This was supposed to be one of the happy write ups. One of the coveted Year in Reviews that you have to be the first person who signs into the Google Doc to claim. One of (if not the) top pitching prospects in all of baseball with electric stuff, charisma, and he’s ours? The stuff of dreams. Until September hit. But let’s start with the good stuff.

Kopech came into the season a unanimous Top 20 prospect (No. 11 by Baseball America, No. 10 by MLB Pipeline, No. 17 by Baseball Prospectus). Everyone knew he’d be in Charlotte for at least a few months because baseball is baseball and the service time clock must be gamed. Apart from a few minor hiccups, Triple-A wasn’t much of a challenge. The only real blemish you can find on his stat line from Charlotte is a BB/9 of 4.3 but that’s a lot less of an issue when you’re still managing to strike out almost three hitters for every one that walk (12.1 K/9). You can only say “he needs to stay down to get a better feel for his secondary stuff” for so long once it’s established that none of the hitters he’s facing can provide any further challenge. And so the White Sox finally bit the bullet and called up one of their top prospects.

The fans rewarded them with 23,133 tickets sold for a late August Tuesday night game against the similarly moribund Minnesota Twins. Kopech didn’t disappoint. Four strikeouts over two innings with three hits allowed before Mother Nature decided that was enough for the young flamethrower. We would only get a minor taste, but it was good. God, it was good.

Five days later we got a proper show. Six innings against Detroit, four strikeouts, one earned run allowed. Sure, he hit two batters but jitters are jitters. The offense actually picked him up and Kopech earned his first career win. Elation. Absolute elation. Followed by more rain. Three innings against Boston before another storm put the early kibosh on his evening after a mere three innings. But he only allowed three baserunners (two via HBP) against the best team in the American League so it was hard to care.

August turned into September. Things fell apart. The center could not hold. Mere anarchy was loosed upon the world. Kopech only managed to go 3.1 innings against the same paper Tigers while giving up 7 hits. Something was clearly wrong.

Torn ACL. Everything’s bad.

I remember reading one of the dumber takes of the season shortly after it was announced Kopech would need Tommy John surgery. It was something along the lines of “I hope all the people who wanted Kopech called up to pitch in some meaningless games are happy now”. I don’t need to explain to you why that’s stupid, but I will because you are my audience and that’s kind of my job. Assuming his elbow wouldn’t have exploded in Charlotte instead of Chicago is stupid. It’s the logical argument of either a child who doesn’t yet know better or an adult refusing to speak in good faith. You’re an adult. You shouldn’t be engaging those kind of folks.

The White Sox did the right thing in calling Kopech up when they did. Honestly, they should have called him up sooner. You can’t protect your prospects forever. Eventually they have to be thrown into the fire. It sucks that Kopech won’t pitch again for the White Sox until 2020. It’s an awful outcome from a reasonable process. It just means there’s one fewer bright spot in 2019.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Kopech has UCL tear. Recommendation is Tommy John

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) September 7, 2018

There is no silver lining here. Kopech’s ascent to the majors was the most exciting aspect of the 2018 season and his potential to become an ace-level starting pitcher is one of, if not arguably the most important factor in the White Sox rebuild bearing fruit.

That potential is still there, but a year off and elbow injury makes that even more uncertain than ever.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Kopech didn’t have his best stuff — something he was up front about to reporters after the game — as his velocity was down a bit and his command of his breaking pitches wavered, but he still managed to induce 10 swinging strikes and most importantly didn’t issue a walk. His next walk allowed will be the first at the major league level and he hasn’t issued one at either level for the entire month of August.

The fact that he hasn’t allowed a walk is the most notable thing about Kopech’s eight major league innings. Evaluators have never doubted his stuff, but his ability to command each of his pitches is what many believe will be the difference between him living up to his potential as a starter. Even in Sunday’s uneven start, Kopech pounded the zone, throwing 61 of his 86 offerings for strikes. It was just the Tigers (a common refrain throughout this article) but it’s another passing grade for Kopech.

His next start is expected to come Friday and be a much tougher challenge — the league-leading and his former franchise Boston Red Sox.

2. Is it time to start believing in Lucas Giolito again?

Saturday’s 6-inning, 1-run performance against a moribund Detroit Tigers team might not be enough to convince you just yet, but the White Sox young starter turned in perhaps his best start of the season in a 6-1 win. It was his seventh quality start in his last nine outings and the fifth time in his last six starts where he induced 10 or more swinging strikes. He’s lowered his ERA to a still bad but improving 5.85 in the process, and has seen a significant uptick in his velocity.

The fact that Giolito has survived in the rotation throughout the season is more a product of the White Sox place in the standings than anything else, but the ability to afford a young and important piece of the team’s future the opportunity to work through his struggles could prove integral in the long-term.

3. Another White Sox prospect has been shut down for the season. But this time, it’s OK!

Dylan Cease is almost undoubtedly the White Sox minor league pitcher whose taken the biggest step forward in his development this season. And that’s saying something for someone who was already generally considered a consensus Top 100 prospect in the game entering the season. Cease, who had never topped more than 93 innings pitched in any professional season, ended his minor league season a few weeks early at a career-best 124 innings pitched, flawlessly jumping from Advanced-A to Double-A without missing a beat.

After dominating the lesser level for the first half of the season, Cease was even better upon his promotion to Birmingham, putting up a 1.72 ERA with 78 strikeouts against 22 walks in 52 1/3 innings at Double-A. The talent that made him one of the top pitching prospects in the Cubs’ organization despite a limited workload and one of the White Sox targets in their trade of Jose Quintana a year ago is starting to be realized, and the 22-year-old has positioned himself well to perhaps be in line for a major league call-up by late 2019, if things continue to go as planned.

4. Omar Narvaez now has about half of a season’s of plate appearances worth of significantly above-average offensive production. In 248 plate appearances, his 126 wRC+ entering Sunday would be good for fifth best among catchers with enough plate appearances to warrant consideration, behind only Francisco Cervelli, Wilson Ramos, Yasmani Grandal, and J.T. Realmuto.

The problem continues to be his defense, at least according to some. Narvaez ranks dead last in BP’s FRAA_ADJ stat, which is a catcher-specific version of FRAA that takes into account framing. Because of this, WARP grades Narvaez as essentially a replacement level catcher (0.51, to be exact). It’s a pretty significant difference from versions of WAR that judge defense differently — bWAR has him as worth 1.4 wins and fWAR has him at 1.7.

The biggest surprise offensively for Narvaez has been his power. While he’ll never be mistaken for prime Mike Piazza, his six home runs are double his career output entering the season, and his .430 slugging percentage entering Sunday is 90 points higher than last year.

What the White Sox believe they have in Narvaez will obviously depend on how much their internal numbers regarding his defense and framing match up with the numbers we have. Either way, the catching position is an interesting one to watch, particularly with Welington Castillo’s suspension ending. The White Sox transferred Castillo to the disabled list last week and he’s currently rehabbing in Charlotte, and he’ll presumably rejoin the team once rosters expand next week. Castillo is also under contract for the next two season (2020 is a team option) so one would assume the starting position is his for the foreseeable future.

Still, Narvaez’s offensive breakout gives the White Sox options they likely didn’t envision having entering the season. And while the performances of both Zack Collins and Seby Zavala this season are reasons for optimism about the future of a position the White Sox have struggled to find production at for a long while, the combination of Narvaez and Castillo give them present production much more serviceable than expected.

Lead Photo Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

It’s a logical if not disappointing outcome to the most anticipated White Sox game in a long while. There will be more games and more opportunities for Kopech to show his stuff, and having one of the most important pieces of the rebuild continue to throw after that lengthy of a delay would be short-sighted. Put it simply: If a pitcher weren’t going to come back under normal circumstances, he shouldn’t here either. The Twins’ Jose Berrios did, of course, but he’s a much more seasoned pitcher and benefited from the fact that he was able to take the mound immediately following the delay.

Despite the abbreviated nature of the outing, I broke down Kopech’s two innings of work and what we saw in the 52-pitch outing.

First inning

Kopech started out extremely fastball heavy, as was to be expected. 19 of his 22 pitches were fastballs and 15 of his 22 were strikes. Joe Mauer singled up the middle on a fastball and Eddie Rosario poked a curveball into right to put runners on first and third with nobody out. After getting Jorge Polanco to pop out to left, he got his first career strikeout when C.B. Bucknor rung up Miguel Sano on a check swing on a breaking pitch that Gameday called a slider but looked more like a curve.

Michael Kopech, Filthy 83mph Slider.

First MLB K.

