Y2Jimmy0

Interesting updates. They have Madrigal as #3 in the class and give him 65Hit, 60RUn and 40Power. I've seen 20 power elsewhere. That changes things a bit if he can stay at SS. They have Singer at #2. With the rumors of Detroit possibly passing on Mize, I would hope that the Sox jump on that opportunity if given the chance. Mize is 60FB, 60SL, 70SPL and would be in the big league rotation at this time next year.

They are basically a High A team playing in Low A though. This is what happens when you draft as many college players as the Sox do

Did you read the article? He seems nothing like what you are suggesting. He may not stick at 3B but there aren't many worries with the bat

Keith Law released his top 100 today: http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/23583441/casey-mize-tops-mlb-draft-class He has similar concerns that I have about Nick Madrigal and Brady Singer and those are the two likeliest picks for Sox IMO. 11. Nick Madrigal, 2B, Oregon State. Madrigal missed about 25 games with a wrist injury but has performed when he has played, hitting .435/.496/.620 in 123 PA, with just four strikeouts this spring. He's an above-average runner whose arm and footwork limit him to second base, and at 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, he doesn't have or project to even fringy power. However, he has consistently been among the best hitters in college baseball since arriving at OSU and is one of the highest-probability big leaguers in the draft class. 21. Brady Singer, RHP, Florida. Singer has been famous since high school, when the Blue Jays took him in the comp round, but the two sides couldn't come to an agreement, so he matriculated at Florida and was an impact freshman in a swing role. Singer has performed well as a full-time starter the past two years, taking over Friday nights this year from Alex Faedo, though the stuff and delivery are both real negatives on his pro outlook. Singer will touch 95 but has pitched at 90-92 both times I've seen him, showing two breaking balls with a slider that's occasionally plus, but no changeup to speak of and real difficulty with left-handed batters. He has a short arm action that he repeats well but that puts stress on his shoulder, though his low 3/4 slot makes him very tough on right-handers. Some teams think he's a high-upside starter; I think it's more likely he's an impact reliever.

This happens all the time but if you listen to Callis talk about him, you'll come away wanting more. However, the Fangraphs guys are very high on him and aren't buying into their being defensive questions at 3B. The differentiation in the power grades is interesting too. Pipeline put a 55 on him but it seems that most other outlets put a 70 on the power

I wrote about Alec Bohm for today: http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2018/05/2018-draft-preview-alec-bohm/

Singer will not be taking an underslot deal. I actually think Kelenic underslot would be great. You could possibly sign Kelenic for like $5 million and potentially push a $3.5 million player to #46. I'm all aboard going HS early and often. Need to balance out this system.

Jim Callis mock draft at pipeline: https://www.mlb.com/news/college-players-lead-in-mlb-mock-draft/c-276190214?tid=151437456 He links the Sox to the college hitters but says they are also on Singer, McClanahan and Kelenic. 4. White Sox: Nick Madrigal, 2B, Oregon State Chicago figures to pick from the same group of hitters as Philadelphia, though it also is looking at Singer, South Florida LHP Shane McClanahan and Wisconsin high school OF Jarred Kelenic.

David Wildman is one of our writers at The Loop Sports. He recently published an interview that he did with Hostetler and there is some interesting draft stuff in there. It sounds like he's taking an extended look at Jarred Kelenic: https://theloopsports.com/2018/05/05/white-sox-director-of-scouting-nick-hostetler-talks-draft-prospects-and-ice-cream/ TLS: Are you able to tell me if you have a list right now of potential targets at number four overall? NH: Yeah we do, we’re probably at about seven or eight right now. Seven comfortably. There is another one that we’re looking at that could fit there as well, depending on how the season goes and the weather breaks, we could finally get in there and get us some good looks. So we’re about seven or eight right now that we’re digging our teeth into, and like I said before, so I’ll say it over and over again, with my staff I can essentially focus on all of this. What we do from a first pick I can sink my teeth into that, I trust my guys that they’re going to get all the right information on anything extra that we need for those later picks. The Loop Sports: The draft is in a little over a month. Where would you say you guys are right now? Nick Hostetler: We’re still with the northern kids. We’re still evaluating those guys. For really the first and second time just due to the weather. With the warm weather guys we’re running some different guys in there now just to get a different opinion. It’s kind of more of the monitoring situation now with the warm weather guys, we feel really good where we’re at with the amount of looks we’ve had, and we feel comfortable that even if the draft were today, we feel really good where we’re at as far as our evaluation process.

One of our writers at The Loop Sports, David Wildman just interviewed Hostetler and he had some interesting stuff to say about Collins: https://theloopsports.com/2018/05/05/white-sox-director-of-scouting-nick-hostetler-talks-draft-prospects-and-ice-cream/ TLS: Zack Collins has really picked it up lately, what do you think about him right now? NH: Yeah it’s been great. You know I love Zack, he started out slow this year. You know you’re a scouting director and as a scout you are personally involved in these players. And once you draft a guy you hang on to every single box score for your kids. You know, does he get a hit, does he strike out. So, Zack’s slow start was a little tough, and its funny, I talked to Zack and he laughed it off. He’s like, “don’t worry about it my timing, it’s getting there.” And about three days later, he starts raking. He sent me a text two days ago, two or three days ago after he had a two-hit game with a couple of doubles, maybe even a triple. I think it was the triple game. He actually said, “see I told you, you knew you drafted a good player, but I bet you didn’t know you drafted good speed too.” I mean, you got a 21-year-old, 22-year-old keeping it light-hearted when he’s struggling. You got to take a step back and take a breath. Trust the process. It has been a lot of fun to watch these guys. It’s going to be more fun once they end up in pinstripes.

