THE OFFICIAL SOXTALK 2009 MLB DRAFT THREAD

[daa84]

My grades:

 

23.) Jared Mitchel, C+ - Not terrible, but not great. Has a really high ceiling, his floor is extremely low. Boom or bust type of player. If he pans out though, he'll provide quite the offensive weapon at the top of the order we've been lacking.

 

38.) Josh Phegley, B - I love this pick, but the only thing holding it back from an A is if he can stick behind the plate or not. Very developed and advanced bat and can really hit. Plus, the more I've read about him, the more I think he could stick behind the plate; supposedly really smart, calls a good game, and has a very strong arm.

 

61.) Trayce Thompson, C+ - Not a terrible pick, but there are some concerns. He's got a lot of upside and is very athletic, but is also very raw and looks to possibly be a tough sign. Would have really preferred Max Walla here if we wanted a HS OF.

 

71.) David Holmberg, D - Hate it. Looks like a repeat of the Justin Edwards pick from 2006. A lefty who lacks the stuff to be good, but is an advanced pitcher. Dream scenario for round 2 would have been Garret Gould at 61 and Max Walla at 71.

 

102.) Bryan Morgado, C - I like it. Seems to have really good stuff but is very raw and needs refinement. We've had success in the past with similar players, but this is still a high risk, high reward type of pick so early in the draft.

 

Overall, C-

how come we never have one of those drafts where you look back and are like....f*** i like every pick we took..

 

kind of like the bears had this year...despite not having a top 2 round pick

[Jordan4life_2007]

I love the Peghley pick.

 

It's a terrible pick if he doesn't stick at catcher.

[BearSox]

Andy Seiler: White Sox pick Trayce Thompson from Santa Margarita HS (CA). He's going to take tons of money to sign, but he's got HUGE upside.

I wouldn't be surprised if we made this pick just for f***s sake. We probably won't sign him, save money this year, get the pick back next year, and develop a relationship with the player in the future. So if Thompson's college career goes the path of Jordan Danks', we might be able to get him in a similar situation.

[Dizzy Sox]

we've done a great job of developing pitchers with very good stuff but were projects... well, at least in the past 2 years.

 

Like whom? Carter? Hudson? Just because they haven't washed out of Kanny or W-S doesn't mean they were great picks. They may be in time, but unless past performance is no indicator of future success all of them are long shots..longer shots than your typical 1-10 round draft choice.

[DaTank]

Andy Seiler: White Sox pick Trayce Thompson from Santa Margarita HS (CA). He’s going to take tons of money to sign, but he’s got HUGE upside.

 

Andy's is a great guy. He knows his stuff. He's in my dynasty baseball league.

[BearSox]

Should we make a new thread for tomorrow? It'll make day two easier to follow, IMO.

[BearSox]

I really hope we take at least one risk with a high school player tomorrow, like Luke Bailey. We gotta get more talent in this system.

[BearSox]

Like whom? Carter? Hudson? Just because they haven't washed out of Kanny or W-S doesn't mean they were great picks. They may be in time, but unless past performance is no indicator of future success all of them are long shots..longer shots than your typical 1-10 round draft choice.

 

You can't teach stuff. The rest though, it is possible to teach.

 

I'd take Morgado over Holmberg 9 out of 10 times... although if you could somehow fuse Morgado and Holmberg together, you got a top 10 talent.

[scenario]

Should we make a new thread for tomorrow? It'll make day two easier to follow, IMO.

 

Yes

Edited June 10, 2009 by scenario

[SoxAce]

Should we make a new thread for tomorrow? It'll make day two easier to follow, IMO.

 

We usually do. It's been like that for years here.

[dasox24]

Should we make a new thread for tomorrow? It'll make day two easier to follow, IMO.

Yeah, definitely.

[danman31]

Thompson excites me more than anyone, but I don't know if he'll sign.

Absolutely. I liked that pick more than our others.

[farmteam]

Ecstatic that we picked Phegley. Also happy Bashore and Arnett went today!

[ThunderBolt]

Baseball Prospectus loved the Mitchell pick.

[Flash Tizzle]

What I ultimately want to know is, regardless of what you think of Mitchell as a player, does anyone here REALLY believe the White Sox are capable of correcting his problems? This is what I'm concerned with. He obviously needs help in correcting his swing, and I just have doubts that we're the organization to help him out.

 

If it works out well, then obviously everything's great; but I've seen enough of Anderson and Fields to know our recent track record hasn't been very good. Hopefully changes within the system since then can make Mitchell a legitimate player for us.

 

[Flash Tizzle]

Baseball Prospectus loved the Mitchell pick.

What'd they say?

[BearSox]

Apparently Holmberg is gonna be a tough sign as well. The Holmberg pick is really making me scratch my head more and more.

[BearSox]

These are some of the guys I hope we target tomorrow:

 

Luke Bailey, C, Georgia HS

Kendal Volz, RHP, Baylor

Jason Stoffel, RHP, Arizona

Angelo Songco, OF, Loyala Marymount

Josh Fellhauer, OF, Cal State Fullerton

Ruben Sierra Jr., OF, Puerto Rico HS

Diego Seastrunk, C, Rice

 

Volz is very interesting, he could be a really good reliever. I also really Seastrunk and Fellhauer. Songco could be interesting, but he K's a ton.

[fathom]

Apparently Holmberg is gonna be a tough sign as well. The Holmberg pick is really making me scratch my head more and more.

 

I think part of the reason this draft disappointed me is that we spent no money at all last offseason, so I was hoping we'd spend more during this draft. It's funny, as I don't mind the Mitchell pick and love the Thompson pick. It's the Phegley pick of the top 3 that bugs me when reviewing things.

