A fresh Farm Fortnight is coming up on Tuesday, and since we'll be detailing the recent performances and trends across the White Sox farm system, it seems like an appropriate time to check in on two prospects the White Sox traded away.
We first and last dropped in on Yhoiker Fajardo and Aaron Combs back in late May, when I was idly wondering about the White Sox's strategy of dealing nascent pitching prospects for older lefties this past winter. The Sox traded the former to Boston for Cam Booser, and the latter to Philadelphia for Tyler Gilbert.
Since that time, trajectories have changed for three of the pitchers involved. Booser is on the injured list with a shoulder strain, and Combs has been on the injured list for the last month, so he's been stuck with a 6.40 ERA over his first 32 ⅓ innings with High-A Jersey Shore.
Then there's Fajardo, who earned a promotion to Low-A Salem after overwhelming the competition with the Florida Complex League. He's found it considerably more challenging at the onset, suffering far more damage in half the innings:
- Rookie: 20.2 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 HR, 7 BB, 24 K
- Low-A: 10.1 IP, 16 H, 13 R, 11 ER, 0 HR, 3 BB, 8 K
He's just 18, and will be through the end of the season, so there's no grand takeaway from the initial struggles. I just ended the last update with "further bulletins as events warrant," and there were a few events that warranted it.
Chattanooga 7, Birmingham 1
- Rikuu Nishida and Jacob Gonzalez both were 0-for-4.
- William Bergolla was 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Ryan Galanie, 1-for-4 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Wilfred Veras went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Riley Gowens: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 56 of 85 pitches for strikes.
Hub City 4, Winston-Salem 1
- Sam Antonacci went 1-for-4.
- Samuel Zavala wore the collar and silver sombrero.
- Braden Montgomery, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Kannapolis 9, Hickory 2
- Caleb Bonemer went 3-for-5 with a homer and a strikeout.
- Lyle Miller Green was 1-for-3 with two walks.
- Ronny Hernandez, 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- George Wolkow, 0-for-2 with three walks.
- Abraham Nuñez went 1-for-4 with a walk, strikeout and two stolen bases.
