Best prospect
Tyler Flowers
2009 in review: Flowers came over in the Javier Vazquez trade and quickly showed why. He tore it up right out of the gate for AA Birmingham. He hit for average (.302), power (.548 slugging) and got on base (.445 OBP). Tyler was promoted to AAA Charlotte and performed well enough there to earn a September call-up to the big league club.

What he needs to improve: His defense. There are concerns that Flowers can’t stick at catcher, but the White Sox don’t seem to believe that. Neither do Southern League managers, who voted him best defensive catcher in the league. Still, most scouting reports say he is adequate at best behind the dish. Flowers should have the bat to stick in the Majors, but obviously his value is much larger if he can play catcher competently.

What to expect in 2010: Flowers will be on the roster bubble in spring training. When Ramon Castro re-signed it became clear that Flowers was not going to backup A.J. Pierzynski. Flowers could still take part in this rotating DH thing the Sox seem bent on trying. Odds are the logjam of veteran bench acquisitions means Flowers starts the year in AAA and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. He can play everyday, get more time at catcher and come up if/when there is an injury or another Wilson Betemit type failure from one of the bench players.

What makes a successful season: Flowers earns his way onto the big league club and digs himself a permanent place on the team. We’ll see him in Chicago, and probably before September this time, but the role is unknown. Flowers may have to force the Sox to make room for him.

Breakout candidates
Miguel Gonzalez
2009 in review: Gonzalez burst onto the scene last year with a strong showing in his American debut. The Venezuelan did well in the Dominican Summer League in 2008 and it translated to the Appalachian League in ‘09. Gonzalez showed defensive ability, a cannon for an arm, good contact skills, a good walk rate and some power.

What he needs to improve: As good as he already is defensively, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. He had 10 errors and eight passed balls in 40 games at catcher last year. Compared to the other two on this list, though, he is easily the best behind the plate.

What to expect in 2010: Gonzalez will start the season in Kannapolis. How he handles that will be very telling. At just 19 years old, if he handles himself out of the gate the Sox have someone special. A failure initially wouldn’t be the end of the world as long as he bounces back in the second half either back down in rookie ball or still in Kannapolis.

What makes a successful season: Gonzalez duplicates his Bristol numbers in Kannapolis. This may be unrealistic, but is certainly not out of the question. A season like that would make him of the best prospects in the system and one of the best catching prospects in the game.

Josh Phegley
2009 in review: Phegley was drafted 38th overall in the ‘09 draft out of Indiana. After signing for $858,600 he reported to low-A Kannapolis in late June. In just over 200 plate appearances he hit only .224, but hit nine home runs and struck out less than 20% of the time. The power came as a bit of a surprise. In only a couple months of action it’s hard to take too much from these numbers.

What he needs to improve: Similar to Flowers, defense is the main concern. Director of Amateur Scouting Doug Laumann is extremely confident that Phegley will stick at the position. If not defense, Phegley will have to bring that average up and draw more walks, both of which he should be able to do.

What to expect in 2010: Phegley will probably start in Winston-Salem. The Sox tend to be aggressive with high college draft picks. His average should bounce back (he had a .234 BABIP last season) and decent power numbers should remain.

What makes a successful season: If all goes well Phegley has a good chance to earn a promotion to Birmingham in the middle of the year. This coupled with good or at least improved defensive reports from people not in the White Sox front office would be ideal.

Other notables
A year ago Cole Armstrong and Donny Lucy looked like they would be viable options for 2010 backup catcher, but both had poor 2009 seasons. Armstrong was removed from the 40-man roster and Lucy got demoted to AA. Logan Johnson seems like the only other catcher that looks remotely like a prospect and that’s pushing it. C.J. Retherford is going to catch in spring training in a move that could greatly add to his flexibility and value. We’ll have more on him in our middle infield preview.

