The White Sox starting rotation of the future remains unsettled as young pitchers have struggled and several have been sent to the minors. Jonathan Cannon and Opening Day starter Sean Burke were demoted to address inconsistency and to allow work on pitch usage and sequencing without the immediate pressures of major-league innings. Pitching coach Ethan Katz said minor-league assignments provide opportunities to try techniques and open additional avenues of development, stressing that starters must learn to use all four pitches to navigate lineups and pitch deeper. First-round lefties Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith have underperformed, while Shane Smith's All-Star emergence has reshaped plans amid a rough team season.
"When you go down to the minor leagues," pitching coach Ethan Katz said Sunday, "it gives you and opportunity to try some things that you maybe talk about up here that in the moment it's harder to accomplish, because you're trying to get through an inning and you're going to stick to what you feel is best, [as opposed to] trying to open up some other avenues.
First-round lefties Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith started the year as two of the highest rated prospects in baseball, seeming slam-dunk members of that rotation of the future, if not expected to top it. But they have disappointed this season, with Smith only just past 60 innings at Double-A Birmingham and Schultz struggling mightily since a promotion to Triple-A Charlotte, with a 10.13 ERA in four outings there, including the two innings he tossed Sunday in his return from the injured list.
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