We saw a lot of once and future Charlotte Knights this season at the Cell. Essentially, any pitcher of even remotely potential major league ability got a shot (e.g. Taylor Thompson). Position players, as is normal, were less prominent with Marcus Semien getting an extended early season look and Jordan Danks racking up some frequent flyer mileage on the shuttle from Charlotte.
The baselines: The average hitter batted .261/.331/.393. The average pitcher struck out 19.4% of batters and walked 8.8% of batters. The average player was 26.9 years old. A large majority of players either have MLB experience or will have it in the future. Charlotte's new ballpark played very hitter-friendly but the International League is considered to be generally more favorable to pitchers.
This review will focus on the players we didn't see much of at the major league level recently.
Position Players
UTIL Tyler Saladino had a very good season with an unfortunate end. The 24-year-old batted .310/.367/.483 in 325 plate appearances prior to tearing his UCL and undergoing Tommy John surgery. He sustained the injury while playing left field in an attempt to add to his defensive versatility. There's nothing that really stands out about Saladino's game, but he doesn't have any glaring deficiencies, either -- at least for a utility player. His 8.3% walk rate and 15.4% strikeout rate illustrate that he has a decent idea of the strike zone and can make contact. While the righty's power numbers are well-inflated by the ballpark, a guy who can play all the infield positions and left field doesn't need much power. He can run a little bit, too, as he was 7-for-8 in stolen bases. He's got a shot at being a bench guy but, with the numerous middle infield options in the organization, it's tough to see him getting it with the White Sox.
3B Matt Davidson really bombed. When you play a full season anywhere and your final line is .199/.283/.362 in 539 PA, there's no lipstick to dress that up. The 23-year-old can point to a .253 BABIP to explain it but that's not going to assuage anyone who thinks he was just making weak contact. Davidson hasn't ever shown much of a platoon split and this season wasn't different. He was bad against both righties and lefties. He did still hit 20 home runs. His swing was definitely off and he went through a few different iterations during the season with nothing really working. I'm inclined to give him a mulligan but a guy who strikes out as much as he does -- his 30.4% in 2014 wasn't all that much higher than his career norms -- either needs to hit the ball out or have the some more hits fall in.
2B Micah Johnson had his season end early for the second year in a row. On his resume, he's got a shoulder surgery, two elbow surgeries and now a hamstring problem that hampered him most of 2014. That's a lot of wear for a 23-year-old and undoubtedly gets him tagged with "injury-prone." He was only 23-for-35 in stolen bases this season, with half of those attempts during the first third of the season when he was with Birmingham. In 302 plate appearances with Charlotte, his line was an unremarkable .275/.314/.370. His 13.9% strikeout rate is good but his 5.3% walk rate -- a function of both teams not wanting to put a speedy player on but also not being scared of his bat -- needs improvement. The left-handed hitter has held his own against left-handed pitching, but largely due to his speed. I've been cautious in the past with Johnson because I question the defense, hit tool and the durability. This season gave me some more confidence in the hit tool but the main takeaway from this season is that Johnson is fragile and that he isn't useful when his legs aren't close to 100 percent.
UTIL Marcus Semien spent the first couple months with the White Sox and didn't really grab the opportunity and the aftereffects of that are perhaps best illustrated by Carlos Sanchez being the one brought up to replace Beckham the second time. The 23-year-old did do his job on his return to Charlotte, hitting .267/.380/.502 with a 14.5% walk rate and a 16.1% strikeout rate. Perhaps a strong September will bring back out Semien's supporters but I'm quite comfortable with my projection that he's a utility player. He played mostly shortstop in Charlotte but also played third, second and left field.
1B Andy Wilkins couldn't really have done anything more. The the soon-to-be 26-year-old's line was .293/.338/.558 in 529 PA. The lefty's offensive production -- highlighted by 30 home runs -- certainly brought the stat-line scouts out in force, hoping that he would easily replace/exceed Adam Dunn's production. Yeah. Not so much. But he certainly deserves the call-up he got to prove otherwise. We all got a peek at his his weaknesses on Sunday. While he only struck out 17.2% of the time in 2014, consistent with his minor league career, he's going to have trouble with major league pitchers who have actual major league pitches. Another red flag is his low 6.4% walk rate. I'll be surprised if he looks hitterish this month but, by all means, prove me wrong, Andy.
