Farm Fortnight: White Sox post winning April … in the minors

With Brad Keller making his White Sox debut out of the bullpen on Monday night, the White Sox have already used 38 players in 29 games, and it could be 39 in 30 if Pedro Grifol finds an opportunity for Prelander Berroa tonight.

Still, despite all the turmoil at the top, the performances throughout the minor leagues are generally favorable. The White Sox might be 6-23, but the four full-season affiliates are running a winning record of 47-41, which is rare for them.

Even better, it's not because of a bunch of unsustainable success stories. As April comes to a close, there are a fair amount of prospects who could be faring considerably better than they are. They're just not dragging the system down, because there are enough encouraging developments to compensate. These are their stories, at least from the last two weeks. The previous installment of Farm Fortnight can be found here.

Charlotte Knights

• Last two series: 3-2 vs. Syracuse; 4-2 @Lehigh Valley
• Record: 12-14
• Next two series: vs. Memphis; @Gwinnett
• Individual stats

A big part of the reason the Charlotte Knights went 18-56 during the second half is because a whole host of their contributors ended up in Chicago after the trade deadline. All in all, 25 different players toiled for both the Knights and White Sox.

We're not even out of April, and the White Sox already more than halfway to that total, and yet the Knights find themselves a pleasantly unremarkable two games under .500. They still have the International League's worst run differential thanks to that Norfolk series, but at -23, it's only three runs worse than Louisville.

Position Players

*Colson Montgomery opened the series against Syracuse 0-for-11 with one walk and six strikeouts, and then he sat the next two games.

He played the entirety of the series in Allentown against the IronPigs, and the results were ... acceptable. He only hit .208, but the rest of his slash line (.367 OBP, .417 SLG) shows how he maxed it out. Three of his five hits went for extra bases, and he drew six walks while striking out a reasonable seven times. He's also played 13 straight games without an error at short, although a controversial call at the end of Sunday's game may have bailed him out.

*Zach DeLoach should probably have more than zero homers 22 games into the season. He should definitely have more than two extra-base hits over the course of the season. He hit .243/.333/.243 over 10 games since we last checked in on him, and although he struck out just six times over 42 plate appearances, the additional contact is not yet generating returns.

*Oscar Colás had a strange couple series, in the sense that he had four extra-base hits, but no doubles (two triples, two homers). Meanwhile, Tommy Pham already looks like a fixture in the White Sox uniform while Rafael Ortega was also promoted ahead of him, Colás remains playing the long game.

*Adam Hackenberg is lowering the strikeout rate, but only because he was whiffing more than half the time two weeks into the season. If the White Sox needed a catcher besides Martín Maldonado or Korey Lee, they'd probably look to Chuckie Robinson first.

Pitchers

*Nick Nastrini only averaged 92.6 mph with his four-seam in his return to Triple-A, a ragged start against Lehigh Valley, so he's not yet out of that slowdown that Ethan Katz diagnosed to James. Jonathan Cannon, who will probably be back on this board two weeks from now, is a lot closer to what the White Sox expect him to look like against MLB competition.

*Prelander Berroa joined the 26-man roster as the White Sox hunted for fresh arms to join the bullpen, but he hasn't yet appeared in a game. We detailed his season to date a couple days ago in the Minor Keys.

*Mike Clevinger probably has one more start before he joins the White Sox rotation unless there's some sort of setback. His first start was fine.

Birmingham Barons

• Last two series: 5-1 vs. Mississippi; 5-1 @Chattanooga
• Record: 15-6
• Next two series: vs. Rocket City; @Pensacola
• Individual stats

The thing about playing in an eight-team league is that it doesn't take long for an opponent to re-emerge on the schedule. The Birmingham Barons have played the Chattanooga Lookouts twice in four weeks, and they've racked up an 8-1 record. The Cincinnati Reds' Double-A roster isn't as strong as it has been in previous seasons, but the Barons have beaten Chase Petty twice, so they're not exactly bumslaying.

