Arizona Fall League recap: Oct. 11, 2018

Nick Madrigal (Clinton Cole / FutureSox)

White Sox instructional league runs through Oct. 17, but the White Sox Nick Madrigal go home earlier this week to rest up after a long season.

Friend of the Podcast Jim Callis talked to Chris Getz about Madrigal, who spent a lot of his time in Arizona playing shortstop after handling second base almost exclusively in his first taste of pro action.

“We got a lengthier look at him at shortstop, and he was impressive,” Getz said. “He’ll play some more shortstop next year. He’s a pure plus defender at second base. He can be a Gold Glover there. Now we know he can play shortstop based on what we saw during instructional league, and that makes him even more valuable.

“He has good hands, he has good feet, and he has enough arm. He can be at least an average shortstop, maybe a little better than that.”

Surprise 10, Glendale 9

  • Luis Basabe went 0-for-3 with a walk, two strikeouts and a sac fly.
  • Luis Robert, 2-for-5 with a strikeout.
  • Laz Rivera was 0-for-4 with a walk.

More:

*Sean Williams at The Loop Sports has video of notable plate appearances by White Sox prospects, including:

*Basabe has found a world of confidence in his second year with the White Sox, James Fegan writes:

“That’s why I’m here, to put my name at the top,” Basabe said.

That’s the sort of confident one-liner that might sound more familiar coming from someone like Eloy Jiménez, whom Basabe made a point of watching and mirroring during their brief time together in Winston-Salem last year, but maybe was hard to see coming this quickly from him. That April, with his teeth still in braces, he was hugging close to then-teammate Louis Silverio and using him as an interpreter. By the end of that year he was frankly assessing in English the gradual progress in his game, and vocally cheering on teammates like Joel Booker, with whom he was ostensibly competing for center field reps. This spring he lauded the importance of working with a coaching staff that believed in his ability, and now, noticeably filled out and coming off a breakout season, he’s confidently declaring on his own that he doesn’t much like waiting for his shot in the majors.

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GrinnellSteve

I like Basabe’s confidence.