This Week in White Sox Minor League Baseball

by larry on May 22, 2011 9:31 AM CDT in White Sox Minors

This week:

Promotions have begun in earnest. RHP Gregory Infante and INF Drew Garcia are now with Charlotte. RHP Terry Doyle, RHP Charlie Shirek and LHP Hector Santiago are now with Birmingham. RHP Ryan Buch is now with Winston-Salem. Long-time minor league outfielder (and twice a drug cheat) Miguel Negron's quest to be the left-handed version of Sergio Santos ended with his release. And the White Sox sold RHP Brandon Hynick to the Reds (he was acquired in the Jose Contreras trade).
Dayan Viciedo: .309/.356/.488.
In case you've been under a rock, there was some very solid minor league material on the front page. First, Jim and U-God interviewed Director of Player Development Buddy Bell. Players discussed included Viciedo, Andre Rienzo, Jordan Danks and Tyler Flowers, as well as discussion of Latin American operations, coaching philosophy and Bell's current athletic prowess. Read it.
thatshortkid visited Birmingham last week and took in a Barons game. Plenty of photos provided.
Brandon Short: .287/.332/.462.
Danks is repaying the shred of confidence I maintained in him this past offseason (Flowers still owes me). After not showing it for almost two years, Danks is again flashing his elusive power. While he is playing in a hitters' park in Charlotte, he was hitting in that same park last season and couldn't crack .400 SLG. He's still having contact issues - but the strikeouts have fallen off dramatically in May and his strikeout rate is now below 30% on the season. (Read the Bell interview for the White Sox' theory about the reasons for all of this.) The absolute best case scenario for his offense has been something in the mold of Curtis Granderson. And for anything approaching that to come to fruition, he needed to get the strikeout rate down to something below 25% and hit for the power that scouts have projected from him for going on eight years. With his .262/.349/.546, it's so far, so good.

RHP Jacob Petricka left his start on Tuesday with back issues. It was a minor issue but Kannapolis have pushed back his next start by a few days. 8 GS, 41.2 IP, 39 H, 13 BB, 48 K.

For all those who were arguing Lastings Milledge has "matured", he yet again incited a fight by attacking Toledo's catcher after being hit by a pitch on Thursday. While I appreciate the organizational depth, Viciedo, Danks and probably Alejandro De Aza are all ahead of him on that chart. Don't be surprised to see a release in his near future.

Addison Reed at High A: 9 G, 16.1 IP, 13 H, 3 BB, 17 K.

Programming note: This column will be off next week.

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While long toss is not a new training regimen per se, it has become popularized over the last decade and seen huge gains thanks to the success of many players, including multiple Cy Young award winners. It has become widespread and taken on a lot of sophistication – several top pitchers in the 2011 draft are long tossers (by definition, a pitcher is a "long tosser" if he trains by throwing the ball at least 250 feet) The problem is that many professional organizations cap their pitchers at 120 feet. (which, ironically is the same distance that pitchers "rehab" their arms post surgery) It is my belief, and the belief of many others ( see below, Alan Jaeger, Eric Cressey, Ron Wolforth, and Dr. Marcus Elliott) who have years of experience of training arms at the highest levels that placing "restrictions" on a players arm – especially if he has grown up on long toss – has been a key reason why so many pitchers have either suffered a significant loss in velocity, or have broke down. When a player has acclimated his body and arm to a throwing program and that program has been the catalyst to him having a well conditioned strong arm, and is part of the players make up and belief system, asking him to change to a program that contradicts how the player has trained his whole life is asking for trouble.

http://www.pinetarpress.com/?p=7462

mark buehrle, for example, essentially does this.

by larry on May 22, 2011 10:36 AM CDT reply actions