Terrell Tatum was the only player in the entire White Sox organization to reach triple-digits in walks. He drew exactly 100 between Winston-Salem and Birmingham, and perhaps that alone made him worthy of being named Baseball America's White Sox Minor League Player of the Year.
Tatum hit .248/.397/.367 with 47 stolen bases and 89 runs scored over 125 games. While his 552 plate appearances were perfectly divided between Winston-Salem and Birmingham, he front-loaded his production with the Dash.
- Winston-Salem: .268/.434/.421, 32 SB, 9 CS, 58 BB, 69 K over 276 PA
- Birmingham:. 230/.361/.315, 15 SB, 0 CS, 52 BB, 80 K over 276 PA
It's not ideal for a player like Tatum to earn such an organizational honor, just because he's 24 and Double-A poses a stiff challenge for him. But it's not Tatum's fault if most of the other top prospects missed significant amounts of time, or stalled otherwise. Tatum can only control his own showing, and he took advantage of the unfettered playing time to make path for himself.
From here, the key is pretty simple: It's pretty hard to make a living with 149 strikeouts against six homers, so something has to give. Tatum seems well aware of the task at hand:
“That will be one of my main focuses this offseason,” Tatum said. “No. 1: don’t miss when I go for my pitches early in counts. And No. 2: really hone in on staying in the strike zone with two strikes.
“I want to come to spring training with the mindset of, ‘I would rather strike out looking on a good pitch than strike out swinging at a bad pitch.’ “
Memphis 5, Charlotte 2 (completion of Wednesday's game)
- José Rodríguez went 1-for-5 with his first Triple-A double and a strikeout.
- Yoelqui Céspedes was 2-for-4 with a strikeout, but was caught stealing.
- Nick Nastrini made the box score, but he didn't throw a pitch before the delay.
