2021 Kannapolis Cannon Ballers season review

Set aside the quality of baseball, and there's only good news to report about the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. Though the pandemic spoiled the team's launch of the new name, uniforms and ballpark, all of it was worth the wait. Atrium Health Ballpark is a beautiful little field that couldn't be in a better spot downtown. The name and logo are fun, and, based on the number of caps, jerseys and shirts I saw in the stands, very popular. Also, the facility provides radar-gun readings and webstreams. You no longer go out of your way to a Kannapolis game because there's no other way to see low-A prospects, or because you were going to Charlotte and you may as well cross two affiliates off your list. The Ballers are worth a stop on their own.

When you start evaluating the level of play, you jeopardize the vibes. So let's just say after seeing their initial launch of a new era postponed by a pandemic, any baseball was good baseball, and the Cannon Ballers certainly played any baseball.

The Cannon Ballers started the season 0-10 and went 2-22 in May, and spent most of the year possessing the worst record in all of Minor League Baseball. They ultimately avoided that fate, closing out the 2021 schedule with a six-game winning streak.

Hopes were higher. The Cannon Ballers opened the season with a number of ambitious assignments for prep players, but it turns out they really could've used a stint in Great Falls. The elimination of the short-season leagues posed a special problem for the White Sox in 2021, as they had finally drafted and otherwise accumulated enough teen talent to have an A-ball team under the league's average age, at least for position players.

Alas, more players sank than swam. If you're mining for silver lining, there are a couple of notable exceptions who were well ahead of the curve, notably Bryan Ramos and Jose Rodriguez, the latter of whom earned a pair of promotions. They also received a midseason boost from a pair of Winston-Salem Dash, Harvin Mendoza and Luis Mieses, who needed to regroup in Low-A after struggling in their first crack at High-A.

All in all, the numbers were ghastly on the position-player side, due in large part to the league's worst strikeout total that had scores to spare.

The performances were even more dire on the pitching side. Entering the season, a rotation featuring prep picks selected in the first three rounds of the past two drafts earned a preaseason nod from Baseball America as one of the most intriguing rosters to watch. All three of them had seasons that could be called disappointing, and only one showed signs of getting it before the end of the season. Reinforcements arrived late from a college-heavy 2021 draft to take the edge off.

All in all, the Cannon Ballers finished with the fewest runs per game and the most runs allowed per game. It's hard to get outscored by an average of two-plus runs night in and night out, which is how the Cannon Ballers ended up losing two games for every win.

PITCHERS

Andrew Dalquist: The 2019 third-round pick spent the entire year in the Kannapolis rotation, which the others in this section can't boast. He made 23 starts and kept his ERA under 5.00, and if the White Sox ever skipped him, it wasn't in a noticeable fashion. That said, he only threw 83 innings, his ERA was 4.99, and it required 11 unearned runs to keep it that way. The walk total rose over the course of the season, while the strikeout rate stagnated. He issued 56 bases on balls to just 79 strikeouts. It could've been worse, as he succeeded at keeping the ball in the park, which goes a long way in A-ball, and anywhere else for the matter. It was a successful year in that regard, and his workload puts him on track for a triple-digit total next year. Perhaps this year was survive-and-advance for a lot of prospects in his position, and he achieved the former.

Matthew Thompson (right): Drafted one round in front of Dalquist, Thompson had some hype coming into the season, but he hit the injured list in mid-June after a stretch of three disaster starts out of four. It took a while to even out even after returning in mid-July, which dug too deep a hole to rescue his season numbers. He ended up going 2-9 with a 5.99 ERA, but 1) only two of his runs were unearned, and 2) he finished with a flourish.

Four of his Thompson's final five outings were what you wanted to see, and he ended his year with nine scoreless innings over two starts. He struck out 78 against 38 walks over 73⅔ innings, which gives him a decent base for next year.

PERTINENT: First impressions of Matthew Thompson

Jared Kelley: The White Sox's second-round pick in the 2020 draft would've traded his season for anybody else's. It was a wash. He made just 12 starts, going 0-7 with a 7.61 ERA between Kannapolis and the ACL, for whom he made two ill-fated rehab appearances. His line with Kannapolis shows more more runs (23) and walks (22) than innings (21), which is never good. He showed diminished velocity over his last start of the season on Aug. 23, and he was shelved with shoulder soreness over the remaining weeks of the season.

Sean Burke: The White Sox's most recent third-round pick made threw 14 innings over five starts with Kannapolis, and the Maryland product's early reutrns matched the scouting reports, with 20 strikeouts, but 10 walks. He's a bit of a project, but the debut gives the White Sox a 6-foot-6-inch, 230-pound frame to work with.

