White Sox Minor League Update (March 31): Redbirds 9, Knights 1

This little subhed should say something like, “It’s the Knights, alright”

Box score link

Oh shoot, it IS Opening Day for the Knights, I totally forgot they were starting so early. Dangit. OK, hold on, I have to just write the recap really quick, I can do voice to text. Ah, the Knights. Trailing 4-0 most of the game, they then gave up five runs in the ninth, classic. Is that too mean for Opening Day? Oh well. I’ll say something nice, too. Their new logo is very blue.

This lineup is pretty similar to last year. Adam Haseley’s back in left, Yolbert Sánchez batting second and playing third, Jake Burger at first base after kind of a surprising reassignment back to Triple-A, not making the Sox bench. Was it surprising? I dunno actually, I was not really following Spring Training, someone can edit this later.

Lenyn Sosa gets the cleanup spot, which is just not a believable sentence to anyone time traveling straight here from 2019. He split time between shortstop and second base last year and over the winter with Leones del Caracas of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, with more time at short, but tonight he was at second. And drew a walk!! Good for him. Two singles, too.

Carlos Pérez behind the plate and batting fifth, looking forward to seeing what he can do this year. He went deep in the bottom of the ninth for the only Knights run. Let me see if they posted the video. Ohhh, he went DEEP. Great fan catch too.

The Eternal Zach Remillard is looking to keep up last season’s stats, some of the best of his career, his 2022 line .280/.373/.400. It is very funny that by the end of the year he will have fielded nearly every position, but tonight he was the DH. And left five on base.

Bottom third of the lineup, let’s see, Erik González, offseason signing … wow, he hit .356/.396/.533 this spring in 45 at-bats. Too bad Leury’s blocking him. Parts of seven seasons in the majors, playing shortstop here. Jake Marisnick in right, offseason signing, obviously we’re all familiar with him as part of the famous Mark Buehrle & Co. trade between the Blue Jays and the Marlins. Truly a Remember Some Guys trade. Josh Johnson was SO good when he was healthy. I think Anthony DeSclafani is the only other guy from that trade who’s still playing. Billy Hamilton, back with the team in center! Hell yeah. Thanks, ohana. Did that come out like it was a Thanks, Obama pun with Rick Hahn’s name instead? No, not like Lilo and Stitch. Thanks, ohana. O-dash-Hahn– forget it. Someone can edit it. I’ll do it. Yeah, of course I’ll make sure to post the right version, I’m not an idiot.

Pretty bleak for Charlotte offensively. I feel like that’s not the first time I’ve used that phrase. I’m sure I did last year. Things were often pretty bleak. Haseley, Sosa, Pérez with two hits each, Sánchez and Burger accounting for the other two Knights hits. The only non-Pérez extra-base hit was a Haseley double to lead off the third, and he was then caught stealing third. Womp. But did steal a base earlier! Within every one of us there is capacity for great good and great evil.

Alright I think that’s probably good enough for hitting. Line break.

Someone named Nate Fisher started this game for Charlotte. You know, Nate Fisher! Our good friend that we know so well. Okay, according to the transaction log on his em eye el bee dot com page, he was signed as a minor league free agent in November after being DFA’d and then not re-signed by the Mets. Why does he have a Wikipedia page? Most minor leaguers don’t. Is he notable?

Oooh, yeah, so he’s a guy that was released during COVID in 2020, went back to school, got a real person job, then unlike many other guys who shared that same arc, was re-signed by the Mariners halfway through 2021 and was pretty good in like every level of their minors. And then he signed with the Mets and was good enough to be promoted all the way up and throw a few scoreless innings in the majors last year, which is, indeed, a notable story.

Aww, they haven’t updated the headshots on the website yet, and he was on the Syracuse Mets last year, and he had to pitch against a guy who was also on the Syracuse Mets last year.

Anyway, he gave up four runs in four innings for the loss, but he did strike out eight. First there was a solo home run in the second, then two too many doubles for three runs in the fourth, which was enough to do it.

JB Olson and Franklin German both departed with ERAs of zero in their relief outings. German was the return from the Red Sox for Theo Denlinger, former Winston-Salem Dash pitcher. Denlinger had a 3.60 ERA in 10 innings with the Dash in 2022. People will know that, I can delete that. Maybe I’ll add that he’s a blacksmith. Wait, people know that, too.

Hey, Declan Cronin and Carlos Pérez teamed up to catch a guy stealing third, one loves to see it. One much less loves to see a five-run ninth where Cronin sandwiched a single with two walks, exited the game, then was responsible for all those inherited runs scoring when Andrew Pérez took over and gave up a horrendous array of walks and, what should I call those, fielding events? Defensive efforts? There was a single too, but a run scored on a force out for out No. 2, and later Burger made an error with the bases loaded and all three runs scored. Ugly inning.

But actually, that all means that Pérez joins the zero-ERA club with Olson and German, despite walking three and allowing two runs, plus three inherited runs. El Platano becomes… what’s the Spanish word for illusionist? Is there a baseball term I’m not thinking of here? Not a vulture situation but something like that. Hit-and-run, like, the traffic kind? Eh, I’ll figure it out later.

Well, that’s the recap, I guess. It’s fine! I’ll make it readable and a little more streamlined and then post it. No, I didn’t mean that as in, go ahead and post it. Wait–