Arizona Fall League Update: 3 White Sox prospects on Fall Stars Game roster

You can catch a few of the White Sox's Arizona Fall League participants this evening in the Fall Stars Game, which airs on MLB Network at 7 p.m. CT. Colson Montgomery will represent the White Sox among the position-player ranks, while Jake Eder and Jordan Leasure help fill out the American League's pitching staff.

It'll be helpful to see all three, for better or for worse. Montgomery's had an up-and-down fall season marked by an uncharacteristic gap in his strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he tightened it up some over a productive last week, which included a walk-off hit on Monday:

On the pitching side, Leasure has put himself on an inside track to the 26-man roster when spring training opens, but Eder once again experienced a setback with the strike zone. He issued five walks over 3⅓ innings in the game Montgomery salvaged with the ninth-inning heroics, throwing just 31 of 62 pitches for strikes. He did pitch a 1-2-3 first, and since his control problems tend to accumulate over the course of an outing, an abbreviated appearance may not show much.

Prospect rankings had a lot to do with the roster, as well they should, because those names are the ones that help sell the game. However, if the AFL rosters comprised AFL achievers, then Bryan Ramos probably would've received the nod over Montgomery. He's produced enough over the last couple weeks to completely mask over his slow start, including this walk-off grand slam on Thursday.

And it's fun to see the confidence:

“I was just trying to simplify my movement, just tried to put the ball in play,” he said. "If you put the ball in happen, anything can happen. [Hitting a home run] wasn’t on my mind. I just wanted to make good contact and hit a good pitch. I don’t try to do that much at the plate. I’m a strong man, so if I get the right point to the ball, the ball is going to fly.”

But Montomgery will get the billing, and the broadcast will catch him at an interesting time, what with the White Sox declining Tim Anderson's option. The White Sox shouldn't think about Montgomery being a possibility at any point during the first half of the 2024 season, but we've seen the Sox jump the gun before, and we don't know if Chris Getz will do it again.

In the meantime, let's save this quote Scott Merkin relayed from Birmingham hitting coach Nicky Delmonico:

Considering Rick Renteria said Delmonico had the "'it' factor" during the 2017 season, you can file this under "takes one to know one." You just have to disregard how everything else went after that.

Arizona Fall League update

Jacob Burke joined Montgomery and Ramos in having a fine week at the plate with three extra-base hits, including his third homer.

On the pitching side, the haves kept having, and the have-nots kept lacking, with the exception of Adisyn Coffey, who mercifully threw a scoreless inning.

Colson Montgomery: 19-for-78, 3 HR, 2 3B, 1 2B, 6 BB, 25 K, .244/.302/.423

Bryan Ramos: 21-for-75, 4 HR, 2 2B, 8 BB, 15 K, .280/.349/.467

Jacob Burke: 21-for-83, 3 HR, 5 2B, 8 BB, 29 K, 5/5 SB, .253/.344/.422

Jake Eder: 15.2 IP, 16 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 2 HR, 13 BB, 16 K

Josimar Cousin: 12.2 IP, 24 H, 15 R, 14 ER, 5 HR, 5 BB, 8 K

Jordan Leasure: 8.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 HR, 2 BB, 13 K

Fraser Ellard: 8 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 HR, 1 BB, 12 K

Adisyn Coffey: 5 IP, 9 H, 15 R, 15 ER, 1 HR, 10 BB, 6 K