[Sano, Not his First MLB Sword. pic.twitter.com/7krCgFFkqq

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 22, 2018

Kopech then went 3-0 on Max Kepler before getting him to fly out to center on a full count to end the threat.

It was a lot of pitches — Twins hitters fouled his fastball back a lot — but he didn’t seem to pull his fastball except for maybe once or twice and his curve, though rarely thrown, was commanded well.

Second inning

Kopech came out in the second seemingly looking to establish his breaking pitches. Logan Forsythe swung through a nasty curveball before staring at a fastball on the black for strike three. He mostly worked ahead and either tried to elevate the fastball or bury a curve when ahead 0-2 or 1-2. He brought out the changeup for the first time this inning and, well …

Michael Kopech, Disgusting 91mph Changeup. pic.twitter.com/2WjmLocwup

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 22, 2018

He struck out Forsythe looking and followed it up by getting Jake Cave swinging through a 96-mph fastball. It looked like it was going to be a quick, efficient inning when he got ahead 0-2 on Robbie Grossman but he nicked him with an inside heater. After Bobby Wilson singled, Kopech recorded his third strikeout of the inning when Bucknor called Mauer out on a high, 97-mph fastball.

Still a lot of pitches, but not because of command issue. 52 pitches through two innings but 35 went for strikes. He recorded swinging strikes on the fastball, curveball, and changeup this inning.

Kopech flashed a lot of what has made him such an exciting pitching prospect, even in the short outing. The high pitch count meant he wasn’t likely to pitch too deep in the game, but he didn’t overthrow — a legitimate possibility given the amped-up nature of the debut — and the breaking pitches looked good.

Kopech will undoubtedly be here through the final six weeks of the season, and we should get a better look at a full outing next time around. If the rotation spots hold, that will likely come Sunday in Detroit.

Michael Kopech will make his White Sox debut Tuesday, with the hype surrounding it unparalleled in team history. There have been a lot of good and exciting pitchers in the organization over the years, but the attention being paid to prospects is at an all-time high, what with the access we now have to minor league reports, scouting reports, and video — not to mention the more conspicuous manner in which teams rebuild these days. Couple that all together and you have arguably the most anticipated debut the White Sox have ever seen.

What Kopech does on Tuesday will not define his career, of course. Baseball just doesn’t work that way. Nothing he does — good or bad — will give us a clear signal of how his career will wind up. Still, debuts are exciting. So let’s look back at some other notable White Sox pitching debuts from recent team history.

Carlos Rodon

First start: May 19, 2015 vs. Cincinnati

The line: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K

Rodon’s first start with the White Sox wasn’t his first appearance. The White Sox have on occasion had starting pitching prospects throw out of the bullpen initially, and Rodon did exactly that, making three relief appearances totally 6 1/3 innings before making his first start in the second game of a doubleheader against the Reds.

Rodon’s debut is the most obvious rival to Kopech’s in terms of anticipation, but the difference was that he spent such a short time in the minors — 74 total innings before promotion compared to Kopech’s five years and nearly 400 innings, including 260 since joining the organization — that we didn’t exactly have time for the anticipation to build in a similar fashion.

Don’t get me wrong, Rodon’s promotion was a big deal. He was the No. 3 pick in the MLB Draft less than a year before his debut and was always ticketed as someone with ace stuff. Against the Reds, he flashed everything that made him that exciting as well as the command issues he’s battled (along with injuries) in the three years since. He induced 12 swinging strikes in a 108-pitch effort, and despite the walks got tagged for only two runs when Joey Votto followed a walk and a pair of singles with a two-run single of his own. The White Sox gave Rodon his first career win by beating up on Jason Marquis.

Chris Sale

First start: April 9, 2012 at Cleveland

The line: 6 2/3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

Sale was kept in the bullpen even longer, as you probably remember. After tossing all of 10 minor league innings, Sale joined the White Sox bullpen toward the end of the 2010 season and made 79 appearances there through the following season, posting a 2.58 ERA and striking out 111 in 94 1/3 innings. Just think, the White Sox could’ve had their very own Josh Hader!

Sale joined the rotation in 2012, which also happened to be the season he kicked off his now seven straight All-Star seasons and likely seven straight Top 6 Cy Young finishes. His first start came in the team’s fourth game of the season against the Indians. The swing-and-miss stuff that has become the best in baseball wasn’t fully on display in that start, as he struck out just five and got eight swinging strikes on the day. He was sharp enough to keep Cleveland mostly off the scoreboard, however, as the only tally against him came when he hit Shin-Soo Choo, who promptly stole second and was driven in on a single by Carlos Santana.

