White Sox Minor League Update: April 18, 2023

Charlotte loses while the rest of the minors have healthy days at the plate, including double-digit scoring days for the Barons and Dash

Charlotte Knights

It was supposed to be the triumphant return of Sean Burke, the supposed seventh starter in the White Sox rotation. The guy with the most upside of the starting pitchers who could, realistically, see time in MLB. Welp, that’s not how the game turned out. He was activated today from the 7-day IL, and his second inning was as bad as it could have been. He did not get out of the second, only got two outs. In the two outs, he walked four and allowed five runs before he was pulled.

Yeah, not great. Declan Cronin was sent in to get the final out, he did. Nate Fisher, who was probably going to get a good number of innings today anyway since Burke, even if he did well, was not going to go long went the final six innings. Fisher went six innings and did not allow a run. So, I guess that is a quality start even if he came in for the third and until the end of the game. Meanwhile, the offense did make it a game, eventually, they took too long to start scoring runs and frankly, ran out of outs.

All four runs scored came in the final three innings. The way the game was going for Louisville’s bullpen, maybe if Charlotte had three more outs it would have prevailed. Alas, there’s 27 outs for a reason.

Zach Remillard had another great game, a two-hit day with a couple of runs batted in.

His 2-hole mate, Yolbert Sánchez, had a couple of singles today, too. The offense showed great plate discipline (six walks versus four strikeouts), but it just did not not have that one big homer to really get over the hump.

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Birmingham Barons

Don’t just look at the hit column for the Barons today, they reached base 16 times today and while they walked (nine) more than they hit (seven). Duke Ellis had his best day of the season, reaching base every time at the plate, with two hits and two walks. He had one of the two extra-base hits on the day, too.

It was a struggle if you were a top prospect today, though. José Rodríguez and Yoelqui Céspedes both went hitless and are both hitting right near the Mendoza line, but Céspedes at least walked twice today. Adam Hackenberg went hitless, too, while showing off his arm strength from behind the plate.

Not just that time, but twice.

Hackenberg helped keep the Blue Wahoos to just four runs on a day where the pitching was not stellar. Chase Solesky just went four innings of one-run ball, but the next three bullpen arms allowed one run. Garrett Davila, who was just sent back down from Charlotte, went two innings along with Vince Vannelle, and allowed a run each. Definitely not bad outings from Davila and Vannelle, but they weren’t clean ones while the Barons held a big lead.

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Winston-Salem Dash

Lots and lots of hits usually equals lots and lots of runs. That is exactly what happened here in High-A, with a Winston-Salem Dash winner. It was not without at least some decent pitching though. Jonathan Cannon ended his day with a quality start, though he did allow an average of two runners on base per inning. So, maybe it is more remarkable that he left with three runs allowed than after giving up 10 hits. Cannon did leave with the lead, and the Dash had a comfortable 13-3 one entering the ninth, but Jake Palish had a difficult time holding down the Tourists. He allowed four runs before he was pulled, so this five-run win was really never that close. It did help push the total runs in the game to the 20s and hits into the 30s, so that’s pretty fun.

How we got to those 20 runs and 30 hits, well, from the Dash perspective, it was almost a group effort. Every batter reached base, with seven collecting hits. Shawn Goosenberg led the team with four hits and had one of the two homers in the game. Wilfred Veras, who had a three-hit day, had the other homer for the Dash. This one was hist first in High-A, though, oddly, he already has three in Double-A because of Project Birmingham.

For the top prospects on the team to close it out, Wes Kath had a couple of hits, and a couple of strikeouts. Terrell Tatum reached base a couple times as well, including a double.

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Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

It was pretty much a complete win down in Low-A for Kannapolis. It was the home opener, and the Cannon Ballers provided enough on both sides of the game for everyone to come away happy. The offense took full advantage of their runners on base, with nine runners and six runs to go with it. The big hit was from Tim Elko — his second home run of the season.

He and Brooks Baldwin each had two hits on the day. So, two players combined for two-thirds of the lineup’s hits.

The pitching did allow more RiverDogs hits compared to the Cannon Ballers, but defense and the well-timed strikeouts helped keep the RiverDogs to one run. It was a three-man effort, with Connor McCullough getting the start. His seven Ks and only singles allowed helped him leave with a donut in his run column. I have talked about paying attention to relievers that get late-inning run, and well, Billy Seidl got his second save today. This one was a six-out effort.

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