Overall, the White Sox have three good catching prospects making it one of the deeper positions in the system at one of the hardest to find talent. Flowers is ready to contribute soon while Phegley and Gonzalez have the talent to be solid Major Leaguers.

Cabrera is a big stuff, zero control (and I mean zero control) guy. Walking 5.2 batters per nine innings in his Major League career has rendered him an afterthought, but he signed a minor league contract so there’s nothing to lose. Cabrera has a career 5.10 ERA in parts of six seasons. If Sox pitching coach Don Cooper can wave his magic wand and “fix” Cabrera it could be a great move. I’m not going to hold my breath though.

As for the rest of the invites there are four other new additions: RHP Greg Aquino, LHP Erick Threets, infielder Freddie Bynum and outfielder Jason Botts. All four have Major League experience, but are long shots to make the 25-man roster. Outfielder Josh Kroeger and RHP Ryan Braun were re-signed and also received invites.

From the minor league side of things, catchers Donny Lucy, Miguel Gonzalez and Josh Phegley were among the NRIs because of the need for a lot of catchers early in camp. Joining them are lefty Charlie Leesman, infielders Brent Morel and C.J. Retherford (who also will get some time at catcher) and outfielders Jordan Danks and Jared Mitchell. Leesman’s invite could be worth following because he was only in Kannapolis last season, but is a lefty with good velocity. If nothing else it shows that the Sox likely rate Leesman higher than most of the prospect-rating public.

We’ve gathered six White Sox top 10s from Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, Fan Graphs, John Sickels’ Minor League Ball, Diamond Futures and our own postseason rankings. Fan Graphs does things a little differently, they don’t include 2009 rookies in their rankings due to a lack of sample size, so you have to take that into account.

For starters, Baseball America gave us a minor surprise by making Jared Mitchell number 1. Phil Rogers, who has a big hand in the White Sox rankings, said he thinks Dan Hudson will be as good as Jered Weaver. Hudson was only third, the lowest of any of the lists, so that really shows how much they love Mitchell at BA. When Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus talked with us, he gushed about Mitchell so it’s no surprise they also had him up there at two. A few of our voters tend to be conservative with players in the lower levels of the system so Mitchell coming in lowest here isn’t a major shock. A solid start to his 2010 will certainly have him in the top three of our 2010 midseason rankings (not to mention the possible graduations of Hudson and Tyler Flowers).

As for Hudson and Flowers, there’s a near consensus to have them in the top three as there should be. We picked Flowers over Hudson (barely) and my personal rationale for that pick was because of the positional value of a catcher. Half of the rankings had Hudson higher, half had Flowers higher and I don’t think you can go wrong either way.

Brent Morel is interesting to me because he was seventh on our list and I felt that was too high. None of our voters had Morel in the top five, yet four of these publications had Morel fourth. Us and Diamond Futures are the only to have Dayan Viciedo above Morel and Diamond Futures makes the best pro-Viciedo argument you will find:

Viciedo played the entire season as a 20yo in AA, and posted, park-adjusted, League average numbers across the board. That was good enough to finish #13 in the League among hitters in our 2009 Performance rankings—despite it being his U.S. debut. But that only tells part of the story, as Viciedo posted a park-neutral OPS of .853 after mid-July. For a frame of reference, that was the same as Josh Bell’s SOL numbers in what was considered a breakout season, and Josh Bell is two and one-half years older…What we are saying is that we expect him to perform similar in 2010 to the second-half of 2009, and when you give him that half-year adjustment, his numbers put him in the Top 100 prospect range—which is a heckuva a lot better than his detractors would like you to believe.

Simply put, Viciedo has more upside than Morel and the lofty expectations compared to his results and reality may have too many people unfairly down on him.

Santos Rodriguez and David Holmberg appeared on multiple top tens and didn’t even crack our top 25. Granted, Holmberg was #26 and appeared on everyone’s ballot except one, but that is a drastic difference in opinion. Again, our voters tend to stay conservative on rookies, but another factor is that Holmberg throws below 90 giving him two factors going against him. He has a strong curve and changeup, but he is going to have to add some velocity on his fastball to be a top 10 prospect in my mind.

