This Week In White Sox Minor League Baseball

by larry on Jul 9, 2011 12:35 PM CDT in White Sox Minors

This week:

You'll be seeing Dayan Viciedo this weekend on your TV, just not at the Cell. Viciedo will be playing for the World Team at the Futures Game (joined by Gregory Infante), televised on ESPN2 Sunday night at 5pm (central). I expect that he will be the starting rightfielder. Viciedo continues to make himself hard to ignore, with a line of .325/.374/.535. Now is a good time to assess his progress, as he now has roughly the same number of plate appearances in AAA as he had last season. His power numbers are solid and virtually unchanged, with an ISO of .212 compared to last season's .219. However, his plate discipline has improved significantly. He's more than doubled his walk rate to 6.5% and his strikeout rate has declined from 21.3% to 17.8%. Contact has never been an issue for him but his batting average has improved from .274 to .325, fueled by an increased BABIP from .302 to .367. Some of that is luck but Viciedo makes hard contact and he can sustain a better than average BABIP. He is, at best, passable in the outfield corners but his offense will more than make up for that deficiency. He'll also be playing in the AAA All-Star Game on Wednesday night, televised by MLB Network at 8pm (central). And, if things are done properly, he'll be playing in Detroit on Friday.
John Danks will be making his first of two rehab starts for Charlotte on Sunday, likely joining Jordan Danks on the field for their first competitive professional game together. The little brother has shown offensive improvement in his second season for the Knights - his walk rate is up to 11.3% from 8.2% and his ISO is .198 compared to last season's .128. The category that really matters for him, though, is strikeouts, and the improvement there hasn't been quite so impressive: 26.9%, down from 30.2%. His season line is .258/.353/.455.
Top pick OF Keenyn Walker signed and is expected to debut tonight for Great Falls. His $795,000 bonus exceeded the slot recommendation by a bit more than $55K. 2nd round pick RHP Erik Johnson also signed. He will be headed to the Voyagers, as well, arriving on Tuesday.

Nick Ciolli is an organizational player. But he did make two great catches in back-to-back games, both of which were aired on Sportscenter. The first robbed a home run (and is more impressive), the second was in almost the same spot and robbed a grand slam.

Notable promotions: UT Tyler Kuhn to Charlotte and OF Jose Martinez to Birmingham.

Notable status changes: RHP Andre Rienzo to the DL (sore right elbow) and RHP Stephen Sauer, Adam Dunn's batting practice pitcher, activated and sent to Winston-Salem.

SS Tyler Saladino: .258/.344/.526. Of his 49 hits for the Dash, 26 have been for extra bass (12 doubles, 3 triples and, surprisingly, 11 home runs). I would like to see that 22% strikeout rate come down, though.

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Comments

Thanks for this....

Larry—-who (other than Dayan) if anybody are you “excited” about in the system at this point?

by stanchar on Jul 9, 2011 12:53 PM CDT reply actions

no one.

by larry on Jul 9, 2011 12:54 PM CDT up reply actions

Kind of what I figured.....do you like Dayan even?

by stanchar on Jul 9, 2011 12:55 PM CDT up reply actions

of course.

he is the only player in the system that looks like he will be a good player. there may be some potentially good relievers, but that’s not exactly something to be excited about. the rest of the prospects in the system are merely interesting.

by larry on Jul 9, 2011 1:02 PM CDT up reply actions

Saladino?

If he can bring down the K’s, I really like everything else I’m seeing.

by polodude017 on Jul 9, 2011 2:17 PM CDT up reply actions

I mean, he skipped Low-A completely.

He’s got solid plate discipline and he’s shown pretty good power. Assuming the average comes up, I don’t think his current line is anything to sneeze at. Could see a legit breakout next season. Not saying he’s a star, but he’s at least a somewhat interesting prospect.

by polodude017 on Jul 9, 2011 4:03 PM CDT up reply actions

this is what happens to people who follow the white sox minor leagues.

they become “cautiously optimistic” about marginal baseball players. this is the guy you name after saladino? you bet you’re backtracking to “somewhat interesting”.

by larry on Jul 9, 2011 5:17 PM CDT up reply actions

Fair point.

by polodude017 on Jul 10, 2011 11:37 AM CDT up reply actions

jeter just got his 3000th.

of course it was a home run that scored nine runs

by larry on Jul 9, 2011 1:04 PM CDT reply actions

aw

and espn only got 2 months out of it.

Andy Sisco has spent the last four years in a hospital bed with liquid fire shooting through his veins and small-town malcontent Jim Margalus has nothing to offer him but scorn. ~ big_fun

by e-gus on Jul 9, 2011 1:31 PM CDT up reply actions

Now it'll probably be "When will A Rod pass Griffey/Mays/etc..?"

Our manager wears 13, we were supposedly cursed, and we wear black. Let's play.

by ChiSoxRox on Jul 9, 2011 1:38 PM CDT up reply actions

i'd think they'd be more interest in 3000 hits for him.

by larry on Jul 9, 2011 1:42 PM CDT up reply actions

Ah, didn't realize he's only 238 hits away

So probably near the end of 2012 or start of 2013

(Jeter just got 3,001)

Our manager wears 13, we were supposedly cursed, and we wear black. Let's play.

by ChiSoxRox on Jul 9, 2011 1:45 PM CDT up reply actions

better.

According to YES, not only was Jeter’s 3000th hit a HR, it also knocked out a man who had just stolen an old woman’s purse.

http://twitter.com/sethmeyers21/status/89767838843281408

by larry on Jul 9, 2011 1:50 PM CDT up reply actions 3 recs

did swisher smash a shaving cream pie

in his face?

"michael gilhaney is an example of a man that is nearly banjaxed from the principal of the atomic theory. would it astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?" ~~ sergeant pluck

by BuehrleMan on Jul 9, 2011 1:56 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs