Chicago White Sox

If he becomes a top 5 reliever he’ll be worth his weight in gold. I didn’t love the pick at the time, but actually kind of like it with hindsight (assuming he comes back healthy).

But that just underlies the riskiness of pitching prospects. Meanwhile, Madrigal’s package of a 70 grade hit tool, plus speed, & plus 2B defense are likely to lead to a solid major league player with game power being the one wild card that could radically change to that projection to something special.

It’s not just this board as Fangraphs has him as the 13th ranked prospect with a FV of 45+. I believe Law is down on him as well. Perhaps you guys are right and he is the victim of prospect fatigue. For me, I just like Madrigal & Bohm better and think college position players are generally the way to go this high in the draft unless there is a college arm with TOR potential. I’d be all over Mize at #4 if available, but I simply don’t feel Singer has the same kind of upside.

I thought it would be fun to do a quick review of the picks the Sox have made under Hostetler. For clarity, Nick took over the draft process in 2015, but according to FutureSox it was Doug Laumann who handled the first pick (Carson Fulmer). Therefore, I'm excluding that pick from his record. For this exercise, I'll be listing all picks in the top 10 rounds of each draft and any other of significance. 2015 Draft 4. Zack Erwin, LHP 5. Jordan Stephens, RHP 6. Corey Zangari, 1B* 7. Blake Hickman, RHP 8. Casey Schroeder, C 9. Ryan Hinchley, LHP# 10. Jackson Glines, OF# 12. Seby Zavala, C 15. Chris Comito, * 22. Danny Mendick, SS 27. Alex Katz, LHP Comments: Obviously not making the 1st round pick and not having 2nd or 3rd rounders is going to make the results look a little worse. However, there are a couple of decent picks here, in particular Stephens in the 5th & Zavala in the 12th. Mendick in the 22nd could also be considered a pretty good find. Couple other things to note. First, Erwin & Katz were used in trades, the former in the Brett Lawrie deal & the ladder in exchange for nearly $800k in slot money. Second, Nick only selected/signed two high-school players and both to over-slot deals. It remains to be seen what we have in Zangari, but the early results weren't overly promising prior to his injury. 2016 Draft 1. Zack Collins, C 1. Zack Burdi, RHP 2. Alec Hansen, RHP 3. Alex Call, OF 4. Jameson Fisher, OF 5. Jimmy Lambert, RHP 6. Luis Curbelo, SS* 7. Benardo Flores, LHP 8. Nate Nolan, C 9. Max Dutto, SS# 10. Zach Remillard, 3B# 11. Ian Hamilton, RHP 12. Mitch Roman, SS 20. Matt Foster, RHP 22. Joel Booker, OF Comments: Now this has the chance of being a special draft. Those first three picks all have the potential of being impact major leaguers. Collins is currently 3rd in the Southern League with a wRC+ of 167. Burdi struck out nearly 14 batters per 9 in AAA last year, has three plus pitches, and projects to be an elite back-end reliever. And Alec Hansen, who led the minors in 2017 with 191 Ks, has legit TOR potential. Getting three players of that caliber (still early I know) would be a huge win in any draft, but beyond on that there are several other players of note. Lambert & Flores are both having good to solid seasons in the Carolina League, with Jimmy sporting a 2.77 FIP so far. Ian Hamilton is dominating AA and looks like another future back-end option in the bullpen. Call has regained some prospect shine with a solid start to the 2018 season. However, the real wild card here is Curbelo. Luis was Hostetler's only high school pick and a well-above slot signing. Now playing 3B for Kannapolis, the kid has the tools to rapidly move up the organizational rankings. 2017 Draft 1. Jake Burger, 3B 2. Gavin Sheets, 1B 3. Luis Gonzalez, OF 4. Lincoln Henzman, RHP 5. Tyler Johnson, RHP 6. Kade McClure, RHP 7. Evan Skoug, C 8. Sam Abbott, 1B* 9. Craig Dedelow, OF# 10. JB Olsen, RHP# 11. Will Kincanon, RHP 12. Justin Yurchak, 3B 13. Tate Blackman, 2B 14. Alex Destino, OF 17. Blake Battenfield, RHP 21. John Parke, LHP 28. Laz Rivera, SS Comments: Still way too early to jump to any conclusions here. Losing Burger for the year hurts and his injury adds further skepticism of playing 3B long-term. Sheets has demonstrated excellent plate discipline in High A, but has yet to demonstrate his plus power potential. The vast majority of these picks are college guys now playing in Low A. While the numbers for these guys are generally good to insane (Luis Gonzalez's wRC+ of 168), everything must be taken with a grain of salt until they reach a more age appropriate challenge in High A. Regardless, there is a lot to be optimistic about including 28th pick Laz Rivera looking like he just may be a thing. Couple other comments. Once again, Hostetler only selected one high school player, but Abbott wasn't a huge over-slot signing. What's stranger is Hostetler signed multiple college picks to over-slot deals. These include Sheets +$600k, Gonzalez +$120k, Johnson +$50k, McClure +$70k, & Skoug +$100k, along with Kincanon, Yurchak, & Destino each counting $25k against the pool.

