Weekly White Sox farm update, 10/24

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Welcome back to our weekly coverage of all things pertaining to the White Sox minor leagues. Confirming some news that was initially reported last week, White Sox made an official announcement on their new director of player development. Meanwhile, Sox prospects keep grinding away in fall and winter leagues here and abroad.
Arizona Fall League
Hitters

It was a pedestrian week collectively for the White Sox position prospects as their slash lines continue to stagnate. However, Courtney Hawkins bucked the trend and the 22 year-old has a hitting streak of four games and has a hit in six of his seven contests. Hawkins has also doubled twice and walked twice, but struck out eight times over twenty-seven plate appearances. Catcher Zack Collins played in two games this week and has one hit, three walks, and three strikeouts over eight plate appearances. Danny Hayes had a miserable second week after starting off strong, going o-12 with five strikeouts over his last three games.
Pitchers

If you are scrambling for a breakout performance from the early goings on the AFL, Louie Lechich is it. The former position player is now unscored upon as a pitcher covering his first 20.1 professional innings and has only allowed one hit over 5.1 innings in the Fall League. In addition to Lechich, Brian Clark has been quietly solid in relief for the Desert Dogs, though his peripherals (8 H, 3 BB) aren’t nearly as strong. Same story for Nolan Sanburn, his ERA looks good but has been pitching out of jams having allowed four hits and four walks over two starts. The Sox are getting their first real look at Colton Turner, who they acquired from the Toronto organization on August 26th. Turner has struck out three while allowing four hits and two walks over 2.1 innings.
Caribbean Winter Leagues

Not much to report here, with the Sox not having anyone in Mexico and only a few players in Venezuela. Just the couple players listed above are getting any significant playing time. Rondon is really struggling.
But, the Dominican Winter League just opened play, and there are usually a number of White Sox prospects playing there. So next week’s report should have a lot more action covered.
Transactions

  • Signed 26-year old 1B K.C. Hobson to a minor league deal. He was a 6th round draft pick in 2009 by Toronto, but never made it past AA and was last with Lancaster of the Atlantic League.
  • Re-signed RHP Terance Marin, who was a key cog on the Charlotte Knights’ pitching staff in 2016.

Links and Notes

  • Chris Getz was officially name the new Director of Player Development. This article gives you some background on Getz and the atmosphere around the move.
  • South Side Sox takes a look at how a proposed international draft would effect the White Sox.
  • Baseball America did a quick look at some of the best-of’s from the White Sox 2016 draft class. It’s behind the paywall, but the cheap subscription to BA is worth paying in general.
  • Per tweeted report from Brian Bilek, Rich Dotson will move into the Pitching Coordinator role vacated by Curt Hasler (who moved to the big league club’s bullpen coaching role). Dotson gets high grades from pitchers in the system from his work as a pitching coach in the minors in recent years. You can get to know him a bit more by reading our interview with him from last year.

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