Cease plus two much lower prospects, or three middle tier prospects being able to get it done. Yelich didn’t land a Cease level prospect and he’s probably the most comparable trade at the time.
fwiw, fangraphs has Gallo ranked 28th in all of baseball from their top 50 trade value list back in July. I think Cease initially seems like an overpay to many of us who are really invested in him. but i dunno, maybe he’s not?
I don’t think Cease is an overpay, but just wouldn’t require that much value after him.
Gallo does not appeal to me in the least. Joc Pederson costs less.
We know they have interest and LA will trade. A one year deal, and then someone has to step up.
I was in favor of a Joc trade when rumors came up last offseason. And it seemed like it would have been an awesome move as recently as June. Since the just before the ASB, his numbers have fallen off a cliff. He became a left handed hitting Adam Engel. No thanks. The only thing left in the positive column for him is that he’d cost much less.
I think I’ve seen it mentioned here before, but what about Kole Calhoun? Only costs $, won’t take a long term commintment, can play both OF corners (if Eloy’s defensive struggles continue to tank his value), and DH.
112 wRC+. 2 years $16mil??
Kole Calhoun sounds like exactly the sort of player who turns to absolute shit the instant the White Sox sign him. That’s another Adam Laroche in the offing.
How about Corey Dickerson? Since 2014, his lowest OPS+ is 106. Lifetime OPS of .828. Gold glove in 2018.
Has 2 starts in RF in his whole carer, and isn’t very good in LF.
His 2018 defensive metrics were a massive career outlier. His (bad) 2019 numbers are more in line with his typical defensive contributions. Bat’s solid, though.
Doubt the Rangers would trade Gallo.
For right field, I was thinking that affordable or possibly obtainable right fielders who can hit from the left side would be Nick Markakis, Josh Reddick (with Houston picking up some salary to make room for their touted prospects) and Kole Calhoun. Markakis would be my first choice from that list, but Atlanta might opt to keep him.
However, after thinking about this, I realized that Leury Garcia has a 2.2 WAR already this season, higher than the three I’ve listed. Perhaps our most reasonable solution is to have Leury play right while Robert plays center, and focus on getting a lefty-hitting DH while also focusing on upgrading the pitching staff.
i was thinking maybe markakis as well but no thanks on calhoun… honestly there is not many good options for that spot… maybe castellanos, but other than that id prolly prefer just keep leury there while we wait for one of the prospects to show out unless we can make a trade for a quality option… i dont believe in gallo i think this year is an aberration
I don’t know that this year’s an aberration. He’s hitting the prime of his career and the extremes of his profile are basically the same, just with more walks. My only concern is that sort of hitter just seems to dive off a cliff at the drop of a dime, though I think Gallo should be good through his remaining control years.
i just have my concerns considering this his first year he has above a .210 average… thats not the kind of thing that breathes confidence in trading legit prospects for…he just seems like a new version of adam dunn to me if his vision problems dont resurface, while we are on it his past vision problems scare me… like by alot
Understandable. I don’t know how much sense it would make to pursue him given he’d have a prospect cost around what Adam Eaton did.
I mean, his BABIP has jumped 100+ points this year. Is it sustainable? I don’t know but he hits the ball ridiculously hard so it might be. Either way, I don’t know that I want to pay the price to find out.
I was thinking another Texan, Nomar Mazara, might be a bounce back candidate. What would it take to get him from Texas?
I can’t imagine much. While he’s still young, he only has two seasons of control remaining and he’s never even posted 1.0 bWAR in a season. He’s never had an OPS+ over 96 and is a poor defender. He isn’t a bounce-back candidate because there’s nothing for him to bounce-back to in the first place. The production never met the hype, and I don’t think of the White Sox as the ones to get those paths to cross.
i cant remember whether it was during a game or a podcast but i remember he was talked about how he weas a guy that could just never figure it out…. yes he has big power but overall he’s a guy that could just never figure it out and im at least hopeful that the white sox are done with reclamation/hope we can bring it out prosepcts and move towards legit players next year so no thanks
There’s an entire generation of top Rangers prospects that flopped compared to expectations. Mazara, Jurickson Profar, Rougned Odor, Mike Olt, Martin Perez, Cody Buckel, Luis Sardinas, Michael Choice…all top-100 prospects who didn’t pan out for them or even for other teams.
After 2011 the Rangers had one of the top farm systems in baseball, the #1 prospect overall (Profar), and looked like they were going to be a powerhouse for years coming off two straight World Series appearances. Instead, they only fielded a couple more good teams by bringing in some big names from outside the organization as their in-house options fell by the wayside. If anything, they’re a cautionary tale about how a top farm system is a guarantee of nothing.
They also were way too stubborn. They have had Andrus for about a decade but they insisted on keeping Profar when they could have traded him away for something that was more useful the big league team. Better to sell early on a guy for what might be a lesser return than sell late and get scraps back.