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.

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!

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.

The previous rank is in reference to our Midseason Top 25. Player profiles are linked in the player’s name if the player has one. Tell us what you love and hate about the rankings in the comments section or join the discussion at Soxtalk!

1. Tyler Flowers, C, White Sox
Previous: 1st

2. Dan Hudson, RH SP, White Sox
Previous: 4th

3. Dayan Viciedo, 3B, AA Birmingham
Previous: 2nd

4. Jordan Danks, CF, AA Birmingham
Previous: 3rd

5. C.J. Retherford, 2B/3B, AA Birmingham
Previous: 11th

6. Jared Mitchell, OF, Low-A Kannapolis
Previous: 5th

7. Brent Morel, 3B, High-A Winston-Salem
Previous: 17th

8. Charlie Shirek, RH SP, AA Birmingham
Previous: 10th

9. Trayce Thompson, OF, Rookie Great Falls
Previous: Not yet signed (He would have been 13th if he had)

10. Josh Phegley, C, Low-A Kannapolis
Previous: 8th

11. Carlos Torres, RH SP, White Sox
Previous: 14th

12. Jhonny Nunez, RH RP, White Sox
Previous: 25th

13. John Ely, RH SP, AA Birmingham
Previous: 19th

14. Christian Marrero, OF/1B, AA Birmingham
Previous: UR

15. John Shelby III, OF, AA Birmingham
Previous: 7th

16. Stefan Gartrell, OF, AAA Charlotte
Previous: 23rd

17. Nathan Jones, RH RP, High-A Winston-Salem
Previous: 12th

18. Charlie Leesman, LH SP, Low-A Kannapolis
Previous: 20th

19. Kyle Bellamy, RH RP, Low-A Kannapolis
Previous: UR

20. Lucas Harrell, RH SP, AAA Charlotte
Previous: 15th

21. Stephen Sauer, RH SP, Low-A Kannapolis
Previous: 23rd

22. Jon Link, RH RP, AAA Charlotte
Previous: 13th

23. Steven Upchurch, RH SP, Rookie Bristol
Previous: 16th

24. Brandon Hynick, RH SP, AAA Charlotte
Previous: Not yet in system

25. Clevelan Santeliz, RH RP, AA Birmingham
Previous: UR

Others receiving votes, in order of points/votes received: David Holmberg, Jon Gilmore, Miguel Gonzalez, Dan Remenowsky, Santos Rodriguez, Nevin Griffith, Eduardo Escobar, Brady Shoemaker, Nick Ciolli, Joe Serafin, Ryan Buch, Matt Heidenreich, Kyle Colligan, Gregory Infante, Jim Gallagher, Fernando Hernandez, Brandon Short, Seth Loman

Prospects previously ranked, still in the system from but received no votes this time: Brian Omogrosso (formerly #9, torn labrum), Justin Greene (#19)

Prospects previously ranked, no longer in the system: Dexter Carter (#7, traded to SD), Jack Egbert (#25, now with NYM)

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.

The Birmingham Barons were one of Minor League Baseball’s best teams this year and their 92-47 record was the best in the team’s history. Their roster at the start of the season was stacked with many of the organizations top prospects including Gordon Beckham, Tyler Flowers, Brandon Allen, Dayan Viciedo, Aaron Poreda and John Shelby, and as you would have expected, they made light work of opposing Southern League teams. Promotions, trades and call-ups removed many of their best players from the first couple of months of the season but they were replaced, and replaced well, by players such as Christian Marrero, Jordan Danks and Charlie Shirek, added to that, mainstays such as John Ely and C.J. Retherford ensured that the Barons didn’t skip a beat in the second half. Now ready to make a run for the Southern League crown, the Barons will start their best of 5 series with Jacksonville Suns on Thursday.

