This year's MLB Draft is now a mid-July event, not an early-June event, so mock drafts in late April/early May seem even more premature than usual.
And it is! Baseball America's Carlos Collazo said as much before unveiling his outlet's projections. Besides the draft being pushed back a month, there a bunch of other variables in play, some due to the pandemic, and others due to the extra month:
The draft is still multiple months away and there are plenty of new pre-draft scouting events being rolled out—including the first of six regional pre-draft events starting this weekend in Cary, N.C.—and players will have to decide whether to shut things down after the season or take part in one of many summer leagues that are now real options before the draft takes place.
There already figured to be plenty of names to gain and lose strength with regards to White Sox ties over the courss of the next 11 weeks, because the Sox are drafting in the back half of the first round for the first time since 2013, when they selected Tim Anderson at No. 17.
In terms of production, Anderson would've gone third in a redraft that round, behind Kris Bryant and Aaron Judge. Given Judge's durability issues, Anderson may be a better candidate for the long haul.
The White Sox are drafting 22nd in the first round this year, which hasn't yielded many picks of note recently, but had a nice little stretch earlier last decade when it produced Marcus Stroman, Kolten Wong and Kyle Gibson over the course of four years. Perhaps it's due.
The distance from the first pick means that we could have a wider variety of names to consider between now and July 11, so we may as well pay mock drafts some heed now.
Baseball America (April 28)
White Sox select: Andrew Painter, RHP, Calvary Christian HS, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Collazo's take: "Painter is another high schooler out of Florida who is probably lower on the board than you would have thought back in January. He is no longer the consensus top arm in the class thanks to Jobe’s development, but he is still solidly a first round talent. It would be difficult to find a high school pitcher with his combination of a solid four-pitch mix, size and advanced command of his entire arsenal."
Painter is the second prep arm taken behind Jackson Jobe at No. 11, and an appropriate selection relative to BA's rankings, which put him at No. 20. MLB Pipeline has hit at No. 17, which is why he doesn't get to the White Sox in that mock draft. Instead...
MLB.com (April 25)
White Sox select: Sam Bachman, RHP, Miami (Ohio)
Jonathan Mayo's take: "At times this spring, Bachman has shown off 80-grade fastballs and sliders (on the 20-to-80 scouting scale). The White Sox certainly haven’t shied away from power college arms (Garrett Crochet, Zack Burdi, Carson Fulmer, Carlos Rodón) in the past."
Bachman ranks 15th on both the MLB and BA lists, so this would represent fair value at this juncture if he fell to the Sox at No. 22. But that's also why Josh had Bachman going off the board well ahead of where the White Sox get to pick, while Bachman didn't get past Toronto at No. 19 in BA's mock.
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