Sean

Burke

Burke allowed a solo homer to Mitch Garver in the second, and two innings later Garver drove in a run with a sac fly. The southpaw was solid over his final two outings of the spring; allowing just three runs over 9 2/3 innings. He’ll be in the White Sox rotation, but he could only be recommended against the very worst lineups as a streamer, at best.

Burke lowered his spring ERA to 4.97. He was throwing more sinkers in his early starts, which seemed to get him into some trouble, but he backed off that tonight. Five of his 78 pitches against the Rangers were sinkers, which is basically a match for the five percent of the time he threw it last year. He was at 16% sinkers through three outings.

Burke struck out three batters on the evening and didn’t allow a base on balls. All of the damage done against him came in the opening inning as Burke allowed three straight doubles to start the game then a two-out, two-run homer to CJ Kayfus. He rebounded nicely though, working a pair of scoreless innings to end his night. Burke got five whiffs on 40 pitches in the contest, registering a strong CSW of 43 percent. His velocity, which was down slightly in his last start, was up a bit from last season’s average in this one (+0.5 mph). There’s potential upside to be had here, which makes Burke an interesting late-round flier in the final rounds of deeper mixed league drafts.

Burke racked up two strikeouts on the afternoon while issuing one base on balls. He retired the Brewers in order in each of the first two innings, but things fell apart for him in the third. There, he served up a leadoff homer to Luis Rengifo then issued a walk and two straight singles to push across another one. Burke then rallied to escape further damage, getting Brice Turang to fly into a double play. He got four whiffs on 40 pitches on the day, posting a strong CSW of 38 percent. Burke’s velocity on his fastball was down slightly in this one (-0.3 mph), but there’s no reason to be concerned.

Gilbert started Saturday’s game against the Nationals as the opener for the White Sox. He worked around a hit in the first inning, then left with a runner on with two outs in the second at 27 pitches. Sean Burke took over from there and gave up two runs over 4 1/3 innings while striking out ten batters.

Gilbert draws the starting assignment with Sean Burke shifting to a bulk relief role for Saturday’s penultimate regular-season contest against the Nationals. There’s zero fantasy impact here besides marginally increasing Burke’s win potential by virtue of him working slightly deeper into the contest.

Burke gave up six hits, walked none and struck out four. The 25-year-old right-hander’s loss was his 11th of the year. Burke threw 63 pitches, though the White Sox have mostly used him as a starter this season. He has a 4.29 ERA and 123/62 K/BB ratio in 130 innings this year. Burke is lined up to face the Nationals on the road in the last weekend of the regular season.

Burke did walk four, but he worked around those free passes with the only run allowed coming on a Jeremiah Jackson single in the third inning. The 25-year-old worked behind an opener again — Tyler Gilbert threw a scoreless inning to begin the game — and it was mostly effective. Burke likely works behind an opener again Sunday against the Padres.

Burke did well to keep runs off the board despite coughing up two homers and dealing with constant traffic on the bases. His fastball consistently got him out of jams though. It sat around 96 mph, nearly touched triple digits, and consistently forced swings-and-misses at the top of the zone while working as his put-away pitch. It’s encouraging to see him add velocity at this point in the season and that pitch can flash genuine plus qualities. The rest of his repertoire lacks though, which is something to work on this offseason. He’s scheduled to face the Orioles next time out.

Burke, 25, is up to make a start against Tampa Bay on Wednesday. The right-hander posted respectable-ish numbers prior to being demoted in August with a 4.28 ERA, but his inability to miss bats at a consistent level while pitching behind a bad baseball team makes him tough to justify as a fantasy option.