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Tampa Bay Rays v Chicago White Sox
Oscar Colás is apparently willing to do anything — even smash-and-grab — to get back to the South Side. For tonight, at least, no crimes were committed, it was sheer baseball mashing.
Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

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White Sox Minor League Update: May 13, 2023

Everybody lost. But three games were close, and by South Side standards, that’s striving, baby

By Brett Ballantini
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The affiliates have been by and large stronger so far this season, so there haven’t been many winless days here at the Update. This may, in fact, be the first one of the year, as the MiLB gods are punishing me for blowing off falling to near-death from fatigue a month or so ago and shorting you dear readers of these writeups.

We had three tight losses and just one blowout, though, so even as a worst-case, this night ain’t so bad.

Well, it’s like they always say: Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes your organization’s complete and utter lack of pitching depth is exposed from the get-go by a far superior rival organization.

I mean, credit due the White Sox for most of the time at least running out ... starting ... pitchers? this season for Charlotte. Starting pitcher is stretching the definition when it comes to Daniel Ponce de Leon, who was utterly mugged by the Bulls and has been abysmal in five of his six Charlotte starts this year. Between Ponce de Leon and Tanner Banks, nine runs went on the board over four innings; the high-charged Knights offense managed just four, for the game. You see how this is going to end.

Garrett Crochet also pitched in this game, and while his line score looks poor, that earned run came courtesy of Banks, who tire-fired his way through a seventh inning where he seemingly forgot how to pitch.

Liam Hendriks did not appear tonight, and nor did Jake Burger, easing his way back to Chicago in true White Sox tradition.

Hitting highlights? Well, we already knew Oscar Colás is well-motivated by anger, as he started chirping while being left to languish last year in High-A, and with every promotion mashed piñatas of Rick Hahn for signing him into this org, or Luis Robert Jr., who loves him like a brother but probably promised him an immediate leap to the majors, or whoever he needed to mash in order to fuel a rise to Opening Day roster 2023. Well, now he’s not on the South Side, and the anger rears its head: 3-for-5 tonight raising his Two Weeks of Hellfire-Raining to a .429 average and 1.182 OPS.

Colás has NINE DOUBLES since returning to Charlotte, a feat that seems nearly impossible statistically. But I’m not a metrics guy, I’m a lover.

Oh, and speaking of mashing, Lenyn Sosa had a horrible game, but to put in perspective how not-horrible all of his other games in Triple-A have been this year, his 0-for-5 tonight dropped his numbers to a .405 batting average and 1.180 OPS. Send the food trucks fueling these fellas in Carolina up to Chicago, pls.

Poll

Did you expect Charlotte to beat a Tampa affiliate? Not even close. But there were MVP candidates!

This poll is closed

  • 88%
    Oscar Colás: 3-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 2B, K, LOB, and oh yeah he’s playing CF again
    (46 votes)
  • 7%
    Zach Remillard: 2-for-4, RBI, BB
    (4 votes)
  • 0%
    Nate Mondou: 2-for-4, R
    (0 votes)
  • 3%
    Bryan Shaw: IP, K, 9-of-14 strikes
    (2 votes)
52 votes total Vote Now

Poll

It was ugly. Gimme a Cold Cat.

This poll is closed

  • 48%
    Daniel Ponce de Leon: 3 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, BB, HR, LOSS
    (22 votes)
  • 37%
    Tanner Banks: IP, 4 H, 4 ER, K, HR
    (17 votes)
  • 11%
    Lenyn Sosa: 0-for-5, K, 5 LOB, E
    (5 votes)
  • 0%
    Victor Reyes: 1-for-5, 3 K, 5 LOB, E
    (0 votes)
  • 2%
    Clint Frazier: 0-for-4, 2 K, 6 LOB
    (1 vote)
45 votes total Vote Now

Not all one-run losses are heartbreaking. Some are just close games. Birmingham falling to 11-21 with a 6-5 loss vs. the Blue Wahoos might be embarrassing from a mascot-name perspective, but there’s little shame in playing a team this close that already now sits 10 games better in the standings.

SSS has been on the Garrett Schoenle train for some time now, but this season has just been mediocre start after mediocre start. He lefty seems to have hit a wall early in 2023, and pitching through it may not be working. With five runs, all earned, in 4 2⁄3 innings — none of the errors or flat offense that often marks an affiliate game — this loss falls almost entirely on the lefty.

In a theme still to be played out below, the bullpen kept the game in stead after a bevy of runs allowed early, as Andrew Pérez, Fraser Ellard and the resurgent Caleb Freeman checked the Wahoos for just one run on on two hits over the final 4 1⁄3 frames. Seems we are saying it every other day on the Update, but Freeman pitching to a 2.25 ERA has him shaping back up as that “minors arm to watch” player development honcho Chris Getz promised all the way back in pre-injury 2021.

On offense, it was mostly Old Man Taylor Snyder, Wild Card Alsander Womack and Young Blood Yoelqui Céspedes running the show, accounting for six of 11 hits and three of five driven in. The offense overall may not have been “flat” per se, but it was not clutch, leaving 11 runners on base and executing a worse-than-needed 3-for-10 with RISP.

Poll

The Barons put up a good fight. Who earned the MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 20%
    Caleb Freeman: 2 IP, BB, 2 K
    (6 votes)
  • 10%
    Alsander Womack: 2-for-4, RBI, HBP, LOB
    (3 votes)
  • 0%
    Xavier Fernández: 1-for-3, 2B, 2 BB, shimmy celebration
    (0 votes)
  • 44%
    Yoelqui Céspedes: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2B ,BB, LOB
    (13 votes)
  • 24%
    Taylor Snyder: 2-for-4, R, HR, 2 RBI, K, 2 LOB, thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single late in a one-run game, uncommonly great hair
    (7 votes)
  • 0%
    Moisés Castillo: 1-for-2, 2 BB
    (0 votes)
29 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Another loss for the Barons, and there’s plenty of Cold Cat blame to go around.

