Tony La Russa Joins FutureSox RoundUp From Truist Field
Birmingham Barons
Tony La Russa was kind enough to join Elijah Evans and myself Thursday night on our FutureSox Roundup live stream from Truist Field during Noah Schultz’ Triple-A debut. Tony shared terrific insights on Schultz as well as many other Sox prospects. Unfortunately, the audio was a disaster, so I transcribed Tony’s insights so FutureSox patrons could enjoy. They were that good!
Tony is working as a special consultant to the White Sox. Based in Charlotte, he’s continually visiting all four Sox affiliates, scouting the growth of prospects. (I know Sox fans were furious when La Russa was named manager in 2021. But that doesn’t mean that the Hall Of Fame manager doesn’t have a keen eye when it comes to scouting. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have gotten to spend time with Tony in Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Kannapolis, and have learned so much about baseball from him.)
Our plan was to broadcast from a suite at Truist Field, but they were all sold out. So we set up on the concourse and took our chances. Oops. We’ll get it right next time!
Here is a recap of our FutureSox interview with Tony, paraphrased at times because of poor audio.
La Russa on Noah Schultz’s first start in Triple-A: It was a learning experience. He has a good arm. But he made some mistakes with his breaking pitches. And he made a common mistake for young pitchers. They think if they can throw a breaking pitch for a strike, it is going to be an out. But it is not enough to throw them for strikes. If they don’t have a good downward break, they get hit hard. He can get a fastball on either side of the plate. He got a little predictable against lefthanders. He showed some good breaking pitches. He also showed a changeup. Nowadays, guys are so focused on hitting velocity that an offspeed pitch like a changeup can really be a difference-maker. He is a great talent and is going to be a very good pitcher. His changeup was outstanding.
On Bryan Ramos: It happens so much with these guys. They start trying to hit home runs instead of getting base hits and making hard contact, and it works against you. But, here lately, Ramos looks more like his old self. He’s a smart guy and he’ll make the adjustments. Try to hit for a high average and the home runs will come.
On Colson Montgomery: I can see the work he did with Ryan Fuller is giving him a better chance for success. Like a lot of guys, their swing gets bigger because they know in this ball park, if they get the ball in the air, it will go out of the park but that is counterproductive to making hard contact all the time. If he just hits more hard line drives, he’ll hit more home runs.
On Jacob Gonzalez: Lately, he is performing more like he was last year. Last year, he was a good hitter. But he’s another guy who began selllng out for power. He might have been a little discouraged. He wanted to come to Charlotte and he is back in Double-A. But lately he has been looking more like himself hitting line drives all over the park.
On Tanner McDougal: Not only does he have nasty stuff but it is more than one pitch and he commands it in tough-to-hit areas of the plate. He’s going to move quickly, just like Grant Taylor.
On Grant Taylor: He can throw the ball up in the strike zone for strikes or down for strikes. But he has offspeed pitches too, batters just can’t sit and wait for his fastball. He gets a lot of outs on breaking pitches. Just got to keep him healthy and he’s going to be a major force.
On Sam Antonacci: If the organization is smart, and the White Sox are, they’ll recognize that a player like Sam is a complementary player. He’s going to start a rally, he’s going to advance a runner, and if he has a chance to drive in a run, he’ll hit a line drive some place. We had a guy named Placido Polanco, he was the same type of player and he had a great career. Sam can, too.
We talked briefly about the overall depth of the farm system. Tony praised George Wolkow and Braden Montgomery but also singled out Ryan Galanie and Antonacci.
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