It’s good to have different perspectives, especially when a few of these publications have different ways of evaluating prospects. All together there were 17 different prospects in these top ten lists. If nothing else that should show that beyond the top tier or two it’s all about what type of player you prefer. Tell us which rankings you like best in the comments!

Pierre will likely replace Scott Podsednik’s role on the 2009 team and leadoff hitter and left fielder. He brings speed and a decent on-base percentage to the team without giving up a top tier prospect or a piece from the Major League club. For more on the Pierre side of the deal check out our sister site, SoxNet, for their take on the trade.

With that said, we cover the minor leagues so let’s talk more about Ely and Link. For starters, both pitchers have a chance to contribute to the Dodgers this year, though Ely will probably have to wait longer. Ely was the 13th rated prospect in our postseason rankings and Link came in at 22.

We project Ely as a 5th starter type, but if you listen to Phil Rogers he is worth more than Pierre by himself. Ely had a great season, playing in the Southern League All-Star Game, earning a place on the league’s post-season all-star team and recently being named to our All-FutureSox team. Sure, performance isn’t everything in the minors and Ely doesn’t have top tier stuff as even Rogers admits. He has a great changeup, good control and his fastball and curve are decent pitches. He was a 3rd round pick in 2007 so clearly the Sox liked him then. This year was a bit of a breakout year for him, but his peripherals were slightly down from 2008 and he played in a pitchers’ park.

Link racked up the strikeouts in AAA this season, but struggled a bit in the second half. Control has been a problem for him at AA and above (4.3 BB/9 each of the last two seasons). If nothing else, he is consistent. The last two seasons he has struck out 66 and walked 27 in ~56 innings. His slider is his best pitch, but he has the stuff to be a decent Major League reliever. His fastball velocity is rumored to have dropped this past year so that’s a concern going forward. The interesting part of his inclusion in this deal is that the Sox appear somewhat thin in the bullpen even after signing J.J. Putz. This further opens the door for someone like Sergio Santos to slip onto the roster. Link had a good chance to make the 2010 White Sox bullpen and he should be at least competing for the same with the Dodgers.

Considering Pierre is a likely starter for the Sox and fills a need at the top of the order, it’s hard to complain about giving up a pitcher like Ely. He could have a long career in the Majors as a back end of the rotation starter, but Pierre might have more value in the short run. Link could be a wild card, but since Pierre wasn’t starting for the Dodgers and has a sizable salary it’s a trade that could pay off for both sides.

In other recent news, the White Sox Rule V Draft came and went without much news. They didn’t select anyone in the Major League phase and had no one taken from them. In the AAA phase Johnny Lujan and Arismendy Mota were taken from the Sox. Lujan, 25, repeated Birmingham in 2009 and walked too many batters leading to a 4.45 ERA as a reliever. Mota was way under our radar and is 22 without having pitched above the DSL.

Also, Jordan Danks was named to the Arizona Fall League All-Prospect team.

For a small disclaimer, we chose the outfield spots regardless of position so they were voted on as the best three outfielders. As for pitchers, we chose three starters because that was the mostly random number decided upon as well as a closer and a set-up man. Tell us what you think, a lot of the spots were not easy selections. Without further ado, here’s the 2009 All-FutureSox Team in a somewhat fancy Flash presentation (be sure to click on the players).

Note: You will need an updated version of Adobe Flash Player to view the file below. If it’s not working, you may need to download it. You can download the latest Flash Player here.

Retherford had 3 RBI including a 2-run HR in the 8th inning to give the Javelinas the lead for good in the final. However, overall, Retherford’s AFL didn’t go as well though. He got off to a hot start, but slumped the rest of the way to finish with lines of .246/.333/.348/.681 (not including the title game) in 69 AB. On the upside, he had seven walks and just nine strikeouts. Obviously, the AFL isn’t long enough for a healthy sample size, but it is encouraging to see C.J. walk more than normal and still have a good contact rate. He didn’t show a lot of power, but his two HR came against Stephen Strasburg and in the title game. He’s been getting more attention as he nears the Majors, but a projection as a utility man (possibly even an above-average one) still remains reasonable and likely.

The highlight of the AFL from the Sox standpoint has been Brent Morel. Morel captured the league batting title after hitting .435 (27-62). Before everyone gets too excited, he only had four extra base hits and four walks. He’s not likely to be a star hitter, but he plays good defense and makes contact. What more could you want out of a third baseman? The question becomes what his ETA is. Morel is more than likely going to start in AA to start 2010 putting him 1-2 years away still. Mark Teahan’s arrival probably puts the Sox in no rush to move Morel through the upper levels of the system.

Meanwhile, Jordan Danks finished in the top five in hits, walks and OBP and led the league in runs scored (31). Danks plays good center field and the scouts agreed in various reports out of Arizona. He had a great walk rate (20 in 99 AB) and hit .343, but the concern has been contact rate and he did nothing to change that. He struck out in almost 22% of his plate appearances in Arizona, staying in line with his 2009 numbers in Winston-Salem and Birmingham. He doesn’t project to hit for big power so he will need to improve that to be a successful hitter in the Majors. At the same time, a good defensive center fielder that can get on-base will always have a job.

On the pitching side, no one made a big impression. Kyle Bellamy pitched well, but joined the league late and only pitched 5.2 innings. Matt Long continued the success he had with the Barons late this year, but his high 80s fastball makes him only a fringe prospect. Sergio Santos showed his usual (high velocity, lots of strikeouts and no control) and Justin Cassel and Jacob Rasner had tough times in the fall league.

As for the changes, the most notable is Brent Morel replacing the injured Dayan Viciedo. Viciedo had right elbow inflammation, which is really disappointing because the AFL was a great opportunity for Viciedo to show he is the elite prospect the Sox paid for. Morel has been unspectacular so far in the Cuban’s place. Morel is hitting .280 (7-25), but has no extra base hits and only one walk.

The other addition, reliever Kyle Bellamy, is further proof that Bellamy is the favorite to be the first from the 2009 draft class to make it to the Majors. He’s only pitched two innings, but the former Miami Hurricane has yet to allow a run.

As for the original Javelinas, Jordan Danks is leading the way. He was named to the AFL’s all-star type Rising Stars game that takes place Saturday. Hitting .333 (22-66) he is fourth in the league in OBP at .450, second in runs with 20 and tied for fourth in walks with 13. Most importantly for Danks, he’s only struck out 14 times in 79 plate appearances. Strike out rate has been a noteworthy concern regarding Danks, but so far so good in the AFL.

Meanwhile, C.J. Retherford has been slumping. He is 1 for his last 18 and his average for the fall is down to .255. Early on he was creating a lot of buzz as a competitor for the second base job, or least the backup at some point next season, but the Chris Getz and Josh Fields for Mark Teahen trade complicates things. Gordon Beckham is supposedly moving to second base, locking down that position, but Retherford still may get a shot to battle Jayson Nix for reserve infielder.

The rest of the pitchers aren’t the flashy prospects among the White Sox representatives, but Matt Long has been the best of the group (10.1 IP, 3.48 ERA, 7 K, 1 BB). Sergio Santos (9.1 IP, 6.75 ERA, 12 K, 6 BB) has at least shown the strikeout rate you hope for from a pitcher with plus velocity. Justin Cassel (14.2 IP, 5.52 ERA) and Jacob Rasner (2.1 IP, 27 ERA) have struggled and are fading away into non-prospect territory.

Note: stats are through games of November 5.

The Peoria Javelinas, the club where the White Sox prospects are playing, is 5-3 with a league leading .332 batting average. Yes, .332 as a team. The AFL is certainly a hitters’ league and the White Sox hitters have contributed to that. Let’s start by taking a look at how the Sox hitters are doing through the Javelinas’ first 8 games.

C.J. Retherford: 6-15 (.400), 2 3B, 5 RBI, 2 R, BB, K, .438 OBP, .667 SLG, 1.104 OPS

Jordan Danks: 8-22 (.364), 2 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 7 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 1/1 SBA, .462 OBP, .727 SLG, 1.189 OPS

Dayan Viciedo: 6-18 (.333), 2B, HR, 6 RBI, 6 R, BB, 6 K

The three hitters the Sox sent to the Phoenix area are clearly the team’s best AFL prospects. All three are off to a hot start in the heat of Arizona. It’s nice to see Danks hit for power, even if it’s in Arizona. The same goes for Viciedo, but striking out in almost 1/3 of his plate appearances is a concern. Danks and Viciedo have a strong case to be the two most intriguing White Sox hitting prospects in 2010 because both are coming off disappointing seasons and are well regarded talents. As for Retherford, he continues to hit at every level. He could be a third contender for playing time at second base next year with a good spring and a hot start in AAA.

Meanwhile, the pitchers haven’t been as successful, which isn’t much of a surprise.

Justin Cassel: 5.2 IP, 9.53 ERA, 8 R (6 ER), 6 K, 2 BB, 11 H in 2 starts

Sergio Santos: 5 IP, 5.40 ERA, 3 R, 5 K, BB, 7 H (2 HR) in 3 games

Matt Long: 5.1 IP, 6.75 ERA, 4 R, 5 K, 0 BB, 8 H in 3 games

Jacob Rasner: 1.1 IP, 33.75 ERA, 5 R, 0 K, BB, 6 H in 2 games

The Sox sent a bunch of fringe prospects to Arizona, but Santos is a more interesting case. The converted infielder has big time heat on his fastball, but needs to refine his stuff. If he improves he could become a high upside reliever. As for the others, Cassel and Rasner are running out of chances. An awful 2009 from Cassel bumped his prospect status and Rasner has been mediocre throughout his career. Long, a 2nd rounder in 2006, had a strong campaign for the Barons, pitching out of the bullpen for the first time since 2006. However, his fastball is only in the high 80s and the rest of his stuff hasn’t been as good as expected so it’s hard to see him as a top prospect.

Let’s not put too much stock into barely more than a week in a fall league, but the Arizona Fall League is a true hidden gem of baseball and is worth following if you are going through early offseason anxiety. For daily updates on the AFL follow us on our Twitter and check out the AFL home page.

The most notable Baron would have to be Gordon Beckham. Beckham was only in Birmingham for a couple months, but he impressed enough to make it to the Majors by June and is currently a Rookie of the Year candidate, if not favorite. Beckham has the ability to hit .280-.300 with 20 HR at a premium position (either 3B , SS or 2B) with a good walk rate and big RBI potential. He is the type of player the White Sox can build around. The Sox definitely needed a solid young positional player to come through because the best hitters of the lineup were aging free agents to be like Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye. Beckham has put up an OPS over .800 on an 80-90 RBI pace for a whole season. What more could a Sox fan ask for?

Replacing Beckham as the top positional prospect in the system has undoubtedly been Tyler Flowers. Flowers was the main returning piece in the Javier Vazquez trade with Atlanta. Initially, there were questions about his defense and how his bat would make the transition to AA. Flowers answered both positively. His defense made major improvements, Southern League managers even voted him the best defensive catcher in the league, and he absolutely mashed the ball (.302 average, .445 OBP, .993 OPS). His AAA numbers weren’t spectacular, but he didn’t have much of a chance to adjust. Jim Thome’s trade before the August waiver deadline opened the door for some September playing time for Flowers, though he has still only seen limited action.

In the Majors, Flowers has looked like Josh Fields with a much better batting eye. Now before everyone freaks out with a Josh Fields comparison, I did say Flowers was going to strike out a lot this September. His swing is still long and the stats have translated as expected. What’s interesting is that while his contact rate is awful, his walk rate and batting eye has been very impressive. Flowers has 8 strikeouts and 3 walks in 16 at-bats. He should be able to adjust and this is a tiny sample size anyway, but I’m more encouraged about his ability to draw walks and go deep into counts despite a horrid contact rate. It’s not like pitchers are giving him any respect. The power hasn’t shown up yet, just one double, but I’m not worried about that right now. All things considered, 2009 has been a great year for Flowers. General Manager Kenny Williams and Manager Ozzie Guillen have a lot of tough decisions this offseason and Flowers’ situation for 2010 is going to be one of the tougher ones. Can they trust his bat to play DH? Can they risk having him backup A.J. Pierzynski and only play a few times a week? It will be one of the bigger storylines of the offseason.

Probably the biggest storyline of the White Sox minor leagues this year has been the emergence of Dan Hudson. Hudson, an ‘08 draftee like Beckham, has recorded wins at five levels of pro baseball this season. A mind blowing feat for two reasons: that he successfully moved through the system so quickly and that he did so without skipping a level. He entered this season as a sleeper prospect, but quickly asserted himself as the top pitching prospect in the system. In 16.2 innings with the Sox so far, Hudson has been mostly impressive. His velocity is as advertised in the 93-95 m.p.h. range and he has a 3.24 ERA. His strikeout rate has remained solid, but he has walked 9 batters in his 2 starts. For the first start you might be able to argue nerves, especially after he didn’t walk any in his 3 relief appearances. He seemed to be nibbling, afraid to attack hitters. Hopefully the issue is a mental problem that can be easily fixed, as opposed to an actual lack of control. Like with Flowers, I’ll be optimistic because it’s really hard to evaluate a September call-up. Hudson was probably getting a lot of his strikeouts in the minors by getting hitters to chase with 2 strikes. That won’t work in the Majors, but Hudson has the ability to be a solid Major League starter down the road. If he doesn’t get traded, he will probably enter 2010 as the favorite for the 5th starter spot.

The other candidate for the 5th starter spot in 2010, Carlos Torres, has had control problems in the Majors that look more like a long-term concern. He was barely on the prospect radar to start 2009, but had a spectacular season for Charlotte. I think he will be a future long reliever type, but watching him walk 4 in 6 innings today against the Indians doesn’t make you think he can start in the bigs. You simply can’t walk 17 in 27.1 innings and expect to succeed in the Majors. Sure, he could get better, but it’s really hard to see a major improvement. Still, Torres had a great 2009 to put himself in this discussion and you can never have enough pitching options.

The four mentioned so far all are with the big league club currently. Others lower in the minors have had successful years as well. Brent Morel had a strong second half while playing at high-A in his first full professional season. C.J. Retherford continues to prove people wrong and will have another chance in the Arizona Fall League. The system still isn’t top tier, especially after two in-season trades, but the depth is improving after being one of the worst systems in baseball in 2007.

After having an OPS below .600 all year long, Escobar swung a big stick in August. He also stole 9 bases in August, almost doubling the 11 he had entering the month. Escobar showed no signs of life until suddenly something seems to have clicked. On the season the 20 year-old Venezuelan is still only hitting .262, but he is a great defensive shortstop so his glove will probably be what carries him through the system. He’s still very young and an extended hot streak like this is obviously very encouraging for future success. The extremely unusual part is that Escobar’s August walk rate was nearly three times what it had been. It’s like he was a completely different player. We’ll have to wait and see which player shows up next season.

Co-Pitchers of the Month: John Ely and Matt Long (AA Birmingham)
Ely: 5-0, 2.12 ERA, 34 IP, 25 K, 9 BB, 27 H
Long: 4-0, 1.76 ERA, 30.2 IP, 19 K, 8 BB, 23 H

Since the two were so close statistically and in our voting, we have given the award to both Ely and Long. The duo will have to anchor the Barons’ playoff run, though Long did just receive what we assume was a spot start with the Knights. Ely has been a rock for the Barons’ all season long, see his 13-2 record for proof, and is throwing his name into the hat for a future MLB look. He’s mostly been overlooked as a prospect, but this season will change that. Long was a 2nd round pick in 2006, but hasn’t been regarded well as a prospect because he has been mediocre or worse at every stop of his pro career. That is until he joined the Barons this season. In 48.2 innings in AA he has a 2.59 ERA between 6 starts and 13 relief appearances. His career ERA in the minors still sits above 5, so like Escobar, it’s hard to tell which player is the real Matt Long.

The best of the rest
Christian Marrero (AA Birmingham): .323 (31-96), 7 HR, 20 RBI, 15 R, 12 BB, 22 K, 1.040 OPS
Marrero has really set himself up to shoot up the prospect rankings. Marrero can be one of the last draft-and-follows to make the Majors.

David Cook (AA Birmingham): .292 (28/96), 6 HR, 18 RBI, 25 R, 15 BB, 20 K, .956 OPS
Cook keeps producing for the Barons, but it’s hard to call him a prospect anymore.

Jon Gilmore (Low-A Kannapolis): .355 (39/110), 2 HR, 24 RBI, 19 R, 9 BB, 15 K, .901 OPS
Finally Gilmore showed some of the talent that made the Braves draft him in the supplemental round in 2007.

Dan Remenowsky (Low-A Kannapolis): 2-0, 5 SV, 2.20 ERA, 16 IP, 29 K, 2 BB, 11 H
It’s hard not to love what Remenowsky has done this season. 107 strikeouts in 62.1 innings is indescribably good.

Miguel Gonzalez (Rookie Bristol): .410 (25/61), 1 HR, 8 RBI, 15 R, 13 BB, 14 K, 1.176 OPS
Gonzalez is a great looking prospect at catcher. He’s only 18 and hit .311 at Bristol, you have to like that.

Santos Rodriguez (Rookie Bristol): 1-0, 2 SV, 0.82 ERA, 11 IP, 18 K, 3 BB, 8 H
One of the pieces of the Javier Vazquez trade, Rodriguez is one of few relief prospects to be tracked from a young age.

The not as hot
Jack Egbert (AAA Charlotte): 0-3, 6.66 ERA, 25 IP, 20 K, 10 BB, 35 H
Egbert got his shot in the Majors this year, but it didn’t go well or last long. Needless to say, he won’t get another pitching like this.

Wes Whisler (AAA Charlotte): 3-3, 6.16 ERA, 30 IP, 14 K, 14 BB, 40 H
Everything I said about Egbert applies to Whisler.

Johnnie Lowe (AA Birmingham): 0-4, 10.07 ERA, 22 IP, 10 K, 5 BB, 41 H
Maybe Lowe shouldn’t have been moved up because his 5 starts with the Barons have produced nothing.

Jordan Danks (AA Birmingham): .178 (13-73), 4 RBI, 12 R, 10 BB, 17 K, .491 OPS
He’s been better since coming off the DL, hitting .257 and getting a hit in 7 of the 9 games he has been back. Still major concerns have come up that didn’t exist in early June.

Tyler Kuhn (High-A Winston-Salem): .229 (22-96), 6 RBI, 8 R, 5 BB, 14 K, .543 OPS
Kuhn has been very good this year, but his recent slump along with a severe lack of power this year makes Kuhn seem ordinary as a prospect.

Steven Upchurch (Rookie Bristol): 0-6, 9.11 ERA, 27 IP, 12 K, 12 BB, 45 H
Upchurch is a talented pitcher, but he hasn’t shown any of that talent this year. He’s probably surpassed Escobar as the most disappointing White Sox prospect of the year.