Project Birmingham

[voodoochile]

This has been touched on in the main MiLB season thread, but thought it deserved its own thread. A few weeks ago the Sox rounded up ALL their top prospects from A and A+ and shipped them to Birmingham regardless of how ready they were. This allows them to focus where their roving instructors stay also and give all the best of the best of their prospects a lot of intense one-on-one training. It also throws those kids into the proverbial fire forcing them to face much stiffer competition. Some have thrived and some have faltered. The roster is massive (14 in field players and WAY too many SP), but they are using it as a way to continue development while not forcing players to overtax their already tired bodies at the end of a long season. SP might start once a week at most - Burke, Kelly, Dalquist, Mena, Vera and Thompson are all available on top of the other AA starters for the full season. Really the only name player not available is Jose Rodriguez who is out with his broken Hamate bone - though he might be ready to play in the fall league.

This was the brainchild of Getz based on the successes they felt they had during a similar situation while MiLB was canceled during the pandemic shutdown.

If you'd like a breakdown of what is going on the Athletic has a rundown: https://theathletic.com/3578197/2022...ts-birmingham/

[voodoochile]

I'm going to cut back on my summary posts and only cover Birmingham the rest of the season. Not much to report on other teams anyway. I will be posting updates here since this project is the reason Birmingham is worth following and the other teams aren't.

Saturday 9/10 won 5-0

Colas 2/42B
Mieses 0/3 BB
Montgomery finally woke up 2/4 HR

Schoenle started 4.0 IP 3 H 0 R 0 BB 3 K Overall ERA 3.0 at AA
Simas came on and pitched a scoreless inning H BB
Shilling also pitched a scoreless inning with 1 H but he's been struggling big time since returning.

Sunday lost 6-5

Cespedes 0/1 BB 2 HBP
Ramos and Mieses no hits
Montgomery and Colas DNP
Hackenberg 0/3 3 K he has not adjusted well to AA pitching .129/.367

Mena started 3.0 IP 4 H 1 BB 3 R 2 ER 3 K 47 P
Solesky 3.0 IP 4 1 ER 2 BB 2 K

[notjimrose]

The hard part about an experiment like this is that it could take years to see if it is successful, but I'm glad to see the White Sox trying something different in an attempt to get a competitive edge.

[voodoochile]

Last night won 5-2

Colas 2/4 HR
Montgomery 1/3 HR HBP
Mieses and Ramos both had hits

Vera SP 2.2 IP 3 H 5 BB 2 ER 4 K 65 P (that's his season high I think).

[Frater Perdurabo]

Last night won 5-2

Colas 2/4 HR
Montgomery 1/3 HR HBP
Mieses and Ramos both had hits

Vera SP 2.2 IP 3 H 5 BB 2 ER 4 K 65 P (that's his season high I think).

Check out the video of the Colás homer. It’s off a LHP, and it’s obliterated.

He really is earning a shot to win the RF job in spring training. Other than a .638 OPS in May, every other month he’s had an OPS of at least .841. He’s .896 on the season and .963 since being promoted to AA.

Also, he’s played 29 games in RF for the Barons and has not made an error. (He’s also played 66 games in CF across both A+ and AA and made just 3 errors.)

[voodoochile]

Lost tonight 12-6 but most of the damage given up by bullpen

Matt Thompson had a solid start 4.0 IP 2 H 3BB 1 ER 5 K 57 P This is basically the exact same line he had last time but with a couple more BB. It's going to be exciting to see if he and Burke can build on their success next year. That's two more SP coming up the pipeline might be as little as a year away.

Colas 1/4 2B
Cespedes 2/4
Hackenberg and Mieses both had hits

[voodoochile]

Last night they lost 5-2 had 4 hits
Mieses 2/4 HR

Kelly 4.0 IP 5 H 2 BB 3 ER HR 3 K 55 P

Tonight lost 2-1
Mieses 2/5
Colas 1/4

Burke 3.1 IP 3 H 3 BB 2 ER HR 4 K 67 P

[voodoochile]

Birmingham lost 1-0 tonight had 2 hits gave up 3

Mieses had one of the hits

Dalquist had a nice outing 4.0 IP 1 H 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 6 K 3.38 ERA 60 P
Solesky followed with 3.0 scoreless 1 H 1 BB 6 K 1.5 ERA 63 P

There are a LOT of pitchers at AA may spend some time in the majors one day not to far away. That part of the pipeline is coming along very well.

[voodoochile]

Well last report from this project. I'm guess a bunch of these players will be headed for AFL though.

Birmingham ended on a high note winning 9-2

Mieses had a 2B Colas had a 2B Ramos had 2 H (HR) Cespedes 2 H 2B

Schoele pitched well 4.0 IP 4 H 1 BB 0 R 4 K 2.25 ERA at AA Had a solid season jumping from A to AA as a FA signing after college in June 2021. Drafted in 2018 in the 30th round by the Reds, but he went to college instead. He's 24.