Y2Jimmy0

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.

I really wish there was a high school position player to take underslot at #4. The college bats have risen throughout the process just like they always do. They just have no margin for error. Alec Bohm will be 22 years old in August. If he has any setback at all, then he isn't debuting in the big leagues until he's 24. Madrigal has to stay at SS. Swaggerty is solid too but he just doesn't seem like a guy good enough to go #4. If they could sign their favorite HS position player or even Liberatore for like $5 million, that might be the best play. I'm expecting them to take a college bat at this point though.

QUOTE (cjgalloway @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 07:08 PM) Yeah Collins is starting to turn into a non-prospect for me too... Apart from the walks I don't see how people like him Non-Prospect?

Collins walked 3 times last night and all anyone ever talks about are the strikeouts.

QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 02:10 PM) I thought he was in charge for Fulmer. Even so, the track record is poor. I don't think that Collins has hit above .260 at any level. Actually I looked it up and his best season average wise was his draft year, which he hit .258 in Kanny. He hit .230 last year. I don't think he's a major league hitter if he can't crack .240 at A+ Stop focusing so much on batting average. Collins had a .367 wOBA while struggling at High A last year and a .414 wOBA after a limited sampling in AA. He hit 20 bombs, struck out a lot and walked a ton. He had a 130 wRC+ while "struggling" in High A as well. I'm not going to sit here and say he's fine but his struggles have been very overblown.

QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 10:52 AM) They still can't scout amateur talent very well. Fulmer and Collins were pretty bad picks. Jury's still out on Burger. Even Anderson and Rodon are iffy. They don't have the greatest track record to say the least, so you kinda have to approach it from the "who is most likely to not completely f*** up" perspective. I chalk Hansen up to blind squirrel/nut. Hostetler has only been in charge of the last two drafts. I think it's a tad early to make any generalizations about Burger or Collins personally. He and his staff did not draft Rodon, Anderson or Fulmer though. I don't think it's fair to say for sure that they can't scout amateur talent. There are some things that they've done in the last two drafts that I don't like but I think it's entirely too early to state anything one way or another.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 08:33 AM) I hope the Sox do not select a HS kid with #4. Too much can go wrong with a HS pitcher, and until the organization can prove it actually can develop a good major league hitter, I'd rather they draft a position player that high that is a bit more advanced. If they want HS guys to try to balance it out, go crazy with the rest of the picks. They have to hit on #4. I would have to be pretty certain that Nick Madrigal could stay at SS in the big leagues to take him at #4

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 08:42 AM) With few exceptions, they are playing all around awful. The errors, baserunning gaffes, are occurring almost every game and by the boatload. It is one reason I want the Sox to draft Madrigal. Probably comparing him to Altuve is unfair, but little guys do flourish. He could be a RH Adam Eaton who can play middle infield. And on top of it, his baseball IQ is supposedly off the charts. It's one thing this team needs. Saladino is probably the highest baseball IQ on the roster. He hardly plays. I'd say Yolmer is probably next, and it's up in the air if he really is a regular player on a contender. Everyone else is iffy. I think its a big need. Maybe some of his baseball smarts could rub off on others. I'd have to be quite confident that Nick Madrigal could play SS in the pros for me to take him at #4.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Apr 13, 2018 -> 10:38 AM) Shouldn't this be pinned ? It should be. I don't have that kind of power though haha

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2018 -> 11:17 AM) Apologies in advance, some of the embedded tweets seem to not be working in the article. We are investigating. The rest of the article is just fine, it just may look weird in some places regarding tweets. The embedding has been taken care of. It is now fixed.

We will be releasing an article this week detailing FutureSox Night this year. It's an OF ticket and patio party on Wednesday June 13th 2018 vs Cleveland. The total ends up being $52.68. IT includes game ticket and patio ticket which gives you unlimited food and beer from 5:40-7:40 on the patio. More details are coming and Matt is working on final approval for a charitable donation that we are making. I wanted to post the link in here though just in case anyone wants to get tickets. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/tickets/specials#future-sox UPDATE: We are official, and here are the details. Go take a look, and come out to join us!

QUOTE (GenericUserName @ Apr 12, 2018 -> 01:44 PM) From the guys I could find any info on, they seem to be older prospects. Considering several were pitchers, they are probably guys who developed late and are just being discovered now. Also, for signings under $10,000 (which many of these older ones probably are) the money doesn't count against the bonus pool, so we could be out of money and still sign those guys. I'm going to create a post for FutureSox as soon as Badler's international review goes up

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 11, 2018 -> 10:18 AM) The bullpen sucks. I'm not sure that actually qualifies as a hot take.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 10, 2018 -> 08:38 AM) Bulls basically locked up #7 last night. Need some luck for #6 They have to lose to Detroit though. If they beat Detroit and NY loses to Cleveland while Brooklyn loses to Boston, they are all tied at 28-54. If Bulls lose to Detroit and Sacramento beats Houston with all their guys resting then they tie for 6th.

Apparently the Sox have some huge charity event tomorrow night so they can't play two tomorrow.