White Sox Minor Keys: May 18, 2022
I get the idea of midseason prospect list updates, but I kinda feel like a revision should require more than a month and a half of games. Some guys might start seasons slower than others, and you might bake that kind of inconsistency into their original rankings, right?
Nevertheless, Baseball America posted a midseason update for the White Sox, and the top 10 shows quite a bit of flux. Here’s the new top 10 with the previous rankings in parentheses.
- Colson Montgomery (1)
- Bryan Ramos (11)
- José Rodríguez (5)
- Sean Burke (9)
- Norge Vera (3)
- Oscar Colás (NR)
- Yoelqui Céspedes (2)
- Jake Burger (7)
- Romy González (15)
- Wes Kath (4)
Lenyn Sosa jumped six spots to No. 11, while Sánchez is one slot behind after starting the year 16th. Davis Martin (13) has Jared Kelley (14), Matthew Thompson (16) and Andrew Dalquist (21) all beat, with Dalquist plummeting all the way from the sixth spot.
When the rankings swing that much after a month and a half, it’s almost as though BA wants to distance itself from its initial assessments. And maybe it does, but it’d feel less rash with an additional month of looks.
Norfolk 8, Charlotte 7
- Yolbert Sánchez broke out of his slump, going 3-for-4 with a walk.
- Jake Burger was 2-for-5 with a homer.
- Carlos Pérez went 2-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Jimmy Lambert made his return from the IL: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 K, eight of 17 pitches for strikes.
- Kade McClure in relief: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 HR
Rocket City 12, Birmingham 2
- José Rodríguez went 1-for-4 with a walk, strikeout and two stolen bases.
- Lenyn Sosa was 1-for-4 with a K.
- Yoelqui Céspedes, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Notes:
*The Barons were outhit 23-5.
Asheville 7, Winston-Salem 4
- Oscar Colás hit his fourth homer during a 1-for-5 night, striking out once.
- Bryan Ramos also was 1-for-5.
- Luis Mieses, 1-for-3 with his 15th double and a walk.
- Adam Hackenberg singled in three trips and was plunked in the other.
- Harvin Mendoza was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Highlights:
*Colás’ homer took a little time to unfold.
Fayetteville 2, Kannapolis 1
- James Beard wore the platinum sombrero, striking out all five times at the plate.
- Wes Kath went 1-for-4.
- Colson Montgomery hit his second homer during a 2-for-4 day, striking out once.
- Wilfred Veras was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- DJ Gladney went 0-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Cristian Mena: 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K
Highlights:
*Montgomery’s blast:
No love for Zavala with 2 homers? He’s really hitting quite unlike his past (.970 OPS), even if it is early in the season. I don’t know if he has any value, but the Sox sure could use anybody who could hit a lick.
I promise that Seby Zavala cannot hit better than Yasmani Granda lol
Of course not, but he might be an improvement over McGuire if Seby has actually improved his hitting. I’m sure they will do nothing and we’ll see McGuire all year anyways.
AAA pitching kinda sucks and I bet Seby still is not a good catcher.
He’s running a 38.2 K% and a .432 BABIP. The 15.5 BB% would be useful though.
He has always hit for some power. The Ks are the thing to consider
Montgomery looks the part of a 1st round pick seems to be coming along nicely. Another nice Mena outing too…he is getting interesting.
Those rankings still have Kelley way too high imo kinda like the move ups of ramos, burke, and sosa.
Montgomery is heating up which is exciting.
I feel like Kelley is still living off the draft rankings even though he’s done nothing to show its warranted.
exactly
Agreed wholeheartedly. And I say that as an idiot who has bought quite a few Jared Kelley baseball cards in hopes that he’d start living up to at least some of the hype….
I was REALLY low on Kelly after last season, and I only included him at the back end of my top-10 because I was just kind of being lazy and still believed that Kelly’s peak potential justified some sort of recognition. But man, he is just going absolutely nowhere right now, and I still think he might benefit from more time in the ACL to work on some stuff, because he’s not building up innings OR being effective when he pitches.
Colson is hot. Looking at that particular rip though, is it concerning that his leg raise goes from open to closed, rather than open to neutral? It would seem that going to closed would impair his ability to turn on inside pitches. I’m not that familiar with low minors, but it was common in college for pitchers to not want to pitch inside, so that type of leg raise would be beneficial at that and HS levels, but perhaps not play with pitchers using both sides of the plate.
I’m not particularly worried, because if getting beat inside is an issue then he can adjust to it with relative ease.
Also I’m not sure about guys not wanting to throw inside to LHB in high school; depends on arm slot and mechanics obv but most RHP have the easiest time locating in a diagonal band from up gloveside to down armside, so I’d have expected Montgomery to be used being challenged up and in. They may not throw in to RHB as much because it’s harder to control armside run HBPs, but I don’t think it goes both ways.
I hear you about it being too early to shuffle the list…but I’m moving Mena up a couple of spots anyway. Makes me feel like I am doing something.
What did Romy Gonzalez do to move up. He’s been terrible this year.