White Sox Minor League Update: June 24, 2022

Some players perform well while others do not!

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The Charlotte Knights, ostensibly stocked by the White Sox front office with close-to-MLB-ready prospects and Quad-A veterans, fell to 25-45 on the season with a 10-2 trouncing by the Worcester Red Sox, who hit four home runs off Knights pitching. Charlotte has now lost four straight—in fact, the first four games of the six-game set with Worcester. They have scored five runs in that span and have been shut out twice.

Their two runs today were scored in the first and the seventh, first Mark Payton going deep for the ninth time (which would be good for a tie for first with the major league club, which unfortunately was assembled by the same front office), then Zach Remillard grounding out to knock in Laz Rivera, who had singled and stolen second to start the inning. Of the team’s eight hits, Rivera had three.

The Knights walked zero times and struck out 11, made one error, and were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. To be fair, Blake Rutherford did throw a guy out at second (to be even more fair, it was Jeter Downs, top Red Sox prospect who just had a quick cup of instant in the majors).

On the mound, they were even worse. Kyle Kubat, in year five of Sox player development trying to figure out if he’s a starter or a reliever, started and allowed five runs and two home runs in just three innings, walking two and striking out none. Will Carter, a 2019-20 offseason waiver claim with a career ERA of 4.62 over 290 ⅓ innings before the claim and a 5.26 ERA in 63 ⅓ innings since entering the Sox system…. actually pitched a very nice two innings with no score.

Zack Muckenhirn, on the other hand, has been having one hell of a season solely in the minor leagues as a 27-year-old left-handed pitcher who, before today, had allowed five earned runs all season and maybe, one can imagine, could have even been helpful at some point for a big-league ball club, and still could. Instead, he’s in AAA, and his 1.90 ERA is now at 2.45 after a two-inning, two-run stint, former Tigers first rounder Christin Stewart going deep for the second time that night.

Anderson Severino, who occupies a spot on the 40-man, does not need a whole big paragraph. He gave up three runs, only two earned due to a Ryder Jones error. In exactly 10 innings in the minors this year, while on the 40-man, he has a line of 14 H, 15 R (12 ER), 15 BB, and 15 K.

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The Barons, meanwhile, won a baseball game 7-3, seeing their record rise to just seven games under .500 at 30-37. Top Sox pitching prospect Jason Bilous had a 3.04 ERA in his first five starts of the season. Over his next six, his ERA was 10.80 as opponents teed off to the tune of .315/.444/.489. In his three starts since then, including tonight’s, he’s allowed three runs over 16 innings for a 1.69 ERA. His five innings of limiting the Trash Pandas to two runs was enough for the win; he walked three, threw a wild pitch, and struck out seven.

Yoelvín Silven saw his Barons ERA drop to 6.35 with two scoreless innings, a single the only blemish. 2021 sixth-round draft pick Taylor Broadway’s rose to 5.33 after a couple of eighth-inning hits and a sacrifice fly; as a silver lining, the 25-year-old righty has 32 strikeouts over 25 ⅓ Barons innings (nine walks).

Birmingham took the lead in the first, were tied in the third, then retook the lead in the bottom half of the inning and did not give it back. DJ Burt singled to lead off the first and was driven in two batters later by Tyler Neslony, who hit his 11th home run of the year (two more than anyone on the big-league Sox).

The 28-year-old outfielder is at the AA level for the fifth time. In 38 games for the Barons last year, he batted .355/.444/.678 with 16 doubles, one triple, seven home runs, 19 walks, and 31 strikeouts, but was not promoted. This year, he is batting .314/.389/.581 with 22 doubles, three triples, and 11 homers in 56 games, which is apparently also not enough to be promoted the Knights, who fill those positions with players including but not limited to Mark Payton, Adam Haseley, Romy González, and Micker Adolfo.

In a five-run third, Burt again singled to lead off the inning and José Rodríguez made it runners on the corners with a base hit of his own. Neslony then struck out swinging and Burt scored on the play while Rodríguez stole second. There was, as you may suspect, an error involved.

Craig Dedelow then walked and Céspedes flied out, advancing neither runner, so they advanced themselves with a double steal (18th for Rodríguez, who stole three this game for 19 total, seventh for Dedelow). They were then both able to score on Alex Destino’s base hit. Just to make sure, Raudy Read homered for the eight time, driving in Destino and giving the Dash their final two runs.

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Chase Solesky, Colson Montgomery, and the Winston-Salem Dash make it hard to continue whining about the factually badly built farm system, at least for the night. The Dash reconquered .500, the only full-season club to be above that mark.

Solesky keeps doing this thing where he doesn’t exactly rack up the strikeouts, but he doesn’t walk a ton of batters either, and it’s been working out pretty well for him. Here, he went six full innings, throwing 56 strikes in 76 pitches and walking none while allowing just one run, a second inning solo dong.

In relief, Skylar Árias and Vince Vanelle sparkled. Árias has yet to allow an earned run in four appearances spanning five innings for the Dash; he struck out three and did not allow a runner to reach base in his two innings. Vannelle has been settling into the closer’s spot, earning his third save with a three-K ninth. In 28 innings between Kannapolis and Winston, his line is 19 H, 6 R (5 ER), 8 BB, 37 K; despite those numbers, which shake out to a 1.61 ERA and .96 WHIP, he’s only 4-for-7 in save conversions.

2021 first rounder Montgomery was finally promoted from the Cannon Ballers after 45 games of hitting .324/.424/.476, including a 32-game on-base-streak that today was stretched to 33 with... a home run, his first hit at the new level. That was, in fact, the only Dash hit of the game until the sixth inning, when Montgomery hit a two-out single. He also made an error, really running the gamut debut-wise here.

In the seventh, Doubles Machine Luis Mieses hit his 24th and later scored on error, putting the Dash ahead for good at 2-1. Funnily enough, both teams went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

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In more typical Sox system fashion, the Cannon Ballers were crushed 10-4 and outhit 14-5 by the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, who are now 48-19 while the Ballers fall to 26-41. They have lost seven straight.

The only Ballers pitcher to not be scored upon was Andy Atwood, a second baseman who signed literally yesterday, and even he allowed one of two inherited runners to score. Noah Owen allowed four earned runs (five total) on six hits through five innings. Haylen Green was responsible for two over two and Liam Jenkins gave up three over 1 ⅔ innings. Combined with Atwood, they walked eight and struck out six.

Colby Smelley knocked in the first Ballers run of the game, a second-inning double scoring Wilfred Veras from a walk. They scrapped up another in the third; Wes Kath and DJ Gladney walked back-to-back, but two outs later, only Kath scored, and it was on a wild pitch. the pitch was apparently so wild that Gladney tried it as well, but he was out at home for the final out of the inning.

In the eighth, Veras drew TDLW, was wild pitched to second, then was joined on the bases by Samil Polanco and Caberea Weaver, who also walked. With one out, Wilber Sánchez singled in Veras and Polanco, making it 5-4 Pelicans, and stole second base, his 28th. The next batter, Nick Thornquist, hit a ground ball to third base that Weaver attempted to score on, but absolutely did not and the Ballers did not tie in that or any later inning.

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Anything can happen out in the ACL, and from the looks of this box score, it did. Sox hitters walked twice, struck out NINETEEN times, and went 4-for-16 with runners in scoring position, but still somehow scored seven runs. They did so solely in the third, when there was still hope, and the eighth, when it was just too late. With two outs in the third, Cam Butler walked, Javier Mora singled, and Layant Tapia doubled to score them both. Victor Quezada homered for the third time to drive in Tapia and make it 4-3 Sox.

In the eighth and trailing 10-4, Mora hit a lead-off double, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Dario Borrero’s double. Quezada had walked in the meantime, and he scored when Jhoneiker Betancourt grounded out. Anthony Espinoza singled in Borrero, and that’s where the rally ended.

Fairly new signee Alejandro Mateo, who’s 28 years old and has made it as far as AA with encouraging results, pitched his first and only inning so far for the organization without any drama. One can only assume he’s getting some rust off before catching a plane to literally any full-season affiliate. Manuel Veloz was really the “starting pitcher” in this game; he went four innings and gave up five runs for the loss.

Carlos Hinestroza, Homer Cruz, and Anderson Comas (typically an outfielder) combined to put the game further out of reach for the Sox, going 3 ⅔ innings and walking seven while allowing five more runs. Comas was responsible for three of those walks but also somehow struck out two; Hinestroza gave up an inside-the-park home run to Guardians prospect Marlin Madé in the sixth. Axel Acevedo, who was released earlier this year by the Dodgers, got the final out, thereby dropping his ERA to 27.00.

In the second inning, the Guardians scored their first run and had the bases loaded with one out. Their next batter struck out swinging, at which point he was ejected for reasons unclear from the plain data, along with a Guardians pitcher (not in the game), then Sox catcher Manuel Guariman. Guardians manager Jordan Smith was also ejected, but not until the ninth after Madé was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch in the top of the inning.

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The DSL Sox played their way around five errors to pull out a 10-8 victory over the DSL Padres. Somehow, despite the five errors, all eight runs against them were earned.

The 10 runs were all scored in the span of two innings, neatly split at five apiece between the third and fourth. Like so many rookie league runs, it seems, the first five were all scored with two outs. Erick Hernandez walked and Loidel Chapelli blasted a two-run bomb, then the unstoppable Arxy Hernandez doubled and Ronny Hernandez blasted a two-run bomb. Ryan Burrowes immediately followed that up by blasting a one-run bomb.

The next set of five started with a Leandro Alsinois lead-off walk; he stole second and scored on Guillermo Rodríguez’s single. Erick Hernandez singled to put runners on the corners with zero outs, and Loidel Chapelli blasted a three-run bomb. Arxy Hernandez immediately followed that up by blasting a one-run bomb. Chapelli, 20, is batting .409/.509/.705 in 11 games.

On the mound, Gabriel Rodríguez gave up six runs and couldn’t complete the fifth inning. Daniel González gave up a pair as well, but José Mendoza was able to stop the bleeding to keep the Sox on top.

The teams combined for eight home runs, two stolen bases (both Sox), two caught stealing (both Sox), seven errors, and just two wild pitches (please clap).