We'll See

Chris Getz doesn’t want White Sox fans to focus on a third 100+ loss season. No, he sees the future, and it will be full of players from Double-A Birmingham, which repeated this week as Southern League champs. Maybe, but I wonder. The easy part will be, or should be, pitching. The Barons led the league with a ridiculous—by modern-day standards—2.99 ERA and fifteen shutouts; the 1237 strikeouts ranked second in the league. If Shane Murphy doesn’t get an invite to spring training after posting a 9-4 record for the Barons with a 1.38 ERA in 110.2 innings, there’s something wrong with the Sox front office. There are plenty of other Birmingham pitchers I’ve mentioned periodically who should also get a serious look-see, unless Getz thinks Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke are a tinker or two away from rebounding. In which case, he’d be in the marked minority. Now, for the hard part, the position players. Oh, the Barons have them, but are the Sox willing to bring them up anytime soon? Like 20-year old middle-infielder William Bergolla, who hit .286 and stole 40 bases? Or 24-year old infielder/outfielder Rikuu Nishida, who batted .273 with 40 stolen bases? Or 22-year old Sam Antonacci, who hit .292 with 21 stolen bases? Throw in what he did at High-A Winston-Salem, and Antonacci hit .284 with 48 stolen bases and 75 runs scored. Last and not least is 24-year old infielder Jordan Sprinkle, who played at the A- and High A-levels before being promoted to Birmingham. For the season, Sprinkle stole 80 bases in total. How are you going to keep them down on the farm if they keep stealing everything in sight? A more pertinent question is, what do you do with your major-league infield if the kids keep producing? Sox fans may rebel or boycott if subjected to another season that sees the likes of Jacob Amaya and Josh Rojas getting significant playing time. And they may not want to see Triple-A Charlotte being the team that gets an infusion of talent. Long story short, I can see people moving to the outfield, and it could include Colson Montgomery. I may even hope it includes Montgomery.