The Winston-Salem Dash make their way into the playoff largely thanks to playing in a very weak Carolina League South. You may think that’s a little unfair, saying they’re only in the playoff due to playing in a weak division, but when you have a 4.30 ERA (2nd worst in the CAR) and are just midpack in runs scored, it’s unlikely that you were a good team. The Dash actually allowed more runs (642) than they scored (626). Winston-Salem’s offense has been led by a personal favourite of mine, Seth Loman, and postseason All-Star at 3B, Brent Morel, they also have Carolina League manager of the year Joe McEwing in their corner as well as a rotation led by Justin Edwards and Dylan Axelrod. The Dash will play their first postseason game tomorrow night against the Salem Red Sox, who are expected to start Daisuke Matsuzaka, and while anything can and often does happen in the playoffs, don’t expect the Carolina League crown to be coming the Dash’s way.

The Kannapolis Intimidators’ season has been all about their fantastic second half, in which they have a 45-24 record and a .652 winning percentage. Pitching was this team’s M.O. as they led the whole of the South Atlantic League with 530 runs allowed thanks to a rotation fronted by two of this organizations more intriguing starters, Charlie Leesman and Stephen Sauer (having Dexter Carter and Dan Hudson for a time didn’t hurt either). Even with losing one of it’s better arms, Charlis Burdie to the Dash, the Intimidators have one of the most formidable bullpen’s in the Minors, backed by Dan Remonowsky, ’09 draftee Kyle Bellamy and late season promotion Santos Rodriguez. Other ’09 draftees have played large parts in this team’s second half run, most notably two early round picks Jared Mitchell and Josh Phegley but also one later round pick, Joe Serafin. The Intimidators will play their first postseason game tomorrow against the Lakewood BlueClaws, with Charlie Leesman getting the start.

The final Sox affiliate to make the playoffs are the defending Pioneer League champions Great Falls, who swept their way past the Orem Owlz in the 2008 championship series behind the arms of Dan Hudson and Dexter Carter. This years Voyagers have been led by a steady dose of pitching and offense where the rank 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Pioneer League. The Voyagers have an old team for a rookie ball affiliate and as it stands Trayce Thompson is the only teen on their roster, he’s also roughly 2 ½ years younger than anyone else on the team, and it is partly for this reason that they don’t appear to be brimmed with future Major Leaguers. The Great Falls Voyagers will call upon it’s offensive stars Jose Vargas, Nick Ciolli, Johny Celis and Kyle Colligan to lead the team to victory when they start their playoff run against the Missoula Osprey’s this Saturday the 12th.

It was first reported by Jon Heyman hours before Monday’s Twins game that Flowers was going to be called up. At the time it was easy to assume it would be a small audition and showcase for Flowers. He wasn’t going to play regularly at catcher and with Alex Rios on the roster, the Sox already had an excess of hitters that needed playing time. However, now it makes more sense. With Jim Thome gone, the outfield can be Rios, Jermaine Dye and Carlos Quentin/Scott Podsednik with Quentin probably getting more time at DH while he gets nursed back to 100%. Flowers can spell A.J. Pierzynski at catcher and play DH when one of the outfielders needs a day off. Now he likely will be trying out for a spot on the opening day 2010 roster.

Flowers got to this point by killing the ball in AA this year. Earlier today he was named to the Southern League Post-Season All-Star team because he blew the league away. He hit .302 with a .445 OBP and .993 OPS and got promoted to AAA in mid July. His numbers in Charlotte are decent, but not great, though we are running into issues with sample size here.

In only 31 games with the Knights, Flowers hit .286 with a .364 OBP and .803 OPS. His walk rate was spectacular in Birmingham (57 in 248 AB), but mediocre in Charlotte (10 in 105 AB). A drop should be expected because he was getting pitched around in AA, but after walking 98 times last season in High-A, walks were believed to be a strength in his game. His power also took a dip, but 12 extra base hits in 105 AB isn’t bad. Without looking too much into his stats in AAA because of the small sample size, he has performed much better in August. In 20 games in August Flowers hit .306 with a .411 OBP (9 walks in 62 AB, that’s more like it) and .863 OPS.

So with somewhat regular playing time at the Major League level on the horizon, what should we expect from Flowers? He’s going to strike out a lot. He has a long swing and struck out in more than 1/4 of his plate appearances with the Knights so it shouldn’t be a shock if Flowers puts up Josh Fields like K numbers while he adjusts to Major League pitching. He has a lot of pop in his bat and if he can stick at catcher should be a great asset offensively. Don’t expect for him to hit for a high average this month, but if he maintains his walk rate he could be a useful bat for whatever miracle run the White Sox might try to make because he can hit the ball hard.

