2021 South Side Sox Prospect Vote: Round 1

It is the fourth year of Top Prospect voting at South Side Sox!

Brett explained a lot of the ins and outs of this year’s plan in this year’s intro article, where you can also see the 2020 South Side Sox Top 100.

Here’s how 2018 wrangled out — all 42 picks. Also, here’s an archive of every article in the 2018 series. Here’s how 2019 came together, all 50 picks, and the archive as well. And here’s 2020, with the archive.

Each year, it seems we have a huge flurry of votes at an odd time, for a seemingly green candidate, so buckle up and prepare for this crowdsourced list to vary a little bit from all those FanGraphs/MLB Pipeline/Future Sox lists; this is a popularity contest, although a very smart one.

Over the years, the number of players on the ballot for each round has varied from five to 25. Last year, we rolled with 10, and that seemed to work out pretty well. Brett also referenced this in his intro article, but for a series that a lot of folks like to roll their eyes over, we get like 15,000 votes every year on this. So thanks in advance for your participation!

Next week, we’ll begin our countdown, with ... wouldn’t you like to know ... as the No. 100 prospect. By starting both series at the same time, by the time the Top 100 has counted from 100 to 50, this SSS poll vote will have counted down from 1 to 50. We’ll meet in the middle, with the SSS poll vote factoring in the order of our final 50 prospects.

With minor league contraction, this year’s Top 100 will look very different than last. Plus, trades and advancement alone means that at least four of last year’s Top 10 prospects will be different in 2021. And for the first time since we’ve started this, the No. 1 prospect is truly up for grabs, with at least three and as many as five players with a legitimate stake to the top spot.

Sound cool? Now, get voting!

Micker Adolfo

Right Fielder
Age 24
2018 SSS poll ranking 10
2019 SSS poll ranking 7
2020 SSS poll ranking 11
2019 High Level Birmingham (AA) (participated at the Schaumburg alternate site in 2020)
Overall 2019 stats 36 games ▪️ 2 HR ▪️ 12 RBI ▪️ .227/.346/.367 ▪️ 21 BB ▪️ 57 BB

Adolfo missed the first half of 2019 recovering from arm surgery and only DHed in the minor league season. All 10 of his Arizona Fall League games were spent in right field, however, with one error and one assist.

Garrett Crochet

Left-handed pitcher
Age 23
2018 SSS poll ranking N/A
2019 SSS poll ranking N/A
2020 SSS poll ranking N/A
2020 High Level Chicago White Sox
Overall 2020 stats (projected to a full season) 0-0 ▪️ 14 games ▪️ 16 ¹⁄₃ IP ▪️ 0.8 bWAR ▪️ 0.00 ERA ▪️ 22 K ▪️ 0 BB ▪️ 0.000 WHIP

Jared Kelley

Right-handed starting pitcher
Age 19
2018 SSS poll ranking N/A
2019 SSS poll ranking N/A
2020 SSS poll ranking N/A
2020 High Level Schaumburg alternate site
Overall 2020 stats 3-0 ▪️ 3 starts ▪️ 12 IP ▪️ 0.00 ERA ▪️ 34 K

Stats are for Kelley’s shortened season at Refugio (Texas) H.S.; in his prep career, Kelley went 32-3 with a 0.43 ERA

Michael Kopech

Right-handed starting pitcher
Age 26
2018 SSS poll ranking 2
2019 SSS poll ranking 2
2020 SSS poll ranking 2
2018 High Level Chicago White Sox
Overall 2018 stats 8-8 ▪️ 28 starts ▪️ 140 IP ▪️ 3.86 ERA ▪️ 185 K ▪️ 62 BB ▪️ 1.307 WHIP

Kopech sat out 2019 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and opted out of the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Nick Madrigal

Second Baseman
Age 24
2018 SSS poll ranking N/A
2019 SSS poll ranking 5
2020 SSS poll ranking 3
2020 High Level Chicago White Sox
Overall 2020 stats (projected to a full season) 78 games ▪️ 1.4 bWAR ▪️ 0 HR ▪️ 30 RBI ▪️ .340/.376/.369 ▪️ 5-of-8 SB ▪️ 11 BB ▪️ 19 K

Blake Rutherford

Right Fielder
Age 24
2018 SSS poll ranking 9
2019 SSS poll ranking 8
2020 SSS poll ranking 10
2019 High Level Birmingham (AA) (participated at the Schaumburg alternate site in 2020)
Overall 2019 stats 118 games ▪️ 7 HR ▪️ 49 RBI ▪️ .265/.319/.365 ▪️ 9-of-11 SB ▪️ 37 BB ▪️ 118 K

Gavin Sheets

First Baseman
Age 24
2018 SSS poll ranking 15
2019 SSS poll ranking 11
2020 SSS poll ranking 9
2019 High Level Birmingham (AA) (was not invited to participate at the Schaumburg alternate site in 2020)
Overall 2019 stats 126 games ▪️ 16 HR ▪️ 83 RBI ▪️ .267/.345/.414 ▪️ 54 BB ▪️ 99 K

Jonathan Stiever

Right-handed starting pitcher
Age 24
2018 SSS poll ranking N/A
2019 SSS poll ranking 27
2020 SSS poll ranking 7
2020 High Level Chicago White Sox
Overall 2020 stats (projected to a full season) 0-3 ▪️ 5 starts ▪️ 17 IP ▪️ -0.8 bWAR ▪️ 9.95 ERA ▪️ 8 K ▪️ 11 BB ▪️ 1.737 WHIP

Matthew Thompson

Right-handed Starting Pitcher
Age 20
2018 SSS poll ranking N/A
2019 SSS poll ranking N/A
2020 SSS poll ranking 12
2019 High Level Arizona (Rookie) (participated at the Schaumburg alternate site in 2020)
Overall 2019 stats 13-0 ▪️ 17 games (8 starts) ▪️ 2 CG ▪️ 1 SHO ▪️ 74 ⅔ IP ▪️ 0.82 ERA ▪️ 126 K ▪️ 41 BB ▪️ 0.884 WHIP

Andrew Vaughn

First Baseman
Age 23
2018 SSS poll ranking N/A
2019 SSS poll ranking N/A
2020 SSS poll ranking 4
2019 High Level Winston-Salem (A+) (participated at the Schaumburg alternate site in 2020)
Overall 2019 stats 107 games ▪️ 21 HR ▪️ 86 RBI ▪️ .278/.384/.449 ▪️ 89 BB ▪️ 71 K