54.7 Black Sox Farm Report: 28 Kids Bring A New Hope

[tylertoo]

Black Sox Farm Report: 28 Kids Bring A New Hope

Chicago, April 8, 2054 -- Fans of the last-place Black Sox regularly shout, "May the farce be with you!" when attending games, but a look at the promising youngsters scattered throughout the system may bring 'A New Hope' to win-starved regulars.

The Sox currently have the 4th-rated farm system according to the Brewster powers that be. More telling, though, is a different list. Much can be gleaned by looking at the Prospect Pipeline (which as far as I can tell is only available through the OOTP interface). According to that list, the Black Sox have a whopping 28 prospects among the top 500 prospects in the league. In fact only one team has more - the Nashville "Rich Get Richer" Bluebirds, which has freakin' 40 youngsters on the list.

Let's take a closer look at these 28 most promising youngsters in the Black Sox organization:

Of the 28 Black Sox farmhands now listed in the so-called "Prospect Pipeline" top 500 tally:

• 3 are in the big leagues
• 9 are with the AAA Carolina Flight
• 4 are with the AA Beloit Blue Sox
• 8 are with the A Grand Junction Gold Sox
• 1 is with the SA San Pedro de Macoris Green Sox
• 3 are with the R Montclova Aqua Sox

It's nice to see that this group of youngsters is spread out, with the largest bunches in AAA and A. It'll be fascinating to look again in three years and see how many of the 26 who are not already in the bigs do make it there. Even half that number could form the solid core of a strong team.

Of the 28 Black Sox farmhands now listed in the so-called "Prospect Pipeline" top 500 tally:

• 14 are starting pitchers
• 2 are relief pitchers
• 1 other is likely to become a closer
• 1 is a catcher
• 6 are infielders
• 3 are outfielders
• 1 is likely to become a DH

Clearly the front office has prioritized starting pitching in its effort to rebuild. This, in our view, is a smart approach, given the difficulty in developing young starters, and the risks of signing older free agent starters. If one-third of these 14 end up becoming reliable big league starters, you've got yourself a decent (and, for a while) inexpensive rotation.

Of the 14 Black Sox starting pitchers now listed in the so-called "Prospect Pipeline" top 500 tally:

• 2 are starting in the big leagues
• 3 are starting in AAA
• 2 are starting in AA
• 5 are starting in A-ball
• 2 are starting in the R league

Noteworthy here is the fourth bullet point: the Black Sox A-ball affiliate has five members of its six-man starting rotation among the top 500 prospects in the entire league. One can only hope that team has a decent pitching coach to fully develop these kids.

Of the 28 Black Sox farmhands now listed in the so-called "Prospect Pipeline" top 500 tally:

• 16 were acquired through trades
• 10 were drafted
• 2 were scouting discoveries

And in this last list we see the fruits of the team's trading frenzy over the past two seasons. Gone are studs like Badr Isam and Bernie Stuart. In their place, a crop of 16 reasonably talented youngsters who can complement 10 decent draft picks and two discoveries.

In conclusion: The 2054 hopes for the Black Sox are as bleak as last season. It will be a farce. But the hearts of many fans are focused on these 28. And the next few years will tell us whether the crop of youngsters do, in fact, bring A New Hope to Chicago.

[neugey]

Pictured below: an unidentified Black Sox Class A prospect

[trmmilwwi]

Can't wait to see the kids in a few years!

[BaseClogger]

They're getting so big!

[CTBrewCrew]

Keep the frog embryo's locked up!

[Trebro]

I really am afraid to look at mine, because our future is not so bright, which is disturbing given the big league club is neither showing signs of competing or showing it has players who can truly net top prospects, partly because the league's talent levels are in flux.

I would say I think the entire BBA has a bit of an issue with too many potentially good pitching prospects and not nearly enough potentially good batters who can actually play the field. I made a TON of hard calls releasing pitching prospects at the AA/AAA level this year who were similar in ability. I had no such trouble with position players. Maybe we just really suck at developing fielders/batters?

[ae37jr]

The last couple of years I've drafted almost exclusively hitters for that very reason. In many cases I had to pass up better pitching, I just figure in the long run there is still going to be a ton of cheap back end rotation and bullpen arms available for the next 10 years while the hitters are about to dry up real quick once the mega draft starts to lump/ retire.