When the White Sox gave 19-year-old Jaden Fauske a full-season assignment at Low-A Kannapolis to start out the year, they weren't expecting to see all the results they want for him right away.
Even Fauske himself mentioned "a constant process of failing and then learning from it" as one of the things he's enjoyed about professional baseball thus far. His senior season of high school was the first time Fauske had been a full-time outfielder, and he's been working regularly with special assistant Doug Sisson about pre-pitch movement, jumps, and "the first five steps."
As a reminder of how much the first year in the minors is about acclimation, last July's second-round pick also feels that one of his big adjustments this season has been processing detailed, individualized scouting reports of the opposing pitcher because it's "something I hadn’t really done."
That said, Fauske has been seeing some results recently. Since June 10, the sweet-swinging lefty has a .350/.409/.567 line in his last 14 games, with three of his four home runs on the season coming in that span.
"I’m allowing myself to get my A-swing off a little more, especially when I’m up in the count," Fauske said via Zoom. "If this guy is dominant with his fastball so I’m going to stay on that pitch and then understanding if he throws an offspeed off of that and I see it in the lane I’m looking for, that I can still do damage with that pitch. Little things like that."
While most of what Fauske espouses for his recent adjustments sounds like a Will Venable media session, where he extolls the importance of staying committed to the fastball and jumping on opportunities to drive the baseball. But there's a mechanical component to it as well.
"Toward the end of spring training and maybe early into this year, at times I'd kinda get stuck in my back side a little bit and not really get to my front side," Fauske said. "That's another thing that I talked about with [hitting coordinator] Sherman [Johnson], who is in town, and Ryan Fuller, who has been in town. Just kind of being able to get in my front side a little more. That just helps me get my A-swing off and that helps me be more adjustable to off-speed pitches."
Fauske loads his body with this coiling leg kick that offers plenty of rhythm with his super-fluid hands, and he already shrinks it with two strikes. But it's also a big enough movement to shift his weight into his back leg that you can imagine him having to calibrate regularly to adjust to new levels of velocity, which more or less sounds like what he's done.
"The biggest thing for me was cutting a negative move backwards," Fauske said. "I really like to coil and get in that back side, which is fine for me because that's part of my move. But if my hips are moving more to my back side, that was for me getting stuck. Because it was hard for me to get out of it and that would cause a lot of flares to left field, rollovers, stuff like that, being a little late. So just cutting that negative move backwards was I feel like the biggest part of being able to get in my front side more and being able to backspin balls to all parts of the fields."
In another "definitely intentional" and related development, Fauske is swinging more this month. It's serving to shave some of the walks that were juicing his .254/.373/.392 batting line for the season, but inflated walk numbers racked up via sub-40 percent swing rates against Low-A arms are fool's gold. The version of Fauske that's moving the barrel around to drive pitches all over the zone, and catching balls in front enough to work on shaving his ground ball rate back under 50 percent is the more compelling one, both for himself and long-term.
The 18.2 percent strikeout rate Fauske has run over his last 14 games also feels more in line with his raw contact skill and solid chase rates than the 25.8 percent rate he's carrying for the year. But it's not so much about avoiding deep counts for him, as it is avoiding passivity. There's a lot of acclimation necessary in Fauske's development, but he's done sitting back and letting it happen.
"Be on offense," Fauske said. "The mindset I've been having is just don't be late on the fastball. It's something I've been carrying into the box and for me when I have that mindset, I can do damage to off speed stuff, when I'm on time for the pitcher's hardest pitch. I think that's what's been leading to me swinging more, is I think I'm just more ready to go when I step in the box."
Rochester 6, Charlotte 2
- Rikuu Nishida singled, walked, then got plunked and was lifted from the game. In between, he was caught stealing.
- Ryan Galanie was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Noah Schultz stretched out further: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR, 52 of 74 pitches for strikes.
- Duncan Davitt: 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 16 of 27 pitches for strikes.
Tennessee 3, Birmingham 2
- Caleb Bonemer DH'd and went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and a stolen base.
- Anthony DePino was 1-for-3 with a walk, strikeout and a stolen base.
- Colby Shelton went 1-for-4 with a triple and a strikeout.
- Samuel Zavala, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Connor McCullough: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 47 of 73 pitches for strikes.
- Pierce George: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 19 of 30 pitches for strikes.
Hub City 6, Winston-Salem 5 (11 innings)
- Kyle Lodise was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and an HBP.
- George Wolkow went 1-for-4 with a double, walk and strikeout.
- Juan Carela: 4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 1 HBP, 39 of 56 pitches for strikes.
- Seth Keener: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 13 of 21 pitches for strikes.
- Mathias LaCombe: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HBP, 23 of 38 pitches for strikes.
Columbia 5, Kannapolis 0
- Jaden Fauske went 2-for-4.
- Matthew Boughton was 0-for-4 with a K.
- Nick McLain went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Alexander Albertus, 0-for-1 with three walks.
- Jurdrick Profar went 0-for-3 with strikeouts.
- Blaine Wynk: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, 28 of 38 pitches for strikes.
ACL Reds 6, ACL White Sox 3 (7 innings)
- Christian Gonzalez singled, walked, struck out and was caught stealing.
- Yordani Soto went 1-for-3 with a triple.
- Landon Hodge singled, walked and struck out.
- Alejandro Cruz was 0-for-3 with a K.
- Blake Larson: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K.
Notes:
*Gonzalez is 0-for-5 stealing bases this season and 15-for-39 in his career. It's pretty incredible.
*Larson's tab included an infield single and his own throwing error. But here's what he looks like:
DSL Phillies 11, DSL White Sox 1
- Carlos Vielma was 0-for-2 with two walks.
- Ronald Cardozo went 0-for-4 with a K.
- Sebastian Romero went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Felix Lebron was 0-for-2 with an HBP.
- Franches Crisóstomo: 1.1 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP
