White Sox Minor Keys: Aug. 15, 2023
Edgar Quero had the best night of any White Sox prospect on the best night for the White Sox farm system this season.
Quero hit his first two homers for Birmingham, including a walk-off homer that gave the Barons a 7-5 victory over Chattanooga in 10 innings.
It was only Tuesday that we discussed how Quero had done everything except hit for power since joining the White Sox organization, and one night pretty much fixes that. He’s now hitting .340/.379/.500 over his first 58 plate appearances in Birmingham, leaving White Sox fans to want for nothing on that side of the ball.
Elijah Evans talked to Quero after the game, which gives you a sense of what he looks and sounds like.
It was a big blast, if only because the Barons came the closest to spoiling a perfect night for the White Sox farm system. The six affiliates teamed up for a 6-0 reord, and by a score of 62-19.
Charlotte 7, Nashville 4
- Lenyn Sosa went 2-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Korey Lee, 0-for-3 with a walk, HBP and a strikeout.
- Jordan Leasure: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Birmingham 7, Chattanooga 5 (10 innings)
- José RodrÃguez went 1-for-5 with a strikeout and a stolen base.
- Terrell Tatum singled, walked, hit a sac fly and struck out twice.
- Bryan Ramos was 1-for-4 with a walk.
- Wilfred Veras was 2-for-5 with two doubles and a strikeout.
- Edgar Quero hit his first two homers for Birmingham, including the walkoff, during a 2-for-4 night. He also hit a sac fly and struck out once.
- Luis Mieses 1-for-4.
- Same for Yoelqui Céspedes, who struck out twice.
- Cristian Mena: 7 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 2 WP, 57 of 81 pitches for strikes.
Winston-Salem 14, Greenville 4
- Jacob Burke went 2-for-6 with a double and a stolen base.
- Brooks Baldwin hit his first High-A homer during a 3-for-4 night, along with a walk.
- Loidel Chapelli tripled, singled, walked and struck out twice.
- Wes Kath was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Tyler Schweitzer: 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Kannapolis 16, Carolina 3
- Jacob Gonzalez went 2-for-5 with a walk.
- Calvin Harris was 2-for-4 with a walk.
- Eddie Park, 2-for-3 with two walks.
- Jordan Sprinkle hit his first A-ball homer, singled twice and walked twice.
ACL White Sox 5, ACL Brewers 0
- Ryan Burrowes went 1-for-4 with a sac fly and a strikeout.
- George Wolkow hit his first professional homer, singled, walked twice and struck out once.
- Erick Hernandez went 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Lucas Gordon: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
DSL White Sox 13, DSL Blue Jays 3
- Javier Mogollon went 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk.
- Abraham Nunez doubled, singled twice, struck out once and stole a base.
- Stiven Flores went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
- D’Angelo Tejada singled twice, walked, struck out, hit a sac fly and was caught stealing.
- Luis Reyes: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Nice to see Mena go 7 innings!
Second comment – with all this production Kath still does what Kath does. Seems to have fallen into organisational player at this point.
He isn’t a top 30 prospect anymore… he has done very little in 800+ minor league at bats I really dont see a future for him. He remains in these round ups based on nothing more then being over drafted. Meanwhile my guy Tim Elko goes 2 for 4 now has his average up in the 280s in double A ball as he continues climbing levels!
I do appreciate the Elko love. Buuuttttt… the AA numbers are actually very ugly. Yes a .286 AVG… with a .286 SLG and a 57 wRC+. Maybe worse, he’s at 34.8 K% and 4.3 BB%. And the cherry on top: the average is propped up by a .429 BABIP.
But, hey, SSS, right? I would love it if he started mashing!
He has hit his way up 3 levels in a couple months. He will get his feet under him at AA by the end of this season. That puts his timeline much more on track with his age.
Someone his age is kind of outside the realm of prospect evaluation as a position player. If he keeps hitting he will eventually get a shot in the bigs.
For now Steamer, which is not dinging him for his draft round, thinks he is presently a worse hitter than several younger prospects and even some fringe or non-prospects of a similar age. https://www.fangraphs.com/projections?pos=all&stats=bat&type=steamerr&lg=&team=4&sortcol=16&sortdir=desc
Are Seby’s 3 HRs the gold standard for SSS?
See Johnson, Dan
There was a mug about him here too.
My wife drinks coffee from it sometimes, which makes me chuckle because of how long it would take me to explain what any of it means.
That Jordan Sprinkle game raised his wRC+ by 10 points.
George Wolkow by 52 points. Obviously there’s going to be larger swings when you’ve played fewer games.
MLB Pipeline new farm rankings are out. #20.
With the DSL regular season ending next Tuesday, there is a chance that Stiven Flores will end the season with a .400 average. Very rare! Flores would be only the second qualified hitter to accomplish this since 2006 when FG has the stats. If I lower the threshold to 130 PAs (Flores currently has 138), there is one more.
The only other qualified hitter to do this hit a lot of homeruns, so Flores would be unique in doing it almost exclusively on the strength of BABIP.
I saw that there are not a lot of stars or even big leaguers at the top of the single season DSL leaderboards (including wRC+).. You want them to hit well enough to only have to spend one season there, but beyond that it is hard to draw too many inferences without scouting, and we don’t get a lot of public DSL scouting.
Here is the 130 PA leaderboard. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/minor-league?pos=all&level=0&lg=30&stats=bat&qual=130&type=0&team=&season=2006&seasonEnd=2023&org=&ind=0&splitTeam=true&players=&sort=24,1
Colson Montgomery is the second-best prospect in baseball according to Kiley McDaniel’s updated rankings.
Compares him to Jackson Holiday #1 – favorably. Go figure. Quero, Ramos and Schultz all in 51-80.