Two starts later Sale struck out 11 Mariners. A month later he had to fight to keep his rotation spot. In his ninth start he struck out 15 Rays and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jose Quintana

First start: May 25, 2012 vs. Cleveland

The line: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

I wanted to include Quintana not because his first start was hyped but because of the exact opposite — I couldn’t have told you what Quintana did in his first career start if my life depended on it. He was about as unheralded as they come, as you undoubtedly know.

Quintana’s first appearance with the White Sox came about three weeks prior to his first start, when he relieved Philip Humber (who had been smacked for 8 ER in 2 1/3 innings) against Cleveland and promptly threw 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing just one hit. His first start came against those same Indians and is was mostly unmemorable, as the White Sox (and probably everyone) likely didn’t know they were looking at the beginning of a steadily productive five-year run with the team.

Quintana allowed a double and a single to the first two hitters he faced that day, but limited the damage during his six innings of work as he was tagged for just a pair of RBI singles. Fun fact: Quintana’s opposing starter that day was current White Sox reliever Jeanmar Gomez.

Brandon McCarthy

First start: May 22, 2005 at Cubs

The line: 5 1/3 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

McCarthy was the White Sox top pitching prospect while they were on their way to the 2005 World Series and is the answer to the trivia question of the only pitcher outside of the original starting five to make a start for the team that season. He’ll also be the last member of the 2005 team to retire when he calls it quits after this season.

McCarthy was also the subject of trade rumors throughout his tenure given his status (he was a global Top 50 prospect prior to the 2005 season by Baseball America) and the White Sox status as contenders.

His first start was early enough in the season that the White Sox were still considered a “surprising start” more than “legitimate contenders” as a 30-13 team facing their crosstown rivals. Oh, and he was opposed by some guy named Mark Prior. His lone blemish came in the form of a solo homer by Henry Blanco (the other was an inherited run when Luis Vizcaino allowed a HBP to come around and score on a two-run homer), but it was mostly passing grades as McCarthy struck out the first batter he faced en route to a six-strikeout performance.

McCarthy was a spot starter throughout the World Series season and pitched mostly in relief the next season as trade rumors continued to swirl — including a memorable report that the White Sox were on the verge of sending him to Washington in exchange for Alfonso Soriano. That offseason, he was traded to the Rangers for three young pitchers, one of whom was John Danks.

Mark Buehrle

First start: July 19, 2000 vs. Minnesota

The line: 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Buehrle also pitched mostly in relief in his first season with the White Sox. He made 28 appearances and only three were starts, but the first of those three came in just his second outing.

You know the Buehrle story by now. Him making even one major league start would’ve been considered a success considering he was a 37th round pick. His first start came for a team that was a surprising 25 games above .500 and on their way to a division title. And he did kind of what he became known for doing throughout his career, tossing seven efficient innings in a White Sox win. The Twins were bad at the time, but a young David Ortiz went 4-for-4 against the combination of Buehrle, Bill Simas, and Keith Foulke.

Buehrle went back to the bullpen after the start and made just two more starts the rest of the season. The next year, he joined the rotation for good began a stretch of 14 straight seasons with at least 200 innings pitched.

Kip Wells

First start: Aug. 2, 1999 at Detroit

The line: 5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 1 ER (2 R), 2 BB, 4 K

Wells had a long but mostly unmemorable career, bouncing around the league to nine different teams in a 12-year career, so it’s easy to forget he was once BA’s No. 14 prospect in the league. The White Sox took him 16th overall in the 1998 draft out of Baylor and he was fast-tracked to the majors, making his debut a little more than a year later.

Wells’ final line was nothing overly memorable but it was enough to leave you confident in his future, as he pounded the strike zone and induced 12 swinging strikes in 89 pitches. He struck out two in his first inning of work and gave up just one run on a solo homer by Juan Encarnacion. He made seven starts down the stretch for the White Sox, giving up more than two earned runs just once but had a K/BB of less than 2/1 and failed to get through six innings on every occasion except one (although some of that may have been workload manipulation as he never topped the 100-pitch mark).

Wells pitched parts of two more seasons with the White Sox and never lived up to the hype, ending his tenure with a 5.14 ERA in 267 2/3 innings before being traded to the Pirates in a deal that brought back Todd Ritchie.

