Without Ishbia bucks and the strong possibility of losing Mune, you take Lackey’s power and move Teel to another positionor trade him for pitching with Gonzalez and/or Carlson.

Problem is Teel’s value is depressed now, só off-season trade in all likelihood.

Fathom does have a point…look at all those Oregon State kids, Kwan at least until this season was the best choice of all and the lowest rated prospect along with Madrigal’s DP partner Cade Grenier.

But same arguments hold for UCLA. Gasparino could be a star or total bust.

8 hours ago, fathom said:

I’m disappointed in the lack of Charles Johnson comps solely due to race

What are you talking about?

3 hours ago, oldsox said:

What are you talking about?

Comp: JT Realmuto

A high average, plus defensive catcher, with above-average power, and elite athleticism for the catcher position? JT Realmuto is the only correct answer for that profile type.

https://pitcherlist.com/mlb-comps-for-the-2026-draft-class/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwinw7W_ls2UAxWCI0QIHQ4zMZkQFnoECAgQAg&usg=AOvVaw3JOEXIsSV9rOugYDn62RWf

"This spring, he has raised his average exit velocity from 89.3 to 92.7, his barrel rate from 17.1% to 27%, while maintaining his elite contact rates and improving his chase rates. That improvement has raised his isolated power from a measly .153 to .329, which is 97th percentile in all of college baseball. After stealing 18 bases last spring, he has also thrown in nine this year for good measure. Every part of Lackey’s game that evaluators loved is still there, and every concern has been answered. He has the potential to be one of the best all-around catchers in the sport if his upward trajectory is maintained in professional baseball."

Edited Friday at 03:12 PM4 days by caulfield12

Top Ten Black Catchers of All Time Part 2 (#5 - #1)

This is the second article in a series where I will rank the top ten Black baseball players at each position.

By the way, Charles Johnson was only eighth.

So let's go with Josh Gibson, lol.

Who was "only" second...Roy Campanella the other obvious name was third.

Unicorn.

https://twinsdaily.com/minnesota-twins-free-agents-trade-rumors/mlb-draft-notes/vahn-lackey-gaining-momentum-for-twins-with-third-overall-pick-r357/

"His rise has not been a traditional one. Lackey was a late bloomer in high school and did not receive Division I offers until his senior year. Even in college, his development trajectory has continued to trend upward as he has added polish to both sides of his game.

Defensively, scouts believe there is still more room for growth..."

Edited Friday at 03:25 PM4 days by caulfield12

Lackey seems to have a lot of helium of late. If they truly think he can handle CF, it becomes an interesting debate.

4 hours ago, oldsox said:

What are you talking asbout?

making an obvious joke about the last black american catcher of note? nothing malicioius in that. it's like when every white euro player was compared to peja or ginobili for awhile. it's just sports cliches.

Just now, chitownsportsfan said:

making an obvious joke about the last black american catcher of note? nothing malicioius in that. it's like when every white euro player was compared to peja or ginobili for awhile. it's just sports cliches.

No love for TA?

Drafting him and then moving him off the hardest defensive position would certainly be a choice. One I would hope not even the Sox would be foolish enough to try.

39 minutes ago, ChiSoxFanMike said:

Lackey seems to have a lot of helium of late. If they truly think he can handle CF, it becomes an interesting debate.

Some of us been on Lackey since March.

3 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Drafting him and then moving him off the hardest defensive position would certainly be a choice. One I would hope not even the Sox would be foolish enough to try.

I think it's an interesting situation. Catching depletes athleticism because of it's physicality and can limit games. If you could be a ++ Base runner and defensive CF'er, for example, while getting your bat in the lineup and elongating your athletic window it wouldn't be the craziest thing ever but I agree, given his defensive ceiling behind the plate it would be pretty out there to move him.

You move him in a few years if he keeps getting banged up. Otherwise you park him at catcher for a decade. No reason to try and "preserve" a stud catcher in his early 20s.

3 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Some of us been on Lackey since March.

This.

Lackey has had a massive up arrow most of the season. While not universal, there's a decent scouting contingent that thinks he could be the best player in the class. We just haven't heard much smoke with him and the White Sox (which is why the thread title change doesn't make sense). They just might not view him in the tier of Roch/Grady, which is fine.

Edited Friday at 05:02 PM4 days by DirtySox

9 minutes ago, DirtySox said:

This.

Lackey has had a massive up arrow most of the season. While not universal, there's a decent scouting contingent that thinks he could be the best player in the class. We just haven't heard much smoke with him and the White Sox (which is why the thread title change doesn't make sense). They just might not view him in the tier of Roch/Grady, which is fine.

If they were going to take him, do you really think there would be an obvious indication today?

Do the Sox even have 7 scouts total now...let alone covering one player?

Does anyone know the actual total?

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-pipeline-2026-mock-draft-may-7

Saying Emerson is more talented than Lackey, what does that even mean?

There are two preps that are better athletes than Emerson that will go in the Top Ten, as well as Lebron.

It's not in terms of athletic tools or positional versatility. Just very hard to compare the progression of a raw talent who has made massive strikes this season in a tough P3 conference with a prep who has seen limited elite competition in his current spring.

Edited Friday at 05:22 PM4 days by caulfield12

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Some of us been on Lackey since March.

I think it's an interesting situation. Catching depletes athleticism because of it's physicality and can limit games. If you could be a ++ Base runner and defensive CF'er, for example, while getting your bat in the lineup and elongating your athletic window it wouldn't be the craziest thing ever but I agree, given his defensive ceiling behind the plate it would be pretty out there to move him.

Say you get 5 peak years as a catcher, but 8 to 10 as a OF, how do you choose?