This poll is closed

  • 80%
    Garrett Schoenle: 4 2⁄3 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, pickoff at 1B, HB, LOSS
    (21 votes)
  • 3%
    Andrew Pérez: 1 1⁄3 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, K
    (1 vote)
  • 11%
    Tyler Neslony: 0-for-4, RBI, 2 K, 3 LOB, SF
    (3 votes)
  • 3%
    Luis Mieses: 1-for-5, R, 4 LOB
    (1 vote)
26 votes total Vote Now

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first, beyond the 5-4 Dash loss that dropped them to 21-9: Wonder Bat DJ Gladney was hit by a pitch in the first inning and eventually left the game.

The good news? Well, no report yet from Winston-Salem, but considering that Gladney took first base on the HBP and even took a second at-bat, in the third (ground out), only being removed from the contest midway through, indicates that concern is more precautionary than grave. In a system almost completely devoid of power, for Gladney’s breakout season to be derailed by injury of any sort would be, at least in prospect context, tragic.

Otherwise, this game was bit odd, with all but one run’s worth of scoring accomplished in the second inning — thus the Drive outscoring the Dash, 5-3, in that frame spells doom. Pitcher of the Week Drew Dalquist could not handle his good fortune, with an abysmal start that saw him get the collar just five outs into his game. One out for every earned run falls short of the standards we set for most third round draft choices, as does a mere 8 2⁄3 innings over six starts.

But the Winston-Salem pen bristled up, with Jerry Burke, Kade Mechals and Chase Plymell keeping Greenville off the board over the final 6 1⁄3 innings of the game. Mechals was particularly spectacular, in his Dash debut to boot:

Unfortunately the Dash O could not respond in kind, trickling just one additional run out before time expired — an RBI double from Wilfred Veras (what new) scoring Terrell Tatum, who had walked and stolen second (really, what new).

Poll

Who was the MVP of Winston-Salem’s ninth loss of the season?

This poll is closed

  • 8%
    Wilfred Veras: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI, SB, K, LOB
    (2 votes)
  • 62%
    Chris Lanzilli: 2-for-4, R, HR, 3 RBI, K
    (15 votes)
  • 4%
    Jerry Burke: 2 1⁄3 IP, H
    (1 vote)
  • 25%
    Kade Mechals: 2 IP, 2 K, 15-of-22 pitches for strikes
    (6 votes)
24 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who most helped spur just the ninth loss of the year for the Dash?

This poll is closed

  • 95%
    Drew Dalquist: 1 2⁄3 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, HR, LOSS, 22-of-47 strikes
    (20 votes)
  • 0%
    Taishi Nakawake: 0-for-3, K, LOB, GIDP
    (0 votes)
  • 4%
    Michael Turner: 0-for-4, 2 K, 2 LOB
    (1 vote)
  • 0%
    Loidel Chapelli Jr.: 0-for-4, K, 2 LOB
    (0 votes)
21 votes total Vote Now

This loss falls more in the heartbreaking fashion, not because the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers are finally trying to have the season they were destined to (OK, a little bit that), but because this game was in hand, until at the midpoint all hell broke loose and the Woodpeckers did just enough to eke out a victory.

The culprit in Fayetteville was Frander Veras, who was in position to vulture an easy win, as starter Drew McDaniel either hit his pitch count or left with injury in the fourth, leading 3-0, it’s Low-A ball details are sketchy. Let’s call it an injury that Veras was ill-prepared to sub in for, because burn marks were left all over the infield after his four-earned, six-hit inning.

The hitters provided a grab-bag of everything in this one, good baserunning and bad, poor fielding and sharp plays, and power from, who dat, Tim Elko. I swear, the next song I commission from Di Billick is going to be a one-minute thrash asking why 37-year-old grandfather Tim Elko is still mashing in Low-A. At any rate Elko, slow-starting Jacob Burke and shaky-fielding Bryce Willits all provided two hits apiece in the heart of the order.

Poll

Kanny came up just short. Who was its MVP today?

This poll is closed

  • 65%
    Tim Elko: 2-for-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI, K, 2 LOB, mustachioed
    (15 votes)
  • 0%
    Jacob Burke: 2-for-4, 2B, R, LOB
    (0 votes)
  • 0%
    Bryce Willits: 2-for-3, 2B, RBI, BB, K, E that sort of opened the fifth-inning floodgates
    (0 votes)
  • 4%
    Brooks Baldwin: 1-for-3, HR, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, SB, LOB
    (1 vote)
  • 30%
    Drew McDaniel: 4 IP, R, BB, 5 K, WP
    (7 votes)
  • 0%
    Pauly Milto: 2 IP, H, 3 K, HB, 21-of-29 strikes
    (0 votes)
23 votes total Vote Now

Poll

The CBs had some game goats. Who was the Coldest Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 75%
    Frander Veras: IP, 6 H, 4 ER, BB, WP, BALK, LOSS
    (12 votes)
  • 6%
    Jordan Sprinkle: 0-for-4, BB, 2 K, LOB
    (1 vote)
  • 18%
    Johnabiell Laureano: 0-for-4, 2 K, 4 LOB, GIDP
    (3 votes)
16 votes total Vote Now

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