Before the White Sox traded away all their productive veterans and Noah Schultz proved to be too much for Low-A hitters, Jonathan Cannon looked like he might rank as the team's highest-ranked pitching prospect entering 2024.
Fortunately, between Schultz proving his first-round mettle -- at least for a couple dozen innings -- the arrival of Nick Nastrini and Cristian Mena's in-season rebound, Cannon was knocked down a tier or two.
That's a relief, because Cannon's adjustment to Double-A hasn't been the smoothest. Things were looking up until he got roughed up by the Montgomery Biscuits twice over the six-game series. He gave up five runs on eight hits over three innings on Sunday. Combine it with his outing on Tuesday, and it basically gives him a complete-game loss line for the 1930 St. Louis Browns: 8 IP, 17 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 5 HR.
His ERA with Birmingham stands at 6.18, although I don't think he's pitched that poorly. There's only so much you can lower an ERA when you're limited to fewer than 90 pitches in a game, and all it takes is one bad outing to ruin the progress from the three or so before. He's also set a career high with 112 innings after throwing 85.2 between Georgia and the White Sox organization the year before, so the workload might be catching up with him a little. But he was the Futures Game representative at one point thanks to the injuries and underperformance elsewhere, so it's ultimately healthier if he continues to linger just outside the top 10.
Jacksonville 2, Charlotte 1
- José Rodríguez went 1-for-5 with a stolen base.
- Seby Zavala, 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Carlos Pérez was 1-for-4.
- Brent Honeywell's Charlotte debut: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 20 of 34 pitches for strikes.
Montgomery 14, Birmingham 0
- Alsander Womack went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Colson Montgomery, 0-for-3 with a walk and a K.
- Bryan Ramos went 0-for-4.
- Wilfred Veras, 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Edgar Quero was 2-for-4 with a K.
- Luis Mieses, 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Terrell Tatum doubled and struck out twice.
- Jonathan Cannon: 3 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 3 HR, 1 WP, 41 of 71 pitches for strikes.
- Jared Kelley: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K, 14 of 36 pitches for strikes.
Rome 8, Winston-Salem 4
- Loidel Chapelli went 3-for-5 with a double, but was picked off.
- Brooks Baldwin went 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Wes Kath, 1-for-4 with a homer and two strikeouts.
- Tyler Schweitzer: 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
- Kohl Simas: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Fayetteville 7, Kannapolis 3
- Rikuu Nishida wore the collar and silver sombrero.
- Jordan Sprinkle was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Jacob Gonzalez, 0-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Seth Keener: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 31 of 71 pitches for strikes.
