The minor league regular season comes to a close for the four full-season White Sox affiliates, and Charlotte will need help to play beyond today.
The Knights are tied with the Durham Bulls at 75-63. However, Durham owns the tiebreaker, so the Knights need to beat Norfolk along with a Gwinnett victory over Durham in order to keep their season alive.
Both games start at 1:05 p.m., so the unusually invested Jason Benetti and Steve Stone should be able to deliver the good or bad news for fans during tonight’s broadcast.
Norfolk 11, Charlotte 2
- Luis Robert went 1-for-4 with a homer.
- Nick Madrigal, 1-for-4.
- Zack Collins wore the collar and silver sombrero.
- Yermin mercedes was 1-for-3 with a double, walk and strikeout.
- Seby Zavala, 0-for-4 with a K.
- Danny Mendick doubled and struck out twice.
- Kyle Kubat: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Birmingham 3, Biloxi 0
- Luis Gonzalez went 0-for-4 with an HBP and two strikeouts.
- Luis Basabe singled twice and struck out thrice.
- Blake Rutherford went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
- Gavin Sheets went 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout.
- Laz Rivera was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Winston-Salem 10, Lynchburg 3
- Steele Walker went 2-for-5 with two doubles and a strikeout.
- Andrew Vaughn went 1-for-3 with two walks.
- Carlos Perez was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
- Jonathan Allen’s High-A debut was something: 3-for-5 with two homers and a stolen base and a stolen base.
Kannapolis 5, Delmarva 2
- Lenyn Sosa went 1-for-5.
- Romy Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Corey Zangari was 2-for-3 with a homer and a sac fly.
Great Falls 4, Billings 3
- Kelvin Maldonado went 1-for-4 with a double.
- Harvin Mendoza was 0-for-4 with a K.
- Lency Delgado singled and struck out thrice.
- Luis Mieses was 2-for-4 with a K.
- Sam Abbott was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Anderson Comas was 0-for-3.
- Yoelvin Silven: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Looks like it will be Dylan Covey on the mound for the Knights this afternoon. Probably the best option they have on their current roster.
I, for one, will be rooting against Charlotte today. I am a White Sox fan, not a Charlotte Knights fan. I hope Robert and Collins hit home runs and Madrigal has a great day, but the rest of the AAA flotsam on this team chokes so Hahn can’t trumpet how Charlotte making the playoffs is a great thing for the rebuild. Collins, Mercedes, Mendick, Robert and Madrigal should be with the White Sox, not trying to make the meaningless AAA playoffs. Then I want to see Hahn lie with a straight face when he says that Robert and Madrigal won’t be called up because they have had a long season and he doesn’t want to push them too hard. He is an absolute worthless GM.
Yep, go Durham!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Another thing to be angry about!
Totally agree with your post. Hahn is a joke. No other GM in pro sports would still have a job while being on his way to his seventh losing season in seven years at the post. Robert should have been in the majors at least a month ago and Collins should be getting every MLB at-bat that he can the rest of this season so we can see if his swing adjustments work at MLB level.
Meh… It is clear Robert and Madrigal won’t be coming up no matter what happens with Charlotte, so I see no real downside to them making the playoffs. I guess if you really want to see Hahn squirm in his next interview, it would make some sense to root against Charlotte. But the end result will be the same as far as Robert and Madrigal go.
I do think they should call up at least one of Collins or Mercedes no matter what happens today though.
Madrigal went 5-5 and Mercedes went 3-4 in 7-6 loss. Chef’s kiss, perfection.
Robert looks gassed man, his last couple of weeks haven’t been great. I’d be fine letting him rest if we knew he’d be our opening day CF.
Fangraphs updated farm rankings with the Cease graduation. Sox fall to 12th.
When Madrigal, Robert and Kopech are up next May, Sox will have one of the worst farm systems. How sad is that.
Absolutely pathetic. Top 10 draft choices how many years in a row? Thank god they got Hosteler out of that draft room.
many rebuilding teams dont keep a top tier Farm system after a few years. But thats because many of them trade their 2nd tier talent away after promoting their 1st tier. We have a mirage of 2nd tier talent at best.
The buck stops with Hahn. He sucks and he’s an incompetent Liar.
No the bucks stops with Jerry. He has enabled the mediocrity for quite some time.
That lack of depth is a big limiting factor on the rebuild’s success. They still absolutely lag behind on organization-driven player development so there’s a lot less hope for surprise breakouts like Soto or Lux.
The lone glinmer of hope is that some of the depth problems are due to injury. There’s at some hope potential for a rebound in 2020 just with better health. If you really wanted to be negative, though, it’s an open question how many of those injuries are just bad luck or because of something the org is doing wrong.
I know the Sox aren’t going to call up Robert or Madrigal. It’s who they are, what they do.
But I think there would be very little excuse for not calling up, Collins, Mercedes, Palka and Mendick. They have all had excellent seasons and could be upgrades over their major league counterparts. Tilson and Zavala are on the 40-man, so they can come too but I don’t think either of them are very good. I’d just release Goins and Skole to free up some 40-man spots (send Wellington out early too).
Call up all the non-IL’d minor league relievers on the 40-man because their clocks don’t matter, they’re minor league relievers.
Absolutely. Also, Kubat should go into Detwiler’s spot in the rotation.
Not to worry. I have it on good authority that the really good ones have a way of forcing the issue
Live radio broadcast of the Knights’ final game via ESPN Charlotte (now) at link:
https://radio.securenetsystems.net/cwa/index.cfm?stationCallSign=WZGV
Because, why not?
Didn’t the Knights have something like a two-game lead with five to play? So, instead of getting needed big-league experience, it appears that Robert, Collins and Mercedes are learning to choke at the minor-league level. Great. Yet another messed-up move by Hahn.
I think they had a 4 game lead with 7 to play. They got swept by Durham and have lost 2 of 3 to Norfolk. Good job by Hahn to help our prospects to be part of a choking team instead of getting valuable MLB experience.
They’ll fit right in here.
As Jim said in the podcast today, ironically enough, Carson Fulmer and Manny Banuelos are a big reason they bloew the lead.
I mean, seriously — would you want your kids to grow up to be Sox fans?
yes
4 shutout innings for Covey. I would assume he will get his 10th chance to fail with Sox after this. Hahn is such an idiot.
5 for 5 game from Madrigal. No power but man, if he could average a 380 to 390 OBP with his speed he could bring in a lot of runs. Still hoping for a 1-5 of Madrigal, Robert, Vaughn, Moncada, Jimenez in a couple of years…
Well, players will no longer get exhausted playing for Charlotte this season after today’s loss.
Not glad to see them lose as it mattered to many of the players and the fans (though ironically some players are likely of mixed feelings when faced with a possible minor league post-season). But am glad that Stone/Benetti won’t be able to tout a successful Charlotte season as somehow indicative of a successful rebuild or organization.
Yes, I agree. I don’t understand how Charlotte sneaking into the playoffs with several players who should be in the majors would be indicative of a successful organization. It’s just indicative of an organization that has completely misplaced priorities.
If you won’t call up your best, why call up anybody. Do you want to see if Palka Batting average drops below .010. Or see covey start. The only player on the 40 man that’s not coming is basebe and maybe he should.