Chicago White Sox

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Huge news on Wikelman. He was getting close to snagging to bullpen role with the Sox before the lat injury…hopefully he can find his form fast and force his way onto the major league club.

I swear someone posted that Teel went yard in his first at-bat sometime this morning and I said to myself “Charlotte didn’t play yesterday, so how is that possible?”. Now I’m super confused I actually read that post or not…lol.

I live six houses down from him, so am very biased on this matter, but I really wanted the kid with one of our second round picks. I kind of wonder if they were originally trying to get him at 68 instead of Blake Larson, but had to pivot once they decided to go with Hagen instead of Konner Griffen. Sloan got $1.6M more than Larson, which is about the difference that Hagen got vs. Konner. Imagine if we had come out of the 2024 draft with Griffen, Bonemer, Sloan, & Antonacci. I know the Mariners were incredibly aggressive in their pursuits of Ryan so maybe $3M wouldn’t have gotten him to us, but financially this would have been feasible and we know Shirley wanted Griffin for sure.

That’s totally fair…I’m just pointing out that Sloan is a big time player, just of the minor league variety.

Sloan is one of the best pitching prospects in baseball as a 20 year old in AA.

Shirley has proven himself to have a keen eye for talent and I have as much confidence in him as I do anyone in the organization. However, regarding the Smith selection, I think part of the overrule came down to infrastructure and Chris being worried about our ability to develop hitters at the time. I badly wanted a positional prospect during that draft, but I can kind of get why Getz would have gone with the LH pitcher given our success there. Unfortunately, it appears Getz was off on how fast he could improve our hitting infrastructure and we have likely lost out to some extent on that pick.

I think he was speculating on what the front office might think given floor and proximity to the majors. The big takeaway is Shirley and his crew like Emerson the most. Callis also said he personally would take Emerson over Roch. Sounds like Lackey is a clear third for him, although he acknowledged Vahn forced himself into the discussion with his play this year.

Jim Callis says our scouting department prefers Emerson over Cholowksy, but that the front office may prefer going the college player route. His odds right now are 45% Roch, 40% Emerson, & 15% Lackey.

Need Teel back so badly…not sure I can endure much more of Romo hitting

This should take him out of the major league rotation plans for the rest of the year. Obviously there is a non zero chance he can help sometime in August or September, but you can’t really plan around that now. Realistically, if all goes well, maybe he could factor into bullpen mix if we make the playoffs.

Straight to AAA is good news

Ian from Future Sox said A ball for both, but wasn’t sure if high or low

His ERA jumped up quite a bit in June & July, but dropped a bunch after that to end the season. Regardless, the talent to be a really good starter is in there. His 2.2 fWAR last year does not reflect the type of ceiling he has. If the Sox can fix him, which is a big question mark, he’d huge addition for this club.

I did watch the first 30 minutes of your latest podcast, so I may have gotten it from there. Either way, I’ve been a huge Sloan fan for a while now and kind of lean that way. Just always scary trading a positional prospect the caliber of Bonemer.

This is outside the box and wouldn’t help us all that much this year, but what about a Caleb Bonemer for Ryan Sloan trade? I’ll admit I stole this idea from somewhere (maybe even here!), but it immediately piqued my curiosity. Who would say no…the Mariners or the Sox? How would people feel about trading a kid with the offensive ceiling of Bonemer?

Ideally we go Roch or Lackey in the 1st, Thome in the 2nd, overslot HS prep pitchers in rounds 3 & 4, and a whole lot of college pitching thereafter. Kannapolis’ lineup is young and guys may need to repeat. And there is some talent in the ACL and possibly DSL that will be ready for full season shots next year. Throw in Thome and I think we can survive one pitching heavy draft.

Great stuff! Antonacci is the real deal offensively and should be our leadoff hitter for the next half decade. Defensively, I’ve actually been impressed with him in LF so far this season. Obviously the instincts / initial reads haven’t been perfect, but I feel like he’s ran pretty good routes and has made some fantastic plays out there. I think with reps he can be a plus fielder out in LF.

Depends on which version you get. Smith had high’s & low’s last year, but was legit awesome to end the season. If you get that version, he’s a legit #2 starter. The problem is you may not get more than the AAA fodder version of Shane. But if he can back to AAA fairly quickly, there is plenty of time to see what you have in him before the deadline.

For reference, when I look at the AA rotation listed on Roster Resource I see three non-drafted free agents and one minor league free agent. That leaves two guys who were drafted by the Sox or signed as international free agents in Gabe Davis (5th round pick) and Lucas Gordon (6th round pick). Back in 2024, the Barons’ rotation consisted of Noah Schultz, Drew Thorpe, Mason Adams, Jairo Iriarte, Ky Bush, Jake Eder, Tyler Schweitzer, & Riley Gowens. Every single one of those guys made 10+ starts for the Barons. Just a massive fall-off in terms of talent. Obviously that 2024 AA rotation was highly inflated due to a lot of sell-off trades, but take half of them and it would still blow the 2026 version out the water. And the real problem is the High A & Low A rotations reflect the same types of talent, which is a lot of undrafted free agents, college Sr. picks, and other draft picks in the 11 to 20 rounds. There is only one LatAm signing in any of the three rotations I mentioned. LatAm has always been a problem to some extent, but it shows its ugly face much more when don’t have a regular reinforcements.

Great stuff @BamaDoc !

His barrel rate is up because his launch angle sweet-spot rate is much better YoY, going from the legit 1st percentile (i.e. very worse in baseball) to the 38th percentile. And while down YoY, he’s still 82nd percentile in squared-up rate. His lack of bat speed will always limit his power numbers, but he’s at least a +.100 ISO guy now and I fully believe that sticks. I don’t think it will materially change though as he’s physically I agree he’s closed to maxed out. I do think there is room for improvement in terms of contact & plate discipline though as he continues to settle into this new approach. I truly believe he has two elite offensive traits in bat-to-ball skills and plate discipline and then will continue to improve with time and offset any batted ball luck we are seeing now.

His launch angle and barrel rate are materially different. For a guy with elite bat to ball skills, tweaking your swing / approach can lead to materially more power without adding a ton of bat speed.

From this fans’ perspective, he may be the most important member of the clubhouse. Seems like he brings the energy and Colson is BFF’s with him. I’d rather not trade him under any circumstance.

What’s crazy is I still think there is room for growth. Yes, some of his expected numbers suggest regression will be coming, but I also think he’s still developing as a hitter who is trying to get more impact with his swing. The ISO is up YoY as he’s improved his launch angle and barrel rate, but that’s come at a bit of a cost when it comes to contact & chase. I think with another year of playing time he’ll find a way to maintain his improved power while enhancing contact & walk rates to some degree. His fWAR may not change vs. his SL projection today, but my hope is he will offset any regression and remain a 2.5 to 3.0 win type player.