Competent drafting has made things better for the Sox talent pipeline, and things have certainly progressed a bit from when a reliever was the best prospect in the system (AKA last year), but the impact players are still few and far away from the majors. The lack of consensus after the top few slots reflects the interchangeable nature of all those back-of-the-rotation and utility player candidates.

LINKS

Baseball America List

Baseball Prospectus List

John Sickels List

South Side Sox List

Future Sox List

MLB.com List

CHART BREAKDOWN

Placed against each other, some clear patterns emerge. Courtney Hawkins is the consensus top prospect in the organization, and the variance between Sanchez and Thompson can rely on how the author feels about the former’s MLB readiness and the latter’s remaining upside. Hurlers Scott Snodgress, Erik Johnson, and Andre Rienzo fill out the middle portion of the lists, with Rienzo falling back a bit due to his perceived future in the bullpen.

This chart that assigns a point value for placement in each list further displays how Keenyn Walker slides into the middle of most of the rankings, but it isn’t the most useful exercise ever, mainly because the MLB.com list exists on another planet and throws this small sample of lists off.

Not only is Mayo & Co. the only list of these to put Hawkins behind Trayce Thompson, but the placement of Charlie Leesman at No. 3, when no one else sees his immediate readiness to be a left-handed Dylan Axelrod deserving a ranking in the top ten, would give him more steam than 2nd round pick Christopher Beck placing at the back of most prospect lists. Mayo also has Nestor Molina at No. 4, when even John Sickels–who beat the drum for him as hard as anyone after the trade–backed him down to No. 11 after a troubled 2012 campaign. Andre Rienzo appears in all five other top 10 lists, is 18th in the organization for Mayo, behind Tyler Saladino and Kevan Smith.

So this list gives you a rough idea of the top seven or eight, and turns into guesswork from there, which in effect, mirrors the practice of trying to pick the best prospects out of this still very light White Sox system.

Also, in case it wasn’t clear, you should read these publications that are actually putting in the work and research. All the lists are linked to above.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

More than anything, this is simply a tent pole, marking the slow passing of time as the promise of fake, empty, competition-free baseball grows, there’s no earth-shattering news. The White Sox like to rush prospects, but not to whatever degree is necessary to do something crazy like send their 19 year-old consensus #1 prospect to big league camp.

But this lack of sizzle does not prevent us from being able to run through each invite and giving a one (or two, to be realistic about my self-editing skills) line summary of each.

Prospects (Note: these guys are not on the 40-man roster. Players already on the 40-man—Nestor Molina, Jared Mitchell, Josh Phegley, etc.—will obviously be in camp already)

Trayce Thompson , OF– After mastering High-A last season, the focus will be on his strikeouts (this will be a theme) to see how close his combination plus-power and athleticism is to the major league doorstep.

Carlos Sanchez, IF—His actual chances of making the team have probably been overstated, but for most, it will be the first sustained look at a potential future lineup regular.

Keenyn Walker, OF—The first big league camp for the 2011 supplemental  round pick should produce a faint wooshing sound—both when he races around the bases with electrifying speed and during his many strikeouts.

Erik Johnson, SP—After tearing up High-A in his first full season as a professional, the big right-hander from Cal with the slider to match is pretty much the best pitching prospect in the organization.

Scott Snodgress, SP—Very tall Stanford lefty who like Johnson has rocketed to the top of Sox pitching prospect heap after an encouraging turn through High-A ball. It’s the first chance to see the newest hope for the middle of the rotation.

Jake Petricka, SP – Bullpen future is all but etched in stone by now, but still has a big fastball that should be fun to watch…and interesting to see if it is overwhelming in short bursts.

Andy Wilkins, 1B – The power doesn’t exactly stir the loins, but he has the plate discipline to put together professional at-bats against right-handers, and the only other prospect at his position recently graduated high school. Some analysts have given him the tantalizing “can play a little 3^rd base” distinction.

Tyler Saladino, SS—The excitement is gone after a power-starved year in Double-A, but there’s still hope of a major league future, even if it’s just as a utility guy.

Marcus Semien, SS—Drafted for his steady up-the-middle defense, it would be nice if he showed some hint that his surprisingly great 2012 at the plate had some reality to it.

Michael Blanke, C—There’s not really a major league bat here, but catching is a very rare skill that deserve to be appreciated.

Kevan Smith, C—He was more fun when he was a 23 year-old eviscerating Rookie League pitching, but still a big, athletic receiver who held his own in Single-A last year.

Seth Loman, 1B—Will be playing the role of late-inning, non-prospect spring training first basemen that Jim Gallagher used to fill.

Daniel Moskos, RP—“Former fourth overall draft pick” is always exciting to say, even if it is not exciting to watch.

Veteran non-roster invites

David Purcey, RP—I felt better about confusing him with David Pauley after seeing that they were both ineffective relievers for the Detroit Tigers in 2011. Purcey is a big left-handed arm that’s never been reeled in.

Jeff Gray, RP—Not to dismiss the potential of Don Cooper to squeeze pints of blood out of stones, but getting to see Gray spend all of last year as a tomato can in the Minnesota bullpen really kills any potential excitement.

Stefan Gartrell, OF—He’s back because the sequel to “Stefan Gartrell Hits a Couple of Home Runs in the First Few Days of Spring Training and Receives 48 Hours of Buzz as a Potential Fifth Outfielder” just got greenlit for production.

Ramon Troncoso, RP—Really good at generating groundballs, but not anything else. Also is slowly getting worse at generating groundballs.

Bryan Anderson, C—Since the organization is light on catching depth, and currently slated to roll with Hector Gimenez as its primary backup, there’s plenty of room for the Cardinals former top catching prospect to get some run, even if his bat never developed all the way.

Steve Tolleson, IF—Last season, even with a legitimate prospect installed in the utility infielder role to start the year, Ray Olmedo found his way to 42 plate appearances. Perhaps it would be unwise to dismiss the chances of Steve Tolleson

Josh Bell, IF–

The White Sox signed Josh Bell to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. Only 26, but he has busted so hard.

— Nick Schaefer (@n_schaef) January 11, 2013

@n_schaef Bust so hard White Sox wanna sign me

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) January 11, 2013

@n_schaef I’m very sorry

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) January 11, 2013

@jrfegan I keep telling everyone you’re a rapper but nobody believes me.

— Nick Schaefer (@n_schaef) January 11, 2013

 

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

For players, the league is a chance to continue to work and develop.  For scouts and evaluators, it’s a chance to observe that process, with a lot of prospects conveniently aggregated into one location.

For our sake, it’s pretty much a disaster waiting to happen.  The nutty park factors, egregious disparity in the presence of hitting and pitching prospects, and short length of the season all threaten to produce wacky end-of-season batting lines that will inevitably attract too much attention…because there’s nothing else going on White Sox-related.

Exhibit A for why to tune out could easily be the 2010 AFL performance of Eduardo Escobar, who put up a .300/.353/.536 line with four home runs in 119 plate appearances.  Eduardo has yet to beat that home run total in any full season, at any level.  Exhibit B could be Brent Morel hitting .435 during the 2009 AFL.  For both, there are clearer conceptions of who these players are now, and there’s not much resemblance to their AFL-selves.

But it doesn’t just produce helium-filled stretches from hitters, it’s also a great opportunity for weak-stuff, high-pitchability older hurlers to dice up raw hitting prospects in a manner that doesn’t project to the major league level.

Just last year, Terry Doyle posted a nifty 1.98 ERA (a full two runs below what his peripherals suggest he earned) in 27.1 innings, which was enough to inspire interest from the Twins in the rule 5 draft  after he was unprotected by the Sox.  Minnesota would return Doyle before the end of Spring Training, and the Sox eventually granted him his release so he could pitch in Japan.  Perhaps the Sox were only able to exercise the restraint necessary to leave Doyle unprotected because they had rushed to add Anthony Carter to the 40-man roster after the 2010 AFL.  Carter struck out 16 batters in 10 walk-free innings, before reverting back to someone who could not get AAA hitters out once full-season ball resumed.

So by all means, feel free to skip out on the Arizona Fall League.  It contains similar landmines as Andy Wilkins and Taylor Thompson.  Wilkins, is a 24 year-old 1st basemen who spent the past season in AA.  As a 1st basemen, he needs to have a truly remarkable bat to make an impact, and he’s spent most of his career hitting unremarkably.  Regions Field in Birmingham is no good for power, but the fact that he’s never slugged over .500 in any season is troubling, and remains the larger truth for him whether he goes ballistic for a few weeks in Arizona or not.  Thompson spent the season dominating High-A hitters, and is a year older.  Both could tear the Arizona Fall League apart, and have it not mean anything

There are two prospects around, though–OF Trayce Thompson and IF Carlos Sanchez.  There’s not much to really learn by monitoring their power, since it’s known that Trayce has all of the power in the world, and Carlos has none.  Contact and plate discipline will be key, since Thompson needs a way to make his on-base percentage palatable, and Sanchez needs to be an elite contact guy to survive.

Neither will amass a big enough sample at the plate to get properly worried or geeked up about.  It’s a bananas playing environment, coming on after multiple weeks off.  Of most  interest will be whether the positive defensive reputations both have built up stand up to more intensive national scouting scrutiny, and that information will come second-hand, since AFL games are unavailable to most.

So, it’s probably best to push the whole thing aside.  It’s great that there are some legit prospects with White Sox affiliation in Arizona, it’s good that they’re getting work in, and it’s too bad that Courtney Hawkins is too raw to go and retweet every mention of every home run he hits.

Remember, even if you miss the boat on getting pumped up about someone having a ballistic Arizona Fall League performance, there will be plenty of time to get irrationally excited about them in Spring Training.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @ JRFegan.  Also check out his full-time, daily blog, White Sox Observer