White Sox Minor Keys: Aug. 17, 2024

7:00 AM CDT on August 18, 2024

Sean Burke (Laura Wolff/Charlotte Knights)

CHARLOTTE -- With Edgar Quero nursing a sore back and Colson Montgomery getting the afternoon off after reaching base three times on Friday night, the Knights didn't trot out their most star-laden lineup for Saturday's matinee. But Sean Burke had the chance to model the new changeup he spent the previous day explaining.

As you might have guessed from his possession of two distinct breaking balls, Burke's modification is to throw a seam-shifting changeup that the White Sox introduced to him before the All-Star break. With his natural inclination to rip breaking balls -- or accidentally cut his fastball -- with clockwise wrist movement, the goal was to give Burke a changeup that doesn't ask him to pronate; a wholly distinct movement from the rest of the arsenal that not only makes him less consistent but could have been providing a tell to opposing hitters.

"I feel like when I was throwing my changeup with the old grip I was using, I would either get a swing-and-miss on it and then my bad ones, they weren't even really bad." Burke said. "There were in decent spots but guys were just taking, I felt, just out of my hand. Because they just saw -- I don't know if it was spin or just hand-speed -- but I felt like they were immediately shutting it down."

Burke doesn't claim the raw movement profile as exceptional, but believes the deception and distinction it has from his high-carry four-seamer. And as Burke's fastball ramped up more consistently to the 96 mph range as the afternoon wore on, none of the swings the changeup generated -- four on 10, with three whiffs -- put a ball in play

As Jonathan Cannon might tell you, shifting to specifically orienting the seam direction so that a difference in air pressure makes the changeup take off late to the arm side, can be as touchy to command as it sounds at times. To ease Burke along with it, Sox pitching coordinator Matt Zaleski took the step of literally coloring a baseball with a marker, so that he could better visualize how the ball spins when he's executed the pitch correctly. It's even clearer to see it on Edgertronic video, but since carrying a marker in your pocket and drawing on balls during games is just slightly frowned upon, Burke is weaning himself off of it.

"I'm still using it now every once and a while but I probably used it every day for the first three weeks," Burke said. "My best ones are when I'm throwing it low, right down the middle and then just letting the ball run."

As for the actual outing, running the first batter of the afternoon up to a 3-0 count while sitting 91-93 mph with his fastball, and struggling out of the stretch in a two-run third inning after a soft leadoff single, gave a view to how tenuous things can be for Burke at times. But otherwise, it was a demonstration of either why you wait on this guy, or why someone will make an argument that the 24-year-old has enough stuff to help a major league bullpen soon.

After a tepid start, Burke's velocity ramped up as high as 98 mph, he generated whiffs with four different pitches en route to a gaudy 21 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. Burke's high-80s slider, which he's worked on to make it viable against left-handers, drew a ton of swings (18 of 22) for both whiffs (eight) and weak fly balls off the end of the bat.

While control didn't define his outing, it probably shortened to it two outs shy of earning a win, since Burke is still on a limited pitch count after missing the start of the year to recover from shoulder inflammation. He surprisingly got brought out for a fifth inning at 74 pitches after a long five-run Knights bottom of the fourth, and Michael Chavis failing to backhand a grounder at second and Mark Payton having a foul ball pop out of his glove near the left field side wall -- neither of which were counted among Charlotte's two fielding errors -- inflated the pitch count.

The last pitch Burke threw was landing a full count curve to match his Triple-A season-high with an eighth strikeout, but Sammy Peralta relieved by allowing an RBI triple to the first batter he faced, plating the "single" that Chavis' enabled. Maybe if he had 100 pitches to work with, Burke's stat line looks more like a proof of concept outing. But Burke is too geeked at the prospect of his first fully healthy offseason in years to kvetch about his prescriptive restrictions.

"Everything's held up well," Burke said. "Last year taught me a lot on how to take care of my body, certain feels in my body when I'm sore, when I'm aching in a certain spot, what I can do in the training room or recovery-wise to make sure I'm feeling good for my next start. Other than normal soreness, I've felt pretty good all year."

Charlotte 6, Toledo 4

Bryan Ramos went 1-for-3 with a walk and an HBP.
Oscar Colás was 2-for-3 with a homer and two walks.
Zach DeLoach doubled, walked and struck out thrice.
Sean Burke: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K

Birmingham 7, Tennessee 2

Wilfred Veras went 1-for-3 with a homer and a walk.
Jacob Gonzalez was 0-for-4.
Terrell Tatum entered as a pinch-hitter, singling and walking.
Noah Schultz: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 37 of 63 pitches for strikes.

Jersey Shore 6, Winston-Salem 5

Rikuu Nishida and William Bergolla both were 1-for-3 with sac bunts, but Bergolla tripled.
Wes Kath was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Caden Connor doubled, walked and struck out twice.
Casey Saucke wore the collar and silver sombrero.
Samuel Zavala was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Tommy Vail left after two batters: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K