Brooks Gosswein: The lefty out of Peoria's Bradley University underperformed his reported stuff in college, but the fourth-rounder's pro debut showed some promise. He allowed just five runs over 17 innings across six starts split evenly between the ACL and Kannapolis, and three of those runs came in a dud of an inning at the end. A mid-90s sinker headlines a three-pitch mix that should've had better results than a 5.32 ERA in the Missouri Valley Conference, and he's off to a better start in the minor leagues.

POSITION PLAYERS

Bryan Ramos (right): While Ramos didn't get promoted like Jose Rodriguez, he wasn't far behind. He had a nice season for a 19-year-old, hitting .244/.345/.415 while bouncing between DH, second and third. He collected 42 extra-base hits and swiped 13 bags while maintaining respectable walk (10.1%) and strikeout (21.8%) rates. He recovered from an 0-for-35 slump by hitting .325/.409/.636 over his last 21 games. Winston-Salem will be calling next Opening Day, and Birmingham could be in the cards, too.

Caberea Weaver: As weird as it may sound, Weaver had the misfortune of playing a little too well in bursts. He ended up getting bumped up to Winston-Salem because room needed to be made, and Weaver looked the only one capable of surviving the jump. He wasn't -- even when he had nice months like July (.247/.351/.370 with nine stolen bases), the 34-percent strikeout rate suggested regression was inevitable. Sure enough, High-A proved too much, as he batted .177 while striking out 29 times against just one walk over 66 plate appearances. Around that cup of coffee, Weaver hit .214/.302/.338 with 25 stolen bases over 80 games with the Ballers. That's not good, but Weaver didn't look overmatched like others.

Chase Krogman: Three games into the season, Krogman was hit by a pitch on the wrist and missed almost a month. After returning, he hit .190/.340/.326 with 126 strikeouts over 300 plate appearances. If you're looking for encouragement, he followed up his worst month (.161/.303/.177 in August) with his best (.265/.362/.429 in September). In an unusual twist, he fared way better against lefties than righties. Perhaps that means he's eliminated the toughest part of being a 20-year-old lefty, or maybe that the lefties in Low-A are the ones who don't have anything. He drew 49 walks and got plunked by 10 pitches, so the approach has potential.

DJ Gladney: Gladney might be the biggest victim of the gap between the ACL and Low-A. Back in 2019, Gladney hit .264/.309/.428 over 220 plate appearances in the Fire League. It was accompanied by a 37-percent strikeout rate, but before the realignment and contraction, Gladney would've spent the first half of the season in extended spring training before reporting to the Voyagers. With that path no longer available, Gladney spent the season with the Cannon Ballers, and never found a groove. He had some big games, but after hitting .169/.306/.310 with 36 strikeouts over 85 plate appearances, he was relegated to part-time duty, which didn't help matters. Any promising stretches were quickly nullified by bigger slumps. He finished the year hitting .191/.293/.324 with that same 42 percent strikeout rate. There is a little bit of bright side, in that his nine errors over 45 games at third base represented a big improvement over his AZL defense two seasons earlier.

PERTINENT: First impressions of White Sox prospects in Kannapolis

Wilber Sanchez: With the drafting of Colson Montgomery and Wes Kath and the promotion of Rodriguez, the White Sox tapped Sanchez after a decent first 19 games in the ACL (.269/.313/.385) to help man the left side of the infield at Kannapolis. The adjustment was a rough one, but he finished the year at the Mendoza Line. He hit .200/.254/.339 with the Dash, and that production was backloaded, including three of his seven walks over his last three games.

Misael Gonzalez: In pleasant development, Gonzalez actually earned a promotion to Kannapolis, hitting .311/.393/.595 over his first 21 games in the ACL. Nothing gold can stay, of course. He hit .178/.286/.322 with the Cannon Ballers. Some of the extra-base power made the jump, and he did draw 11 walks over 105 plate appearances, but some of those walks a born from struggles to put the ball in play earlier in the at-bat. He doesn't turn 21 until May 2022, so he made enough progress for now.

Adam Hackenberg: The Clemson catcher had the nicest debut season of any of the White Sox's collegiate draft picks, hitting .346/.384/.457 over 21 games with the Cannon Ballers while throwing out 44 percent of would-be basestealers. An ACC catcher should be able to hold his own in Low-A, especially a Low-A that might've graduated its best players to High-A by the time he arrived, but he was the only member of the Cannon Ballers to finish the season with an OPS above .800.

* * * * * * * * *

PREVIOUS AFFILIATE SEASON REVIEWS

* * * * * * * * *

MINOR KEYS: SEPT. 21, 2021

DSL White Sox 10, DSL Orioles1 3

• Manuel Guariman went 1-for-4 with a double.
• Victor Quezada was 0-for-3 with two walks.
• Carlos Jimenez appeared in his first game since Sept. 9 and went 2-for-5.