White Sox Minor Keys: June 1, 2018
After four of the White Sox’ five intriguing outfielders in Winston-Salem got off to blazing Aprils, they all leveled off in May. Meanwhile, the lone Dash outfielder who struggled initially used May to regress in the good way.
| Outfielder | April | May | Current |
| Luis Alexander Basabe | .313/.400/.614 | .226/.343/.405 | .269/.371/.509 |
| Micker Adolfo | .308/.369/.549 | .255/.378/.357 | .280/.374/.450 |
| Joel Booker | .353/.421/.515 | .192/.323/.333 | .267/.367/.418 |
| Alex Call | .224/.346/.328 | .286/.359/.484 | .259/.353/.418 |
| Blake Rutherford | .338/.372/.437 | .237/.290/.419 | .280/.326/.427 |
The May number that jumps out most is Adolfo’s OBP, because it’s not getting much help from the batting average component. Instead, he drew 15 walks to go along with 5 HBPs over 118 plate appearances, and the 23.5 percent strikeout rate is a lot better than the 30 percent clip he carried in the first month.
James Fegan says that the UCL tear that jeopardized Adolfo’s season might’ve helped him not get so anxious about failures. Rutherford noticed a difference, anyway.
“I would say the main thing is just his mentality,” Blake Rutherford said. “His mentality has changed a lot. I think he learned a lot from last year. You never see him come in here and be super pissed off or throwing stuff or anything. He comes in, he regroups, he talks to people about his at-bats and he goes back out there. You can see him, he has great games, and if he has a bad game, they usually don’t link together. He’s able to snap out of it and get back in there.”
Charlotte 10, Buffalo 4
- Hey, 13 hits.
Birmingham Chattanooga
- Danny Mendick went 0-for-4 with a walk, strikeout and stolen base.
- Zack Collins went 1-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Eloy Jimenez was 2-for-4 with a triple.
- Seby Zavala went 1-for-4 with a K.
- Jameson Fisher was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Tito Polo wore the collar and silver sombrero
- Jordan Guerrero: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
- Ryan Burr: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K
- Ian Hamilton: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
More:
*Jimenez was named the White Sox’ position player of the month after hitting .374/.419/.664 over 26 games. I might’ve given the nod to Collins, if only because it’s damned hard to reach base more often than you don’t (.322/.508/.540).
*Jimenez’s triple:
After a lengthy delay, the Barons get the scoring started quickly as @Lamantha21 hits a triple between two outfielders and scores on a balk. That’s an 11-game hitting streak for Eloy. 1-0 Barons after 1. pic.twitter.com/4rOgHaPRsV
— Birmingham Barons (@BhamBarons) June 2, 2018
Kannapolis 5, Hagerstown 3
- Luis Gonzalez went 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Evan Skoug and Justin Yurchak both were 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Luis Curbelo doubled, singled and struck out twice.
- Lincoln Henzman: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
More:
*Blake Battenfield was named the organization’s pitcher of the month after going 4-0 with a 1.16 ERA and 35 strikeouts to 28 baserunners over 31 innings.
Winston-Salem vs. Carolina suspended
gonna be very interesting to see what happens when robert is back since should be coming very soon. 5 guys in ws and doesnt seem like any of them are ready to be promoted and gonzalez needs promotion also… 6 guys for 3 spots (adolfo dh). and you cant promote adolfo because then it ruins the zavala/collins tandem for dh
Yeah, they don’t really have any room for Adolfo until Collins or Seby get the call up to AAA, which might not be too far off. Until then, I’d imagine Call will be the first one to jump to AA as he has been very good after his slow start, and he has the most experience against higher level competition being a college guy and all.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Basabe get the nod in the near future as well. His May numbers are obviously a far cry from his April numbers (which were crazy good), but they certainly aren’t horrible. Plus, if you want to break it down even more, he has bounced back quite well from a slow start to the month. Through his first 12 games in May, he slashed .171/.320/.293 in 50 plate appearances with 19 K’s and 9 BB’s. Through his last 13 games, he has slashed .279/.367/.512 in 49 plate appearances with 10 K’s and 5 BB’s. Not as good as April, but still pretty damn impressive.
i dont think zavala or collins will be called up until at least august. collins bat is ready but if he is really gonna be a catcher he needs alot more catching time and zavala had a hot start went cold then got injured and has basically played like one month at this level
basabe i need more consistency to believe hes really ready for next level after watching how he performed last year (its just still so early in the year)
Agree on Basabe. I would love to see more consistency after his last year as well (in his defense, he was playing hurt a lot), which is why I pointed to the bounce back second half of May. He could’ve just as easily lost all his confidence and continued to sink lower and lower (especially after last year), but he clearly didn’t let it get to him too much. That kind of turnaround is pretty huge for player like him. If he’s still raking over the next few weeks (.800+ OPS), I’d be more than fine with him getting called up end of June/beginning of July.
As for Collins, this is the same problem that every organization runs into with bat-first catchers at some point. I think they’re eventually just going to have to accept the fact that he probably will never be more than an average defensive catcher. How long it takes to get there, nobody knows. But if he can actually be average (or close to it) on defense, and his bat can play at the major league level, that’ll be a HUGE piece for them to rotate between C and DH.
Micker could DH in Birmingham and Collins/Zavala could share catching and 1b time. There is no good reason to keep playing Barnum and Basto while denying any prospect a promotion.
That’s definitely a possibility, but I don’t think they do it. I think they want 100% of Collins defensive focus to be on catching right now. I’m not sure what their plan is for Zavala, but I’m sure it’s similar since neither one is considered “good” behind the plate. I think Micker is stuck until one gets bumped up.
i see you laz! 4 SO during the 7-game hitting streak. no walks… but hey, only human right. K% is in the teens and i attribute the BABIP to the heart/gumption skill.
That’s a cool idea.
In Fegan’s article, it sounded as if Collins’ defense was trailing Zavala’s (in the sox’ eyes). It makes sense to move seby and eloy up to aaa, promote micker, call, and basabe, and move luis to ws.
Apologies if idaman on this:
Rodon announced as tomorrow’s starter for Charlotte.