White Sox Draft Retrospective

The 2006 MLB Draft starts in a little over 12 hours. You should tune into the audio stream on MLB.com if you've never heard it before. It's completely different from every other major league draft. It's so low key. In the past, I've heard swearing, a woman who was clearly on the wrong conference call, and Tommy Lasorda sounding like he's on whatever drugs they're pumping in Barbaro right now.

I thought I'd take this occasion to take a very brief look back at the White Sox recent draft picks. For sake of my sanity, I only included the Sox first ten picks from each draft.

Warning: Super long entry ahead. Proceed with caution

2002 Draft

18. Royce Ring -- LHP | San Diego State | AAA Norfolk
    
59. Jeremy Reed -- CF | Long Beach State | Seattle Mariners
    
90. Joshua Rupe -- RHP | Louisburg (N.C.) College | 60-Day DL Texas Rangers
    
120. Ryan Rodriguez -- LHP | Keller (Texas) HS | AA Birmingham
     
150. B.J. Lamura -- RHP | Clemson | AA Birmingham
     
180. Christopher Getz -- SS | Grosse Pointe (Mich.) South HS | Unsigned
     
210. Micah Schnurstein -- 3B | Henderson (Nev.) Basic HS | AA Birmingham
     
240. Sean Tracey -- RHP | California Irvine | AAA Charlotte
     
270. Todd Deininger -- RHP | Texas A&M | Out of baseball?
     
300. Orionny Lopez -- RHP | West Palm Beach (Fla.) Forest Hill HS | Out of baseball?
     

Other Notables
Daniel Haigwood, Brandon McCarthy, and Boone Logan

A real mixed bag in this draft. Ring, Reed, and Rupe have all made the majors, though none has been overly impressive. McCarthy and Logan have also been to the show, giving the Sox 5 players from the 2002 draft to make the majors already. That's the most in baseball. Haigwood and Tracey figure to get at least a cup of coffee before they call it a career. So while there appears to be no stars as of yet, the Sox got a bunch of replacement-level talent out of this draft. Probably the second best draft of the ones we'll review here, though Phil Rogers points out the Sox passed on Curtis Granderson who was, literally, right in the back yard.

2003 Draft

15. Brian Anderson -- CF | Arizona | Chicago White Sox
    
52. Ryan Sweeney -- OF | Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Xavier HS | AAA Charlotte
    
82. Clinton King -- RF | Southern Mississippi | Out of baseball?
    
112. Robert Valido -- SS | Miami Coral Park HS | AA Birmingham
     
142. Matthew Nachreiner -- RHP | Round Rock (Tex.) HS | Extended Spring? Out of baseball?
     
172. Christopher Kelly -- LF/1B | Pepperdine | A+ Winston-Salem
     
202. James Casey -- RHP | Azle (Tex.) HS | Extended Spring? Out of baseball?
     
232. John Russ -- RHP | Frank Phillips College | Out of baseball?
     
262. David Cook -- CF | Miami (Ohio) | A+ Winston-Salem
     
292. Fraser Dizard -- LHP | Southern California | AA Birmingham
     
322. Richard Brooks -- RHP | North Tonawanda (N.Y.) HS | Unsigned
     

Other Notables
13th rounder Wes Hodges(probable first rounder this year)

Right from the beginning, this appeared to be a two player draft. It's still too early to tell, but it still appears that way. Brian Anderson and Ryan Sweeney are still a year or two away from being making up 2/3rds of the White Sox outfield, but it's only a matter of time.

2004 Draft

18. Josh Fields -- 3B | Oklahoma St. | AAA Charlotte
    
34. Tyler Lumsden -- LHP | Clemson | AA Birmingham
    
38. Giovanny Gonzalez -- LHP | Miami Monsignor Pace HS | AA Reading
    
53. Wes Whisler -- LHP | UCLA | A+ Winston-Salem
    
59. Donald Lucy -- C | Stanford | A+ Winston-Salem
    
69. Ray Liotta -- LHP | Gulf Coast CC | AA Birmingham
    
89. Grant Hansen -- RHP | Oklahoma City | Out of baseball?
    
119. Lucas Harrell -- RHP | Ozark HS (Mo.) | A+ Winston-Salem
     
149. Brandon Allen -- OF/1B | Montgomery HS (Texas) | A- Kannapolis
     
179. Adam Russell -- RHP | Ohio University | A+ Winston-Salem
     

Other Notables
Brian Flores (one of the three DFE arms I coveted this year)

As of right now, without a doubt, this is the most productive White Sox draft of those we've looked at. That tends to happen when you have 7 of the first 90 picks. The Sox blew a couple of those top picks, but still have 7 players with a good shot at making the bigs.

2005 Draft

15. Lance Broadway -- RHP | TCU | AA Birmingham
    
95. Richard Brooks -- RHP | East Carolina | A- Kannapolis
    
125. Christopher Getz -- 2B | Michigan | AA Birmingham
     
155. Ryan Rote -- RHP | Vanderbilt | A- Kannapolis
     
185. Aaron Cunningham -- LF | Everett CC (Wash.) | A- Kannapolis
     
215. Daniel Cortes -- RHP | Garey H.S. (Calif.) | A- Kannapolis
     
245. Clayton Richard -- LHP | Michigan | A- Kannapolis
     
275. Joseph Winn -- RHP | Delgado CC (La.) | Extended Spring Training/Bristol
     
305. Israel Chirino -- LHP | Miami | A- Kannapolis
     
335. Jason Rice -- RHP | Chaffey CC | A- Kannapolis

The first thing that jumps out about this class is that most of them are at Low-A Kannapolis. Kanny has the worst record in professional baseball. It's tough to say whether that's an indictment of this particular draft class, but there are a number of overmatched players lingering on the Kanny roster. I'm sure the Sox will a couple players in tomorrows draft that will help send the ineffective players back to rookie ball. There's a chance that this draft coul ultimately produce not a single major leaguer, though that's probably unlikely. Aaron Cunningham is the player who appears to have the greatest upside.

In each of the last few seasons, the White Sox have tipped their hand a bit on the night before the draft. The last time there was a surprise first-rounder was in 2002 with the choice of Ring. There has been little noise surrounding the Sox first round selection this season, however, perhaps because of how low the Sox are selecting. Drafting at the end of the first round, the Sox will almost assuredly take the proverbial "best player available."