1 minute ago, southsider2k5 said:

Say you get 5 peak years as a catcher, but 8 to 10 as a OF, how do you choose?

I think it's closer to 7 for a great catcher and 10 for an outfielder. Catcher gets 5 times the defensive value boost than CF, but that sounds bigger than it is because it's relative to the other positions and a great defensive CF'er would typically provide more defensive value than a average defensive catcher, but all things equal the catcher would be saving 10 additional runs versus the center fielder in a year.

Edited Friday at 06:03 PM4 days by Look at Ray Ray Run

Just now, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I think it's closer to 7 for a great catcher and 10 for an outfielder. Catcher gets 5 times the defensive value boost than CF, but that sounds bigger than it is because it's relative to the other positions and a great defensive CF'er provides more defensive value than a average defensive catcher.

Again, how do you choose? Catcher or CF?

On 5/21/2026 at 9:04 AM, Y2Jimmy0 said:

Something funny about Roch Cholowsky. He hit .125 last week. I've heard some use that as a negative. He also had a .500 OBP. The .125 was basically 1-8 lol with a bunch of walks and HBP. The microanalysis of this dude is nuts.

James, what are your thoughts on Lackey?

8 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Again, how do you choose? Catcher or CF?

As the drafting team, years past 6 really don't matter.

I'd draft the position that best maximizes the players controlled-year value. For me, that's catcher.

On 5/21/2026 at 9:57 PM, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Walk rate in college has basically no correlation to plate discipline and walk rate at the MLB level.

I had to go chase this one down (no pun intended) using data from relatively recent college draftees who reached MLB.

Correlation of college BB% with MLB BB% is about 0.5, which is pretty substantial although far from perfectly predictive. It has a similar correlation with chase rate in MLB. Only college hitting statistic that is more correlated to itself at the big league level is K%, at 0.67, which is quite high. Other correlations of note include ISO (.4), HR% (.4), HBP% (.3). OPS/wRC+/wOBA all almost exactly zero correlation though which is fun — obviously if you let the worst college hitters play MLB, they would also be bad in MLB and you'd see some correlation.

Somewhat interesting is college K rate isn't correlated to professional chase rate, but is highly correlated to professional whiff rate. So BB rate is your best amateur indicator of plate discipline.

Obviously most players get worse at everything as they move up the ranks which explains much of the noise. Not always easy to guess exactly which skills will get hit hardest and if any of them will hold on or even improve.

Another game tonight of watching Roch and thinking….that’s it?

51 minutes ago, fathom said:

Another game tonight of watching Roch and thinking….that’s it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/whitesox/comments/1recgya/here_for_beer_why_shouldnt_the_roch_hype_worry_me/?rdt=58940

Thought this was funny looking back...obviously, Cholowsky not falling almost out of the first like Seth Beer.

Edited Saturday at 05:21 AM4 days by caulfield12

On 5/21/2026 at 9:04 AM, Y2Jimmy0 said:

Something funny about Roch Cholowsky. He hit .125 last week. I've heard some use that as a negative. He also had a .500 OBP. The .125 was basically 1-8 lol with a bunch of walks and HBP. The microanalysis of this dude is nuts.

But what are his numbers against Big 10 starters on Friday nights!!

In all seriousness, the microanalysis is insane and oftentimes there is zero benchmarking done to put these random stats into perspective. Like of course a dude is going to perform worse against the best pitchers in college baseball and do better against the weaker ones. I also think there is an element of prospect fatigue at play here too. Reminds a bit of the Carlos Rodon draft where two teams got cute convinced themselves to go with HS pitchers instead of Carlos and almost immediately regretted it.

6 hours ago, Jake said:

I had to go chase this one down (no pun intended) using data from relatively recent college draftees who reached MLB.

Correlation of college BB% with MLB BB% is about 0.5, which is pretty substantial although far from perfectly predictive. It has a similar correlation with chase rate in MLB. Only college hitting statistic that is more correlated to itself at the big league level is K%, at 0.67, which is quite high. Other correlations of note include ISO (.4), HR% (.4), HBP% (.3). OPS/wRC+/wOBA all almost exactly zero correlation though which is fun — obviously if you let the worst college hitters play MLB, they would also be bad in MLB and you'd see some correlation.

Somewhat interesting is college K rate isn't correlated to professional chase rate, but is highly correlated to professional whiff rate. So BB rate is your best amateur indicator of plate discipline.

Obviously most players get worse at everything as they move up the ranks which explains much of the noise. Not always easy to guess exactly which skills will get hit hardest and if any of them will hold on or even improve.

Pal, where are you getting .5? It's like .2 at the most depending on what period youre looking at.... which has very little predictive value.

College K-rate on the other hand is between .51 and .59 over the last 25 years (using career rates vs avg college rates), so it's much more correlated than walk rate. I'd recheck your numbers as youre missing something somewhere.

Edited Saturday at 11:07 AM3 days by Look at Ray Ray Run

19 hours ago, DirtySox said:

This.

Lackey has had a massive up arrow most of the season. While not universal, there's a decent scouting contingent that thinks he could be the best player in the class. We just haven't heard much smoke with him and the White Sox (which is why the thread title change doesn't make sense). They just might not view him in the tier of Roch/Grady, which is fine.

17 hours ago, SoxBlanco said:

James, what are your thoughts on Lackey?

I think that we start hearing Vahn Lackey more. From what I've heard, it's a potential discount option for the White Sox at 1.

Lackey is awesome. If I had the third pick, I'd be debating Lackey and Lombard pretty heavily. I'm just not a big fan of taking a catcher that high.