5 prospects to keep an eye on

[southsider2k5]

Interesting to read the comments from the White Sox on these players.

 

http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/five-w...keep-eye-summer

[Dizzy Sox]

— 2013 first-round pick Tim Anderson is hitting .298/.328/.469 with Winston-Salem, but only has seven walks against 59 strikeouts in 259 plate appearances. The White Sox think Anderson's plate discipline will develop as he gets more plate appearances, and won't try to force a patient approach on an aggressive young hitter.

 

http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/five-w...keep-eye-summer

 

Because that approach has worked so well with other aggressive young hitters like Thompson, Mitchell, Hawkins, Barnum, etc.

[NorthSideSox72]

There is something disturbing to me, looking at the quotes in that article, when comparing Anderson to Ravelo items. Not because they are in the same sphere as prospects, but because of the reaction to certain things.

 

When Capra talks about Ravelo, he talks doubles and power projection. Makes NO MENTION of the fact that he's consistently had the best plate discipline numbers of any prospect in the system this year and last.

 

Anderson is talked up (rightly), and they go out of their way to talk about not wanting to "force" plate discipline with him.

 

Anyone else see a pattern, or bias, here? Which happens to fall in line wth the tendency of the org across the board having so many hitters struggling with strikeouts? The juxtaposition of those quotes really highlights it.

 

[almagest]

There is something disturbing to me, looking at the quotes in that article, when comparing Anderson to Ravelo items. Not because they are in the same sphere as prospects, but because of the reaction to certain things.

 

When Capra talks about Ravelo, he talks doubles and power projection. Makes NO MENTION of the fact that he's consistently had the best plate discipline numbers of any prospect in the system this year and last.

 

Anderson is talked up (rightly), and they go out of their way to talk about not wanting to "force" plate discipline with him.

 

Anyone else see a pattern, or bias, here? Which happens to fall in line wth the tendency of the org across the board having so many hitters struggling with strikeouts? The juxtaposition of those quotes really highlights it.

I think there's a strong hint here as to why we seemingly cannot develop hitting. We push lots of guys quickly through the minor league ranks and don't give them a chance to learn, and we apparently don't try to instill any patience at levels where developing it is key - its fine being aggressive with hittable pitches, but if you don't learn to lay off crap in the minors, you're certainly not going to be able to lay off the good pitcher's pitches you'll see in the majors.

 

Hopefully hiring Steverson is a sign of the direction we're going to take with hitting in the future, because I don't think trading pitching (which we can develop) is going to get hitting is going to be sustainable.

 

[royoung]

While all of these hitters you mention need to make contact more frequently, Thompson and Mitchell have always been able to take walks. Mitchell (Ravelo being right there with him) may even be the best in our system at drawing the walk.

 

Semien was/is an OBP beast. Other than that, not many patient hitters on our prospect lists.