South Side Sox Community Prospect List

by The Cheat on Nov 21, 2006 12:00 AM CST in White Sox News

Rk Name Pts 1. Ryan Sweeney 166 2. Josh Fields 151 3. Lance Broadway 141 4. Aaron Cunningham 103 5. Charlie Haeger 101 6. Oneli Perez 71 7. Kyle McCulloch 51 8. Jack Egbert 22 9(t) Jerry Owens 19 9(t) Heath Phillips 19 11. Lucas Harrell 14

Others receiving votes: Vernon "Chris" Carter,
Adam Russell, Boone Logan, Lee Cruz, Pedro Lopez,
Chris Getz, Andy Gonzalez

I didn't include my vote in this list. It wouldn't have mattered much, as our Top 5 was the same. After that you could have filled out your ballot with any number of 10+ names. There's some prospects worth keeping an eye on after that top group, but they don't have the makeup of guys you'd usually see gracing a list like this.

For discussions sake, where would you guys rank the departed lefties (Gio, Haigwood, Castro, and Lumsden)?

Oh, and here's what Rogers had to say about Perez:

Great numbers, not so great stuff. The reports I get are that he's a high-80s guy, not a true power guy, but I've never seen him pitch, even in spring training (where I see most of the guys). I considered him for the top 30 but he did not wind up making the cut.

That's right, Rogers somehow found 30 other players, in a system that's currently considered one of the weakest in baseball, to rank ahead of Mr. Perez.

I've heard the same reports on Perez's stuff from a couple of people -- that he doesn't throw hard -- but that's just through the grapevine. (They've never seen him pitch either.) And while that's limiting, we didn't see David Riske, the $2.5M man, top 90MPH last season.

My assertion that I wouldn't be surprised if Perez made the club out of spring was based on the notion that even if you knock a ton off the strikeout rate and increase his hit rate to try to approximate his major league production. The line I kept coming up with in my head was that of Riske.

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Lefties

Castro: I guess around #4?
Castro is hard to assess as he didn't pitch that much at any one level last year. 2.27 ERA in 31 innings in the bigs at age 21. I think those innings were a little flukey. But he really seems to keep the ball in the park and there's no denying which hand he throws with. Looking at the market for lefty relievers, I think Castro would be a valauble player to have.

Haigwood: #11 or so? About the same as Heath Phillips (hey could Heath be a LOOGY?). Haigwood does keep the ball in the park and gets some Ks (9ish per 9IP), but his BB/9 really shot up in the PCL and the Ks dropped. He definitely didn't progress last year and he might be hurt.

Lumsden: #6? His K/BB numbers aren't good, the ERA's are OK. Really, I'm putting him #6 just because everyone says he has a great arm. That's probably ranking him too high. Sickels had at #6 for KC at B rating.

Gonzalez: #3. I think he'd be the top SP prospect, but he didn't have a great year. His ERA at Reading was 4.66, but K/9 (9.7) and H/9 (8) weren't that bad. His walks really went up. Could be a sign of injury, always a concern, particularly as I think he started well and then tanked towrds the end of the season. But for a 20 year-old in a new league, I'd still be optimistic about him.

I have to say, the Thome trade looks better to me now than it did when KW made it.

by hitlesswonder on Nov 21, 2006 12:43 AM CST reply actions