Paul Janish Ponders the Promise of a Rejuvenated White Sox Prospect Pipeline | FanGraphs Baseball

 

The most interesting takes from Janish is that the comp of Baldwin to a Ben Zobrist was a lot "higher" (especially in the power department) than the likes of "Jamey Carroll, the Nick Punto, or maybe even a Jason Bartlett-type of player, Bartlett was more of a pure defender, but those are the kind of comps I would give" for Meidroth.

That reads more like they see Chase as a utility player, and Baldwin as more impactful...a combination of a lesser Chone Figgins in terms of speed and a lesser Zobrist in terms of eventual power.   Combine those two, you have a great, impactful player.    Ofc it's not so simplistic, because the real question is to what actual extent with Baldwin does his speed/athletic ability/dynamism impact the game on the basepaths, stolen bases, advancing extra bases....but he's not (at least for now) the kind of guy you look at and project 20-25 homers from, at least not at this point.

12-15 homers at peak?  15-18?  20?

That's what separates a 1.5 fWAR from a 3-4 fWAR guy, in the final analysis.

 

Cutbacks to short-season ball (once upon a time, you had Bristol in the APPY League for HS draftees and Great Falls in the Pioneer for more advanced collegiate guys) have obviously impacted the White Sox as much as any team in the majors, IMO.

Then all your Latin American kids that were making their debuts in the US but weren't yet ready for the SAL League/Kannapolis.

 

The last observation is that the "hitting center" is still a work in progress, compared to the relatively more advanced development of the Bannister/Katz pitching school.  Obviously, Fuller has just come into the organization this offseason, so it's going to take him at least a year to get into the full swing of things.  Hopefully he can make a lot of progress with both Montgomery's, Gonzalez and George Wolkow as well.

 

Edited February 19, 20251 yr by caulfield12

I suggested in the comments thread at FG  that they offer a pay-per-article option and it got downvoted into oblivion. I’m still not sure why as it’s just less money for them. I’d pay for this.