White Sox Minor Keys: May 17, 2025

For those wondering why Noah Schultz's command and effectiveness are running behind the pace he set in Birmingham last year, Baseball America's Geoff Pontes provided some data to explain it on Thursday while covering eight pitchers with evolving pitch mixes.

Pontes writes:

As far as the stuff, goes Schultz is still in the neighborhood of last year’s markers, but his velocity is down slightly on his two-seam fastball and slider. Those two pitches are his primary offerings. Both his slider and two-seamer generate a tremendous amount of horizontal movement, with each pitch moving heavily to each side of the plate. The sinker sits 94-95 mph with an average of 16 inches of horizontal break and eight inches of vertical break. His slider works the opposite side of the plate, moving 13 inches gloveside with -4 inches of vertical break. The slider has not generated the whiffs it has in previous seasons, as his whiff rate is down from 41% in 2024 to 26% in 2025. His two-seam has been more effective this season, however, generating more whiffs (29%) than in previous years.

Schultz has also leaned more into his cutter, upping the usage from under 10% in 2024 to 20% in 2025. The cutter sits 89-91 mph with around nine inches of ride and nearly zero horizontal break. He’s used the changeup far less this season, and it lacks vertical and velocity separation from the fastball.

It stands to reason that Schultz would lose a little average velocity simply by virtue of the longer leash. When the White Sox limited him to throwing four innings or 65 pitches once a week, there wasn't much stopping him from airing it out, knowing there were always guardrails in place pertaining to exertion and recovery. This year, every one of his pitch counts would've set a season high in 2024, and he's topped out at 92 pitches over six innings.

The variance in the length of his starts reminds me of what Kyle Boddy said early last year about hard pitch limits -- giving a pitcher some mystery about when his night will be over requires him to give more thought to managing the intensity level.

Greene could reach back for 100 mph whenever he wanted, and high velocity equals high stress on elbows. But as then-Reds pitching coordinator Kyle Boddy saw it, it would be safer for Greene to let him worry about getting hitters out in the sixth and seventh innings.

“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.”

Charlotte 5, Gwinnett 3

• Austin Slater went 0-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout.
• Mike Tauchman struck out four times around a sac fly. He's 0-for-17 with nine strikeouts over his last four games.
• Kyle Teel was 2-for-4 with a double, walk and strikeout.
• Bryan Ramos went 1-for-3 with two walks.
• Tyler Schweitzer: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
• WIkelman González: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
• Just when it seemed like Nick Nastrini had it together in relief: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 26 of 51 pitches for strikes.

Chattanooga 7, Birmingham 4

• William Bergolla went 1-for-4 with a stolen base.
• Wilfred Veras was 0-for-2 with three walks.
• Ryan Galanie, 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.
• DJ Gladney was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Jacob Gonzalez tripled, doubled, singled and drew a walk.
• Grant Taylor: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 10 of 15 pitches for strikes.

Brooklyn 8, Winston-Salem 5

• Jeral Perez went 2-for-5 with a double.
• Braden Montgomery was 1-for-4 with a double, walk and strikeout.
• Samuel Zvala went 1-for-4 with a walk, strikeout and stolen base.

Hickory 11, Kannapolis 6

• Caleb Bonemer hit his third homer of the season and struck out thrice.
• Lyle Miller-Green was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
• Ronny Hernandez went 0-for-4 with a K.
• George Wolkow came so close to a homer in his fourth straight game, but settled for a triple, along with a walk and two strikeouts.
• Ryan Burrowes was 1-for-4 with a homer and two strikeouts.
• Luis Reyes had another stat-crushing start: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 15 of 32 pitches for strikes.
• Blake Shepardson? 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 5 of 8 pitches for strikes.

Highlights:

*Wolkow's triple: