After a week off due to technical (get rid of the duck!) difficulties, Darren Black again joins Brett Ballantini to talk about the best of the White Sox affiliates, addressing the first two system Players of the Week, Loidel Chapelli Jr. and Wilfred Veras. So, Darren has managed to turn around his coverage record — and the fate of each affiliate — early on in 2023. What’s his secret, and does it involve pep talks? Veras, our most recent POTW, is up first, and what’s additionally notable to the “givens” (mashing the ball, dominating at High-A after splashing into Project Birmingham with no hiccups in 2022) is some of his high baseball IQ and defensive play We’re a week late on Loidel, who continues to impress in his first Stateside year. Sure, he’s an older prospect and is roughly age-appropriate for High-A, but is making a massive transition to a new culture. What does the front office see in players like Veras and Chapelli beyond filling the box scores? Kannapolis POTW Tim Elko is such a fun watch. Brett throws out a completely blind (but not necessarily inaccurate) Ron Kittle comp, and The Captain should be so lucky to have that impact given his swing-and-miss-but-also-go-boom game Birmingham POTW Cristian Meña (we have the question now in officially to the White Sox, tilde or no tilde, we’re guessing tilde) continues to burn it up. With a hat-tip also to Davis Martin, Meña has established himself as the Fast Riser among starting pitchers in the system Charlotte POTW Nate Fisher is exactly the kind of pitcher that made sense to sign into the system during the contention window (yeah, sorry, window’s closed ca. 2023), and Rick Hahn failing to do so (kudos for this year, but whatever) remains a true “deep cuts” failure of his GM tenure Injury roundup covers some big names, but the news is actually not as bad as you fear Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices