Sox Populi on the Farm Podcast 40 — 2023 Winston-Salem Dash preview

Darren Black and Brett Ballantini talk about the big talent that starts the season at High-A

Unlike a year ago, the clear bevy of Single-A talent in the White Sox system resides in High-A Winston-Salem. And that’s not only due to matriculation from the 2022 Low-A Kannapolis team.

With so many promising players starting the year at Winston-Salem, Darren Black hopped on with Brett Ballantini to discuss all of the promise residing in High-A this year:

• But first, Brett initiates a mini-rant about a player no longer in the White Sox system, but who last played there in 2021 with the Dash and was just moved up to the Philadelphia Phillies, McKinley Moore
• OK, on to the actual Dash players, leading off with two exciting starters who (for different reasons) will need to flash health and reach the 100 IP mark, Norge Vera and Kohl Simas
• A positive dive into Jonathan Cannon, and a worried one into Jared Kelley
• Brett brings up Brooks Gosswein, and Darren makes Brett wish he didn’t
• Shout-outs to Trooper Galactus for his Wilfred Veras stan ... but seriously, what were you Top Prospect Voters thinking by not only keeping Veras from winning a round in the first 20, but finishing low on the ballot itself, throughout?
• Brett attempts to place a claim on Jacob Burke, but stymies himself when realizing that any mildly-promising center fielder captures his heart. Darren provides the actual reasons why, yes, we should be optimistic about where Burke can move in our system
• Some “bonus time” talk about the otherwise-overlooked Wes Kath, and in fact, we unearth a way that the way-premature assignment Kath got to Project Birmingham in 2022 could in fact work out really well
• We recorded before the wild news that Loidel Chapelli Jr. (yes, Brett has placed a claim on his Cuban brother) would be starting the season here. WOW
• We also were fighting (well, Brett was) some real technical issues that apparently stole a minute or so out of the podcast; apologies for the very strange lack of commercial intro and outro midway through the program
• Also, programming note, Brett had Opening Day down as Thursday for AA-A, then double-checked and somehow found a source that had it wrong. So all the talk about the season opening on Friday, well ... OK, let’s face it, Brett’s a little dim

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