As the draft season has finally concluded, many of the White Sox draft picks will be assigned to Kannapolis, as that is the first minor league level. Most of the time, the draft picks will head to Arizona and work in the rookie leagues for a few games, but shortly after they make their way to low-A.
This means it becomes promotion season for the standouts in Kannapolis, as they have had some players with very good years. Here are some of the standouts this year for Kannapolis.
Mason Adams
Mason Adams is not a name that most people know, as he is not ranked on the White Sox top-30 prospects, but he will shortly become a name that people are familiar with if he continues his very good season.
He is having a great season working both as a reliever and a starter. As the tweet mentions, his lack of a true third pitch may limit him as a starter moving forward. Perhaps he could work as a long reliever in the meantime, as someone who can eat up a lot of innings is extremely valuable to any club.
So far this season, which is his first in the minors, he is 3-3 with a 3.65 ERA. He has 88 strikeouts in only 66 innings, which is an elite ratio.
He also only has walked 14 guys in those innings, which shows he has very good control of his pitches and something the White Sox desperately are in need of moving forward.
He is a name to keep an eye on as he could be promoted to high-A once all the new draft picks get assigned to their levels. If he continues to play well, he could be a fast-moving reliever in the White Sox system, which would help soften the blow from all the trades they will make out of the bullpen at the deadline.
Noah Schultz
Last year’s first-round pick, Schultz has been absolutely dominant in just his short time at Kannapolis. He has pitched so well that he has found himself on the top-100 prospect lists of many different outlets. His nasty slider has been absolutely dominating.
The Sox have slowly been ramping Schultz up, as they want to make sure that they are not putting too much on him right away. I have no problem with that as long as they begin to stretch him out to be a starter, as he is too talented to be in the bullpen.
So far in 7 starts, Schultz has been almost perfect. He has a 2.3 ERA in 15 innings and he has struck out 22 batters so far. That is some elite stuff. To make matters even better, he has only 2 walks. If he can keep this up he won’t be in Kannapolis much longer.
He had a 0 ERA through his first six starts and he finally just had a rough start where he gave up a few runs. He has been pretty much as good as you can be through your first 7 starts in the minor leagues.
He will take a bit longer to get to the pros as he was just drafted out of high school, but look for him in a few years to be competing for a rotation spot.
Great