Chicago White Sox

Four picks to go.

That makes sense. Definitely doesn’t feel like we should be tapped out yet financially.

Jones should be a $7.5k signing. Hope for a couple more as that would imply something big in the 11th or 12th round. FWIW, Shirley specifically mentioned flexing their financial muscle through the 12th.

Burdette should be an underslot guy, although not an essentially free one like a college senior would be.

Is there another lengthy break?

I think you got to commit to developing Schultz in the majors.

Hodge and maybe some LatAm guys too

I still expect one more prep. Santarelli feels like he could still fit, although I’m lower on what I think he’ll cost than others.

Almost college players in the 5th. Makes sense to take who you like and then punt picks in the 6th & 7th if you have control over the preps you like.

What’s weird is that liking Jacob Gonzalez is apparently frowned upon despite Kiley McDaniel ranking him our 2nd best prospect and Keith Law referring to him as a potential star. I’m about as optimistic as it comes, but don’t think trading him for Landon Thome is good value. Sorry if that’s upsetting to you.

He’s a lot lower on several other boards. He’s not a true nepo pick though.

Let’s just call it $3.5M to work with. If so, I’m expecting one prep for like $2M and another for like $1.3M. They may save a little bit of cash for rounds 11 & 12 too since only dollars over $150k count against your pool and take a couple of college arms they like.

Ugh…that’s a major bummer. Now we really got to hope that Landon was a little bit below slot.

Where did you see this?

Also, my math on how we Should be closer to $4M to work with today IMO. Slot value of picks #5 to #10 is ~$2M. The 5% overage is another ~$1M. The real question is how much did we save yesterday. My conservative guesses are that Roch is $1.3M below slot, Landon is at slot, Prosek is $400k over slot, Volchko is $400k over slot, & Segura is $400k below slot. That would add another $800k and get us to right around $3.8M. I think it’s possible a few of those guys agree to slightly more favorable deals too.

Right now, I’d have Roch, Thome, Prosek, & Volchko all in the Top 20 with the first three all firmly in the top 8. I’d probably have Volchko right around Larson give or take a spot. Segura would not make the cut, but there is a high likelihood two or three more guys make it by the end of today.

There is a ton of talent still remaining in this draft and the White Sox should be sitting on one of the bigger piles of money. I believe it was ESPN speculating that the risk of potential changes in the next CBA making the draft more team friendly could encourage more preps to take money now and avoid college. I’ll guess we’ll see here soon enough, but should be an exciting day 2 for us.

I need to wait and see what Thome signs for before we can really say this isn’t just a 1x1 swap. I hope he took $500k below slot and those savings can be repurposed, but honestly am guessing he got the full $2.9M based on what his former teammate Fauske got from us last year.

God I love that Volchko pick.

A very conservative estimate would have us with at least $3.8M to work with for rounds 5 to 10. And it’s very possible that figure is actually above $4M. Baseball America’s Best Player Available is littered with HS guys. Archer Horn is the top rated player left and was linked to the Sox in a mock by Callis. Joseph Contreras is the top pitcher left and has an obvious Sox connection. Could he be the HS arm that Shirley said he liked? Either guy would cost $2M+ IMO. There are a ton of interesting preps though at what should be a wide variety of price points. Dominic Santarelli is probably the main name that stands out and I feel like his bonus demands should be much more reasonable. Landon Hodge was a similarly ranked prospect and got $1.1M last year. I feel like Dominic is close to a lock for us in the 5th or 6th for something in the $1.3M to $1.5M range. At minimum, it feels like we should be able to take two more meaningful swings today. And it’s possible that we take three swings if we decide to spread the money around and focus on HS guys in the $1.0M to $1.5M range. I fully expect at least three senior signings today to end the first 10 rounds to help facilitate. In all honesty, we didn’t really flex our bonus pool muscle yesterday outside of Prosek, so today has to make up for that. The Sox have consistently maxed out their spending in the draft in recent years, so there should be no concerns with us going cheap here. The money will be spent and it’s just a matter of how.

He’s also much more athletic than people realize. Interesting prospect that is still way under the radar.

Santarelli for sure…Contreras is harder to say given his potential bonus demands. I fully expect one or two more preps tomorrow.

Carlson 0-3 in the complex league

Boston Smith with another bomb.

Gabe Davis with four solid innings.