White Sox draft recap: A delicious duo
Rather than court controversy and debate, as is the nature of most drafts, the Chicago White Sox went out this week and just got the job done.
Recent moves by the team indicate an uncommon financial aggression:
- Outbidding St. Louis and others to secure [insert year here] Opening Day center fielder Luis Robert
- Storming out of the gate to gobble up Yasmani Grandal this past fall, before most other team's alarm clocks had even rung to wake them up for free agency
- Becoming essentially the only team of 30 to swallow hard and have some straight talk with blue-chip prep Jared Kelley, determining his price to forego the University of Texas — and then, mercy mercy me, meeting it
So, with the aggressive pick of indeterminate-role-but-delicious-power-arm Garrett Crochet in the first round and easy heat Kelley in the second, the White Sox have had a draft for the ages.
(Relatively speaking, of course. Two picks ain't squat in the normal scheme of 40, but in a five-man draft? Oh my.)
After the grind of the draft but perhaps before any official victory lap, scouting director Mike Shirley spoke on each pick, with (naturally) extra attention paid to the Kelley coup. Watch the entire conversation below, courtesy of the Chicago White Sox (edited to get under 12 minutes):
Highlights from Shirley on each pick:
Garrett Crochet an elite left-handed pitcher, who we think will be a starter, with a three-pitch mix. The intangibles that he brings in terms of toughness and athleticism is something we really gravitated towards
Jared Kelley power body that really controls his delivery effectively ... the most important thing for a young arm, how developed the command is and how many strikes he actually uses with his fastball
Adysin Coffey a two-way player, we actually have some interest in him doing both ... a right-handed pitcher who can play shortstop, third base, center field, that tells you the kind of athlete we're talking about
Kade Mechals stuff was really ticking up ... in this new world of data, this guy has elite carry to his fastball and a really good breaking ball, so [we like] his ability to pitch north and south in the zone
Bailey Horn another guy whose stuff is at an uptick ... a 90-94 mph guy, breaking ball is really coming, plus competitor
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.
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