This Week In White Sox Minor League Baseball

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 11:42 AM CDT in White Sox Minors

This week:

The big event, of course, was the amateur draft. The White Sox selections generally followed two themes: pitching and college players. Nine of their first twelve picks were pitchers and they did not select a high schooler until their 29th pick. The first theme is sensible. While there are a number of interesting arms in the organization, there is no pitcher that would be considered a consensus top prospect for the club. Adding some volume will hopefully result in one of these guys becoming that top prospect. The second theme is a bit more curious. While the club has certainly had a bias towards college players with their top pick under Kenny Williams - RHP Kris Honel a decade ago being the last prep player chosen that high - waiting until day two of the draft was almost over to take a high schooler is extraordinarily odd. Check out Jim's coverage of top pick OF Keenyn Walker here, as well as the team's selections from day two of the draft here. Future Sox has a blurb on all the players selected here. And John Sickels reviewed the White Sox draft here.
Draft picks have already begun to sign and they, along with guys who have been in extended spring training, will begin reporting to the White Sox Rookie Ball affiliates next week. The Great Fall Voyagers begin play on June 20 and the Bristol Sox get started on June 21.
RHP Jacob Petricka's return from an injured back is taking a bit longer than expected. Apparently he'll be joining some of those draft picks at Bristol for a rehab start or two before going back to Kannapolis.
OF Trayce Thompson: .228/.314/.433. His numbers after 58 games are almost exactly the same as they were in the 58 games he played in last season.
For those of you who didn't get the opportunity to see the Jake Peavy Rehab Experience during his prior half dozen tours - probably because you just assumed he'd be back on the road again shortly - you'll have yet another chance. Peavy will be making a rehab start for Charlotte next week against Syracuse. He's supposedly getting 8 hours of treatment a day.

C Miguel Gonzalez joined Kannapolis from extended spring training. Gonzalez was everybody's favorite sleeper prospect after putting up stellar offensive numbers in 2009 for Bristol as an 18 year old - .311/.385/.503. He also impressed with a cannon arm, though his receiving skills still needed work. His full season debut for Kannapolis, however, was awful. While he took his defense with him - cutting down 50% of basestealers and continuing his improvement behind the plate - his offense fell off a cliff: .218/.260/.276. After Mike Blanke's surprising performance for Great Falls, the White Sox were left with the choice of having the two share the catching for the Intimidators to start 2011 (not good for either player) or holding back the struggling youngster in extended spring training to let the older player get the repetitions he needed before his promotion to Winston-Salem. Things worked about as planned, with Blanke performing well behind the plate (32% CS and, according to reports and the numbers, exhibiting good receiving skills) and competently enough in the batter's box (.259/.311/.382) for the White Sox to be comfortable in sending him to the Dash. Gonzalez has come out of the gate strong: .368/.455/.526 in 22 PA and throwing out 5 of 9 attempted thieves. I've said it many times and I'll say it again: player development is rarely a straight line. Gonzalez is far more talented than he showed in 2010 and I fully expect to see him back on track.

Dayan Viciedo: .309/.356/.515.

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"I've said it many times and I'll say it again: player development is rarely a straight line."

That’s why I’m a big fan of guys like Dan Hudson and Brent Morel. You probably could’ve shuffled 2009 Hudson’s starts and had no idea which level he was pitching at, and you can set your watch to Morel.

Whales! Squids! Sharks! They're everywhere! Hello, I am Poseidon! Now, when people told me I was crazy that thinly sliced roast beef would be a delicious fast-food option, I knew it was the greatest idea, and you can thank me later for Arby's.

by Jim Margalus on Jun 11, 2011 12:04 PM CDT reply actions

and that still wasn't straight enough for some people.

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 12:37 PM CDT up reply actions

video and scouting report on 7th round pick RHP ian gardeck

(scroll down a bit)

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2011/5/11/2165590/2011-draft-preview-ch-seven-a-further-discussion-of-arms

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 12:57 PM CDT reply actions

hes not very impressive.

Kenwo4life=ratings. Just call me Mr. USA Today.

by KenWo4LiFe on Jun 11, 2011 1:32 PM CDT up reply actions

7th round picks aren't.

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 1:35 PM CDT up reply actions

i should have been picked in the 6th round back in '97.

they missed the boat.

Kenwo4life=ratings. Just call me Mr. USA Today.

by KenWo4LiFe on Jun 11, 2011 1:37 PM CDT up reply actions

He looks like a cross between Dan Hudson and Scott Ruffcorn, in terms of delivery.

Hopefully he’ll amount to something positive.

by SouthSider on Jun 11, 2011 6:37 PM CDT up reply actions

lilli7, ram6, q9, pk3, rios8, dunnDH, castro2, beck4, morel5, danks1

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 1:56 PM CDT reply actions

creepin back, lets hope they stay in the top 6 of the order

"I wonder if converting Peavy to a closer role would be best? Help keep him healthy and help solidify the pen a bit." - Bent Over Beckham

by BoeJouma on Jun 11, 2011 2:15 PM CDT up reply actions

Nice

by 25or6to4 on Jun 11, 2011 3:51 PM CDT up reply actions

so will today be the day that the indians surrender sole possession of first place?

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 2:22 PM CDT reply actions

It would be nice to get to 4.5 GB

with a solid bounce back victory tonight. Go Sox!

by keatos94 on Jun 11, 2011 5:30 PM CDT up reply actions

Trayce Thompson has been very disappointing

If you have a toolsy player in the low minors that hasn’t quite put it together, the first thing to look at are contact rates. He fails the test miserably, as does Mitchell. I have no faith in either panning out. Walker’s upside excites me, but he sounds much the same.

by Bent Over Beckham on Jun 11, 2011 3:02 PM CDT reply actions

circular logic.

if a toolsy player hasn’t quite put it together, yeah, contact rate is usually the problem.

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 3:06 PM CDT up reply actions

thompson is much younger than mitchell i believe. plenty of time to pull it together.

Kenwo4life=ratings. Just call me Mr. USA Today.

by KenWo4LiFe on Jun 11, 2011 8:16 PM CDT up reply actions

turned 20 in march, yup.

by craigws on Jun 11, 2011 8:22 PM CDT up reply actions

Thank you.

Beware the cure isn't worse than the disease

by Chiburb on Jun 11, 2011 5:38 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

Interesting read on the catchers.

So who has the bigger upside/potential out of Gonzalez/Blanke? And should either of them be considered the catcher of the future over Flowers?

by Fergie3108 on Jun 11, 2011 6:05 PM CDT reply actions

gonzalez has better upside.

flowers isn’t anything more than a back-up catcher.

by larry on Jun 11, 2011 10:50 PM CDT up reply actions

Quite unappreciated.

And despite his prodigious, powerful display,Battling loneliness, rage, misery
There really isn’t much else left to say.

by winningugly on Jun 12, 2011 7:24 PM CDT up reply actions

Winston-Salem

Mitchell is 2 for 2 tonight with a run scored. Showing much better patience at the plate lately but still swinging a missing a lot.

Very few bright on this team – defense is abysmal. 6 errors lat night – already 1 tonight on the front end of what should have been a double play.

But I did see Michael Blanke throw a ball from the right field foul line over the wall, over the beer garden and would have one hoped into the parking lot had the retaining not stopped it. Easily 400 ft on the fly.

Mitchell just got another single.

by KSM on Jun 15, 2011 7:21 PM CDT via mobile reply actions