With all White Sox pitchers set to report to spring training on Wednesday, we can put Prospect Week in the rear-view mirror ...
... once we answer the Patreon questions I couldn't really answer over the course of the six-installment Prospect Week programming. As always, thank you for your support.
Of the 30-ish starts the 5th starter is responsible for, which prospects might take some of those starts?
-- Andrew
I imagine the line of succession at the start of the season goes from Davis Martin to A.J. Alexy, since both are on the 40-man roster and both have enjoyed even brief success as MLB starters in recent years. Unless Jonathan Stiever is back to what he used to be after lat surgery, this is where you have to consider somebody like Sean Burke, followed by an NRI like Nate Fisher. Part of the reason why Mike Clevinger's investigation hangs over everything is because he was supposed to cover one of the organization's most pressing depth issues. Alas.
Prior to the tanking years, the White Sox had a decent core in the majors (Sale, Quintana, Eaton, Rodon, Abreu, Anderson, Robertson), and a terrible farm. Seven years later, we have a similarly decent core (Cease, Anderson, Lynn, Giolito, Robert, Eloy, Vaughn? Moncada? Hendriks) and a terrible farm. In your opinion, which team (2016 vs 2023) is in a better place? Are we back to square one?
-- Javier F.
Depends on what you want this team to do. If you want immediate wins, this team's in a better place because at least they've proven the ability to win 90-plus games once, whereas Rick Hahn's first rebuild pumped a lot of cash into a team that could get out of the 70s. They also overhauled the coaching staff without raising the white flag first in an actual attempt to troubleshoot the roster (that problem was self-inflicted, sure, but nevertheless...). One of the things that bothered me about the first rebuild is that they gave that core to Robin Ventura and only Robin Ventura, when Ventura should've been fired after the third year.
If you want a teardown, then the 2016 Sox were better for that thanks to the Sale/Quintana/Eaton contracts. The current crop of extensions is much closer to market rate, so you're not going to be able to infuse the roster with that amount of fresh talent by trading one or two players. When this roster gets overhauled, it'll be because veteran contracts melted off the books.
Keith Law recently posted his 2023 farm system rankings. The Sox throughout most publications have been ranked as a bottom 5 system. Law wrote about his #1 system, the Dodgers, "I know, it’s boring to say the Dodgers have the best farm system, and kind of hard to believe given all the players they’ve graduated or traded away in the past few years, but they are probably the best drafting organization given where they pick, they find talent on the international front, and players who come into their system get better at an alarmingly high rate. " What do you feel is an aspect of the Sox sytem that, if fixed, could help lift the Sox out of bottom 5 system territory? (Such as player dev, amateur draft, international signings, etc..)
-- Ed C.
I can't find it now, but I remember seeing a tweet float through talking about the Rays, saying that while they get massive amounts of credit for their R&D department, a lot of their strength simply comes from a huge staff for finding and developing talent. Go to their front office page and see how you long you scroll to account for their entire baseball ops department. The Dodgers have a similarly large list. Then you look at the White Sox, whose staff is intimate by comparison. They make news when they hire one person for one new role. I'm guessing Sam Mondry-Cohen will be nice to have around, but he also shouldn't be that big of a deal.
Not prospect specific but with scandals in minor leagues causing turnover any managers/coaches we should keep our eye on as potential organizational bright spots?
-- Bryan D.
I covered it in the overview of the White Sox's minor league coaching staff changes, but I'm most intrigued by the hiring of Jason Krizan as the White Sox hitting coach a year after he made his MLB debut as a 33-year-old rookie. He's the fourth former Giant added to the payroll in one regard or another this offseason, so maybe the White Sox really want to understand what they're all about.
Otherwise, since most of the names stayed the same, there's not much new to get me fired up. I suppose I'm kinda looking forward to seeing Danny Farquhar in Birmingham, but mostly to see whether you can judge him by results. The Dash had bad-to-absymal pitching staffs when in his two years, but I also don't know if there was greater success possible.
