Like I said for the Cubs prospects, John Sickels' list is one of the lists that I respect the very most. He's very logical and explains why he rates everyone the way he does. Even if I don't agree with him on everything (moreso on things like player effort (take Jorge Soler for instance, Sickels probably hadn't heard that the Cubs had told him to take it easy on grounders in the AFL, but he went along with everyone who has dogged Soler's effort), and less on actual player abilities, since he's actually had a chance to see players), he's logical and really knows his stuff. If I were you, I would take his word over mine. However, I'm still going to share my opinions on his grades and where he ranks all of the White Sox prospects. I will not be sharing too much of what he actually says though. If you want to know (and you should), you can click here to read the article. The White Sox system was in horrible shape just a year ago, but has moved up some over the last year. It's still not a great system by any means, but it's getting closer to the middle of the pack (11-20 range), although still probably a few spots away.
Now for the meat and potatoes. We'll start from the top:
Jose Abreu - A-
Abreu was the biggest signing for the White Sox this offseason, and anyone who has read anything that I have said about him knows that I am very high on him. So far he's hitless in 5 at bats this spring, but has made good contact a couple of times. Due to his size he's going to be one of those guys who you have to keep at first base or at DH, like Konerko and Dunn (at this point), but his bat should be able to make it worth it. It's still a bit of a borderline thing to call him a prospect, as he's 27 years old and has been playing professionally in Cuba for a while, but since he hasn't taken a regular season MLB at bat, it's fair as well. Anyway, don't expect great defensive range out of him, but as long as he sucks everything up that he can get to he'll at least be right where Konerko was for most of his career.
Erik Johnson - B+
Johnson is another borderline prospect, as he's got 5 starts under his belt, and has been solid in those 5 starts (not that the second part really matters as to if he's a prospect or not). However, the 24 year old big righty does have limited experience at the big league level (again, 5 starts, not 10 or 15). His future can be very bright as a middle of the rotation type of starter. The sample size is too small right now to get a great idea (ERA of 3.25, but a WHIP of 1.55), but he seems to have all of the tools to be a very good pitcher, and he seems to be able to put it all together. It will be fun to see what he can do, assuming he's in the rotation.
Matt Davidson - B
Another prospect with major league experience, Davidson has 68 career at bats with an average of .221 and 8 home runs. While the average part doesn't look great, it's a small sample size, and it was his first shot at the bigs. He likely had some adjustments to make. However, those 8 home runs should make you question if there really were adjustments, because that's 1 home run in every 8.5 at bats, which is a huge number. Now, he likely was hot as far as power went, as that's a huge number, but even without that he's still someone who can hit 20-25 home runs a year. Couple that with an average around .250, which is what I expect, and you have yourself a pretty nice 3rd baseman, especially during a time when there is so little 3rd base talent in baseball. His defense still needs a lot of work, but at least he'll have a big target in Abreu to throw the ball to.
Marcus Semien - B
Sickels has him as a borderline B-, but a B- is still a pretty strong rating. Right now Semien is a shortstop, but according to some reports I've read (I'll cite mlbprospectwatch.com as one), he doesn't have great range and will likely end up at second base. If he's able to hold up there (left field may be another option, based on default), that means that Beckham would be the odd man out. Either way, he has offense that you would probably love out of a second baseman, as he has 15-20 home run power, good speed, and has shown good plate discipline in the minors. Probably not a future superstar, but there's a good chance he'll be a good major league quality player for a long time.
Tim Anderson - B-
Anderson was the first round pick of the White Sox in the 2013 amateur draft. He's a middle infielder with very good speed. His ability at the plate is pretty good. He's a line drive type of hitter, but he doesn't have much power at all. On defense the word is that he's got good range, but doesn't have a strong arm. Right now he's a middle infielder, but a move to center field wouldn't be out of the question for him either. He's another guy who will probably never be a superstar by any means, but can wind up being a solid player for a long time.
Micah Johnson - B-
Johnson is very fast. It's hard to say how his hitting is. He hit very well at low A, hit okay at high A, and hit poorly when he was promoted from there to AA. While he stole a ton of bases at high A, he probably should have been given more time to adjust, as his OPS was still only .670. Either way, it will be interesting to see where his hit tool winds up, because his speed is no question. He probably will wind up in the outfield. I can see him as a 4th outfielder at very least (his defense really isn't up to par in the infield), or even a regular starter if his hitting catches up to his level in the minor leagues.