C Josh Phegley also couldn't really have done anything more, at least on the offensive side. Adrian Nieto's existence meant that Phegley had to bide his time and work on his defensive skills. Well, he's still a poor catcher. The man is still what we saw last season. His 2014 numbers were basically in line with his 2013 line, which had earned him a July call-up, except for less BABIP luck resulting in a .274/.331/.530 line in 467 PA. The 26-year-old saw slight upticks in both his walk (6.6%) and strikeout (15.4%) rates. I've never thought he was a major league caliber player and I still don't. Though, again, please prove me wrong, Josh.
OF Michael Taylor earned another major league opportunity with his play and, thankfully, the White Sox gave it to him instead of wasting it on Jared Mitchell instead. Taylor is 28 and got three brief looks with the Athletics in each of the last three seasons. He didn't impress: .135/.210/.189 in 81 PA. He was lauded in his prospect days with the Phillies for a contact-oriented approach that resulted in good power, too, simply because Taylor is a big man. Things just never clicked in the high minors and his lack of a major league career bears that out. After being traded to the organization in June, the right-handed hitter put up a .306/.386/.489 line in 254 PA. This is probably the last real chance Taylor will get.
Pitchers
RHP Chris Beck continues to be underwhelming. He might have been in consideration for a call-up but he missed what would have been his penultimate start with back spasms -- though he did pitch well after coming off the DL for a final start -- and that might have given the organization enough pause to say he should get rest instead. Beck, who turns 24 this week, spent most of the season with Birmingham before finishing up with Charlotte. Between the two levels, he made 27 starts, threw 150 innings, allowed 152 hits, walked 44 and struck out 85. That 13.2% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate are close to his career norms and strongly suggest a innings-eating starter upside.
LHP Scott Snodgress made the transition to the bullpen after his promotion to Charlotte at the end of July. While he was a reliever at Stanford with absolutely no control, the White Sox quickly fixed the control issues and developed him as a starter. I had some hope that he could be a starter long-term but, like many pitchers, he wasn't able to get over the Double-A hump. Relieving agreed with him, as he saw his strikeouts go up and his walks go down during his month in Triple-A. His Charlotte line: 8 G, 16.1 IP, 17 H, 4 BB, 16 K. He'll turn 25 later this month. His fastball is low-90s and he uses a cutter that's a few ticks slower. He has a very good curveball when he locates it. He'll probably largely abandon his changeup as a reliever. Snodgress has a delivery that adds some deception and plays up his pitches some, particularly his fastball. I think he's got the present stuff to be a major league reliever and the White Sox desperately need a lefty, so he's likely to get a lot of games this month.
LHP Carlos Rodon took only about a month after his pro debut to make it to Charlotte. While he isn't on the list of initial call-ups, he wouldn't be available to pitch until this weekend so, hey, maybe they're trying to save a few days of service time. My hope -- which I unfortunately can't call a belief -- is that the White Sox will not bring him up. I detailed my concerns with Rodon last week and I won't rehash all of that. Suffice to say, there are both baseball and service time reasons to not bring him up. The 21-year-old blew through the Arizona and Carolina Leagues and finally met some resistance in the International League. In three starts, he threw 12 innings, gave up 9 hits, walked 8 and struck out 18. He's improved his changeup from below-average to maybe-average. If he can get that pitch to at least actually-average, which I have little doubt he'll do, he's going to be major league rotation-ready very early in 2015.
RHP Erik Johnson mercifully had his season end early with the non-specific injury of "shoulder fatigue." Whether it was injury, mechanics, mental, whatever, Johnson was not the same guy we saw in 2013. I suspect there was some kind of injury -- he certainly has a history of them -- but there really isn't any analysis that can done without knowing what exactly was wrong. Since the White Sox kept sending him to the mound and getting the same results, it seems that they were at a loss for a cause, as well. In 20 starts, his line was 105.2 IP, 136 H, 54 BB, 63 K. I don't use ERA and WHIP because they don't ordinarily tell us much. However, a 6.73 ERA and 1.798 WHIP over that many innings is so extreme as to convey things just fine. There was no respite, as he was bad in basically every one of those 20 outings. Maybe an offseason is all the 24-year-old needs but I'm fully expecting to hear he's getting shoulder surgery in spring training.
If you want to know how Jordan Danks, Taylor Thompson, Andre Rienzo and other flotsam did, you can look at the Knights' stats here.