Jon Garland

First start: July 4, 2000 at Kansas City

The line: 3 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

Garland joins Quintana as the only pitcher on this list who didn’t start his career with the White Sox, as they acquired the former No. 10 overall pick from the Cubs in exchange for reliever Matt Karchner at the 1998 trade deadline. Garland reached as high as No. 32 on BA’s Top 100 prior to the 2000 season and that year, made his major league debut as just a 20-year-old after posting a 2.43 ERA in 103 innings at Triple-A.

Garland’s first career starts came about two weeks prior to Buehrle’s and it quite frankly couldn’t have gone worse. The White Sox actually staked him to a 4-1 lead thanks to homers by Ray Durham, Jose Valentin, and Frank Thomas, but he allowed a bases loaded double to Johnny Damon in the bottom of the second and was battered by some guy named Jermaine Dye, among others, in the third inning before being put out of his misery.

Garland was, of course, never known for his bat-missing prowess, striking out just 4.8 batters per nine throughout his career in Chicago, and in his debut season he finished with 42 strikeouts against 40 walks in 69 innings. He, of course, settled in as a solid mid-rotation piece for the White Sox throughout the 2000s, making his lone All-Star appearance during the 2005 World Series season.

He has been for a while, it’s probably safe to say, but all the hand-wringing about why he hasn’t been called up — and the reasons why — will now transition into anticipation for what we’ll see when he makes his debut Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins, as the team announced on Sunday afternoon. Make no mistake: This is a debut worthy of the hype. Kopech is the most heralded White Sox pitching prospect to debut in a long time. And even those who could stand to rival it — Carlos Rodon and Chris Sale — didn’t immediately join the rotation upon promotion.

Kopech’s talent is such that you can envision him headlining the White Sox rotation for years to come. He’s the pitcher currently employed by the White Sox with the highest ceiling, and him living up to that potential is one of the most integral aspects in the success of this rebuild.Since an uncomfortably long mid-season slump, Kopech has laid waste to Triple-A hitting for the better part of the last two months. During that 10-start span, he’s tossed 59 innings with a 2.14 ERA, 82 strikeouts and just 14 walks, the latter number being the most important.

On Tuesday, we’ll get our first up-close taste of the triple-digit heat and impressive if not still developing breaking pitches. It’s an occasion that signals the start of the next step in the White Sox rebuild, and once Eloy Jimenez joins him in Chicago the White Sox will have rostered all the near-major league-ready talent that came back from the trades of Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Adam Eaton over the last two years.

It would be foolish to expect immediate dividends, but Kopech joins a growing list of White Sox prospects whose development through the last month-plus of this season and into 2019 will be so key in building the next White Sox contender. Him dominating right out of the gate is less important than the innings of experience against major league hitters — every pitch and every inning of every start so valuable in aiding his development.

Yes, maybe he should have been up sooner. But he’s here now, and with him comes the beginning of a new era of sorts for the White Sox. One where the next wave of unbelievably hyped talent starts to get their opportunity to prove they’re the players who will help bring the White Sox back to relevance.

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

All that said, I’d be remiss to not give a nod, on the rare occasion that it’s warranted, to the major league team when things go right. Sunday’s 8-7 win over the Rays gave the White Sox their first four-game winning streak of the season and first road series sweep since early 2016 in Toronto. The four wins coming against the Royals and Rays isn’t exactly the stiffest of competition to be beating one’s chest over, but positive production for any period of time more than a day or two is noteworthy during a time when that hasn’t happened all that often.

1. In his first start since I wondered allowed if he had “figured it out,” Carlos Rodon lowered his ERA to 2.94 with six shutout innings in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Tampa. He also walked six. Rodon admitted after the game that he didn’t have as good of a feel for his fastball as he would have liked, but was able to wiggle his way out of trouble enough to stay in the game thanks to sharp secondaries. That he allowed just three hits and induced 16 swinging strikes is a testament to how well his stuff can play even when he’s not fully on, but against a better hitting team he may not have been so lucky, and the start just further illustrates how integral fastball command is for Rodon.

2. For players with the age and skill set Jose Abreu possesses, any prolonged slump brings with it worries that the end of his time as a productive player is near. Abreu entered the All-Star break in the midst of the worst slump of his otherwise remarkably consistent career, but has since looked once again like the Abreu of old. Prior to Sunday’s game, Abreu was hitting .357/.438/.768 in 15 post-break games and went 2-for-4 in Sunday’s 8-7 win. He’s raised his OPS by 69 points during that span.

