White Sox Minor League Update: May 20-21, 2024

Sometimes, you fall asleep at 3 a.m. writing these and forget to publish

Six games to write up tonight, and although that’s far from an Update record (nine, 10?), I’m about to lose my mind. Let’s get right to it.

Nashville Sounds 10, Charlotte Knights 3 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
Curiously, Nick Nastrini was pulled from his scheduled No. 1 (Tuesday) start in favor of fellow phenom Jonathan Cannon. No injury to report, don’t worry ... Nastrini in fact is starting on Wednesday night in Toronto for the White Sox, apparently as the starter replacing released Royals buffoon Brad Keller.

Cannon did not do so well on regular (four-day) rest in Nastrini’s stead, lasting just four innings and giving up six runs (five earned) on eight hits. He burned up 83 pitches in the process and has had just one solid start in four shots since Chicago.

In soon-to-return-probably-should-not-have-been gone-at-all updates, Bryan Ramos got his first rehab start in and went 0-for-2 with a walk, playing about half of the game at third base.

Birmingham Barons 6, Biloxi Shuckers 2 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
Some days it’s offensive highlights, sometimes it’s the pitching — sometimes both. But the Barons just keep winning. Tonight, we get a load of great offensive highlights:

At 24-14, the Barons are the second best team in Double-A and are the ninth-best time in all of the full-season minor leagues.

Bowling Green Hot Rods 14, Winston-Salem Dash 4 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
Among the teams that count (i.e. Double-A, High-A, Low-A), the Dash are the only laggards in the system at the moment, and that was only reinforced by a walloping at the hands of Salina Rae Silver’s own Bowling Green Hot Rods on Tuesday. Indicative of the sort of offense W-S ran out was how that game got (briefly) tied in the first place: Wild Pickoff Offense!

Eddie Park, in his new home ballpark, bagged three hits in an impressive debut.

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 5, Augusta GreenJackets 0 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
Drew McDaniel deserved the top-spot photo today, but we just don’t have art of him yet, so, sorry Drew! At any rate, this righthander has been nothing short of magical this season, nipping hard at the heels of a promotion to Winston-Salem with about as perfect a game as you can throw in A-ball. McDaniel even chose his free passes as painful HB and not BBs! The pen was tight in relief of McDaniel, and Caden Connor lit it up on both sides of the ball, as he continues his case .301 batting average, .841 OPS for a move to the Dash as well.

ACL Dodgers 8, ACL White Sox 5 (Monday) (Gameday box)
The ACL White Sox started slow, got hot, and are now slumping again. Such is rookie ball.

Someone decidedly NOT slumping is George Wolkow, thought to be starting the year in Kannapolis and recently been thought of as not seeing A-ball at all in 2024. The former still makes a lot more sense than the latter, as Wolkow has showed off power, speed and defense over a short ACL audition so far. As of games Tuesday (see below), Wolkow is clubbing at .370 batting average, 1.115 OPS. Four digit OPS = call the kid up.

Sean Burke, the Next Starter Up from Charlotte as of about a year ago (pre-injury), struggled quite a bit as he tunes up to get back closer to the South Side.

ACL Brewers 7, ACL White Sox 4 (Tuesday) (Gameday box)
Want to hear a sad story? Of course you don’t. But we have to tell it, as onetime phenom and former No. 1 pitching prospect for the White Sox, Norge Vera, was released by the club yesterday. He could never approach those 19 innings of shutout ball that represented his DSL season in 2021. And for Vera, it was less about ineffectiveness as it was injury; his truncated Stateside debut in 2022 was just fine, so only in 2023 did his chronic shoulder issues translate into poor performance. He may again be hurt, as Vera saw action in just one ACL game this year (scoreless) before getting his release.

In better news, 2023 relief ace Daniel González continues to rip it in Arizona, and given a full (albeit short) season of success a year ago, you’d have to think he’ll see Kannapolis at some point.