Draft Thoughts

Written by: JJ Stankevitz on 11th June 2009

Draft Thoughts | read this item

Rounds 1-30 of the draft are in the books, and while there’s a whole slew of picks to come, most (if not all) of those will end up being fillers for rookie ball and single-A. The Sox made 32 picks in the last two days, and a few breakdowns of those picks:

4-year university: 25

Community college: 1

High School: 6

C: 2

* Josh Phegley (Indiana)
* Robert Vaughn (Kansas State)

1B: 1

* Dan Black (Purdue)

2B: 4

* Daniel Wagner (Belmont)
* Jeffrey Tezak (Nebraska)
* Matthew Harughty (Oklahoma)
* Kyle Davis (Delaware)

3B: 1

* Robert Cummings (UC Santa Barbara)

SS: 2

* Jared McDonald (Arizona State)
* Zach Kayne (Davidson)

OF: 6

* Jared Mitchell (LSU)
* Trayce Thompson (Santa Margarita HS)
* Nick Ciolli (Indiana State)
* Kyle Colligan (Texas A&M)
* Brian Goodwin (Rocky Mount HS)
* Brady Shoemaker (Indiana State)

RHP: 11

* Matthew Heidenreich (Temescal Canyon HS)
* Kyle Bellamy (UMiami)
* Justin Collop (Toledo)
* Ryan Buch (Monmouth)
* Matthew Hopps (Cal State Dominguez Hills)
* Jimmy Ballinger (Southern Mississippi)
* Cameron Bayne (Concordia)
* Dane Williams (Archbishop McCarthy HS)
* Philip Negus (Wake Forest)
* Goldy SImmons (San Diego State)
* Charles Delk (Clemson)

LHP: 5

* David Holmberg (Port Charlotte HS)
* Bryan Morgado (Tennessee)
* Justin Jones (Oakdale Senior HS)
* Nathan Reed (Pittsburgh)
* Michael Strong (Iowa Western CC)

Some thoughts on the selections, now:

–I’m not sure how to feel about the Jared Mitchell pick. This is from the MLB.com scouting report:

Mitchell has a quick bat, but with a high elbow, tends to swing under the ball.

Granted, maybe Mitchell will develop some power, but that doesn’t seem to be a good sign for a player who should rely on hitting line drives and ground balls given his speed. At this point in his career, it might not be a quick fix to change Mitchell’s swing—and changing it could undo all the positives he does have with his swing (you don’t hit .325 in a power conference without being, you know, good).

What I like about the pick is that he’s not just a speed guy. He’s taken 52 walks this year, helping him build an impressive .471 OBP. If he can stay patient at the the plate and show some good gap-to-gap power, then he’ll turn into a very nice MLB player.

–The Phegley selection was interesting in that the Sox used a second-round pick on a catcher when Tyler Flowers is already in the system. My initial reaction was that they took Phegley as a backup option in case Flowers’ defense never panned out, but all reports have pegged Phegley as an excellent offensive talent with defensive issues—just like Flowers. Good hitting catchers aren’t easy to find, though, and having some insurance in the system in case Flowers doesn’t pan out isn’t a bad idea. I just don’t know why the Sox used a second-round pick on that insurance instead of waiting, say, six more rounds and taking Trevor Coleman.

–Trayce Thompson seems like a good “project” pick in that he apparently has great raw potential, but it might take him a little while if he’s going to reach his ceiling. At the least, with Thompson, Mitchell, and Jordan Danks, the White Sox look like they finally may have some legitimate outfield prospects after that trio of positions was completely barren a year ago.

–Another “project” would be Bryan Morgado. Any lefty who throws in the mid-90′s is an intriguing prospect, and if the organization can work on his delivery to make it easier to repeat, he could be a steal of a pick. He’s a guy to keep an eye on in the next few years—because if he can keep his walks down, there’s a very good chance that he has success.

–I like the Kyle Bellamy pick a lot, just based on the fact that he was pretty darn dominant in a power conference. He had 63 strikeouts in 46.1 innings as Miami’s closer, converting all 16 save opportunities for the Hurricanes. He’s got a pretty crazy motion, slinging it from about a 3/4 angle with a whole lot of arms and legs thrown in there (this picture illustrates that). I’m guessing he might not be overly effective against professional left-handed hitters, but if he could develop into a superior version of Ehren Wassermann, I’d be okay with that.

–I got to see two of the Sox’ Wednesday picks—Brady Shoemaker and Nick Ciolli—play when Indiana State came to Columbia for a two-game weekday series against Mizzou back in April. It was about as “meh” as you can get—Shoemaker went hitless in eight at-bats and Ciolli went 1/6 with a walk—but it’s still cool to see some players who I got to see this year get drafted.

–On that same note, the Tiger fan in me wants to see Kyle Gibson succeed in Minnesota, but the White Sox fan in me hopes he just doesn’t become the next Sox-killing Twins pitcher. The one thing that sticks out about Gibson isn’t his putaway slider, though—it’s his demeanor. I can’t say enough about how confident, knowledgeable, and professional Gibson came across as when he was at Mizzou. As long as this forearm thing isn’t serious, he has a bright future ahead of him not because of his plus pitches, but because he “gets it.”

–On another similar note, the Tiger fan in me wants to see Aaron Crow succeed in Kansas City, but the White Sox fan in me hopes he doesn’t become the next Sox-killing Royals pitcher. This might have been my favorite non-Strasburg pick of the draft because the Royals threw caution and dollar figures to the wind and took the best available player with the No. 12 pick—something I didn’t expect the Royals to do. Crow will cost them a pretty penny, but they got a pitcher who could be ready to be in their rotation as soon as early 2010. He has an absolutely disgusting slider to go with a plus fastball and, from what I gathered back in April, a much-improved changeup.

“He’s put in a lot of work into (his changeup) with others, and the guys catching and hitting against him said they saw a difference,” Vitello said.

While Crow’s slider is a great out-pitch, his changeup could be key in accelerating his progress to the major leagues.

“It’s a lot better than it was at the end of last year,” Crow said of his changeup. “I’m very confident in all three of my pitches and think they all should be better than where they were last year.”

If Crow’s throwing all three pitches for strikes, he’s going to be in the majors sooner rather than later. Kansas City is a great fit for him—not just because he was born about an hour away in Wakarusa, Kan., and played his college ball two hours down I-70 in Columbia, but because he shouldn’t have a ton of “savior” pressure on him with Zack Greinke and Gil Meche holding down the top of the Royals’ rotation.

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Topics: Jared Mitchell, Josh Phegley, Kyle Bellamy, MLB Draft, Trayce Thompson, White Sox