Quin Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 minute ago, CWSpalehoseCWS said: This is wild. Quite a few names going to Birmingham. Lmao you weren't kidding. It feels like everyone of note outside of Mena. It's gonna be sink or swim time, I guess. Quote Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos, Luis Mieses, Duke Ellis, Wes Kath, DJ Gladney, Wilfred Veras, Kohl Simas, Adam Hackenberg, Tyler Osik, Jared Kelley, Norge Vera and Andrew Dalquist. I wonder who's going to be heading up to Winston-Salem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Interesting. We are only talking about like three weeks, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtySox Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Oh. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-project-birmingham-program Maybe we need a project Birmingham thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtySox Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 minute ago, DirtySox said: Oh. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-project-birmingham-program Maybe we need a project Birmingham thread. The list of pitchers is the biggest shock of all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Mena for the next game: 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtySox Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 (edited) Some blurbs from the Fegan piece. Quote Almost every top prospect the White Sox have is headed to Double-A Birmingham this week. This is an exaggeration and an oversimplification, but that’s often the best way to introduce radically new concepts. While the White Sox player development staff isn’t nostalgic for the canceled 2020 minor league season, they saw the benefits of an environment where all of their top prospects, system-wide coordinators and roving instructors were in the same location at the alternate site. They also love the work they are able to accomplish in fall instructional league, but that usually involves lower-level prospects and is not the most intensely competitive environment. So for the final four weeks of the Double-A season, pretty much every Single-A prospect of note is getting at least a temporary promotion to Birmingham, and Barons stars like Oscar Colás, José Rodríguez and Sean Burke will have a reason to stick around through the end of the year. “Having a pool of our top players with our top staff, with each other on a daily basis, bringing that to life during a minor-league season,” assistant general manager Chris Getz said of the program, which he began referring to as “Project Birmingham” by the end of his media session. “We’re going to have our coordinators head to Birmingham for the rest of the month, the last four weeks and not only are we able to compete on a nightly basis, certainly personalize the instruction, but also treat it almost as an advanced instructional league so these guys are set up for their offseasons and work toward next year.” Quote Prospects often get late-season promotions to get their feet wet at the new level they will have to conquer the following season. And challenging players with brief exposure to markedly superior competition is a feature of every spring training. But people across baseball cannot easily recall such a widespread effort, which will see Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos, Luis Mieses, Cristian Mena, Wes Kath, DJ Gladney, Wilfred Veras, Kohl Simas, Jared Kelley, Norge Vera, Andrew Dalquist, Adam Hackenberg, Tyler Osik and others all go up to Double A for the final month. The White Sox will make ample use of the development list —essentially a separate list to cycle players off the active roster, but for when they are unhurt — to accommodate all the additions. https://theathletic.com/3524702/2022/08/22/white-sox-prospects-colson-montgomery/ Edited August 22, 2022 by DirtySox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Interesting to me because Birmingham seems like the most bespoke affiliate. You have all of our Carolina affiliates, and obviously a home base of AZ. But you have the post-draft instructs in bham, and now this. If it's not a clear indicator where they believe their best staff is, too, i'm not sure what is. And I'd agree. When we first started the year all of us were agape at the awful roster in bham. Yet, they've been largely as competitive as any other with a roster full of MILB free agents, while also launching their few hitting prospects to the moon in colas, sosa, rodriguez. I am mostly a fan of this but I like more the idea of letting players get a taste of their likely next stop, including maybe figuring out housing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 3 minutes ago, Quin said: Mena for the next game: maybe he doesn't have a next game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtySox Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 (edited) @fathom Quote Montgomery, the organization’s consensus top prospect, is in his first professional season and recently told The Athletic that he’s physically feeling the effects of the biggest baseball workload of his life. It won’t be easy for him to adjust to the best pitching he’s ever faced, but this plan will also see his workload decrease as he shares time with Rodríguez at shortstop, trading everyday action for more time for individual instruction. Quote Montgomery acknowledged that “my body is kind of wearing down,” and a recent slide in his otherwise dominant numbers reflects that. But the streak gave a purpose to every at-bat and every swing decision that he embraced. Edited August 22, 2022 by DirtySox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleepy Harold Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 It's an interesting concept most certainly, and nice to see the White Sox at the front of it for a change. Time will tell if it'll work, but they're trying something different and unique. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 minute ago, DirtySox said: @fathom Fathom be like: "Maybe he should drink coffee." 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtySox Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 We are cool! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Did getz think about how this kinda ruins our minor league watch party experience? Also, getz showing 4d chess by having none of our affiliates remotely competitive so there is no issue destroying any playoff hopes for the local owners. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 18 minutes ago, bmags said: Interesting to me because Birmingham seems like the most bespoke affiliate. You have all of our Carolina affiliates, and obviously a home base of AZ. But you have the post-draft instructs in bham, and now this. If it's not a clear indicator where they believe their best staff is, too, i'm not sure what is. And I'd agree. When we first started the year all of us were agape at the awful roster in bham. Yet, they've been largely as competitive as any other with a roster full of MILB free agents, while also launching their few hitting prospects to the moon in colas, sosa, rodriguez. I am mostly a fan of this but I like more the idea of letting players get a taste of their likely next stop, including maybe figuring out housing. hmm, maybe Birmingham in august/sept is cheapest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 6 minutes ago, bmags said: Did getz think about how this kinda ruins our minor league watch party experience? Also, getz showing 4d chess by having none of our affiliates remotely competitive so there is no issue destroying any playoff hopes for the local owners. I mean, pending other moves... 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 4 minutes ago, Quin said: I mean, pending other moves... I think Kanny is the near drowner and W-S is the skeleton. Kanny at least gets some recent draft boys. I don't even want to see what Winston-Salems roster is. Can they even sport a team? And Charlotte benefits from some pretty real MLB roster guys who the sox can't bring up because of our Corner Infield redundancy and terror at using young prospects. Sosa and Burger a nice 1-2 punch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOFHurt35 Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 20 minutes ago, Sleepy Harold said: It's an interesting concept most certainly, and nice to see the White Sox at the front of it for a change. Time will tell if it'll work, but they're trying something different and unique. This I 100% agree with. Whatever they have been doing for the past quarter century sure isn't working. This is outside the box, which I believe the Piranha Twins did something similar back at the start of the century which they attributed to being the reason their core gelled together real nicely when they got to the Big Leagues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Just now, bmags said: I think Kanny is the near drowner and W-S is the skeleton. Kanny at least gets some recent draft boys. I don't even want to see what Winston-Salems roster is. Can they even sport a team? And Charlotte benefits from some pretty real MLB roster guys who the sox can't bring up because of our Corner Infield redundancy and terror at using young prospects. Sosa and Burger a nice 1-2 punch. I originally had the skeleton as the Charlotte rotation, fwiw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 18 minutes ago, DirtySox said: We are cool! I was just thinking that I have never heard of anyone doing something like this before, and was this the first? That probably answers that. It is wild to see the Sox on the cutting edge. Seems like the Sox MiLB group is really on a good path the last few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 BTW that article is really good. there is some amazing insight from Colson. Pretty much the exact type stuff you'd hope to read from a player that was multi-sport. Now getting the information and drills to specialize, and his exceptional athleticism and competitiveness pay off: Quote “I just try and be on time,” Montgomery said. “Because if you’re on time, you can see anything. You can see a ball out of his hand. You can see spin, and all that stuff. But if you’re late, you’re rushing stuff. And once you rush, you can’t really see things as well. When you can’t see things as well, is when you tend to make bad swing decisions, or you come out of your swing and you don’t stay connected through your swing.” Being on time is the culmination of a steady collection of information. It starts when Montgomery arrives in the clubhouse hours before the game, watches video of the opposing pitcher and analyzes the breakdown of their heat maps for different counts (provided to him by Sox hitting coaches). This far outstrips anything Montgomery was provided with in high school, and part of this season has involved incorporating a new level of information into his routine. He blends it into what he’s always done to time pitchers up, linking up the research he’s done with what he can pick up while spying the pitcher from the dugout, observing where their hand breaks in their delivery. It continues into the on-deck circle as Montgomery gains a feel of the pitcher’s release point and arm action. “When the pitcher starts moving is when I want to move,” Montgomery said. “We think of it as like a dance. Once he goes, you go.” 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaDoc Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Wondering how they sold this to A and A+ owners???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtySox Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 (edited) That Fegan piece has some nice individual blurbs at the end too. On the ascent of Popeye. Quote Six home runs in his last eight games is the more attention-grabbing part of José Rodríguez’s steady climb out of a difficult first two months to where he is now: a very respectable .280/.340/.430 line for a 21-year-old shortstop hitting at a pitchers’ park in Double A. Scouts outside the organization are singing Rodríguez’s praises for specific swing adjustments he’s made, eliminating the hand drift in his load by setting them up higher and showing more ability to consistently elevate his hard contact alongside it. Taking a couple months to adjust to a level full of older players is a challenge on its own, but Getz also suggested that a nagging leg issue in spring probably stalled Rodríguez from making this progress sooner. “He was having a bit of an uphill battle,” Getz said. “He’s calmed his base and he’s gotten much more direct to the ball. He’s using the whole field and he’s obviously picking his spots where he’s putting his A-swing together and he’s run into some home runs here recently Edited August 22, 2022 by DirtySox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmy U Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Love this. Kath is a surprise, but given the progress he has made recently, this will be a nice standard to measure himself for the off-season. Nice to see Veras, Gladney, and Mieses included. I suspect this means Charlie Romero is in fact a thing, but I suppose Andy Barkett will be there too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eminor3rd Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 6 minutes ago, BamaDoc said: Wondering how they sold this to A and A+ owners???? They didn’t, haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.