SoxFest Day 2 recap and Day 3 open thread

First of all, MLB.com’s release of its Top 100 prospects is well timed in the middle of a SoxFest that’s all about the young guys. MLB Pipeline was so optimistic as to put seven Sox prospects on the list, more than Baseball America (5) and Keith Law (4).

Five of these guys have been highly visible at SoxFest, and fans are connecting with the minor league players in a way that’s completely unprecedented in White Sox history—most recently because there were no such prospects to get excited about, and before that because there wasn’t as much publicly available information on prospects.

We’ll talk about MLB’s list again when they release the White Sox Top 30 list. For now, let’s take a look at what transpired at SoxFest on Saturday.

SoxFest Day 2

• Jason Benetti likes what he sees.

• A lot of the players have been demoing this VR home run hitting game. Here’s your first look at Eloy Jimenez blasting one out of Guaranteed Rate Field. (I think Kevan Smith has the longest so far.)

• Tim Anderson spoke candidly on WLS about the loss of his friend Branden Moss and how it affected him. It’s a good bit of perspective on a baseball player as a human being.

• Chess on the Mound featured Don Cooper and Ed Farmer, among others. Apparently Orlando Hernandez gave them a whole lot to talk about in just one year in the uniform.

• The Making it to the Majors seminar is being lauded as the funniest so far. According to FloridianSoxFan, Carlos Rodon and Nicky Delmonico are a couple of “80-grade clowns”.

• Once the fanbase grabs onto an idea, they never let it go. (The online shop prohibits you from doing stuff like this, by the way.)

SoxFest Day 3

Now we’re on to the final day of SoxFest, which I suppose you could call “Past, Present, and Future”. Here’s today’s seminar schedule.

10:00 am – Calling the Game (Gene Honda, Jason Benetti, Ed Farmer, Darrin Jackson)

11:00 am – 35 Years Later: A look back at the 1983 season (Ed Farmer, Harold Baines, Carlton Fisk, Ron Kittle)

12:00 pm – La Vida fuera del Clubhouse (Hector Molina, Eloy Jimenez, Reynaldo Lopez, Yoan Moncada, Yolmer Sanchez)

1:00 pm – Down on the Farm (Scott Merkin, Dylan Cease, Blake Rutherford, Gavin Sheets)

2:00 pm – Building the Next Generation (Phil Rogers, Dan Fabian, Chris Getz, Jeremy Haber, Nick Hostetler)