[southsider2k5]

Unfortunately, I really can't tell you any more about Morgado than you can probably find in a scouting report or gather for yourself since I don't know the guy personally or anything. He looked pretty promising as a redshirt freshman for us in '08 when he was our Saturday starter. Everyone thought that he was just gonna tear it up this year considering he had a year of experience under his belt and his really good stuff. Unfortunately, he underperformed and got moved to the 'pen.

 

But, our whole team underperformed so I'm not sure it's not coaching that has caused problems for us. I mean, literally, almost every single player underachieved for Tennessee this year (particularly the pitching staff - e.g. Nick Hernandez, Morgado). Look at Kentrail Davis too. He was a Comp A round pick after his numbers went down in almost every category. I think that shows he has a ton of talent, but we didn't have the coaching to develop/harness it.

 

Anyway, when Morgado is on, he can just flat out overpower hitters, and that's evidenced by his 75 Ks in 52.1 IP. I really see this like a Daniel Hudson pick from last year where the guy has great stuff but bad numbers following a good year. I love the pick.

 

Oh, and from what I've been told, his mechanics are a bit screwy. Sounds like the perfect project for the other Sox minor league instructors and then Perdew when he hits that level.

 

Sounds a lot like Danny Wright.

 

[ThunderBolt]

What'd they say?

Bryan Smith (4:44:55 PM PT): battlekow (Milwaukee): Would you have liked Jared Mitchell better than Pollock there? Can Mitchell stick in center?

 

I would, but you won't find many Mitchell supporters bigger than me. Mitchell could absolutely stick in center on speed alone, but he's going to need some instructions. He's a big slow to react off the bat, so he needs that speed to make up for it. But with the power potential and the baserunning ability, the upside is so much better than Pollock. If you can't tell, Mitchell is one of my favorites in this draft.

 

Kevin Goldstein (5:02:45 PM PT): White Sox take Jared Mitchell from LSU. That's upside, and that's up the middle. You just watch his video and you'd think he was a top 10 guy. Love, love, love this pick.

 

Bryan Smith (5:05:21 PM PT): I'm with KG: the White Sox did a fantastic job with that pick. Between Beckham, Danks and Mitchell, this team is being proactive about rebuilding their farm system. Credit where credit is due.

 

Kiley McDaniel (5:05:23 PM PT): Who wouldn't love to see Carl Crawford, Jared Mitchell, Donavan Tate and other uber-athletes do some sort of combine-style competitions at the All-Star/Future's game. Let Reyes run on Ankiel's arm...I mean who wouldn't watch that?

 

Bryan Smith (5:08:36 PM PT): strupp (Madison): Mitchell is a High School player minus 3 years of development time, right?

 

Find me a high schooler in this draft with patience as good as his, and with baserunning as polished as his. He didn't waste his three years -- he's leaving LSU a much better player than when he arrived in Baton Rouge.

 

 

Joe Hamrahi (5:11:38 PM PT): Statistically though, Jared Mitchell looks like he can still improve. While he does walk and has great speed, his contact rate was below 70% for a good portion of the year...not an elite number for a first round pick. But imagine if he puts the bat on the ball more.

 

Kevin Goldstein (5:13:04 PM PT): Bryan is right, Mitchell is better, as he played less of a role on the football team as his football career wore on.

http://baseballprospectus.com/rt/rt.php?rtId=17

 

[Dizzy Sox]

Sounds a lot like Danny Wright.

 

And Wyatt Allen.

 

And Rob Purvis.

 

And Rocky Biddle.

 

Etc.

[BearSox]

I think part of the reason this draft disappointed me is that we spent no money at all last offseason, so I was hoping we'd spend more during this draft. It's funny, as I don't mind the Mitchell pick and love the Thompson pick. It's the Phegley pick of the top 3 that bugs me when reviewing things.

I really like the Phegley pick. If he can stick behind the plate with his offensive potential, at the very least, you got someone with a lot of trade value.

 

I really just hate the Holmberg pick. I'm not gonna let this one go, as I really wish we would have drafted Walla.

 

It's not like he had an awful draft, but it's just not good. We got two guys who could easily bust in Mitchell and Thompson, not to mention Thompson is said to be a very tough sign. We got one guy who could wind up being a pretty bad pick if he can't stay behind the plate. We got Holmberg who is said to be a tough sign and provides little upside. And we got Morgado who could wind up being a wasted pick.

 

If you take out Holmberg and replace him with Max Walla or Wil Myers and replace either Mitchell with Brothers or Arnett OR replace Thompson with Garrett Gould, I think this would have been a really good draft.

Edited June 10, 2009 by BearSox

[southsider2k5]

And Wyatt Allen.

 

And Rob Purvis.

 

And Rocky Biddle.

 

Etc.

 

Bulls***. It is about more than failed prospects.

 

Danny Wright is a perfect comparison. Wright was a guy who had horrible ERA and W-L at the college level, but had great strikeout numbers. They took and him and made a couple of mechanical changes, and he became an effective major leaguer until be blew out his shoulder. It would have really been interesting to see what Wright did if his shoulder didn't give out.

[Rowand44]

Bulls***. It is about more than failed prospects.

 

Danny Wright is a perfect comparison. Wright was a guy who had horrible ERA and W-L at the college level, but had great strikeout numbers. They took and him and made a couple of mechanical changes, and he became an effective major leaguer until be blew out his shoulder. It would have really been interesting to see what Wright did if his shoulder didn't give out.

Danny Wright never had an era under 5.