The White Sox have had a pretty rigid plan in place for pitching prospects with scant professional workloads. They limited Peyton Pallette and Tanner McDougal to four innings and 65-70 pitches last year as they worked their way back from Tommy John surgery, and now they're doing the same for Noah Schultz.
It makes a certain amount of sense, because it's a simpler way to help a guy take the ball every five or six days over the course of an entire five-month season. However, Baseball America's J.J. Cooper wrote about the spate of pitching injuries and asks if teams have overcorrected for workloads to the detriment of young arms.
He uses Hunter Greene, who threw 106 innings in his first season after Tommy John surgery, as an example. Driveline founder Kyle Boddy was the Reds' pitching coordinator at the time, and he said that if a pitcher goes into a start knowing when it'll be over, it makes it easier to justify throwing max effort the entire game.
“If he goes 60 or 70 pitches, he’s going to sit 100. He’s not stupid,” said Boddy, now a special advisor to Red Sox GM Craig Breslow. “And if we tell him, ‘There’s no limits on you,’ but we keep taking him out after 70 pitches every time, he’s going to realize what’s going on.
“If he can’t control the volume, the one lever he can control is the intensity. I personally think that’s worse for his arm, going max effort for shorter stints.”
Gwinnett 7, Charlotte 4
- Colson Montgomery homered, walked twice and struck out once. He was also caught stealing.
- Dominic Fletcher made it game-opening back-to-back homers, finishing 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Oscar Colás was 0-for-3 with a walk, strikeout and stolen base.
- Zach DeLoach, 1-for-2 with two walks.
- Deivi García: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 16 of 34 pitches for strikes.
Notes:
*Montgomery's homer was on AJ Smith-Shawver's first pitch of the game turning around 94.5 mph at 108.5 mph. He's hitting .333/.520/.833 over his first six games of May.
*Dominic Fletcher is playing against his brother this series.
*The Knights have lost six in a row.
Birmingham 2, Pensacola 0
- Terrell Tatum went 0-for-2 with two walks, a strikeout and a stolen base.
- Brooks Baldwin, 0-for-4 with a K.
- Edgar Quero went 1-for-4 with his sixth homer and a strikeout.
- Wilfred Veras wore the collar and silver sombrero.
- Tim Elko went 2-for-4 with his third homer and a strikeout.
- Jacob Burke went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Drew Thorpe: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 55 of 92 pitches for strikes. His ERA is 1.01.
- Eric Adler's second Double-A outing went better than his first: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Notes:
*Quero's homer:
*The Barons have won five in a row.
Asheville 6, Winston-Salem 5 (11 innings)
- Loidel Chapelli went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Jacob Gonzalez, 1-for-5 with a strikeout and a stolen base.
- DJ Gladney was 1-for-4 with a homer and a walk.
- Samuel Zavala was 0-for-3 with a walk, and was picked off.
- Wes Kath went 1-for-5 with a homer and two strikeouts.
- Calvin Harris was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
- Tanner McDougal: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, 47 of 85 pitches for strikes.
Notes:
*The Dash have lost three in a row.
Delmarva 5, Kannapolis 3
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Eddie Park and Ronny Hernandez both went 0-for-3 with a walk.
Notes:
*The Cannon Ballers have lost three in a row.
ACL Mariners 7, ACL White Sox 4
- Javier Mogollon has struck out eight of his nine plate appearances so far (he also drew a walk in this one).
- George Wolkow went 1-for-3 with a homer, walk, HBP and strikeout.
- Ryan Burrowes singled twice, walked once, got plunked once and struck out once.
- Adrian Gil went 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Abraham Nunez, 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Angelo Hernandez went 2-for-4.
- So did Stiven Flores, who struck out once.
Notes:
*The ACL White Sox have lost both their games so far.