One thing that worries me about Hostetler is he’s super big into intangibles. If you listen to him in interviews, he mentions the great lengths his team goes to to better understand each player’s character, drive, etc. He specifically mentioned in I believe the Garfien podcast that there wasn’t much separating his top seven and it could come down to intangibles. And I’ve watched that Singer rain delay video a couple times now and I’m like “I bet Hostetler is all over this kid”. Just seems like the type of kid Hostetler would value above the traditional tools.

This x 1,000,000,000,000,000.

I agree. Cheers for the mods for (hopefully) not suspending me!!

And look where it fucking got us. Honestly, open your fucking eyes or shut the fuck up, because you can’t have it both ways. We were mired in mediocrity while going for it and had a bottom five farm system to boot. If we did not rebuild when we did, we’d probably be looking at a 5 to 10 year rebuild in the near future just to become decent again. If all goes right now, we should be a legit World Series contender within three years. So if you aren’t on your death bed, for the love of god stop your fucking whining and give this rebuild a chance to actually work. And shame on me for wasting two minutes of my life responding to your ignorant, attention seeking ass.

Zavala in the 12th is probably our best recent example IMO.

What reports are you referring to? The report from the one start where his velocity was down? He pitches in the low to mid 90’s and his fastball probably averages around 93 MPH with heavy sink. You’re seriously underestimating because one outlier scouting report.

Don’t the players still have a vote? If so, no way he doesn’t win at least the backup 1B spot in the AL.

The Indians have three picks in between us too.

Pitchers don’t need a lot of time in AAA IMO, so I’m ok with him getting a call-up if he has a couple more strong starts in the coming weeks.

Don’t let Jack Parkman see this, I wouldn’t want to ruin his completely logical argument for why Dunning is doomed.

Thanks, that’s where I saw it. I might be wrong about the reason, but regardless it’s more likely IMO that a Midwestern prep could fall to #46 than your typical high school prospect. I’m not ruling it out just yet.

Good post. Obviously incredibly unlikely scenario but I swear I read somewhere that teams were getting cold on Schnell because of his Louisville commitment so maybe there is a non-zero chance he slips? You’re right, money becomes as issue at that point, but the difference in slot value between #46 and the first set of comp picks is only $400k to $600k. A couple senior signings in rounds 8-10 plus maybe some slight savings with our first pick (they could shop it a bit to guys in our general range) could get us there. Maybe that’s not enough, but perhaps joining an organization relatively close to his hometown is appealing. I agree it’s a long-shot, but I’m not completely giving up hope.

Madrigal in the 1st & Schnell in the 2nd sounds like a fantastic first day for me!

I would never suggest drafting for need, but Beer just doesn’t make much sense for us given where the organization currently stands. We’re flush with OF and potential 1B/DH talent and my guess there will be other prospects in the draft ranked pretty similarly that would provide better depth.

Well one, we’re not necessarily following their models (see my other post). But my point about adding Machado or Harper is about fundamentally changing the franchise and tapping into its potential. And the best way to do that is add multiple, star caliber talents. A hypothetical core built around Machado, Moncada, Jimenez, & Robert (again, if all goes right) could set the city on fire and gain national attention. Those are four potential superstars on one team. The rebuild isn’t necessarily going to live or die on adding Machado or Harper, but it sure as shit would reinvigorate a fanbase and hopefully steal some much needed attention/share from the Cubs.

You caught me. I’m clearly Rick Hahn because I can’t tolerate all your whining about losing so many games in the second year of a rebuild.

Abreu will most definitely make the All-Star game.

What he said isn’t factually untrue, but revenue wise we’re a mid market team. Having said that, there is major market potential in there. It would take a lot of money, time, & effort to tap into it, but the upside is most definitely there. I’m not a Reinsdorf hater by any means, but not sure it happens under his watch unless he can land a Machado or Harper next offseason. That’s the type of move that is needed to re-engage our fanbase and steal some of the casual segment.

I’m not sure I follow. We are executing our own rebuild strategy and it’s a little bit different than all those that came before it. Our plan should (hopefully) work for us and allow for a relatively quick turnaround. We were able to execute our strategy because we had multiple high-end assets and that we cashed in at peak value. That is a fairly unique scenario. Comparing our rebuild to the Cubs & Astros or Royals & Pirates doesn’t make a lot of sense other than to acknowledge some losing is required upfront while you wait on prospects to reach the scene & develop. Our timeline isn’t dependent on multiple years of high draft picks and therefore should be accelerated if all goes right.

Those are small market teams that tried rebuilding solely through the draft. That's not typically a recipe for success. We're a mid market team that traded its core assets for a boat-load of high-end prospects, many of which were partially developed already. These comps aren't even remotely comparable.

I’d put my money on ElRockin.