White Sox Minor Keys: April 6, 2024

Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte have combined for a complete game shutout with their White Sox organizational debuts.

On Friday in Birmingham, Thorpe pitched five easy innings, allowing just a hit and two walks while striking out eight over 80 pitches. Iriarte followed on Saturday with four zeroes himself, although it was a little rockier. He allowed four hits, two walks and plunked another on a two-strike count. He benefited from sensational defense by Alsander Womack, who made a leaping grab to start an inning-ending 4-6 double play, and added a diving stab later.

While the scouting report on Iriarte said he throws mid-to-high-90s with a slider and a changeup, I saw a slightly different version. His fastball started out 94-95, then settled into the 93-94 range, which is close enough early in the season. He mixed in some changeups as well.

The breaking ball was different, in the sense that there were two version of his slider. He threw a harder, 87-mph-ish slider paired with a lower-80s sweepery thing. They're distinct enough that I wondered if he'd added a curve, but both the Trackman data and Edgar Quero said after the game that it's the same pitch, just with different speeds/tilts.

Either way, when you take the first two starts from the pitching prospects the Sox received from San Diego for Dylan Cease, you get a line of 9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 12 K, which will play.

As for Thorpe, I'll have more on the start to his White Sox organizational career later. In the meantime, two other observations:

*Quero homered on his 21st birthday. He's caught the first two games and there's an afternoon game today, so he has every excuse to not be in the lineup.

*Terrell Tatum is off to the kind of start you'd want to see from his skill set, going 3-for-5 with three walks, two stolen bases and five runs scored. He drew 100 walks last year, but he also struck out 149 times. If he can somehow work a similar amount of deep counts with a reduction in strikeouts, that would make him a lot more of a nuisance.

Norfolk 13, Charlotte 1

• Colson Montgomery wore the collar and silver sombrero.
• Oscar Colás was 0-for3- with a walk.
• Zach DeLoach was 1-for-3 with a K.
• Prelander Berroa: 1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Notes:

*The Charlotte Knights have a team ERA of 10.65 through eight games. If it's any consolation, Norfolk is closest with a 7.27 ERA, but the Tides are 7-1 whereas the White Sox are 1-7.

Birmingham 5, Chattanooga 2

• Terrell Tatum went 1-for-2 with two walks and two steals.
• Brooks Baldwin was 1-for-4 with a K.
• Bryan Ramos, 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Edgar Quero was 1-for-3 with a homer, sac fly and striekout.
• Tim Elko, 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
• Wilfred Veras doubled (probably should've been an error), struck out twice and was caught stealing.
• Jacob Burke was 0-for-3 with a K.
• Jairo Iriarte's White Sox organization debut: 4 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP
• Jared Kelley: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Winston-Salem 9, Asheville 3

• Samuel Zavala struck out thrice during an 0-for-6 night.
• Jacob Gonzalez was 1-for-3 with a walk and HBP.
• DJ Gladney went 1-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
• Loidel Chapelli wore the platinum sombrero.
• Noah Schultz, good gravy: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K, 40 of 54 pitches for strikes.

Notes:

*Asheville still doesn't stream its games, so you have to settle for Steve Kniss' timeline. A taste:

Kannapolis 6, Charleston 4

• Rikuu Nishida had an Arby's night: 5-for-5 with a double and a walk. He was caught stealing.
• Ronny Hernandez went 2-for-4 with a walk.
• Lucas Gordon: 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K