3. OK, so I lied. We’re still going to talk about prospects quite a bit. Kopech rattled off another impressive start Sunday, striking out nine and walking zero in seven innings of work. In the link at the top, of this post, James Fegan goes into detail about both the mechanical and mental adjustments he has made to break out of a midseason slump, and the results have shown in the form of 41 strikeouts against just 4 walks in 31 IP across his last five starts.

4. While the clamoring for a Kopech promotion will only grow louder as he continues to dominate, Dylan Cease has not ceased to impress even after his late-June promotion to Double-A. After Saturday’s 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB,  9 K performance, he’s now tossed 40 2/3 innings since his promotion with a 1.99 ERA, 58 strikeouts and only 13 walks. The buzz around Kopech and Jimenez is real and warranted, but Cease has been the most pleasant surprise of the White Sox minor league season. Jumping levels is one thing, but he’s also already soared past his career-high in innings pitched at 112 and counting.

5. Speaking of Jimenez, there was a bit of buzz on White Sox Twitter Sunday evening when he was scratched from the lineup in Charlotte right around the same time the White Sox announced that Leury Garcia left Sunday’s game with left hamstring soreness. It turned out to be a false alarm, as Jimenez was reportedly kept out because of flu-like symptoms. The hand-wringing continues.

Lead Photo Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

• It’s hard to imagine Eloy Jimenez will be facing Triple-A pitching for too much longer. After a 2-HR performance on Friday, the 21-year-old is hitting .351/.400/.622 in 20 games since being promoted to the level, and has shown no signs of being slowed by the left adductor strain that sidelined him at the beginning of the month. Jimenez’s presence is one of if not the most obvious reasons the second half of 2018 is compelling despite the White Sox standing, as a solid two or so months of a lineup featuring him, Yoan Moncada, and Tim Anderson will offer a further glimpse into the future.
• Speaking of exciting players who might soon be in Chicago, Michael Kopech has put together two really good starts in a row, which is something we haven’t been able to say much this season. The 20 strikeouts in 12 innings across two starts is cool, but nothing new. What is new is that he only walked one batter a piece in those two outings, which is certainly a good sign for a pitcher whose struggled with command throughout the season. Kopech’s struggles certainly gives credence to those who think he’s more late-inning reliever than ace-level starting pitcher long term, but we’re a long way from that becoming a reality. It would be surprising if he doesn’t get his first crack at facing a major league lineup at some point before this summer ends.
• While BP’s Midseason Top 50 doesn’t include this year’s draft class, first-round pick Nick Madrigal was ranked No. 33 on Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100, and he was the White Sox third highest ranked behind Jimenez and Kopech. Since joining the organization, Madrigal has been to the plate 36 times between the AZL and Low-A Kannapolis and he’s reached base 17 times. He’s walked twice, been hit by a pitch four times, and has struck out zero times. That Madrigal has found immediate success as a polished college bat at the lowest levels of the minor leagues isn’t exactly surprising, but him doing exactly as expected is certainly better than the alternative.
• James Fegan of The Athletic profiled minor league reliever Ian Hamilton, whose success this season has him knocking at the door of a major league opportunity. Hamilton dominated Double-A during the first two months of the season and has put up zeros across all but one of his 11 appearances since being promoted to Triple-A Charlotte last month. Hamilton was an 11th round pick after spending his senior season at Washington State as a closer, so his trajectory as a reliever has never been in question. But him ascending to the majors for the White Sox would be a solid developmental win.
• Dylan Cease has been the biggest bright spot among White Sox prospects this season. The 22-year-old has pitched to somewhat mixed results in his four starts since promotion to Double-A, but has at the very least showed the type of swing-and-miss stuff that’s worth dreaming on. Perhaps more importantly, Cease has stayed healthy throughout the season, and after his last start sits at 93 1/3 innings on the season, which is tied for a career high with another month and a half or so left in the minor league season.
• Not that this would necessarily be considered a “success,” but the White Sox finally made the move to put Carson Fulmer in the bullpen after the 24-year-old’s struggles continued even after his demotion to Triple-A. It’s a disappointing but not unexpected outcome for the 2015 first rounder, and while it’s far from a guarantee, the hope is that he can reinvent himself as a reliever to still be a reliable part of the next White Sox contender. He’s made five appearances since the transition, giving up a pair of runs in one of them but zeros otherwise. He’s walked three and struck out five in 6 1/3 innings of work. That’s very much a “scouting the stat line” report, but it will be interesting to see what’s said about Fulmer once scouts get a look at how his stuff plays out of the bullpen.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

