PHOENIX -- Second-year infielder Chase Meidroth never cuts the figure of someone fully satisfied, even with his progress in learning Japanese words, so it's unsurprising that he had something he spent the offseason working on.
"Just shortening up my swing a little bit," Meidroth said. "Just shortening up the leg kick a little bit. It got a little high last year."
At 88.4 percent last year, Meidroth had the eighth-highest contact rate among qualified major league hitters (amusingly, seven of the top-10 in this stat are under 6 feet tall), so shortening up wouldn't necessarily be a logical first order of business. Unless of course, contact rate isn't what he's trying to improve with the adjustment.
"Shortened it up, a little bit more grounded," hitting coach Derek Shomon said of the change. "[He's] a guy with really good swing decisions, can move it forward, attacking the right thing, just trying to hit some balls harder on the line.”
"What Sho was talking about in being grounded, it's making sure his body is at postures and angles that are conducive to him working pole-to-pole, on a line all over the field," said hitting director Ryan Fuller. "It's putting him in a position where he's not fighting his body to get the bat on plane and he's setting it from the beginning. Chase is a guy we're bullish on. Really happy he's feeling 100 percent this year."
In other words, and putting aside yet another reference to how many nagging ailments Meidroth gutted through last season, the White Sox want their infielder to hit fewer ground balls after they represented 53.3 percent of his contact last year. They're not talking fly balls, because obviously that's not Meidroth's game, but more line drives.
Since video of Meidroth's leadoff double on Saturday is being stored alongside 1963 surveillance video of the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza, we'll compare how Meidroth's view of his leg kick getting "a little high" lines up with the 2024 version of his swing.
It's not the most definitive contrast we've ever offered, but the concept is easy enough to parse. Fuller, Shomon and Meidroth all feel his leg kick had gotten big to the point that he was late to get his body into position to square up pitches below the belt, rather than beat them into the ground.
Ground balls have a higher BABIP than fly balls, but neither do as well as liners. Meidroth already swings at good pitches and makes contact at a tremendous rate, now they're working on it making it of a higher quality.
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When he was first hired, Shomon pointed out that the dangerous-but-free-swinging Lenyn Sosa wasn't actually that free-swinging early in the count relative to the rest of the league. It was more that after two strikes, especially against secondary pitches, that his approach tends to devolve toward "fend off anything and everything." That Sosa only struck out 23.3 percent of the time while having a 63 percent chase rate on two-strike non-fastballs speaks to how good his raw bat-to-ball ability is.
Entering a roster picture where the only way he can find regular at-bats is if he mashes his way to extended playing time, Sosa is considering an elegant and definitively Lenyn Sosa solution to this quandary. He is going to be more aggressive early in the count.
No one is living their truth more purely than this man.
"I’m an aggressive hitter, right?" Sosa said via interpreter. "The plan for this year is to be even more aggressive. What I mean with that is just trying to really crush pitches that are in the strike zone. Last year, pitchers were attacking me with pitches that were outside the zone, and I was being aggressive with those pitches, and with two strikes, I kind of changed my approach. Now I know I have to have that at first pitch.
"If I’m able to take that approach and be consistent with that approach, I can bring damage being as aggressive as I am as a hitter."
Would a version of Lenyn Sosa with Meidroth's plate approach be interesting? Sure, so would an end to poverty and world hunger. But given the aggressive mindset that works best for him and the power he's shown, there's no reason for Sosa to be passive when he has hittable pitches early in the count.
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A version of Sean Burke that touches 97 mph with his fastball and hits 89 mph with his slider -- as he did amid two scoreless innings on Sunday -- is probably one that can hold off all comers gunning for his spot in the rotation, regardless of whether or not Mike Vasil struggled with his sinker command in his spring debut. Burke was particularly happy with the hardness of his slider, after feeling it degraded in quality over the course of last season, but thinks he's merely approaching where he wants his fastball to be.
"Today is probably the best I've felt physically so far in spring, just in terms of the body feeling good," Burke said postgame Sunday. "I was trying to hit at least 97 today. I'm trying to just continue to build up, feel good and hopefully close to the season start sitting in those higher velos instead of just touching them."
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Munetaka Murakami is going to play four games in five days before heading out to the World Baseball Classic on Feb. 27. He'll tell you when he's had enough.
“If I'm feeling healthy and good, I'll try to play every single game that's out there," Murakami said via interpreter. "If there's a day that I need some rest, I'll probably take it, but right now I'm feeling good."
Trajekt enthusiasm aside, he's basically seeing a new pitcher for the first time every time, but otherwise Murakami said he feels great at the plate. He seems more concerned about speed-running his way through adjusting to the nuances of playing first base. Murakami obviously has the size and length to be a good, big target at first, but polishing the timing up the stretch of his lower body and upper body on catches takes time.
"Timing is everything over there, especially when you're receiving throws, taking picks," said third base coach Justin Jirschele, who has been working with Murakami defensively. "We call it 'stepping on the ball,' [think of] your left foot is attached to your glove hand, so you're not getting out there too early, you're not getting out there too late. It's finding that middle ground of being on time with it. Then you're fluid, you're free and easy and your anticipation is through the roof.
"But he's got really good hands over there. He's got really good hands at third base as well. Which, you know, if a guy has good hands, a guy has good hands. It's just about syncing up and different angles obviously from third base to first base. All those things he just continues to work on it and he's really refined in his approach with it."
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Slick-fielding with the footwork and attacking mindset to handle shortstop despite being undersized, light on power but huge on making contact, White Sox prospect William Bergolla Jr. compares pretty well to ... William Bergolla Sr.
While Bergolla Sr. only got a brief cup of coffee in the majors back in 2005, he parlayed those baseline skills into a 10-year minor league career and his son wouldn't begrudge you for the comparison.
"I know he was a very good infielder with a great glove," Bergolla said via interpreter. "I didn't have a chance to see him playing much. Honestly, I don't remember much about him playing, but I have people telling me every time that our games are connected. I have things in my game, in my defense that are similar to what my dad used to do. And obviously he has been a big influence in my life, not just in baseball, but in my life. He's my idol. He's my role model and every time I can do something to show that he's my guy, I'll do it. I'm very happy when people ask me or compare me with him."
But after posting the lowest strikeout rate (4.7 percent) of any qualified stateside minor leaguer last year at Double-A Birmingham, the 21-year-old Bergolla is hopeful to differentiate himself by adding a bit more pop. Similar to Meidroth, he's thinking more line drives than fly balls, but also doesn't feel like he should have to sacrifice any contact to produce more juice than his .345 career slugging percentage has shown thus far.
"I don't think so because I'm a guy that has a good ability for making contact with the ball," Bergolla said via interpreter. "If I work with everything together, I don't have to sacrifice my contact skills. I do think what's going to help me to have more hard-hit balls is getting stronger. I think that's what's going to make the exit velocity that Will [Venable] wants from me and to get the launch angle that's going to make everything possible in that aspect of putting the ball in the air."