The Barons have the Southern League's best record, best run differential (+39), highest OPS (.729) and lowest ERA (2.34). I think we're far enough removed from my post to say it didn't jinx them.

Position Players

*Bryan Ramos is creaking to life. Maybe. He hit just .191/.244/.310 over the last two series, including a stretch of four consecutive hitless games, but he answered that by ending the week on a four-game hitting streak, including a homer and two doubles.

*Edgar Quero had another well-rounded small sample, hitting .308/.386/.436 with a homer and two doubles over 44 plate appearances, while catching a slew of impressive outings from the Birmingham pitching staff. He still holds the Southern League RBI lead with 21 over 19 games.

*Wilfred Veras is unapologetically himself. Just when it looked like he might face some sort of reckoning for his aggression by going 1-for-11 with seven strikeouts over three games against Mississippi, he responded by going 12-for-25 with a homer and three doubles over his most recent six games. Did he walk? Hell no, he didn't walk.

*Brooks Baldwin went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts on Sunday, but he built some room to regress by racking up 22 hits over his first 10 games of this cycle. If you're looking for a fault line, he's gone 11 games without a walk, but it seems like he's having no problem hitting his way on.

*Terrell Tatum had a rough week on the BABIP front, hitting .192/.296/.298, but he hit a homer, drew seven walks over 12 games and stole five bases in six attempts, which is everything he needs to show when the hits aren't falling.

*Tim Elko doesn't have a multi-hit game in his 19 starts this season. On the flip side, he only has two hitless games this season, so he's remarkably steady in that regard, but with only two homers and three walks, his production needs to be louder.

*Jacob Burke is starting to figure it out a little bit at the plate, reaching base 13 times over 11 games, so there's some progress, although the lack of power remains the bigger obstacle.

*Duke Ellis:

Pitchers

*Drew Thorpe continues to toy with Double-A hitters. If you want to go hunting for something to work on at the level, his 23.9 strikeout rate is running about 10 points below where it was last season with the Yankees, although that's partially because plate appearances are resulting in outs in fewer than three pitches.

*Jairo Iriarte has toggled between "encouraging control" and "effectively wild" over his four starts, but he's only allowed two runs (one earned) over that time.

*Jake Eder threw six innings of two-run ball against Rocket City his last time out, which represents his longest and best start as a member of the White Sox organization. With Jake Burger missing half of April to an oblique injury, there's hope for this trade yet.

*Ky Bush is working on an 11-inning scoreless streak over his two starts against Chattanooga this past week. He's also walked seven batters over those 11 innings, but the stuff is tougher than it was last season.

*Mason Adams does not have walk rate concerns. He did give up three solo shots in the second inning against Chattanooga in his most recent start, which is either an aberration, or evidence that his location might need to be finer to compensate for his stuff.

Winston-Salem Dash

• Last two series: 2-4 @Bowling Green; 4-2 vs. Rome
• Record: 9-12
• Next two series: @Greensboro; vs. Asheville
• Individual stats

In the first Farm Fortnight installment of the season, I noted that the Dash pitching staff had the highest ERA and the most strikeouts, and that continues to be the case. The offense continues to loiter in the bottom half of the South Atlantic League because they're hitting .205 as a team. There were a couple of 2024 debuts in the last week that might be able to help out this production, including 5-foot-9-inch utilityman Mario Camilletti, who posted a .429 OBP over 111 games between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem last year.

Position Players

*Jacob Gonzalez insisted he's not a home-run hitter to James, so you could say he's living his truth by hitting .222/.314/.311 over his last 11 games. He drew more walks than strikeouts, so he's staying within himself in positive regards as well. His .247 average leads the team, so context is on his side.

*Samuel Zavala isn't producing much in the way of highlights, but one positive early development is a considerably lower strikeout rate. He struck out 11 times over 52 plate appearances, but four of those strikeouts came in one game against Bowling Green. He struck out in 19 of 56 plate appearances for High-A Lake Elsinore last year, so this small sample has more going for it.

