White Sox top pitching prospect Noah Schultz hoping to make big league debut this season
The White Sox will hold their first full-squad workout of spring training this weekend after position players report to Arizona on Sunday.
A 19-game improvement last season saw a lot of White Sox players make their Major League debuts, and one of the team's top prospects is working for that same opportunity this year.
With plenty of their key position players like Colson Montgomery, Miguel Vargas and new slugger Munetaka Murakami already in camp, manager Will Venable has liked what he has seen from this group, especially the way they're coming together.
"They're all connected, you know, and that's something that stood out last year. I've talked a lot about it, and I think that this group, the guys who have been here, they spent an offseason and they're very connected. Some of them lived together, were working out together. Then you add some new pieces who are guys who are also great human beings and fit right in. So I'm just really excited to get everybody in the same building, and just be here working on baseball," he said.
Venable has already communicated to top pitching prospect Noah Schultz that he will start the season at Triple A, after a bumpy and injury-plagued season between Double A and Triple A for the Oswego East High School alum last year.
"Going out, doing whatever I can to be the best teammate, the best pitcher I can. I think that there's choices that are made that I can't control, but I think that at the end of the day, I'm just trying to get better every day and get ready for the season," Schultz said.
"It's really about building really good habits in the weight room, in the training room, in their throwing programs, and building that foundation for really a nice year of good performance and good health," Venable said.
Schultz said he's worked on simplifying his mechanics. Noting that at 6'10", his limbs are so long, it's about keeping his delivery simple and easy to repeat as he tries to resolidify his position as a core piece of the team's future.
The White Sox are coming off a season in which they had the most one-run losses in baseball. Venable is hoping a revamped bullpen that now includes multiple guys who can hit 100 mph on the radar gun will help fix that.
"I love that, especially if it leads to outs, you know? It's nice to have some fuel in the bullpen there, and we'll see how it all shakes it out, but it's nice to have some guys who can throw hard for sure," Venable said.
Veteran reliever Ryan Borucki is competing for a spot in the bullpen. Being on the White Sox is a dream come true for the Mundelein native, who grew up a big fan.
"I remember posters everywhere. … There's a bunch of pictures in here that I used to have in my bedroom," he said. "That '05 team was … my whole family, we had a brick at the stadium, and it's still on my parents' mantle. Me and my brother used to just watch the White Sox all the time. We used to go to games all the time. So it was very cool," he said.
Borucki said he and his family love all things Chicago sports. In fact, he said, he recently re-watched the Bears beating the Packers again in the playoffs, and literally had chills.