White Sox Minor Keys: April 9, 2018
Michael Kopech’s first start of the regular season was worth the wait.
The White Sox’ top pitching prospect struck out eight Norfolk Tides over four shutout innings, over which he allowed two hits, two walks and an HBP. He threw 51 of 77 pitches for strikes.
Michael Kopech is better than the typical Triple-A starter: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K. Reports of fastball 96-99 mph, changeup at 92 and firmer than you’d like, but coming on a cold and difficult night to throw them. Dominant with fastball and slider.
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) April 10, 2018
Regarding the slider, look at this thing:
flat out fillllllttttthhhhhhy slider from Kopech, looks like a fastball for 55 feet then *poof* pic.twitter.com/2h71f3ATSu
— whitesoxdave (@barstoolWSD) April 9, 2018
NBC Sports Chicago compiled all eight of his strikeouts:
As for how his teammates fared, let’s go to the box scores:
Charlotte 4, Norfolk 1
- Daniel Palka went 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Casey Gillaspie was 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Michael Kopech: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HBP
- Thyago Vieira: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K
Chattanooga 5, Birmingham 2
- Tito Polo went 1-for-4 with a triple and a strikeout.
- Jameson Fisher, 1-for-2 with a double, sac fly, walk and strikeout.
- Zack Collins singled and struck out twice.
- Seby Zavala was 0-for-3.
- Danny Mendick, 0-for-3 with a K.
Winston-Salem 6, Myrtle Beach 4
- Luis Alexander Basabe singled twice, struck out thrice and stole a base.
- Blake Rutherford went 3-for-4 with a double.
- Alex Call was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Gavin Sheets, 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Micker Adolfo was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Ti’Quan Forbes was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Newly acquired Ricardo Pinto didn’t get that stretched out: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Asheville 7, Kannapolis 6 (10 innings)
- Luis Gonzalez went 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Justin Yurchak was 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Evan Skoug, 2-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Tate Blackman was 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.
- Michael Hickman, 1-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout.
And, of course, the video of Kopech’s strikeouts is preceded by a commercial for a goddamn Cubs watch. On a brighter note, looks like Vieira is joining Kopech in the K Club. Only had a couple appearances so far, but looks like he’s finally posting a strikeout rate commensurate with his stuff.
It’s amazing to me that a guy could throw that hard and not even strike out 1 batter per inning last year at AA. If/when he comes up, he’s going to be lots of fun (potentially a lot of ugly strikeouts) and extremely frustrating (potentially a lot of ugly walks). The perfect recipe for some funbad in a rebuilding season.
And Courtney Hawkins was 0-4 with 4 K’s and a throwing error in RF.
Keon Barnum was also 0-4 with 4 K’s and a fielding error at 1B.
Woof
Two of the most frustrating draft picks of recent history. Only missing Mitchell to probably get the top 3.
Don’t forget Keenyn Walker (who I think is currently on SNL)
Ryan Cordell 0-5, K