For the question of what's wrong with having a little fun and letting fifth overall pick Hagen Smith pitch in a Birmingham Barons playoff game, one answer could be that it's because his usage was specifically negotiated between the White Sox and Smith's representation.
"We had a nice sitdown with his agent," said Brian Bannister. "Planning out what does the second half of his season look like? I strongly believe in not de-loading pitchers too much. Great back and forth, giving him some options, let them talk about it and ultimately we got to a point like, go out there and compete a little bit. So it was fun to see him bring his electric arm into professional baseball and throw well."
Smith sat 95-97 mph through three scoreless innings at High-A Winston-Salem, and the majority of the White Sox draft room evaluated him as the best pitcher in the draft, so we don't need Bannister to tell us that he look pretty good. But the Sox senior advisor to pitching did try to point out some elements of Smith's deception that showed up while watching him on video.
"With all the velo, I actually watch the hitters’ body language more than anything, whether they can see the ball," Bannister said. "That’s as important to me nowadays as velocity. Can the hitters see the ball? Can they distinguish between pitch types? Because you’re always trying to get pitches to move in opposite directions. So when I watched his outing, the fastball looked like it was on a line, hitters looked like they were struggling to pick it up, because he does hide it well behind his body. You rarely see lefty velo like that at the lower levels. A combination of all those, but I primarily watched the hitters’ body language, and there were a lot of encouraging signs.”
While Smith was just fastball-slider in his professional debut after being fastball-slider in college, Bannister didn't seem super concerned about building out a third pitch, even if he feels it's inevitable. Pointing out the examples of Carlos Rodón and Robbie Ray, or even Diamondbacks-era Patrick Corbin, Bannister thinks lefties with dominant fastball-slider combinations largely stay that way, even while mentioning a changeup, a slower curve or a cutter as possible show-me third options.
We're all friends here who believe that Noah Schultz is cool and good, so it's without malice that I bring up that there are well above-average contact rates against his sinker in Double-A. Even while posting a 1.46 ERA in 49⅓ innings at Birmingham, Schultz's strikeout rate has dipped over 10 percentage points to a still-high 27.6 percent, and some longer at-bats have held him from completing four innings due to his pitch count limitations.
Bannister referenced some missing swing-and-miss in Schultz's game and just gave a long talk at Saberseminar that included his anticipation for fastball usage in the game to continue to decline. So, he has some ideas.
"Throwing some four-seamers at the top of the zone to complement the natural two-seamer he throws, leveraging his breaking-ball usage a little bit, maybe having a bridge pitch in there, or we’ve been able to do some seam-effects stuff when we tried it out with him," Bannister said. "But we’re not trying to overwhelm him in the short-term. Let him get out there, get used to being a professional pitcher and the requirements that go along with that. But really preparing him effectively to pitch here is going to be important. There’s definitely things we can tweak as he gets closer to here.”
-- Jacob Gonzalez's eight-game hitting streak after a period of very protracted struggles in Double-A would be an opportunity for the organization to declare they never doubted his offense would rebound, but asked about him, farm director Paul Janish focused more on his more stable qualities.
"I think he’s doing exactly what he needs to," Janish said. "He did have a little stretch where he struggled, obviously. It looks like he’s getting going. Hopefully he’ll be able to finish this season strong. But to give him credit, he’s played really good defense. He’s played every day, which I place a lot of value on for a guy who at some point you want to come here and play. He plays every single day, and he posts. I value that.”
-- Buying into George Wolkow's ability to trim his ample chase and in-zone whiff rates means buying into Wolkow's maniacal self-scrutinizing and drive to improve. Janish says he buys it.
"It’s hard for me to convey to you guys how much he’s shown us in a short period of time in regards to the ability to adapt and take in information and apply it," Janish said. "He’s completely open. He wants to learn, he wants to get good. He wants to play here, he wants to be in the big leagues. He forewent a lot to go straight into professional baseball because he wants to be a major league player, which I think says a lot about the makeup. He’s just been impressive up to this point.”
Charlotte 16, Nashville 7
- Mark Payton wants some No. 34 jerseys: 2-for-4 with a homer, two walks, four runs scored and four RBIs.
- Yoán Moncada began a rehab stint anew by going 1-for-3 with a double and a strikeout.
- Zach DeLoach was 1-for-3 with a walk, a sac fly and his 20th stolen base.
- Tim Elko went 1-for-5 with a homer and two strikeouts.
- Colson Montgomery was 1-for-5 with a double and a K.
- Oscar Colás, 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Michael Soroka is pitching again: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 11 of 18 pitches for strikes.
Birmingham 3, Chattanooga 2 (10 innings)
- Terrell Tatum went 1-for-5 with a K.
- Wilfred Veras, 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- DJ Gladney went 1-for-5.
- Jacob Gonzalez, 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Tyler Schweitzer: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Brooklyn 3, Winston-Salem 2
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-3 with a walk, HBP and a strikeout.
- William Bergolla was 1-for-3 with a walk and a sac fly.
- Caden Connor, 1-for-4 with a walk.
- Ryan Galanie went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Casey Sauckie went 1-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
- Wes Kath, 0-for-3 with an HBP and a strikeout.
- Samuel Zavala was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Eddie Park, 1-for-4 with a K.
- Aldrin Batista: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
- Tommy Vail is still pitching in relief: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB< 1 K, 18 of 31 pitches for strikes.
Fredericksburg 10, Kannapolis 6
- Sam Antonacci went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Jeral Perez, 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout.
- Gorge Wolkow was 1-for-4 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Tonny Hernandez went 2-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Ryan Burrowes wore the golden sombrero.
- Lyle Miller-Green, 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Nathan Archer was 1-for-4 with a K.
- Pierce George: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 10 of 20 pitches fors trikes.
- Aaron Combs: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