1. It would be apt to describe Yoan Moncada’s first half as a roller coaster — albeit probably one with more drops than climbs — but he enters the All-Star break on one of those stretches of play that make it easy to see why he was and continues to be so highly regarded. As Nick addressed Sunday, his most significant funk can be traced back to a hamstring injury that kept him out for 11 days in mid-May, and his OPS dropped from .868 to a low-water mark of .683 at the beginning of July during that stretch. Sunday’s 3-for-4 effort, which included his 12th homer of the season, lifted that OPS up to .737, and he’s now reached base at least once in 12 straight games. Of his 16 hits during that span, seven have gone for extra bases.

I feel like every week in this space we’re writing some variation of “Moncada is struggling” or “Moncada is showing the goods,” but during an otherwise tumultuous first half, it’s certainly nice to end things on the latter.

2. Discussing Lucas Giolito of late has felt like defending your little brother who you just know has good intentions despite always putting himself in a position to make bad decisions. You’re grasping at any sign of optimism that maybe, this time, he’s turning over a new leaf. Giolito’s results have certainly been better of late, including 6 1/3 shutout innings in Sunday’s win over the Royals, but there’s still plenty of evidence that you should err on the side of caution in terms of hope for him putting it all together.

The six strikeouts, tied for his third most in a start this season, are nice, but he also induced just five swinging strikes against a very bad Kansas City lineup. And while he’s seen his ERA drop from 7.53 down to 6.18 over his last eight starts, Sunday’s start was only the third such occasion where he struck out more batters than he walked.

Finding the good and reaching for optimism during a half-season of mostly moribund results is certainly understandable, particularly when it comes to a player who came into the season with as high of hopes as Giolito. But while things are certainly looking better than they were the first two months of the season, consider me skeptical that he’s fully turned things around just yet.

3. During a first half where very few White Sox prospects made it out unscathed, Dylan Cease and Luis Alexander Basabe were two of the obvious bright spots. Cease, the second piece in the trade that sent Jose Quintana to the Cubs, and Basabe, the third piece in the deal that sent Chris Sale to Boston, elevated their prospect stock over mostly successful first halves, both jumping levels in the process, and both earning spots in Sunday’s Futures Game in Washington.

Basabe started in center field and hit lead off for the World team, putting him smack dab in the spotlight. After fighting off multiple high-90s fastballs from top Pirates prospect Mitch Keller in his first at-bat, he struck out on a curveball. In his second at-bat, against young Reds’ flamethrower Hunter Greene, he saw a slew of 100+ mph fastballs and , well …

Your browser does not support iframes.

Basabe also recorded an outfield assist in the first inning, gunning down Nate Lowe with a dart to second base after the Rays prospect tried to take advantage with a brief bobble on a single to center.

As for Cease, we didn’t see all that much but what we did see was good. He threw only eight pitches in recording two outs in his ninth inning appearance, striking out Rangers prospect Leodys Tavares before inducing a fly out against a Padres prospect you may have heard of.

Cease gets Tatis Jr. to fly out and the White Sox somehow simultaneously win the Quintana trade and the Shields trade.

— Collin Whitchurch (@cowhitchurch) July 15, 2018

It wasn’t much, but BP minor league editor Craig Goldstein was in attendance and liked what he saw.

Dylan Cease looked real good for two batters. 97-98, plus looking curve at 78. Also flashed a slider.

— Craig Goldstein (@cdgoldstein) July 15, 2018

4. BP’s lead prospect writer Jeff Paternostro was on the latest episode of The Catbird Speaks with Nick this weekend to talk White Sox minor leaguers on the heels of the release of our Midseason Top 50 Prospects list. The two discuss a lot of prospects including the command issues of Michael Kopech. Give it a listen!

Kopech has had an up-and-down season at Charlotte, as he’s battled control issues and struggled to go deep into the game more often that one would hope. On Saturday, though, he had perhaps his best start of the season, striking out 11, walking just one, and giving up just one run in six innings of work. Given how undeniably advanced his stuff is, at this point for Kopech the focus should be on him proving he can consistently command his pitches. That’s proven difficult for a good portion of the season, but Saturday’s performance showed exactly what he can do when everything is working.

