One benefit of the White Sox having all their affiliates in North Carolina? Frequent looks by the writers at Baseball America.
Josh Norris watched Dane Dunning pitch in the opener against Carolina in Zebulon on Thursday, then talked to him afterward. Dunning provided an update on his mechanical assignments...
"I’ve been working on this since I got into pro ball, and me and (Winston-Salem pitching coach Matt) Zaleski and all the pitching coaches throughout the White Sox (organization), we’ve been working on the same thing,” Dunning said. "(Between the first and second innings) he told me that I needed to get my glove side up a little bit more and work back to front, and then everything else will fall into place.”
... and his secondary pitches:
"In spring training, I really worked on a curveball,” he said. "James Shields actually helped me with the grip and everything and I was able to work on that a lot. It was really good today. And I’m working on the slider, getting it a little bit tighter. …I was throwing (the curveball) last year, but I’m throwing it spike now and it’s a little sharper movement and it’s a little different out of the hand, but I like it.”
You can watch Norris' video of Dunning's eight strikeouts above.
Durham 11, Charlotte 1
- Charlie Tilson went 1-for-3 with a double, sac bunt and strikeout.
- Ryan Cordell struck out three times and reached on catcher's interference.
- Daniel Palka was 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Casey Gillaspie and Matt Skole were both 1-for-4 with three strikeouts.
- Thyago Vieira: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
- Robbie Ross threw just eight of 21 pitches for strikes and didn't retire a batter: 0 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 WP, 1 HBP
Winston-Salem 6, Carolina 3
- Joel Booker (LF) went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Luis Alexander Basabe (CF) was 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Blake Rutherford was 1-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Gavin Sheets, 2-for-5 with a double and a strikeout.
- Micker Adolfo went 3-for-4 with a double, walk and strikeout.
- Ti'Quan Forbes was 0-for-2 with two walks and a CS.
- Bernardo Flores: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
Lakewood 4, Kannapolis 3
- Luis Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a sac fly.
- Johan Cruz, 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Justin Yurchak went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Tate Blackman (HR) and Michael Hickman were both 2-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Lincoln Henzman: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 61 of 80 pitches for strikes.
- Tyler Johnson: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
More:
*John Calvagno of Notes From The Sally gives some impressions of Luis Gonzalez.
Gonzalez strikes me as a high floor player with maybe more in there. My initial feeling is he’s a very good 4th outfielder or perhaps 2nd division regular in CF. But what would happen if he moved to a more aggressive style in the box and looked for pitches to drive? Could he be a 270/350 player with 20-25 HR and 10-15 SB. Along with a quality glove in CF it’s possible. He’s a nice player no matter what we get. I’ll update this over the Summer with subsequent looks
Birmingham at Chattanooga PPD