Jacob May - B-
The White Sox seem to be full of these types of prospects. He's got a decent bat without a whole lot of power, looking at around 15 home runs per year power as an outfielder. He does have great speed, which is obviously not a bad thing. However, he's another guy that looks like he can be a solid starter on a good team, but isn't quite a superstar type.
Tyler Danish - B-
Danish had an outstanding first partial minor league season last year, spent mostly as an 18 year old in rookie league ball. He's got a strong arm and a quick delivery that will help to minimize stolen bases, something that will become increasingly important as baseball continues to reshape itself after the steroid era. This grade was clearly due to him just not having a lot to go on since he's only played part of a minor league season after being drafted in the second round in 2013, but things are looking up for him, no doubt. Personally, I would go ahead and give him the B now based on his physical abilities and performance so far, but like I said, you should probably listen to John Sickels over me.
Chris Beck - C+
It's really tough to get a gauge on Beck. His strikeout rates have been very low, I mean very low. Greg Maddux didn't have the highest strikeout rates, but Beck was under one per inning last year, and for his career has 115 in 187 innings. This hasn't caught up to him yet, but as he moves up (played at AA last year, but for a very short time). However, he's continued to get guys out so far, so until he stops, he can still be seen as a decent prospect. However, it'll be tough for him to start with those low strikeout rates, and he really can't be the type of reliever to get a team out of a jam. Maybe a long relief guy (3 innings type), but that may be his ceiling, unless he actually does manage to still get everyone out still at the big league level. The White Sox should just keep going with him until problems occur, but more than likely something will have to be done before too long.
Trayce Thompson - C+
Thompson is a very toolsy type of guy with good speed, good power, and all that good stuff, but he just can't really put it together. He's been in the White Sox system since 2009 and is still only at the AA level. He's only 22, so by that he's not behind, but after 4 seasons he has only advanced from rookie league ball to low A ball to high A ball to AA ball. He did have a short stint at the AAA level, and I'm not sure what that was about, but I'm thinking it was to fill in due to an injury or something along those lines. Last year in AA he hit .229 with a .321 OBP. The OBP is nice, but while he has decent power, he doesn't have enough to make up for the lack of batting average. It will be interesting to see what he winds up as, because he has all of the physical tools to be a very good player, but he just doesn't look like he'll make it there.
Courtney Hawkins - C+
Sickels has Hawkins as a borderline C. Hawkins also has all of the physical tools in the world, probably even more than Thompson, but his hitting was even worse than Thompson. He hit .178 at high A last year. Sickels mentions how he had no business being there, and he's exactly right there. Hawkins still has a very raw game, and the White Sox really seem to want to rush him up. However, they'd be wise to even start him at low A next season to refine his approach at the plate, but we'll see if they actually do. Hawkins is just too talented of a player for the White Sox to just waste by rushing him up though, and hopefully they come to their senses, as his ceiling is superstar level. The power was even there last season, as he hit 19 home runs in only 383 at bats. As he is right now though, take about 75% of Adam Dunn's power, add some good speed, take away a lot of walks, and keep the same level of striking out (if not even more), and that's where Hawkins is, at the high A level.
Daniel Webb - C+
Another borderline C guy. Webb supposedly started controlling his fastball last year (see the Sickels article for one of many places where you can find this), and everything went up very fast for him. He was very solid when he came up for the White Sox last year, but being a reliever is something that will hold his stock unless he becomes a closer. Still, every team needs to have a solid bullpen, and Webb can be a major piece of a good bullpen in the future.
Andrew Mitchell - C+
Another borderline C guy (I'm just going to repeat that line for these guys). I really am getting into guys that I know very little about at this point, so I'm actually doing my research as I type this. Mitchell seems to not have much control, but he does have a very intriguing arm. Right now he's a starter, but some expect him to be a bullpen arm when he moves up a little higher.
Keon Barnum - C+
Another borderline C guy. He looks like he's another player with some great physical traits, but just hasn't put the tools together. A couple of the reports have said that he has shown flashes, but hasn't been able to consistently keep it going.
Chris Bassitt - C+
Another borderline C guy (last one). Solid numbers so far, but hasn't pitched above AA, and even that was only for 47.2 innings (as a starter), so he's got a long way to go still. He'll probably start at AA. Word is that his stuff isn't the best, but it's still solid. Most of what I'm reading has him as a #4 or #5 starter. Nothing terrible, nothing to get excited about, but someone who will be able to help a team for a long time.
