Barons notes: Sam Antonacci a natural fit in Birmingham lineup

MADISON, Ala. -- Since Sam Antonacci joined the roster during the All-Star break, the Birmingham Barons have won 13 of 15.

Here's where we mention that the Barons had already won six in a row when Antonacci joined the roster. Still, he's helped keep the party going, fitting right in as a tough out who runs the bases well and minimizes mistakes at multiple positions in the field.

"It's a fun lineup to be around. I don't think if you see a lineup like this too often," Antonacci said before Sunday's game against the Rocket City Trash Pandas. "We have a lot of guys with a knack for getting on base. It makes the game fun, it makes the game fast-paced. You see something new every night from us and I think it's a fun team to watch."

Antonacci, the White Sox's fifth-round pick in the 2024 draft, is about three weeks into a seamless transition to Double-A:

Antonacci deploys a pretty simple left-handed swing, holding the bat nearly flat and taking a direct path to the ball. It comes at the expense of power, although the 22-year-old isn't yet conceding that he's reached his final form in this regard.

"I look at it, the power will come," he said. "I think I have a lot of room to grow and get stronger, so I think the power will come as I age."

For the time being, he's made two improvements to get more out of his current profile. He's equally adept at getting on base against lefties (.266/.431/.329), compensating for the typical drop in same-sided bat-to-ball production by staking claim to more of the plate. Not only has he drawn 14 walks over 103 plate appearances against lefties, but he's been plunked nine times.

"That's something I think I struggled with a little bit in college was the left-on-left, and that was one of my main focal points in the offseason," Antonacci said. "Just being able to not give up any ground in the box, and a lot of them do happen to miss arm-side, and not being able to bail out of the way of those just gets me a free base, and ultimately, just makes me obsessed with getting on base."

Running has become a bigger part of his game than it was in Coastal Carolina, too. After stealing 15 bases in 22 attempts over 61 games during his junior season with the Chanticleers, Antonacci is 34-for-43 in 82 games this season. The Barons have him running more, but he's also put in the work to earn more chances.

"I think it's just repetition and getting a little bit faster over the offseason," Antonacci said about his increased activity on the basepaths.

"I wouldn't say I'm the fastest person on the bases. It's more instinctual and intelligence-wise, knowing there's an art to basestealing and a lot of factors go into it, with, like, how many outs there are, what count it is, what pitch is being thrown, and a lot of stuff that a lot of people don't take into consideration."

He might have to make concessions further up the ladder, whether it's because more advanced pitching reduces his contact quality or minimizes the number of misses that put him on base automatically. But in his first pro season, Antonacci's doing all he can to get the most from his game as it's playing out in front of him.

"He's just an absolute sparkplug," Shane Murphy said on a Zoom call with reporters after being named the organization's pitcher of the month. "I think you could ask every guy in the clubhouse: Antonacci feels like he steps in and no matter what team you put him on, he's going to be one of the best baseball players on the field at all times, no matter the level or game where you're playing."

"Hard-nose, grinder, does everything right, hustles," said manager Guillermo Quiroz, when asked about his first impressions. "One of those players you want to have. You want nine of those in your lineup. It's been unbelievable."

Having nine Antonaccii in the lineup might be hard to ask, but with Rikuu Nishida and William Bergolla also boasting OBP-over-SLG profiles at the top of the order, he could say they're a third of the way there.

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Braden Montgomery played his first series with Birmingham last week, and in comparison to Antonacci, his transition to Double-A has been a bit bumpier. He went 6-for-25 with two walks and 12 strikeouts over six games at Rocket City, but after striking out in six of his first 14 trips, he's hit safely in his last three games, including a lashed line drive that cleared the right field wall for his first Double-A homer on Friday.

He's also been rotating between center and right field, making a nice diving catch in left center on Saturday.

While the degree of difficulty is increasing, both in terms of the best stuff he's seen to date and environment that suppresses power hitting in general, Montgomery's tools are apparent.

"That bat speed is what stands out most," Antonacci said of Montgomery.

"You see the thump," Quiroz said. "BP, ball comes out different. Going opposite side a couple of days ago, and then [Saturday], hit a ball hard, almost left the yard as well. You can see it."

Montgomery came into the draft with questions about his right-handed swing, but seven of Montgomery's 12 homers this season have come from that side of the plate. His plate discipline is still better as a lefty, but he's finding ways to close the gap:

"Everything's cool," Montgomery said. "I just go into it each day and try to move the needle a little bit on both sides."

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Rikuu Nishida reached base all five times against the Trash Pandas on Friday, giving him a stretch of 35 games where he boasted a .455 OBP despite just two extra-base hits.

The next day, he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, also grounding into a double play and popping out on a bunt.

Given Nishida's extremely aggressive profile and unorthodox mechanics, how can anybody tell whether he's staying within his game or completely out of control?

"You know, he calls it entertainment," Quiroz said with a laugh. "That's what he does. It makes it interesting."

"No, Rikuu's exciting. Rikuu wants to be out there on that field every day. Rikuu's a guy that wants to help the team somehow. Every night he'll give you something special where you'll say, 'Well that's gonna help win a ballgame.' [...]

"He knows what he can do, and he's capable of doing it."

Along with his usual brand of small-ball havoc at the plate, Nishida is playing a more confident brand of outfield defense, with an accurate throwing arm that has generated nine assists across all three spots.

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Prospect update lightning round (doo-dah, doo-dah):

⚙️ William Bergolla has started 34 of the last 35 games at shortstop, which is a position he'd play all the time when he's not forced to share it with first-round picks, be it Aidan Miller with the Phillies or Jacob Gonzalez this year.

"He can pick it," Quroz said. "Managers around the league, they know that a grounder to short is an out when he's out there."

⚙️ Tanner McDougal will be limited to three innings per outing the rest of the season. He's already set a career high with 93⅓ innings, so if he makes every start the rest of the way, he'd finish in the neighborhood of 115. Shane Murphy will be operating under similar restrictions, allotted only five innings per start for the rest of the season.

⚙️ Wilfred Veras rebounded in July (.279/.308/.410) after a miserable two months prior (.152/.275/.200). Quiroz said that Veras came into the season with an open stance that he thought worked for him, but he used a hamstring-related absence in mid-June to revert to his old setup, and his direction to the pitch has improved.

⚙️ Hagen Smith made progress in his last outing, throwing four scoreless innings before control got away from him in the fifth.

"He's getting there. He's working hard," Quiroz said. "He's trying to learn how to control the running game a little more, but fastball looked great, breaking stuff was sharp. You just gotta let him go, let him off the leash."

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While talking with Antonacci, I roped him into my survey about why nobody's hitting homers at Birmingham (Montgomery hasn't yet played at Regions Field). When I asked whether he thought the ball traveled differently going from Winston-Salem to Birmingham, he introduced another sense into the conversation.

"A little bit of a difference," Antonacci said. "The biggest thing I probably would just say, like, the echo -- even if a ball is squared up in Birmingham, it doesn't really sound like it.

"But, at the end of the day, that stuff doesn't go into statistics, so you just gotta find a way to get on base."