Sox Pop on the Farm Podcast 58 — Birmingham Barons jumping straight to the majors — 2024-06-13

Sox Populi - A Chicago White Sox podcast

Once more it’s Brett Ballantini’s favorite week of the month, when he gets to again call on president and GM of the first-place Birmingham Barons, Jonathan Nelson. Somehow again talking during a tough series pitting the two best teams in the Southern League against one another (Birmingham and Pensacola), the two catch up on all the good coming out of Double-A:

• Stats review: Just how dominant have the Barons been?
• Drew Thorpe gets the call straight to Chicago ... and will his ability to pitch overshadow his lack of a “big arm?”
• Duke Ellis gets the call straight to Chicago. Jonathan feels some generational pride there, but also warns of the danger of speed like his ... to opponents
• Oh, and yeah, we’re just tossing out some crazy comps for these players
• Thorpe was great in Birmingham, but two starters (Mason Adams and Ky Bush) have been essentially as good
• No better way to patch a Thorpe-sized hole in your killer rotation than, oh, to call up the No. 1 pitching prospect in the system, Noah Schultz
• What’s the plan for Noah the rest of the summer?
• Looping back to speed, even with Ellis gone the Barons are stealing bases at a killer rate (85.8% success as a team, and they’re coming in bunches)
• What has surprised Jonathan most about this Barons team?
• And, what ho, as we wrapped up our podcast, the Barons had surged ahead in their Blue Wahoos brunch battle
• Plus! Bonus Jonathan Nelson content next week, when we run our Rickwood Field/Birmingham Black Barons podcast!

Follow Jonathan Nelson on Twitter @JonathanN_Bham, the Barons @BhamBarons, and find tickets to an upcoming Barons game by clicking this link.

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