The most interesting part about this is to see how close to ready Flowers is. I wouldn’t have expected a promotion this soon and we probably wouldn’t have seen Flowers up if the Sox weren’t falling apart right now. With nothing to lose, it’s a ‘why not?’ situation, but this could be important for what Ken Williams does in the offseason. If he and the front office like what they see from Tyler to close the season, they won’t spend money to add or bring back hitters (Dye?). Flowers is cheap so he shouldn’t have to rake to earn a spot on the team next year. Hey, at least it’s a reason to watch the team the rest of the season.

The Barons went 48-21 to win the first-half division title and are currently 86-46 overall so it’s no surprise to see a handful of players honored as well as Magallanes being named Manager of the Year. Catcher Tyler Flowers, infielder C.J. Retherford, outfielders David Cook and Stefan Gartrell and pitcher John Ely joined their skipper on the roster.

Flowers killed SL pitching to earn a promotion in mid July. His OPS of .993 with the Barons is over 100 points higher than the current qualified league leaders, Cook and Gartrell. Cook is currently tied with Gartrell for the OPS lead and the duo are 1-2, respectively, in slugging percentage. Cook, in his third straight year spending time with the Barons, is having his least productive of three stints with the Barons this season. In his two previous Barons’ campaigns, Cook had an OPS over 1. He was promoted to Charlotte, but struggled for 7 games (don’t the Sox know about sample size?) and was sent back down. Gartrell is currently a teammate of Flowers on the Knights after receiving a promotion in early August.

Retherford and Ely have spent all season on the Barons. Earlier this year SL managers voted Retherford the best defensive 2B in the league, a very encouraging thing to note for his prospect status, and the recognition continued as he was the only unanimous selection. Ely has been a work horse for the Barons and picked up his 13th win of the season earlier today.

The South Atlantic League also announced their posteason all-stars, but no Intimidators made the list. In fairness to the I’s, the SAL has 16 teams to the SL’s 10.

Updated: Carlos Torres was named to the International League post-season all-stars and Brady Shoemaker made the Appalachian League list.

However, the team has a new look to it than it did on Opening Day and throughout most of the first half. It started with Gordon Beckham getting promoted in late May to AAA Charlotte. Then, a couple weeks later, Aaron Poreda made his way to the big leagues. In mid-June, Brandon Allen was moved up to Charlotte and a couple weeks ago Tyler Flowers received the same fate, though Allen has since been traded. That leaves currently only three of the original seven top prospects remaining on the team, but that isn’t to say the Barons aren’t still the most talented team in the Sox farm system.

Despite more notable departures from Brian Omogrosso and Lucas Harrell, the Barons have been able to reload through the high-A Winston-Salem Dash, who also won their first half division title. Along with Danks, Christian Marrero, Dan Hudson (who started in Kannapolis this season) and Charlie Shirek joined the Barons to replace the departed prospects.

Overall, that’s a lot of movement, but nothing extraordinary. So who cares? We often ignore wins and losses at FutureSox. Let’s change that for now. The Barons were 48-21 in the first half and have gone 18-11 in the second half. They have cooled down, clearly missing some of the sparks of the departed Barons, but are still just one game out of first place in their division in the second half.

Looking at where they have lost their production, it’s mostly in the lineup. Hudson, Shirek and Justin Cassel (demoted from Charlotte in a swap with Harrell) have more than matched the production of Poreda, Omogrosso and Harrell. Hudson and Shirek have both been able to put themselves on the long-term radar of the big league club and should get a look next spring. Whether or not they will be competing for a spot on the team is another story. First they need to survive the last week before the trade deadline and the offseason without getting traded, not a lock with Ken Williams as GM.

Getting back to the Barons, they haven’t been able to replace the production of Beckham, Flowers and Allen. Receiving David Cook from Charlotte after a short promotion will help bolster the middle of the lineup, but it’s tough to replace a good hitting shortstop and catcher. The Barons will need Dayan Viciedo to continue to improve (or start improving again?) and John Shelby to get it going if they are going to succeed in the Southern League playoffs. Of course, the team may have another new look by then.

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.