GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Left-hander Noah Schultz characterized his first outing Friday against the Brewers as \u201ca good start to the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to continue to build off that,\u201d he said Saturday.<\/p>\n
How the 6-10 Schultz, the No. 49-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline whose frame and delivery brings to mind Randy Johnson, feels and performs this spring and beyond is paramount to the Sox\u2019 rebuild trajectory. You can toss the development of top pitching prospects Hagen Smith, another first-round left-hander, and righties Tanner McDougal and Grant Taylor into that snapshot of the future.<\/p>\n
Schultz hit a speed bump last season with patellar tendinitis in his right knee, adversely affecting mechanics and causing him to miss time the last three months of the season. In five starts over 16\u2153 innings following a promotion to Triple-A Charlotte, he walked nine batters and posted a 9.37 ERA.<\/p>\n
Over two innings of one-run ball against the Brewers, Schultz struck out three and walked no one. While showing a changeup he hopes to feature with his upper-90s fastball and slider, he touched 97 mph knowing there\u2019s a little more in the tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s spring, everyone is building up,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cYou always want to throw harder, but there are things more important than just pure velocity. After last year with the ups and downs and stuff, there\u2019s a lot of things I\u2019m working on and every week, go out there and show it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The knee \u201cfeels good,\u201d Schultz said, which was probably the most important thing to come out of it.<\/p>\n
Role model<\/p>\n
Right-hander Mike Vasil, who pitched 101 innings over 47 appearances last season, wants to start, but his value as a multi-innings reliever is significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Venable said. \u201cOur ability to utilize that last year was awesome. We had him pitch in every single role. He was starting the games, in the middle of games and at the end of games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vasil pitched three innings in his second outing Friday against the Rangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat versatility really helps us out,\u201d Venable said, \u201cespecially as you get going in the season and guys need rest and you have injuries that put constraints on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rest assured<\/p>\n
Andrew Benintendi was out a second consecutive day and could miss a couple more but gave assurances that his sore right side is not worrisome.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point in the spring we just want to be cautious,\u201d Venable said.<\/p>\n
SOX 7, GUARDIANS 5<\/p>\n
On his last day before leaving to play for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, Sam Antonacci DH\u2019d and homered in the first inning against Tanner Bibee. He also scored two more runs after getting hit by pitches. An infielder, Antonacci was hit 39 times in the minors and the Arizona Fall League last year.<\/p>\n
\u2022 All-Star righty Shane Smith allowed one run on two hits and a walk over three innings, completing the outing by throwing a slider past Jose Ramirez for his second strikeout. Smith said he \u201cfelt the rhythm was a little better in the delivery\u201d than it was in his first start. \u201cWas able to land some offspeed for strikes early on. Just located the fastball a lot better than last time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Miguel Vargas was 2-for-3 including an RBI single. The third baseman is 6-for-14 (.429) this spring. The Sox are 6-4.<\/p>\n
\u2022 On deck: Sox at Cubs, 2:05 p.m. Sunday, Mesa, 1000-AM, Anthony Kay vs. Shota Imanaga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Left-hander Noah Schultz characterized his first outing Friday against the Brewers as \u201ca good start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-599552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-white-sox","14":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116153018241556698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}