White Sox Minor League Update: August 29, 2023

Loss after loss after loss after loss in the minors today, but Cristian Mena made his Triple-A debut and all the top bats did well in Double-A

A quick end to this one, probably to get out before the hurricane in Florida. It was Cristian Mena’s debut though and he went five innings today. His fastball topped out at 95.2 MPH but seemed to stay closer to 93 for the game. He didn’t show awfully well even with a healthy line of five innings and two runs allowed. He didn’t throw many more strikes (47) than balls (44) and only garnered three swing-and-misses. Here is one though:

There wasn’t much offense to help Mena get his first Triple-A win, but again, the game did end early. The only run came from Victor Reyes and his 18th homer of the year.

It is almost time to find out who will be the 27th and 28th men on the MLB roster. One should be Zach Remillard and he walked and stole a base today. Declan Cronin, one option from the bullpen, ended the game for Charlotte. He got two outs before the game was called.

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From a team perspective, this was a bad loss, 8-5. From a prospect-watching perspective, it was a decent day. The only disappointment ended up being Jonathan Cannon, the starter in today’s game. He went five, the first two worked out okay, but for the next three, he just allowed hit, after hit, after hit on his way to four runs allowed.

The good, well that was all on offense. José Rodríguez, Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos, Wilfred Veras, and Edgar Quero all reached base multiple times today. Montgomery came away with the only extra-base hit of the bunch, a triple.

Meanwhile, Wilfred Veras led the bunch in hits with three. He puts his OPS back above 1.000 on his Double-A tenure. He and Montgomery have had the best stints in Double-A since their respective promotions.

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More of a bullpen day today with Tyler Schweitzer, seemingly getting close to his season innings limit, and Kohl Simas, working out of the bullpen again. For Simas, it might be more production-related because he is sporting a 6.15 ERA in 82 innings. That innings mark is a career-high, but not high enough to warrant a severe limit getting bullpen work every so often. For Schweitzer, it makes more sense, and he is still pitching well, enough. He got bit by the unearned run bug and had some control issues, maybe because of the innings, but got through his three-innings fine. Eric Adler did well in his inning, the ninth, to give the Dash one final shot at tying or winning the game. He walked one and struck out three in his four batters faced.

The lineup, for Winston-Salem, actually out-hit the victors, Rome, but still fell short. Now, five of the seven hits came from two batters so it was bunched together, but still, if you outhit your opponent, you should win. Loidel Chapelli (three) and Michael Turner (two) accounted for those five hits. They were all singles, like the other two hits, that probably helped lead to the lack of runs too.

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Another bad offensive day for the farm, this time with Kannapolis getting shutout. They did come away with 12 runners on base. It’s just that all of them were stranded. Rikuu Nishida, Jacob Gonzalez, and Calvin Harris, the one, two, and three hitters, all reached base multiple times. Nishida’s two times were both walks, while Gonzalez and Harris did get a couple of singles. Still, no George Wolkow yet, even though he was promoted.

Overall, the staff did well from the mound, with two runs allowed. The one that ended up struggling in this bullpen game was Horacio Andujar. He allowed both runs as he got hit around; five hits given up. Before him, sixth-round selection Lucas Gordon got the start he did his job, though, I’m sure he was supposed to get through three innings. It was his first stint in Low-A, and it was a good showing with four strikeouts.