White Sox to get Montgomery back to Charlotte (late) next week, still eyeing majors (Janish)

[Timmy U]

2 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Even Alcides Escobar hit like 900 in Charlotte...big difference between there and Chicago.

Not saying he’ll hit in Chicago. Someone said he had to go to Arizona. Maybe he just isn’t that great, but his swing certainly ain’t broken.

[nrockway]

Just now, Lyle Moooton said:

And YOU get to go to Arizona! And YOU get to go to Arizona! If you look under your seats, everyone’s going to AR-I-ZONAAAAA!

I was thinking about that Howard Dean bit, only it's "we're goin to Arizona, then we're gonna go to Arizona and Arizona and Arizona and finally we're going to Arizona to take back the World Series...YAH!"

[oldsox]

On 5/25/2025 at 2:23 PM, nrockway said:

I was thinking about that Howard Dean bit, only it's "we're goin to Arizona, then we're gonna go to Arizona and Arizona and Arizona and finally we're going to Arizona to take back the World Series...YAH!"

Is that dope still around?

[FriendlyNorthsider]

One thing I mentioned in an earlier post is Montgomery’s abnormally high infield Fly Ball percentage going into the year. Last year it was 26.7 which is very very poor. This year it’s 35.6%. Not sure what the breakdown was since before his swing change but we need to see that number drop back into the atmosphere. The highest in the MLB is Matt Chapman at 16.5%. This is just beyond bad. 
 

that said, there have been positive developments this year. His EV has gone up from 85.8 to 89.6. His max EV went from 113.8 to 115.3. 

The EV goes from unimpressive to right around league average. He’s in a tier with Miguel Vargas and PCA who have shown that they can be impact bats at the MLB Level. That EV is being heavily weighed down by pop ups too. 
 

The Max EV went from exceptional to borderline elite. 115.3 is almost 5 points ahead of PCA and over 5 points ahead of Vargas. 

He’s still young, still getting stronger, and still improving. Hes made noticeable changes and should be able to sustain this growth. He has the potential to be more than just a bat. 
 

Hes shown great plate discipline in the past but it has disappeared in the upper levels. The K% has skyrocketed and the BB% has plummeted. Since coming back from his break his BB% has gone up to 10.5% and his K% 23.7. Before the break, the BB% was 6.8% and the K% was 41.7%. 

His post break numbers would be very solid for a guy with his power profile. 
 

if over the next month he gets the K% under 20, keeps the BB% above 10 and gets the infield Flys somewhat under control I think he’s ready for big league pitching. 

[kitekrazy]

People can post these miniscule stats all day but take your eyes away from the paper and see "not a good player right now".

It's like the NFL combine but game film doesn't lie,

[chitownsportsfan]

8 hours ago, FriendlyNorthsider said:

One thing I mentioned in an earlier post is Montgomery’s abnormally high infield Fly Ball percentage going into the year. Last year it was 26.7 which is very very poor. This year it’s 35.6%. Not sure what the breakdown was since before his swing change but we need to see that number drop back into the atmosphere. The highest in the MLB is Matt Chapman at 16.5%. This is just beyond bad. 
 

that said, there have been positive developments this year. His EV has gone up from 85.8 to 89.6. His max EV went from 113.8 to 115.3. 

The EV goes from unimpressive to right around league average. He’s in a tier with Miguel Vargas and PCA who have shown that they can be impact bats at the MLB Level. That EV is being heavily weighed down by pop ups too. 
 

The Max EV went from exceptional to borderline elite. 115.3 is almost 5 points ahead of PCA and over 5 points ahead of Vargas. 

He’s still young, still getting stronger, and still improving. Hes made noticeable changes and should be able to sustain this growth. He has the potential to be more than just a bat. 
 

Hes shown great plate discipline in the past but it has disappeared in the upper levels. The K% has skyrocketed and the BB% has plummeted. Since coming back from his break his BB% has gone up to 10.5% and his K% 23.7. Before the break, the BB% was 6.8% and the K% was 41.7%. 

His post break numbers would be very solid for a guy with his power profile. 
 

if over the next month he gets the K% under 20, keeps the BB% above 10 and gets the infield Flys somewhat under control I think he’s ready for big league pitching. 

a 36% popup rate is absurd. He must be trying to get an uppercut going but with his long levers it's a lot of moving parts. That said, those same long arms allow those elite EVs.

[spiderman]

He's been playing better in the last 10 games or so but has a very high pop-up rate. Is that accurate?

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

9 hours ago, FriendlyNorthsider said:

One thing I mentioned in an earlier post is Montgomery’s abnormally high infield Fly Ball percentage going into the year. Last year it was 26.7 which is very very poor. This year it’s 35.6%. Not sure what the breakdown was since before his swing change but we need to see that number drop back into the atmosphere. The highest in the MLB is Matt Chapman at 16.5%. This is just beyond bad. 
 

that said, there have been positive developments this year. His EV has gone up from 85.8 to 89.6. His max EV went from 113.8 to 115.3. 

The EV goes from unimpressive to right around league average. He’s in a tier with Miguel Vargas and PCA who have shown that they can be impact bats at the MLB Level. That EV is being heavily weighed down by pop ups too. 
 

The Max EV went from exceptional to borderline elite. 115.3 is almost 5 points ahead of PCA and over 5 points ahead of Vargas. 

He’s still young, still getting stronger, and still improving. Hes made noticeable changes and should be able to sustain this growth. He has the potential to be more than just a bat. 
 

Hes shown great plate discipline in the past but it has disappeared in the upper levels. The K% has skyrocketed and the BB% has plummeted. Since coming back from his break his BB% has gone up to 10.5% and his K% 23.7. Before the break, the BB% was 6.8% and the K% was 41.7%. 

His post break numbers would be very solid for a guy with his power profile. 
 

if over the next month he gets the K% under 20, keeps the BB% above 10 and gets the infield Flys somewhat under control I think he’s ready for big league pitching. 

I just hope that number is somehow wrong. 

Even cutting that rate in half and hes still terrible.

Joey votto went like a decade hitting about 5 infield flies.

[bobbydanks]

As much as I like Joey Votto, I don't think these random assertions are remotely accurate but you guys have fun with that 

[JoeC]

44 minutes ago, bobbydanks said:

As much as I like Joey Votto, I don't think these random assertions are remotely accurate but you guys have fun with that 

votto's lack of pop-outs is 100% a thing.

 

[caulfield12]

50% of baseball is 90% mental…not about hand placement, per se, but confidence.

[Jerry McNertney]

When are people going to stop all the Colson Montgomery hype? He's hitting .193 at Charlotte, down from .214 last year. He's on the cusp of being a buster.

Now Caleb Bonemer, that may be a different story.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

1 hour ago, JoeC said:

votto's lack of pop-outs is 100% a thing.

 

Still a top 3 crazy baseball stat of all-time. 

[Kyyle23]

Votto was a different dude.  If his career was in New York or LA he would probably be legendary right now just waiting for that bust into cooperstown

[PaleAleSox]

1 hour ago, Jerry McNertney said:

When are people going to stop all the Colson Montgomery hype? He's hitting .193 at Charlotte, down from .214 last year. He's on the cusp of being a buster.

Now Caleb Bonemer, that may be a different story.

I don't think anyone is hyping it, it's desperate hope more than anything.

[Jake]

Colson fixed whatever it was that regressed between 2024 and 2025. It's not clear that he fixed whatever caused the regression from 2023 to 2024. Pretty simple.

[bobbydanks]

What was Joey Votto's xBA in Charlotte?

[WhiteSox2023]

1 hour ago, bobbydanks said:

What was Joey Votto's xBA in Charlotte?

In this dimension, Sox instructors ruined him as a prospect and he never made the majors.

[southsider2k5]

53 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

In this dimension, Sox instructors ruined him as a prospect and he never made the majors.

They made him a CF.

[caulfield12]

54 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

They made him a CF.

C to add depth with Anderson...

[FriendlyNorthsider]

On 5/31/2025 at 7:25 AM, PaleAleSox said:

I don't think anyone is hyping it, it's desperate hope more than anything.

There was so much to work with and still is to an extent. He's a 23 year old left side of the infield player who's max EV is higher than anything Freddie Freeman hit in his whole career. He used to have elite plate discipline, he's just been stuck in a huge funk for a while. Way to early to give up on a guy like this. He's younger than a lot of the guys that got drafted last year, 

On 5/30/2025 at 10:14 PM, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I just hope that number is somehow wrong. 

Even cutting that rate in half and hes still terrible.

Joey votto went like a decade hitting about 5 infield flies.

I went through some of his games one by one and there are a hell of lot of popups. This shouldve been one of his primary focuses this offseason. Whether he needs to try a torpedo bat, adjust what pitches he swings at, adjusts where he stands in the box, his hand placement, his swing path, I really dont know. I havent seen anybody mention it anywhere and who knows if it was even put on his radar. Guys can still be great hitters that have a high pop rate, Cal Raleigh is having one of the best seasons in baseball and has the 4th worst in the league (14%). PCAs is above 12 percent. Colson's profile would also be similar in that he has a high launch angle (21%). Montgomery's hard hit percentage has gone up from 34% to 40$ this year which puts him in the same tier as PCA (42%). This is of course against AAA pitching but PCA wasn't that much higher in AAA. The high launch angle thing can work. But what does it actually look like when you take out the pop ups.