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From ChicagoSports.com: Texas junior outfielder Jordan Danks, the Sox's seventh-round pick in the amateur draft, took batting practice in front of several high-ranking executives. The 6-foot-5-inch Danks, younger brother of Sox pitcher John Danks, relished taking batting practice with Paul Konerko four hours before Tuesday night's win over Cleveland. Danks was selected in the 19th round by the Sox in 2005 but elected to attend Texas. He is three semesters short of graduating. "I feel a lot more comfortable now," Danks said. "I got some schooling [and three years of college baseball] under my belt. I have all this to start my pro career and get rolling with that and hopefully make it up here as soon as possible." Danks is confident he will sign before the Aug. 15 deadline. Meanwhile, the Sox plan to take another shot at Kyle Long, a 6-8, 285-pound left-hander they drafted in the 23rd round out of St. Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Va. Within the next 10 days, the Sox plan to visit Long, the son of Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long. He throws in the mid-90 m.p.h. range and has committed to play at Florida State.

As we did last year, Kent Bonham and I have made available splits and situational statistics on nearly every college player selected in the first day of the draft. [THT] 2 (PIT) - Pedro Alvarez, Vanderbilt 3 (KC) - Eric Hosmer, American Heritage HS Plantation Fla. 4 (BAL) - Brian Matusz, San Diego 5 (SF) - Buster Posey, Florida State 6 (FLO) - Kyle Skipworth, Patriot HS Rubidoux Calif. 7 (CIN) - Yonder Alonso, Miami 8 (CHW) - Gordon Beckham, Georgia 9 (WAS) - Aaron Crow, Missouri 10 (HOU) - Jason Castro, Stanford 11 (TEX) - Justin Smoak, South Carolina 12 (OAK) - Jemile Weeks, Miami 13 (STL) - Brett Wallace, Arizona State