Southside Showdown » prospects

Taking cues on the White Sox starter depth

James Fegan — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 11:45:36 +0000

Baseball America (Phil Rogers) released their most recent edition of the White Sox top 10 prospects list on Monday. The first thing that jumps out at you is all of the hot and exciting athleticism in the outfield. Courtney Hawkins, Trayce Thompson, and Keenyn Walker are all in the top 5 of both Rogers’ list and MLB.com’s list. Jared Mitchell is still around too.

None of them will be ready to take hold of a starting gig this next year–only Thompson seems close–but it shows why the White Sox have been exploring the notion of trading from their outfield depth. They could also just trade the prospects, like old times.

That’s some exciting stuff, and it’s coming from the White Sox farm system. I could have focused on that (at 120+ words, I already have), or focus on Carlos Sanchez’s slap-hitting, or chronicle Courtney Hawkins milking his birthday on Twitter like nothing this world has ever seen. Instead, let’s talk 6th starters.

Hector Santiago and Jose Quintana are locked in a death battle for the 5th starter slot, which is all well and good, but gets dicey if Gavin Floyd is considered a luxury and they both are given 180 innings to fingerpaint in. Both had major items on the Legitimate Starter Checklist still blank at the close of the season–Quintana needs a changeup to counterbalance the fact that no, he cannot expect to throw his 90 mph fastball perfectly on the hands of right-handers every time, and Hector needs to throw some more strikes.

Next in line is presumably, and eternally, Dylan Axelrod, who is a charming spot starter, but also never being promoted from there (Though the Padres gave Eric Stults 14 starts this season, so you never know). He should be quickly overtaken by any legitimate, near-ready starter prospect. Instead…

Nestor Molina, last year’s consensus #2 prospect, is nowhere to be seen on a list made by Rogers, who, as Larry from South Side Sox notes, is generally more deferential to what he hears from the organization than most. Also absent is Simon Castro, who was also part of the mini-rebuilding of last season, and also had an underwhelming season with some injury troubles. Castro has even dropped all the way down to #15 in the MLB.com rankings. The White Sox system is a little bit better than it used to be, but #15 is still pretty darn low.

With Charlie Leesman producing the best straight results at the AAA level, and lower-level prospect Erik Johnson, 2012 draft pick Chris Beck, and even Scott Snodgress grading out higher for the potential, Molina and Castro’s future as starters in the organization seems precarious. That’s not a total loss, nor shock, because each player came to town with warnings that their future was in the bullpen, but its a clue to the volatility of all of this.

It’s an absurdly early date and we lack a full collection of information, including more prospect lists and Spring Training, but for the moment, I’d pit the deepest depths of the starting pitching depth chart as:

5. Jose Quintana

6. Hector Santiago

7. Dylan Axelrod

8. Charlie Leesman

9. Andre Reinzo

10. Simon Castro

11. Nestor Molina

137. Philip Humber

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

White Sox Bullpen Prospects

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:52:35 +0000

Nathaniel Stoltz of Seedlings to Stars was kind enough to answer a few questions regarding the state of relief pitching in the White Sox minor league organization. Big thanks to Nathaniel – you rule, man!

After the trade of Sergio Santos to the Blue Jays, what do you think of the current state of the White Sox bullpen?

While the White Sox have significant concerns in a number of areas, the bullpen is not one of them. The unit ranked 4^th in baseball in WAR last year, and while Santos departs, Addison Reed should step in and provide similar value in 2012. If Chris Sale does move to the rotation, that could be another hit, but there’s plenty of depth in the minors, and good relief pitching is always possible to find. They might not top 6 WAR as a unit again, but it shouldn’t be too big of a dropoff from 2011, and they can afford that—they could lose half of their 2011 WAR and still be an average relief corps.

Do you think Chris Sale to the rotation is a good idea?

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Floyd and Danks on the Move?

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:14:36 +0000

Along with the indication that Chris Sale will be joining the rotation (the subject of yesterday’s post), general manager Kenny Williams said that he’s open to shopping starting pitchers Gavin Floyd and John Danks. Williams put it plain and simple at the GM meetings, stating “I’m not ruling anything out.”

Right-hander Gavin Floyd is coming off of a season that was his worst in a White Sox uniform. With a record of 12-13 and an ERA of of 4.37 Floyd was far from what we expected. Like most pitchers Gavin is streaky, winning three, losing three, winning three, losing four, so on and so forth. It’s been like that for Floyd’s entire career. When he’s good he’s really good but when he’s bad he’s really bad.

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