5. It’s starting to become difficult to ignore another much less heralded White Sox minor leaguer. 2016 fifth rounder Jimmy Lambert earned a promotion to Double-A late last month after a strong first two months in Winston-Salem and has continued his solid level of play in Birmingham, the latest being a seven inning one-hitter on Saturday in which he walked two and struck out 10.

Lambert entered the season as essentially a non-prospect and kind of still is. The only national site that goes deep enough into the system to mention him is MLB Pipeline, and they currently have him at No. 28 in the White Sox system behind guys like Evan Skoug and Thyago Viera. He’s a low-ceiling kind of guy who, if everything clicks right, can probably carve out a career as a back-end starter. But right now he certainly seems on that trajectory, and finding major league contributors outside of the top few rounds of the draft or major J2 signings is a good and important way to supplement a roster when trying to build a contender.

Lead Photo Credit:  Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

BP’s prospect team released its Midseason Top 50 Prospects list on Friday (read the whole thing here), and the White Sox were about as well represented as you might expect, with Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease, and Luis Robert making the cut. That the two pitchers on the list are two of the White Sox prospects not befallen by injury this year is not surprising, nor is the inclusion of Jimenez or Robert, despite their injury woes.

There’s not much that can be written about Jimenez at this point that hasn’t already been said. After destroying Double-A for the better part of two months, he kept pace in Triple-A for a few weeks before being disabled for the second time this season with a strained left adductor muscle that isn’t expected to keep him out for a prolonged period of time. One can reasonable surmise that if it weren’t for that and the missed time during the first month of the season, he’d be ineligible for this list as he’d be in the majors already. Barring further setbacks, he’ll likely be in Chicago at some point this summer.

Kopech is another name that you might not have expected to be eligible for the Midseason Top 50 at the beginning of the season, but his command struggles have at least given some pause for a pitcher who still has No. 1 starter upside. Kopech has walked at least four batters in nine of his last 12 starts and failed to get through five innings in five of those. It’s both easy and foolish to scout the stat line, but those who watch him have expressed some concern about the fact that he hasn’t yet harnessed his command, as that will be the different between Kopech being the starting pitcher everyone hopes he can become and a pitcher whose stuff plays better in relief.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the White Sox trading Jose Quintana to the Cubs, and while Jimenez remains the prize of that trade, the continued progress of Cease has been perhaps the biggest bright spot for the White Sox farm system this year. After pitching a combined 162 innings in his first four years as a pro and never topping 93 1/3 in any single season as the Cubs handled him extremely carefully following Tommy John surgery in 2014, not only is Cease already at 88 1/3 innings in early July, he dominated High-A and hasn’t missed a beat in three starts since a late June promotion to Double-A. Pure stuff has never been the question for Cease, it’s been a question of both mechanics and command. He’s passed every early test the White Sox have given him so far and is starting to serve notice.

Robert is the biggest enigma of the group, just as he was before the season. After spending all of 2017 after his signing in the Dominican Summer League, he’s been limited to fewer than 100 plate appearances between Low-A and High-A this season, but has shown enough of why the White Sox gave him a $26 million signing bonus despite the limited action for him to remain one of the top prospects in the game.

BP’s lead prospect writer, Jeffrey Paternostro (who is doing a Q&A on the list at 2 p.m. CT today, follow along and ask questions here), has said on a number of occasions that the midseason list is constructed from scratch and not based on the Preseason Top 101 at all. Still, it’s tough not to compare the two. In the White Sox case, the most notable difference is with Alec Hansen, who checked in at No. 40 in the Preseason 101 and was omitted from this iteration. This makes sense if for no other reason than because Hansen hasn’t pitched much since that preseason list was constructed. He made just one appearance in the Cactus League before being shut down with a forearm muscular issue that wound up sidelining him for three months. He’s made five starts since his return and hasn’t quite returned to the form that shot him up the rankings a year ago.

Beyond Hansen, there aren’t a lot of players you could’ve expected to see. Luis Alexander Basabe is definitely trending up despite a rough start at Double-A, and Dane Dunning was likely close despite an injury that will sideline him likely through the end of the season. Blake Rutherford and Zack Collins are both having fine seasons and if this were a Midseason Top 101, might have made the cut.

Lead Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports