Our third live look of the season had us in Kannapolis to catch the Intimidators square up against the Lexington Legends (Royals affiliate). Both starters – Yency Almonte for the Intimidators and Niklas Stephenson for the Legends – had shaky first innings. Each offense started the game with three base hits, resulting in a 2-1 Intimidators lead after one inning.
Another run did not cross the plate until the seventh inning, as Stephenson was locked in his next five IP and Almonte skated around damage, allowing just that one run in the first. Neither starter walked a batter – a statistic that is not entirely revealing, as Stephenson was locked in, while Almonte showed flashes, but hung sliders all night. Ultimately, the Intimidators got to the Legends’ pen where they remained patient, allowing the Legends’ bullpen (five walks in two innings) to beat themselves. The Intimidators pulled out a 4-1 victory on Tuesday night, as Brad Salgado managed to get a two inning save.
This article will cover the performance of some specific White Sox prospects in this game, and includes videos and scouting notes. We also interviewed some players, but those interviews will be published in a separate post.
The Starter – RHP Yency Almonte:
The White Sox acquired Almonte from the Angels in exchange for what turned out to be two months of Gordon Beckham. The 20-year-old Miami native (drafted out of Christopher Columbus HS in the 17th round by the Angels in 2012) stands 6’3” and weighs in at a little over 200 lbs. He has a wiry frame and a looseness in his ¾ arm slot delivery. In our last visit, Almonte’s delivery seemed rushed, specifically the transition from a slow windup to a rapid acceleration when delivering the pitch. In this start, seen in the video below, both the windup and stretch seemed far more controlled, easy, and repeatable. A scout compared Almonte’s delivery to former White Sox pitcher Edwin Jackson.
This is the second time this season we have caught an Almonte start. Our last in-person view saw Almonte struggle early (through three innings of six) and get hit hard on flat fastballs (93-94 mph) and spinning sliders (87).
Unlike the May 3rd start we caught, Almonte did not come out overthrowing his pitches. Instead, in the first inning, the fastball was at 90 mph and got smacked around for three consecutive hits to start the game. Almonte threw two different sliders in this start. One that acted more like a one-plane ineffective cutter (84-86 mph) and one that proved quite effective at 82-84 with two-plane action, impressive tilt, and good horizontal movement. In the other start, he threw roughly 15% sliders. On this night, he clearly emphasized his slider and threw it a lot. The pitch was really inconsistent. At times it would generate swinging strikes on pitches low and away to right handed batters, and on at least eight occasions he hung sliders in the zone – though the BABIP Gods looked favorably upon Almonte, as he miraculously induced medium hit fly outs and grounders each time he hung one.
Almonte’s changeup was his out-pitch in the May 3rd start. In this start, the slider was his out-pitch, but the changeup was still there and was a nice offering. It sat 80-82 with tailing action. He was confident in the pitch and used it well throughout the night.
Like the change and low eighties slider, the fastball also has good life. In the low 90s, it had tailing, arm-side run. While the fastball started in the low nineties, Almonte picked it up as the game progressed – eventually hitting 94-95 mph in his last inning of work. For the night, Almonte’s line was 7 IP, 7 Hs, 1 ER, 0 BBs, 6 SOs, 0 HRs.
This soon-to-be-21-year-old has a lot of potential, but clearly needs to harness the low eighties slider, ditch the high eighties slider, and work on commanding the fastball. With the exception of the mid to high eighties slider, all of Almonte’s pitches have life. Both the fastball and change have sink and tail, the low eighties slider has nice tilt and a two- plane movement, while his curveball is a work in progress, as he seldomly threw it in this start.
He has come a long way since his days with the Angels. When Kannapolis’ pitching coach Jose Bautista first got a look at Almonte, poor mechanics led to flat pitches.
“It was really bad mechanically. Arm action and going side to side – he was falling over. Those things make pitchers’ pitches flat. He’s now staying taller and throwing strikes. I taught him a change and a sinker. He’s being doing really well with it and we’ve worked on his slider too . . . [He is] one of those guys who wasn’t listening to me, but has been making some mechanical adjusts and has done well these last couple weeks,” said Bautista.
Clearly, this is a talented starting pitcher. That he was the return in a trade for two months of Gordon Beckham surprised both the scouts and me.
Relief Pitcher – RHP Bradley Salgado:
Salgado relieved Almonte and went two innings (0 Hs, 0 Rs, 1 BB, 1 SO) and earned his third save of the season. He threw an unremarkable high eighties fastball, but wielded an effective 83 mph slider with two-plane, horizontal biting action.
Position Players:
SS Eddy Alvarez:
Alvarez led off the game with a liner to left-centerfield for a base hit. He got some questionable called strikes from the home plate umpire, but did draw walk on the night and has a good approach at the plate. While walk rates do not reveal much about a player’s plate discipline in A-ball, Alvarez’s strikeout rate (20.3 %) is far more significant as an indicator for future success. A scout told me that he thinks Alvarez is a good organizational piece and will likely stay at shortstop, noting that when challenged with fastballs in, Alvarez gets jammed consistently.
Defensively, Alvarez made an error on a medium hit grounder to short. Ranging to his right, Alvarez could not get his glove down far enough and the ball went under his glove and into left field.
CF Louie Lechich:
I came away pretty impressed with Lechich. Physically, Lechich looks like a big leaguer. Standing 6’4,” Lechich has broad shoulders and a wide frame. While he weighs in at a sturdy 212 lbs, Lechich can run. A scout shared two times on Lechich going to first, one at 4.08, the other at 4.18. For a left handed batter, that grades out as a 55+ run tool. Lechich plays CF well and got good jumps on liners and flyouts throughout the night. He leveraged his above average speed by walking and then stealing a base (his 10th of the season), anticipating the pitcher’s delivery and getting a fantastic jump. For the season (168 PAs), the 23-year-old has a slash line of .283/.339/.375.
1B Nick Basto:
Coming back from an injury, Basto made his Kannapolis debut after having been demoted from Winston-Salem, likely due to poor performance. While Basto can play all four corner positions, he played 1B in this game where he had a nice night defensively. He fielded two tough, sharp hops on grounders, staying in front of one and picking the other.
Offensively, Basto made one loud out on a flyout, but went 0-4 on the night, having trouble catching up to Niklas Stephenson’s mid-nineties fastball.
3B Ryan Leonards:
The walk-off hero two nights ago, Leonards played third base in this game. He struggled to read the ball off the bat on multiple occasions at third, trying to backhand a medium grounder to his right, and misplaying a sharp grounder to his left. He did, however, reach base twice in four PAs with a walk and a base hit.
C Zach Fish:
According to a scout, Fish surprised in batting practice, displaying the most raw power on the team. New to the position and having only played is sparingly as a pro, Fish really struggled behind the plate. On a stolen base, Fish popped up, lost his footing and tumbled to the ground, failing to throw to 2nd. When Salgado entered the game, there was a miscommunication/cross-up on the very first pitch Salgado threw.
Fish made some loud contact on a liner for an RBI, going 1-4 with a strikeout.
C Brett Austin:
While Austin did not play (nor did he play in the May 3rd game we visited), I did get a poptime from a scout who had seen him in previous games in the series. Austin was clocked at 2.1 – translating to a 40-grade pop-time/catcher release.
Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. Our list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.