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By Steve Adams | at
Email a copy of 'AL Central Notes: May, Jackson, Jimenez, Smith' to a friend
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AZ14
Naquin needs to be back in the majors
sufferforsnakes
Yep! The way he’s hitting in Columbus, I expect him to be called up quick like.
Greg David
Don’t hold your breath, Tito doesn’t want Naquin up. He’ll just play golden boy Lonnie and cheatin’ Abe more. If anybody is called up it’ll be an extra reliever
layventsky
He’ll just start Michael Martinez in CF.
sufferforsnakes
Ugh.
Strauss
May was more than a little over matched. But what else would you expect from someone out of the White Sox system.
dewssox79
we have a top 5 farm system.
ASapsFables
Yes, but the organization is still lacking in impact position prospects with high hit tools, particularly in the outfield. That makes signing Cuban OF Luis Robert a high priority later this month for the White Sox. Only 2B Yoan Moncada (#1), C Zack Collins (#6) and CF Luis Alexander Basabe (#8) appear in the organizations top-10 list of prospects, the rest are pitchers. In addition, Basabe’s best traits are his speed, arm and fielding, not his hit tool.
chesteraarthur
They have a good system that was stocked with players from other teams. Who is the last hitting prospect the white sox developed? And before you say Tim Anderson, I think this season is showing that it was perhaps too early to call him a total success after last year. So before that?
hyraxwithaflamethrower
Feels like the answer is Frank Thomas. Been a while since the Sox drafted and developed a position player who amounted to anything.
ChiSoxCity
Precisely why they should be looking for OF prospects in exchange for Quintana. The lack of talent in the outfield has really hurt the organization over the last few decades.
ASapsFables
The organization has definitely been lacking in elite level hitting prospects over the last couple of decades. They did produce some outstanding hitters prior to that.
In addition to HOF slugger Frank Thomas, that list would include 3B Robin Ventura and OF’s Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Lee. The latter two were traded off the team more or less at the request of manager Ozzie Guillen who desired a club capable of playing ball more in the style of an NL club where he was a coach prior to becoming the White Sox skipper.
Joe Crede might have been the best White Sox position prospect developed since then and he was drafted all the way back in 1996 as a high school selection. He didn’t make his MLB debut until 2000 and wasn’t a fixture in the White Sox lineup until late July of 2002. He was an impacting hitter and defensive 3B for nearly 5 seasons before chronic back issues cut his career short. Crede was an instrumental part of the White Sox 2005 championship club as was another White Sox draft pick from 1998, CF Aaron Rowand.
mikecws91
Aaron Rowand? Joe Crede? They only came up, like, FIFTEEN years ago!
socalsoxfan78
This.
Darasuum
It’s still the same terrible system it was before. The ranking was just boosted by outside talent. The previous prospects didn’t get any better and the fundamental problems the system had are still there.
ASapsFables
So prospects don’t count if they are acquired from other organization? lol
Btw-The White Sox have revamped their player development system in the past couple of years and did receive pretty good grades from their most recent Rule 4 draft last June which included some position prospects with decent enough hit tools. C Zack Collins (#6) OF Alex Call (#14) and OF/1B Jameson Fisher (#15) were all advanced college bats who now appear in the organization’s top-15 list of prospects. Time will tell if they can be developed sufficiently enough to earn a promotion to the parent club.
chesteraarthur
“So prospects don’t count if they are acquired from other organization? lol”
When you are talking specifically about the white sox ability to develop position players, then no, having good hitting prospects from other teams in your farm system does not count as an argument against that.
ASapsFables
Yes, we all know the White Sox have had problems developing position prospects. They still used an extremely valuable resource in home grown organizational asset Chris Sale to acquire both 2B Yoan Moncada and CF Luis Alexander Basabe, among others.
Personally, I don’t give a rat’s a$$ if the organization doesn’t get credit for drafting them as long as they become fixtures for a contending White Sox club in the next few years. Boston can take all the credit they want but the White Sox will still play a part in their overall development as potential impact MLB players.
Btw-The White Sox also signed an impacting international FA slugger of their own in Jose Abreu following the 2013 season. Since he was already an advanced bat coming out of Cuba I suppose they will never receive proper credit from fans like yourself in identifying him as a talent who never needed a day of minor league development. That’s just fine with me.
Darasuum
Dumping a couple of high-level prospects in a system does nothing to improve it. You still have the same coaches, scouting and drafting that lead to the problem.
Priggs89
Except for the fact that they’ve made changes in all those aspects within the last two years. But don’t let facts get in the way of your argument.
MattyWil
There is literally no correlation whatsoever
chibearsjuan
The lack of positional depth in the organization since 2005 is a legit criticism. Yes, there have been both coaching & scouting changes since, but the results are still lacking. There isn’t even the sniff of potential for a Schwarber, Byrant, Russell, & Baez to emerge at roughly the same time. it remans to be seen whether Hahn will continue to aim for top prospects regardless of position or start narrowing the focus on depth weakness.
Any fan saying he didn’t get enough for Sale & Eaton is in denial of how quickly the rebuild stalled afterwards. All teams know that if they want Q they better have a Sale like offer.
A 14-11 won’t change Hahn’s goal of trading short-timers Abreu, Frazier, Melky, & Robertson before the deadline, but 30-20 will. In the past Kenny would deal propsects for rent-a-players at that juncture. Even if that should grow to 45-30, I expect Hahn to maintain a longer term focus.