Hey, remember Justin Yurchak?
What if I called him Clifton Park's Justin Yurchak?
If that still doesn't ring a bell, it's not necessarily your fault. Yurchak, a 12th-round draft pick out in 2017, hit .293/.390/.407 over 155 games split between Great Falls and Kannapolis in 2017 and 2018 before the White Sox sent him to the Dodgers in exchange for Manny Bañuelos, who is almost as easy to have forgotten.
He intrigued me for his batting eye -- he drew 88 walks against 86 strikeouts over 632 plate appearances -- but more so for hailing from New York's Capital Region, because I'm always partial to those guys. He came from the same high school (Shenendehowa) that produced Braves righty Ian Anderson, who went third overall in the previous year's draft.
Yurchak's plate discipline was legit, but he struggled to hit for meaningful power and he was a liability as a first baseman, committing 11 errrors in 80 games for the Intimidators. The White Sox seemed like they had Corey Zangari competing for the same position at the same level, so Yurchak was expendable.
Skip ahead three seasons -- or two seasons and a pandemic -- and Yurchak is hitting .370/.454/.504 across 75 games in his age-24 season. The first 62 of which came in High-A, which might be the case of his experience winning out among uneven competition. But now Yurchak is hitting .431/.491/.627 through 13 games at Double-A, which is why he's the subject of a profile in David Laurila's Sunday notes column at FanGraphs, where he talks about his pedestrian 2018 in Kannapolis:
“That year, I got off on a bad track and had a hard time figuring out what was wrong,” Yurchak told me on the final Friday of July. “There was a little bit too much movement in my lower half. Part of it was that I wasn’t gathering my legs under my body. When I was landing in my load, there was a little bit of a slide with my hips, and my bat was dragging. Had I been able to make [the needed] adjustment earlier, I think the season would have gone differently for me.”
The adjustment he ultimately made came in a different uniform. Originally in the Chicago White Sox organization, Yurchak was dealt to the Dodgers in November of 2018 in exchange for Manny Bañuelos. Shortly thereafter he traveled to Arizona for a hitting camp, and it was there that he “learned a lot about swings” — particularly his own. The level of instruction differed from what he’d experienced with Chicago.
“They’re definitely two different orgs,” acknowledged Yurchak, who takes his cuts from the left side. “The White Sox do it well, but the Dodgers are a little bit more analytical. I’ve had a little more video and technology to help me progress, to go through the progressions needed to improve.”
The season after the White Sox traded Yurchak, the White Sox finally invested in hitting analytics personnel in the minor leagues. The high-profile hiring of Matt Lisle fizzled quickly, but Ryan Johansen stuck, as he's the White Sox's assistant hitting coordinator. Devin DeYoung has also taken on more responsibility, advancing from general coachdom to the hitting coach for the ACL White Sox, so the Sox have evolved at the lowest levels. Yurchak's being kind by saying the Sox "did it well" at the time he was party of things, but hopefully they're doing it better now.
ACL White Sox 8, ACL Indians 7
- Colson Montgomery went 1-for-4 with a strikeout and an HBP.
- Wilfred Veras went 2-for-4 with a grand slam and a walk.
- Logan Glass was 1-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
Highlights:
*Veras' slam:
*Montgomery's single:
