Jul 14th, 2009
FutureSox Midseason Top 25 Prospects
By FutureSox Staff
It’s not exactly midseason, but it is the All-Star break for the White Sox and their AAA and AA affiliates so we thought it was time to release our Midseason Top 25 White Sox Prospects. Similar to how we did our preseason rankings, we had a total of nine FutureSox writers and people who follow the Sox minor league system from our sister site, Soxtalk.com, pool their ballots similar to an AP Poll. Therefore, the rankings are a combination of each of our rankings and don’t reflect any of our individual opinions.
We included the player’s rank from our preseason rankings and his range in our ballots. The ranges show how consistent or inconsistent we were. Some of our voters love one guy for one reason or another and the rest of us may think he is nuts. The parentheses after the highest and lowest votes show how many people had that player ranked in that position.
An exciting thing at FutureSox that we have been working on, and teased during the Brandon Allen trade, is our prospect profiles. They include biographical information, previous FutureSox rankings, scouting reports and other information. The profiles that we have already created are linked below the player’s name on this list. You can also view them by clicking the “Prospect Profiles” link at the top of any FutureSox.com page. We will add more profiles as we go and a few more will be coming soon so check them out!
Leave us some comments and tell us what you think about our rankings or join in the discussion at Soxtalk. If you think we are out of our minds, let us know where we screwed up!
1. Tyler Flowers, C, AAA Charlotte
Age: 23
Range: 1st (5) to 2nd (4)
Previous rank: 5th
Player Profile
2. Dayan Viciedo, 3B, AA Birmingham
Age: 20
Range: 1st (3) to 3rd (3)
Previous: T-2nd
Player Profile
3. Jordan Danks, CF, AA Birmingham
Age: 22
Range: 1st to 4th
Previous: 6th
Player Profile
4. Dan Hudson, RH SP, AA Birmingham
Age: 22
Range: 4th (7) to 5th (2)
Previous: 12th
Player Profile
5. Jared Mitchell, OF, Low-A Kannapolis
Age: 20
Range: 3rd to 8th
Previous: Not yet in system
Player Profile
6. Dexter Carter, RH SP, Low-A Kannapolis
Age: 22
Range: 5th (2) to 14th
Previous: 8th
Player Profile
7. John Shelby III, OF, AA Birmingham
Age: 23
Range: 8th to 18th
Previous: 7th
Player Profile
8. Josh Phegley, C, Low-A Kannapolis
Age: 21
Range: 7th to 16th
Previous: Not yet in system
Player Profile
9. Brian Omogrosso, RH SP/RP, AAA Charlotte
Age: 25
Range: 6th to 21st (2)
Previous: 19th
10. Charlie Shirek, RH SP, AA Birmingham
Age: 23
Range: 6th to unranked
Previous: 24th
11. C.J. Retherford, 3B/2B, AA Birmingham
Age: 24
Range: 5th to unranked
Previous: T-25th
Player Profile
12. Nathan Jones, RH RP, High-A Winston-Salem
Age: 23
Range: 6th to 21st
Previous: 23rd
Player Profile
13. Jon Link, RH RP, AAA Charlotte
Age: 25
Range: 4th to unranked
Previous: 17th
14. Carlos Torres, RH SP, AAA Charlotte
Age: 26
Range: 7th to unranked
Previous: UR
15. Lucas Harrell, RH SP, AAA Charlotte
Age: 24
Range: 8th to unranked
Previous: 14th
16. Steven Upchurch, RH SP, Rookie Bristol
Age: 19
Range: 10th to unranked
Previous: 18th
Player Profile
17. Brent Morel, 3B, High-A Winston-Salem
Age: 22
Range: 9th to unranked
Previous: 11th
18. Justin Greene, OF, Low-A Kannapolis
Age: 23
Range: 17th to unranked (2)
Previous: UR
19. John Ely, RH SP, AA Birmingham
Age: 23
Range: 10th to unranked (3)
Previous: 20th
20. Charlie Leesman, LH SP, Low-A Kannapolis
Age: 22
Range: 9th to unranked (5)
Previous: UR
21. Jon Gilmore, 3B, Low-A Kannapolis
Age: 20
Range: 14th (2) to unranked (2)
Previous: 22nd
22. Stephen Sauer, RH SP, Low-A Kannapolis
Age: 22
Range: 13th to uranked (3)
Previous: UR
23. Stefan Gartrell, OF, AA Birmingham
Age: 25
Range: 9th to unranked (4)
Previous: UR
24. Jack Egbert, RH SP/RP, AAA Charlotte
Age: 26
Range: 11th to unranked (4)
Previous: 9th
Player Profile
25. Jhonny Nunez, RH RP, AAA Charlotte
Age: 23
Range: 12th to unranked (3)
Previous: UR
Trayce Thompson, OF*
Age: 18
Range: 7th to unranked
*We included Trayce Thompson in our ballots because we believe he will sign, but since he hasn’t yet, we won’t include him in the final rankings. If we were to include him, he would have slid in at 13th, ahead of Jon Link.
The ETA for Tyler Flowers is listed at 2011, is this because he needs another year in the minors? Or is it only based on AJ and Paulie holding him back until their contracts expire? Thanks
I think Flowers will be pounding on the door to open next season as a big leaguer. Offensively the guy is ready, but defensively there is nothing wrong with him getting another year in the minors to work on his catching skills. The other major issue is as you point out the White Sox still have AJ under contract for another season and offensively he’s having one of his best years.
Bottom line Flowers bat is ready for the big leagues and my guess is he’ll be on the major league roster as soon as opening day of next year. I’d expect it would be with him getting a couple starts behind the plate as well as the occasional game at DH and maybe 1st. But overall, the Sox are going to do all it takes to get him to stick behind the plate as that is where he’d have the most value (bats like his from the catching spot are rare, very rare).
His readiness offensively and defensively don’t match up and his ETA may not match up with his readiness. The promotion to AAA should move him up a bit (and I changed his ETA to correspond with this), but I don’t think we will see Tyler on the big league club until mid 2010 at the earliest. He will be a good injury replacement for catcher or DH, but he can’t play big league catcher yet and AJ is blocking his way. It’s possible Flowers is up early next year because of an opening at DH (depending on the Thome situation), but I think the Sox would be wise to at least wait for the arb deadline next year. Even that might be pushing it. I’d rather let him get more time at catcher in the minors.