Jimmy Lambert made his Cactus League debut on Tuesday against Kansas City. He survived for two scoreless innings, which is an accomplishment for a Cactus League debut. He looked overamped early, letting all his fastballs fly away and dropping a curveball onto Hunter Dozier's helmet to put himself in an immediate jam.
Lambert likes riding the high fastball, but it was excessive even by his standards, and he eventually lowered them enough to pump two heaters past Jorge Soler for a strikeout. Preston Tucker misread a flare to left for a single that loaded the bases, but Lambert danced out of the inning by finishing off a 3-6-1 double play.
By comparison, the second inning was a cakewalk, as he only had to pitch around a one-out walk and field a two-out bunt from Terrance Gore, who doesn't even try to hit anymore.
It could've gone better. Lambert couldn't throw either of his breaking balls for strikes, which made the potential swing-and-miss ones below the zone much easier to lay off.
But the other pitchers showed it could've gone worse. Carson Fulmer and Nate Jones both gave up homers, and Randall Delgado gave up two of them. All three pitchers have double-digit ERAs. Lambert's is 0.00. Lambert wins the day, and his self-assessment aligns with mine:
‘‘I would have liked to throw more strikes and maybe more breaking balls for strikes, but I got out of it, so I guess you can take that out of it,’’ Lambert said.
Indeed.
A fifth-round pick out of Fresno State in 2016, Lambert sneaked up on people last year, posting more strikeouts (110) than baserunners allowed (106) over 95⅔ innings last year. The only thing keeping it from a true breakout season was an oblique injury that truncated it all in late July, but he still received rave reviews from inside the house:
If Lambert wants to spend 2019 reinforcing his credentials and toying with a September call-up, the White Sox would welcome the development, because it looks like Dane Dunning will be vacating that particular role on the depth chart after his elbow flared up again. It's manifested itself this time in forearm soreness, and he'll be reevaluated this week.
Should Dunning have to go under the knife, the White Sox rebuild will have lost two of its top three pitching prospects for the year, with only the previously delicate Dylan Cease side-stepping disaster thus far.
This Dunning quote probably suggests everybody at Camelback Ranch was bracing for this outcome ...
... but when paired with Luis Basabe's broken hamate bone, it's already another grisly spring for the top of the White Sox farm system.
Whereas Basabe's plate appearances in Birmingham can be readily absorbed by multiple other credible center fielders named "Luis," replacing Dunning is going to require a little more finger-crossing. As long as Alec Hansen remains enclosed by scaffolding, attention will turn to Lambert's neighborhood in the White Sox prospect list. That area -- which includes Bernardo Flores, Jordan Stephens and Kodi Medeiros down the line -- requires a little more wish-casting.
Lambert is the best equipped to step into the spotlight, but in an ideal farm system, he'd do so under different circumstances. At some point during this rebuild, the White Sox would prefer having a pleasant surprise crash the party, rather than needing one to offset a previous tragedy.
