White Sox Minor League Update: June 16, 2017

Larry picks up where he left off on Friday with midseason updates for his top 10 White Sox prospects, starting with ...

6. Carson Fulmer

Fulmer is sort of the opposite of Lucas Giolito. He pitched pretty well for the first month but seems to have lost the plot the last month. The strikeouts have disappeared while the walks have spiked. That’s a bad combination. It’s also a bit like last season, when he had a similar stretch at the same point in the season. While he’s certainly toned down his delivery from where it was two years ago, there’s still a lot going on and this just may be what Fulmer is: a guy who can keep his mechanics together for a half dozen or so starts, then loses them for a spell and then the cycle starts over. And that’s a reliever profile.

7. Zack Collins

This isn’t really what you want to see from a guy touted to have an “advanced” or “MLB-ready” approach. Guys with advanced approaches don’t bat .237 in High-A or strikeout 27 percent of the time. That assertion often gets met with “but look at that 20 percentwalk rate!”. Which, yes, that’s a very nice walk rate but in terms of projecting major league value, it’s rather low on the list and more a function of ISO anyway. Now, his .222 ISO is indeed impressive but I find it to be insufficient when combined with a rather underwhelming BABIP. Guys with similar profiles at this level, like Tyler Flowers and Joey Gallo, tend to smack the shit out of everything, not just flyballs. The defensive improvements seem real but not sure it’s enough to stick. If he doesn’t improve offensively, it probably doesn’t matter.

8. Zack Burdi

One of the only things I had on the to-do list for Burdi was to cut the walks. And he’d done that while maintaining his strikeout rate. Until the last couple weeks when the walks came back with a vengeance. He’s been let down by his defense a bit during this stretch but he’s done himself no favors, either, with the walks and some hard contact. We may be seeing some fatigue from a guy who isn’t yet used to a pro schedule. The White Sox have largely done a good job of spacing out his outings, usually working on multiple days of rest, and the one attempt to pitch him on back-to-back days coincidentally (or not) was the start of his recent difficulties. While the stuff is certainly major league ready, the White Sox deliberately aren’t yet putting him on a schedule that would work out of a major league bullpen.

9. Spencer Adams

Still extremely young for the level, Adams is really building on the foundation he laid after his promotion to Birmingham last July. He’s bumped up the strikeouts significantly and even managed to trim his already low walks. He’s back to getting lots of grounders. And he’s been pretty consistently throwing six or more innings. You can’t really ask much more from a guy with his skill set. He’s probably due for a promotion but unfortunately the White Sox haven’t freed up the space in Charlotte’s rotation.

10 Luis Alexander Basabe

Certainly the rawest player on this list, the (expected) timeline of his development was always going to be longer than everybody else. The basic issue with Basabe is swing-and-miss and his 25% rate illustrates that it’s still there. A larger issue, though, has been an absence of power, particularly given that he hasn’t taken advantage of his home ballpark’s ISO-friendliness. As a switch-hitter, we’d expect to see his line against lefties lag and that’s still the case. There’s just a lot of developing Basabe needs to do and it isn’t a surprise that there’s none visible yet this season.

— Larry

Top prospects at a glance

• Yoan Moncada: 4-for-4, HR, 2 BB, CS
• Lucas Giolito: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
• Michael Kopech: 4 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 1 WP
• Luis Robert: 0-for-3, BB, K

Charlotte 12, Louisville 4

• Yoan Moncada had a night: 4-for-4 with a homer and two walks. He was caught stealing, if you want to pick nits.
• Jacob May went 1-for-3 with a walk.
• Nicky Delmonico, 1-for-6 with a homer and a strikeout.
• Adam Engel went 2-for-5 with a triple, double and strikeout.
• Danny Hayes was also 2-for-5, but with a homer, double and strikeout.
• Rymer Liriano was 2-for-3 with a walk and an HBP.
• Lucas Giolito: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K

Jackson 6, Birmingham 1

• Eddy Alvarez went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
• Jake Peter wore the collar and silver sombrero.
• Nick Basto was 0-for-4.
• Trey Michalczewski went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
• Alfredo Gonzalez, 0-for-2 with a walk.
• Michael Kopech: 4 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 46 of 75 pitches for strikes.
• Thad Lowry: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K

Kannapolis 8, West Virginia 2

• Joel Booker went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
• Jameson Fisher, 1-for-3 with a walk.
• Micker Adolfo was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Brandon Dulin has homered five times over the last four games, which warrants a mention.
• Bernardo Flores: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP

DSL Blue Jays 6, DSL White Sox 5

• Luis Robert went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Anderson Comas went 2-for-3 with a walk.
• Brayant Nova was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Luis Mieses, 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
• Harvin Mendoza was 1-for-4 with a homer, walk and strikeout.
• Josue Guerrero went 0-for-3.
• Kleyder Sanchez went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and an HBP.
• Ramon Pineda: 4 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 WP
• Nelson Acosta: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 0 K, 1 WP

Winston-Salem at Buies Creek PPD