Carlos Sanchez - C
I remember him having a lot more going for him before last season. Last season just wasn't great for him. He still has some tools, but he's just farther from the bigs than expected. He's got good speed, and seemed to have a good hit tool after 2012, but he only hit .241 at AAA last year and he has little to no power. It looks like he has good defense in the middle of the infield, which is always valuable, but he can't be a liability in the middle of a lineup unless that's a great lineup that can hide him.
Erik Surkamp - C
I noticed that he still hasn't pitched for the White Sox yet. They got him from the Giants this winter (Sickels' article says pretty much the exact same thing I just said). He's also a Tommy John survivor. He's a big lefty with limited MLB experience. Despite his size he doesn't throw especially hard, but likes to use his other pitches. From the sound of it he reminds me of Barry Zito as far as style goes, but I don't know about ability. His MLB experience was not good at all.
Scott Snodgress - C
He seems to be the opposite of Surkamp, outside of them both being big lefties. While he seems to have a very live arm, he's just not getting any results. Still an intriguing prospect, as anyone with an arm like that is, but he really has to start showing something soon.
Trey Michalezewski - C
I had to check that spelling about 3 times, and I'm still not positive that I got it right. He's only 18 years old, so his poor showing in rookie ball can be forgiven for a year or two, but the scouting reports all think that he projects to have some good power.
Micker Adolfo - C
He was the White Sox big, top 20, international signing this past season. He's got a ton of upside, but there is still very little that is known about him outside of what inside scouts know.
Other Players Mentioned: Dan Black, Tony Bucciferro, Adam Engel, Brad Goldberg, Charlie Leesman, Jared Mitchell, Nestor Molina, Francellis Montas, Adrian Nieto, Jefferson Olacio, Braulio Ortiz, Jacob Petricka, Rangel Ravelo, Kevan Smith, Keenyn Walker, Andy Wilkins, Cody Winiarski
Wow, some of those were ones I had to double and triple check again, this time more because of little nuances in the spelling of the names. Anyway, I won't pretend to know a lot about these guys. In those guys you'll find a healthy mix of guys who are just too young and inexperienced to get a good read on, and other guys who just don't project to be anything better than average.
Like I said, the White Sox system still isn't anything very good right now, but it's a system that was horrible just about a year ago, so the progress made can't be ignored. A good draft pick this year will really help things out, especially with some of the talent at the top, and you can't leave out the possibility of a prospect breaking out or a big international signing. Remember that the Cubs system was horrible when Epstein and Hoyer took the team over, and a breakout year out of Javier Baez, a good draft pick in Albert Almora, and a big international signing in Jorge Soler (along with some solid trades) had that system approaching a top 10 system in no time, and that was before another breakout (Alcantara) and good draft pick (Bryant) the next year. If your scouting department does its job right, then turning around a minor league system can happen fairly quickly. The league rules now make it much harder than ever before to build a team through free agency (don't forget the price of free agents these days as well).
Since this is a Chicago sports blog, and now both teams have their guys in there, let's look at the breakdown between the two teams:
Cubs
A - 2
A- - 1
B+ - 2
B - 4
B- - 1
C+ - 11
C - 16
White Sox
A - 0
A- - 1
B+ - 1
B - 2
B- - 4
C+ - 7
C - 23
Both teams have their fair share of guys in the C range that are just too young to get a good read on, including the recent international signings, 4 of them for the Cubs and 1 for the White Sox. Both are systems who could improve their standing in a hurry with some good seasons out of some of their young and exciting prospects. The Cubs will seem to have a never ending run of good prospects rolling onto the big league club pretty soon, as they have another good pick this season. If they wind up going the high school route, then they'll have more of a second wave after the current wave, and if they go with a college guy then they'll have more of a solid string with a short break for the group of international guys. With the White Sox, if they do the right thing with Hawkins and really develop him instead of rushing him, his development will be slowed a bit, but he'll be able to come up around the same time as this year's draft pick no matter which way the White Sox go. With their other talent they have a lot of solid players, and their rotation should be very good just from what's there right now. While they'll need to get a star or two still, they at least won't embarrass themselves with the team they put on the field. Like I said, as long as you get to the playoffs, there's a chance of having a good run and winning it all.
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