[Note: This article is intended as a catch-all for ESPN’s Chicago White Sox rankings, including material found in this frequently-updated article on the Top 100s at large.—YOTH]
On Wednesday, Keith Law released his AL Central prospect guide (firewalled), including the Top 10 White Sox. (And here’s the Top 50, bottom 50, and extras, as well, all firewalled.) All right, let’s get to it:
ESPN Top 24 (Keith Law)
1. Eloy Jiménez, OF (ranked fifth overall)
2. Michael Kopech, RHP (No. 20)
3. Dylan Cease, RHP (No. 25)
4. Luis Robert, OF (No. 54)
5. Dane Dunning, RHP (No. 109)
6. Nick Madrigal, 2B (No. 112)
7. Micker Adolfo, OF
8. Luis Basabe, OF
9. Luis González, OF
10. Blake Rutherford, OF
11. Jake Burger, 3B
12. Zack Collins, C (“does a few things well but some more important things not very well at all”)
13. Steele Walker, OF (“is limited defensively to a corner, which puts more pressure on his bat.”)
14. Gavin Sheets, 1B
15. Jimmy Lambert, RHP
16. Zack Burdi, RHRP
17. Ian Hamilton, RHRP (“his changeup is an afterthought and he’s going to have to find another weapon for lefties”)
18. Tyler Johnson, RHRP (“also lacks much of a changeup to get lefties out”)
19. Kodi Medeiros, LHSP (“his fastball/slider combination could be devastating [if he moves to the pen”]
20. Jordan Stephens, RHSP
21. Konnor Pilkington, LHSP
22. Spencer Adams, RHRP (“reached Triple-A last year but stopped missing bats”)
23. Lency Delgado, SS
24. Laz Rivera, SS (“I wouldn’t rule out him turning into a 25th man on a roster some day”]
Miscellany
First prospect up Eloy, natch. Law also sees Cease, Medeiros and Burdi at some point as well. He tabs Hamilton to break camp with the big club.
Sleeper González, who Law says has more speed and power than he gets credit for.
“Fallen” pick is Alec Hansen. Writes Law: “I would not be surprised at all if he were still hurt.”
MLB system ranking: After jacking the White Sox up to No. 4 in 2018, Law drops the White Sox system to No. 13. Objectively, that seems a crazy tumble for a system that suffered some injury setbacks, but graduated just one player to the majors and suffered no other losses via trade. Apparently, the rest of baseball is so smart, a third of teams caught up with and passed the White Sox, while the White Sox were still in rebuild mode! Bummer.