*DJ Gladney has just 10 hits this season, but eight of them have gone for extra bases. That said, the number of hits is still the problem, as he went 4-for-36 with 15 strikeouts over 10 games the last two weeks.

*Wes Kath is younger than Gladney, and his production is going in the right direction in his return to Winston-Salem. He's still striking out 31 percent of the time, but 1) it's better than the 43-44 percent rate he'd posted the last two seasons, and 2) with the kind of power that makes it easier to accept. It's a flawed profile, but it's not dead yet.

*Loidel Chapelli is digging himself out of a hole after a dreadful start, riding a seven-game hitting streak with extra-base pop. The strikeouts are still piling up on him, though.

*Calvin Harris, the fourth-round pick out of Ole Miss, should get regular playing time behind the plate after joining the team in the middle of the series against Rome.

Pitchers

*Noah Schultz has pitched exactly four innings in each of his four starts this season, and while I saw one of his less impressive efforts against Bowling Green, his last outing against Rome was a return to the efficiency that has been an early signature (50 pitches, 39 strikes). If he keeps up this pace, he'll set a new career high in innings on May 18.

*Peyton Pallette is still looking for his first successful start of the season, as he's been plagued by inefficiency early.

*Tanner McDougal has been the more exciting kind of inconsistent, showing some of his best stuff to date with nine strikeouts over a career-long five innings against Rome.

*Juan Carela has walked nine guys over 13⅓ innings for Winston-Salem this year after issuing just 11 walks over 32⅓ innings for the Dash after coming over to the Sox in the Keynan Middleton trade.

*Tyler Schweitzer helped his numbers with six innings of one-run ball against a lefty-heavy Bowling Green lineup, but he lasted just three innings in both of his other outings.

*Shane Murphy, who posted a 3.63 ERA over nearly 100 innings with Kannapolis last season, joined the Dash bullpen last week, but he could slide into the rotation if an opening arises. Or maybe he'll get higher-leverage opportunities because Eric Adler, who has opened his season with nine scoreless innings and five saves in five opportunities, might not be long for the level.

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

• Last two series: 3-2 @Myrtle Beach; 4-2 vs. Charleston
• Record: 11-9
• Next two series: @Lynchburg; vs. Delmarva
• Individual stats

The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers have the seventh-best OPS in the 12-team Carolina League, which sounds unimpressive until realizing they've only hit six homers over their first 20 games. They're taking the long way toward building scoring innings, but it could be worse, as five other teams show.

It pairs well enough with a run-prevention unit that's living up to its mission with the fewest runs allowed. If you're wagering on Kannapolis Cannon Ballers games, bet the under. Also, get help.

Position Players

*Ronny Hernandez had a quiet eight games, hitting .226/.368/.323, but whenever a 19-year-old has more walks (seven) than strikeouts (six) over any stretch of action, he's doing something right. The bigger reflection of his inexperience is that he's thrown out just two of 29 baserunners so far.

*Rikuu Nishida only has two doubles in 20 games, including one over 11 games where he hit .158/.347/.184. He's also responsible for half of Kannapolis' unsuccessful steal attempts, so he's running into some limitations of his profile earlier than expected.

*Eddie Park made his 2024 debut this past week, and the eighth-round pick already looks overqualified for the level based on the early plate discipline numbers. There's room for him in Winston-Salem's outfield if he keeps it up.

Pitchers

*Seth Keener has only allowed eight hits over 17⅔ innings, but he's issued 13 free bases over his last 12⅔ innings, so he still has enough to work on in Low-A, even if he's his own greatest competition.

*Lucas Gordon also ran into some control problems over his last two starts, walking a total of six batters over eight innings.

*Aldrin Batista, who turns 21 on Saturday, continues working over Low-A hitters despite the lowest of profiles. At least James was able to get something resembling a scouting report from Paul Janish.

*Jake Peppers lost the strike zone in his second outing of the season, giving up seven walks over 2⅔ innings and throwing just 31 of 70 pitches for strikes. His next time out, he threw 5⅔ innings and allowed just an unearned run, but it'll take a few more starts like that to correct his season line.