Keith Law Rankings

[Y2Jimmy0]

15 minutes ago, bmags said:

One thing that kinda sticks out is in college he hit more home runs than doubles. In W-S last year he had 28 doubles and only 6 home runs, sort of a crude inverse of his junior year at wake with 21 home runs and 10 doubles. 

I could only find that he hit with wooden bats after senior year but without any power, and since the bat changes it's kinda hard to believe it would be this big of a shift but it does make me wonder if suddenly it became gap power.

He hits absolute bombs in batting practice. I feel like they believe it will translate. I have fears that the ballpark in Birmingham will do very bad things to him though. 

[Y2Jimmy0]

16 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

From technical standpoint, Kopech still has rookie status until he spends a bit longer on the major league roster.  But as of opening day, he is considered a rookie.

Kopech will stay on these lists through next year. They include players until 50 IP in most cases. Kopech will be using up service time but he'll be a rookie for awards purposes in 2020. 

[daggins]

Kopech is on the Alex Reyes path, he'll be a top prospect until he's healthy.

Law is definitely the outlier, and i'm not as dour as him, but his reasoning is sound.

[Soxfest]

Law as usual undervalues Sox system, compared to everyone else.

Edited February 4, 2019 by Soxfest

[maggsmaggs]

12 minutes ago, Soxfest said:

Law as usual undervalues Sox system, compared to everyone else.

Law generally is more pessimistic about Sox prospects, but he has good reasons for it as the Sox have demonstrated to be very poor at drafting and developing their own players.  

[Soxfest]

6 hours ago, maggsmaggs said:

Law generally is more pessimistic about Sox prospects, but he has good reasons for it as the Sox have demonstrated to be very poor at drafting and developing their own players.  

We have 4 prospect’s ranked better than Cleveland’s best, yet ranked behind them. That’s asinine.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Soxfest

[oldsox]

Can someone year give us Law's Top Ten?

[Y2Jimmy0]

34 minutes ago, oldsox said:

Can someone year give us Law's Top Ten?

He hasn't released those yet. He'll have it like this though likely:

1. Eloy Jimenez

2. Michael Kopech

3. Dylan Cease

4. Luis Robert

5. Dane Dunning

6. Nick Madrigal

I would imagine he'll have Adolfo and Basabe next. 

[PolishPrince34]

1. Eloy Jimenez, OF (ranked No. 5)
2. Michael Kopech, RHP (ranked No. 20)
3. Dylan Cease, RHP (ranked No. 25)
4. Luis Robert, OF (ranked No. 54)
5. Dane Dunning, RHP (just missed)
6. Nick Madrigal, SS (just missed)
7. Micker Adolfo, OF
8. Luis Basabe, OF
9. Luis Gonzalez, OF
10. Blake Rutherford, OF

[PolishPrince34]

Micker Adolfo was a tough omission from the main list because I like the player he is and how much progress he's made to get to this point from when he signed as a workout phenom with virtually no baseball skills. He has huge raw power, moves well for a guy his size and has gone from having no idea at the plate to showing real selectivity, to the point where I think he has a chance to be a regular even if he ends up at DH, probably a low-average slugger with OBP skills and a lot of strikeouts. He had his best season to date in 2018, but he couldn't play the field and eventually was shut down to have Tommy John surgery in August. The hope is that he'll be back in the outfield in May.

The White Sox acquired Luis Basabe in the Chris Sale trade, and they've made some minor tweaks to quiet his approach, minimizing the small hitch in his swing to keep his contact rates up. He's always had a good plan at the plate and kept his OBP up in Double-A last year, even when he was struggling with making quality contact. He's an above-average runner who should stay in center field and could end up a 15-homer/20-steal guy along with those OBP skills -- another guy who had a case for the top 100.

Luiz Gonzalez, the team's third-round pick in 2018, started in Low-A last year, as the team thought he was a little behind most college products. But his performance last year showed that he was more advanced than we realized, as he raked in low-A and high-A and finished fourth in the minors last year with 40 doubles. He has some sneaky power, probably worth 16-20 homers a year when he sees the majors, and above-average speed that hasn't translated into base-stealing yet. He plays center now, although he may be a better asset in right field, where he should have above-average to plus range; he already has a plus arm.

Blake Rutherford was the Yankees' first-round pick in 2016 as a premium high school hitter who was expected to hit for average and power, but he hasn't produced near expectations so far. He went to the White Sox in the David Robertson/Tommy Kahnle trade in July 2017. He makes plenty of contact but doesn't use his lower half well, so the ball seems to go nowhere off his bat -- it's noticeably quiet even when he squares something up -- and he hasn't hit lefties well at all. His swing path is good and he has a decent approach, but the White Sox have a challenge to try to unlock some of that power in his hips and legs.

Jake Burger (11) missed his first full pro season after a very unfortunate injury at the start of spring training when he ruptured an Achilles tendon; he should be back by June. He was the Sox's first-round pick in 2017, a bat-first prospect who was a work in progress at third base but made consistently hard contact in college with above-average power.

Catcher Zack Collins (12) has had one of the most bizarre pro careers of any recent first-rounder I can remember. He does a few things well but some more important things not very well at all, and so I can neither dismiss him nor think of him as more than an up-and-down bench guy. His career line in pro ball sits at .232/.379/.425; he's drawn 188 walks in the last two years, with 34 homers; he has a big hitch in his swing that has prevented him from hitting for average; and he can throw and calls a good game but is a below-average receiver.

Steele Walker (13), the White Sox's second-round pick in 2018, was banged up when he reported and didn't get on the field for five weeks after the draft, after which he spent about a month with low-A Kannapolis. He has a long history of hitting for contact and high averages with average-ish power, and is limited defensively to a corner, which puts more pressure on his bat.

[Chicago White Sox]

Lol...most of those write-ups were pretty positive, no idea how he ranked us 13th.  I get depth is important, but much less so when you can buy solid veterans on the cheap nowadays.

[southsider2k5]

If you are looking for positives about how Sox development has improved in recent years, that piece about Micker is really nice to read.

[yesterday333]

6 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Lol...most of those write-ups were pretty positive, no idea how he ranked us 13th.  I get depth is important, but much less so when you can buy solid veterans on the cheap nowadays.

That's what I was thinking. He sounds more positive than a lot of fans on these boards on most of these guys.

[yesterday333]

; and he can throw and calls a good game but is a below-average receiver

judging by this line, if mlb goes to an automated strike zone in the next couple of years it would completely change his defensive outlook. Plus this is not the scouting report of a butcher behind the plate that some say he is...