In-depth look at the White Sox minor league development staff

[NorthSideSox72]

Last week, the Sox announced an entire slate of Player Development roles, including affiliate managers and coaches, roving staff, front office, etc. We didn't get a chance to do more than just report the names at the time.

 

Now we've got a more in-depth look, with notes, fun background stories, and/or links to interviews on basically all of them. So get to know the Sox player dev staff here, with Julie's usual humor sprinkled in.

 

[Lip Man 1]

One of the issues I think over the last 15 years or so concerning the lack of development by Sox minor leaguers is how capable in fact, the Sox minor league staff is overall.

 

Can someone more familiar with the minor leagues try to answer the question of basically how good are these people? Can they actually teach the game?

 

Remember years ago, to cite one example, the one season Hawk Harrelson was GM, he insisted that all Sox minor league instructors be former major league players...I don't think that's the best way to assemble a staff, especially if they can't teach.

 

So I'm just curious what the minor league experts at Sox Talk thinks about the staff in general and do they think this is a better overall staff then in years past?

 

Mark

Edited November 25, 2016 by Lip Man 1

[NorthSideSox72]

One of the issues I think over the last 15 years or so concerning the lack of development by Sox minor leaguers is how capable in fact, the Sox minor league staff is overall.

 

Can someone more familiar with the minor leagues try to answer the question of basically how good are these people? Can they actually teach the game?

 

Remember years ago, to cite one example, the one season Hawk Harrelson was GM, he insisted that all Sox minor league instructors be former major league players...I don't think that's the best way to assemble a staff, especially if they can't teach.

 

So I'm just curious what the minor league experts at Sox Talk thinks about the staff in general and do they think this is a better overall staff then in years past?

 

Mark

 

There is nothing objective about this, sadly. Determining how good instructors are at their job is very fuzzy. Overall as a system, they certainly have done a decent job developing pitchers, but less so with hitters. So that's a theme to grab onto. The fact that they injected some new blood seems like a good thing. But still at this point, you generally hear a lot more positive about PC's like Dotson, Perdew, Bautista, and even Zaleski, and now they added a major league guy in McCatty too. But on the hitting side, I've mostly not heard anything at all. Charlie Poe has a good reputation, but I just haven't heard people say much on the other hitting-side guys. And asking people within the Sox isn't going to get you a straight answer in any case.

 

[caulfield12]

What are the changes, if any, that Getz has out in place since taking a leadership position?

 

It would seem to be an extremely important interview, especially if any of these Sale/Q for prospect deals take place with Red Sox, Dodgers, Rangers, Astros, Dodgers, etc.