Those who have been reading Sox Machine's White Sox farm system coverage since August or so may be aware that I have a fascination with Brooks Baldwin's prospect stock, because it's taken a most unusual path.
The White Sox selected Baldwin out of UNC Wilmington, where he was the Colonial Athletic Association's player of the year, in the 12th round of the 2022 draft. He was a switch-hitting infielder/outfielder, but his first half-season was a mediocre one, so he finished the season on the fringes on my radar.
But over the course of the 2023 season, he started adding wrinkles. First, he started hitting a little in Kannapolis (a streaky .245/.338/.445). Then, when the White Sox promoted him to Winston-Salem for the last month-plus of the season, he started hitting even better (.327/.375/.495). Most peculiarly, he started playing shortstop every day for the first time in his collegiate or professional careers, and when I saw him playing for the Dash in Bowling Green late in the season, he didn't stand out as somebody who hadn't stood there before.
I didn't think about ranking him in my top 10, but I put him in my honorable mentions paragraph, because while there might be 15 better prospects by the standard definition of the term, there aren't 15 White Sox prospects who interest me more. Nobody had sufficiently explained his deal enough for me to put a firm number on it, but maybe I was ahead on the curve of thinking there was a deal in need of explaining.
So when I went to Birmingham last weekend and spent time running through the roster with Barons coaches, Baldwin was a prominent part of my survey.
I asked Birmingham manager Sergio Santos, who's new to the farm system, about Baldwin's late shift to shortstop, and Santos wasn't aware that it was such a recent development.
"I thought he was a shortstop the whole time. I'm surprised hearing that," Santos said. "He has good instincts. He's a baseball player.
"When I first started seeing him, it was, you don't take much notice, right? Because he's not the biggest, he's not the fastest, he doesn't have the flashy stuff. But with him, what you get is consistency; him doing something everything single game. After a week and a half, two weeks, you notice. And then you start paying attention, and yeah, I think he's just a complete ballplayer. I like him a lot at short."
Barons hitting coach Nicky Delmonico shared a similar report on Baldwin.
"He's a silent assassin, man," Delmonico said. "He just goes about his business in a professional way. I say 'silent' because you look on the scoreboard and he'll be 3-for-4, and he just makes every routine play. He's quiet, but he's one my favorites. [...] Good decisions, knows what he wants to do, stays inside the ball, uses the big part of the field."
I'm relaying these impressions now because while the 23-year-old Baldwin is off to a great first six games at Double-A as Birmingham's everyday shortstop -- .400/.520/.600 with four walks to three strikeouts over 20 plate appearances -- FutureSox shared this video of Baldwin faking out a basestealer after an unsuccessful throw by Edgar Quero.
With one week in the books, Baldwin hasn't done me wrong. Rocket City's David Calabrese might have a different opinion.
Jacksonville 7, Charlotte 5
- Colson Montgomery hit his first Triple-A homer, part of a 2-for-4 night.
- Adam Hackenberg was 0-for-4 with a K.
- Prelander Berroa: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Highlights:
*Montgomery's homer was off old friend Declan Cronin:
So with one week in the books, Baldwin hasn't
Birmingham 6, Rocket City 2
- Terrell Tatum went 1-for-4 with a walk, two strikeouts and a stolen base.
- Brooks Baldwin was 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Edgar Quero homered twice, struck out once and hit a sac fly.
- Bryan Ramos is still cold, going 0-for-4.
- Tim Elko went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Jacob Burke, 0-for-4 with a K.
- Drew Thorpe: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 56 of 85 pitches for strikes.
Highlights:
*Quero's first blast went to left center, and his second to the pull field:
Greensboro 10, Winston-Salem 0 (Completion of Thursday's game)
- Samuel Zavala went 1-for-4.
- Jacob Gonzalez, 2-for-3 with a walk.
- DJ Gladney went 0-for-4.
- Loidel Chapelli, 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Peyton Pallette: 3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 2 HR, 39 of 63 pitches for strikes.
Winston-Salem 2, Greensboro 0 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Samuel Zavala was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Jacob Gonzalez homered and struck out twice.
- DJ Gladney singled and struck out.
- Loidel Chapelli struck out in both plate appearances.
- Juan Carela: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 3 K, 23 of 50 pitches for strikes.
Highlights:
*Gonzalez's homer:
Augusta 6, Kannapolis 4
- Rikuu Nishida went 0-for-3 with a walk, strikeout, HBP, stolen base and three runs scored.
- Ronny Hernandez was 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Seth Keener: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 42 of 80 pitches for strikes.
