If a spring training game was played but it wasn't on a White Sox webcast or broadcast, did it make a sound?
Theoretically it does, but now we're in the year 2020, our expectations are such that we can treat such audio-only affairs as aberrations worth ignoring.
Monday's game was technically the second Cactus League affair played by the White Sox this spring, but since Cincinnati lets most of its preseason games proceed in the dark and NBC Sports Chicago carried this one for all to see, this one had all the markings of an opening day.
And in what felt like the first game of the season, a couple of local favorites made people feel feelings.
Nicky Delmonico evokes memories
When the White Sox straight-up released Nicky Delmonico last season, it felt a little too unceremonious for a guy who was so popular. The rules regarding an injured player forced the White Sox to release him in order to remove him from the roster because outrighting isn't permitted, but I had a hunch the White Sox didn't want to see it all crash the way it did.
When they brought him back on a minor-league deal, it looked like they wanted to give him a chance to rewrite the ending.
Featuring the makings of a mane in an attempt to better fulfill the Mike Morse profile previously ascribed to him -- dress for the job you want -- Delmonico went 3-for-3, and off a variety of right-handed pitchers. He ripped a single up the middle against Ross Stripling in the first, a double over the head of Cody Bellinger off Edubray Ramos, and another double to right off Edwin Uceta. Stripling is the only guaranteed MLB pitcher among them, but somebody has to hit them, and Delmonico was the only one stinging the ball over the first half of the game.
The talking point is a change in hand positioning shortening his swing, and indeed there's a difference. They now start in front of his face, rather than above his head.
The Delmonico of last season wasn't rosterable for any team, but the Delmonico of his rookie season fits on the White Sox's 26-man roster, as he gives the White Sox left-handed relief at first base, and a left-handed bat that can find the ball off the bench. He's got a long way to go before he forces the White Sox to reopen a 40-man spot for him, but if he somehow does it, this is how it starts.
Yermin Mercedes draws a picture
Yermin Mercedes is also rosterable for the White Sox as a nominal third catcher, but more importantly a big barrel of right-handed gunpowder. It looks like this.
Mercedes replaced Zack Collins and converted both of his at-bats, following the mammoth blast with a muscled single to center. Both of his hits came off the kind of competition he faced at Charlotte last year, but Mercedes eventually wore down the White Sox for a 40-man roster spot with ostentatious displays of production, so why stop now?
Andrew Vaughn is a giant pain
When looking at the numbers from his pro debut, Andrew Vaughn failed to astound last year. When watching how he goes about his business, one can see how he earns his evaluations that result in top-five draft status and top-40 prospect placement.
Vaughn went 1-for-2 with a groundout, HBP and double over three plate appearances on Monday. MLB.com's box scores doesn't count pitches, but it's such an important part of Vaughn's game that he compelled me to do it by hand.
Vaughn saw 19 pitches over his three plate appearances:
- One swinging strike
- Two balls in play
- Four strikes taken
- Six balls taken
- Six foul balls
Vaughn's approach distills the idea of hitting in general -- ignoring or fending off the pitches you can't damage in hopes of getting something to drive. It all culminated in the last pitch of his day, a full-count fastball from the CPU-generated name Parker Curry that Vaughn drove off the top of the wall in left center for a double to start the sixth.
Ian Hamilton and Blake Rutherford will have to make their own luck
After missing the bulk of spring training due to a car accident, and the bulk of a season due to a foul ball that broke his face, Ian Hamilton is already beating last year by pitching in the second spring game of the year.
Room for improvement remains. Hamilton gave up the only two runs the White Sox pitching staff allowed all day, and on a pair of solo shots to organizational players off elevated fastballs. The Dodgers didn't make much in the way of loud contact throughout the day, whether it was off journeymen with life (Adalberto Mejía) or another fast-rising relief prospect (Codi Heuer, throwing 98-99), so Hamilton stood alone.
Blake Rutherford is welcoming the "pounds of muscle" curse this spring ...
... although it's less of a curse and more a sample that self-selects players who are on the verge of washing out of the league. In Rutherford's case, he needs to hit for more power in order to make a living, and so here comes the emphasis on adding physical strength.
At any rate, he's trying to burst through the wall by going over it, but Cody Thomas wouldn't let it happen on his watch. Rutherford also allegedly hit a warning track fly in the opener nobody could watch online, so now we'll see whether he's on the right track, or if this is the best he can do.
Nick Madrigal still has doubters
Entering his first full pro season, Nick Madrigal's prospect stock took a slight hit due to the soft, opposite-field-oriented contact that made up most of his production after returning from the broken hand, and was reflected to the .348 slugging percentage in the low levels of the minors.
Madrigal then hit .311/.377/.414 across three levels in 2019. His stronger work coming against stronger competition, which did a lot to counter the idea that advanced pitching would knock the bat out of his hand.
That said, Keith Law left Madrigal off his top 100 prospects list, as well as the shorter "just missed" list. It's a take that's bound to not age well, if only because Madrigal is on the doorstep of the majors, and his preternatural bat-to-ball ability and above-average defense should give him a career of some kind. That's more than a sizable chunk of the list will end up accomplishing.
That said, if Madrigal merely turns into another Yolmer Sánchez, a ceiling-centric evaluator like Law probably isn't going to lose sleep. Whether Madrigal makes Law truly eat his words (a la Chris Sale) is rooted in whether he can pull the ball with authority when the opportunity presents itself.
So far:
- Flyout to right.
- Single to right.
- Flyout to right.
- Fielder's choice to short.
- Groundout to second.