.351/.460/.609 with 12 homers and 42K to 30BB at this point for Bart on the season

If true, what it tells me is they think Madrigal fits best as a 2B. They aren't going to move the likely face of their franchise in 2.5 seasons to another position to accommodate Nick Madrigal.

I need more power than that at 3B. Madrigal might be the best player available but you can't really take him unless you're confident he sticks at SS in my opinion.

http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=8328 He has the Sox taking Joey Bart from Georgia Tech: Also hearing them mostly associated with picking college players, but as with the Phillies they're unlikely to take Madrigal given their MLB middle-infield duo. Has Mize #1 to Detroit, Singer #2 to San Francisco and Alec Bohm to Philadelphia at #3

I'd be pretty surprised with Swaggerty as well. They've shied away from that type of profile lately.

I wouldn't be at all shocked with a high school player. Hostetler has spoken about taking the best player available but he's also said that they need to balance the system out a bit. They have too many college guys. I would not pass on Matthew Liberatore at #4. He's as safe as it gets for a HS pitcher and could move fairly quickly as a top to middle of the rotation LHP. I prefer his upside to one of the college hitters. I would also prefer Bohm though if going with a hitter.

I saw that Garfien stuff. Booker is 24-years-old and back in High A. It's better than the alternative but I'm not sure he's really a prospect

They would have last year if Mackenzie Gore made it down to them. Not the same caliber of prospect obviously but everything Hostetler has said publicly and privately is false if they've already ruled out HS pitching.

I wouldn't pass on Matthew Liberatore in favor of a college hitter other than Bohm.

I don't understand the overwhelming love for Madrigal at all. That would be a really underwhelming pick. They can't take him unless they think he can play SS. He has a 60 hit tool, walks a ton and can run. He's 5'7 with 30 grade power though. I also don't think the Sox move a guy who might be the face of their team and a perennial All Star caliber player to another position to accommodate him.

Zack Collins is an interesting dilemma of sorts. When we did our lists at FutureSox, I still had Collins at #5. I'd still have him in the top 10 if we re-did our rankings today. Collins looks very much out of sorts in the early going. He's trying to figure out his new swing while also keeping a similar approach at the plate. He was drafted to be a power/OBP guy so looking at his batting average is probably a futile way of analyzing him. We can all agree that his first 51 plate appearances in Birmingham haven't been good. He has 1 homer and he's striking out too much. His line is: .054/.294/.135. He has a BABIP of .056. For anyone that watches him play, you know that he just doesn't swing that often. He's almost too patient at times. I'm still a believer in the profile and I also think it's insane to call a guy a non-prospect after 51 PA's in any league let alone AA. I will rail against those that say he's never been successful though and focus on how bad he was last season. The facts are that he wasn't bad last year. He may not have lived up to the expectations and he definitely won't be a favorite of anyone still using batting average to determine how good a player is. In 2016, after being drafted, Collins posted a wOBA of .409 and a wRC+ of 151 in High A In 2017, he reported back to Winston-Salem and "struggled". His supposed struggles consisted of 426 plate appearances with a .367 wOBA and 130 wRC+ with 17 homers. He also went to AA Birmingham for a small 45 plate appearance sample last year. He posted a .414 wOBA and 166 wRC+. Not too shabby. Collins has been an enigma and constant target of criticism for quite some time now. Development is not linear as we've seen. He was also drafted as a college player so he has less margin for error. I still think the most important factor in Collins being a productive big leaguer though is staying behind the dish. The power/OBP profile as a catcher will work out just fine. If he has to play 1B or DH though, then yes he moves closer to being not much of a prospect. It's way too early to determine any of this though.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 11:59 AM) Cease hit the wall. Keep starting, but he may be David Robertson in the long run. He could be Craig Kimbrel like out of the pen

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 11:12 AM) Where are you seeing 21 players? I only see 5 listed at the top of the page? It said 21 when it was first released. I actually wrote more about Francees here: http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2018/...ees-from-aruba/ than Badler did . Crazy. They also signed 2 guys last week. https://twitter.com/JamesFox917/status/985674407535357953

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 10:05 AM) High School players aren't really the ones who sign underslot. That is typically a college kid thing where they have greatly reduced leverage as a junior who 99% for sure isn't going back to school. Royce Lewis went underslot at 1 last year. It's pretty common actually. For example, lets say one of the HS bats knows he's going in the 8-10 range and will make $4 million. They would absolutely sign with the Sox for $5 million saving the team $1.5 million for future picks. Most of these guys are't going to school and they know it.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/int...white-sox-2018/ I was hoping there'd be more in here. 21 signings total. Pimentel, Mendoza and Quintero have been discussed before. I was hoping for Francees and some of the lesser names.