The 2023 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft is finished and Mike Rankin and James Fox recapped the 20 rounds completed by the Chicago White Sox. The show reacted to the decision to draft Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez at pick 15 overall. They also shared insight on second round pick Grant Taylor, a right-handed pitcher who underwent Tommy John surgery in February of 2023.
Then, the show detailed upside picks in RHP Seth Keener, LHP Christian Oppor, high school outfielder George Wilkow and more. Later, Mike and James discussed White Sox director of amateur scouting Mike Shirley’s philosophy behind building a farm system through the draft.
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Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/3n2MHOBJsncp3DjHbcjXZL
Apple — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/futuresox-podcast/id850054474
MLB Pipeline estimated best value for each of the top 10 rounds in their latest podcast. They picked Wolkow in the 7th and Jake Peppers in the 9th.
Wolkow was playing in the Northwoods league, which is the second best collegiate summer league. Interesting challenge for someone his age. He didn’t hit very well, but his strikeout rate wasn’t crazy, and he did hit his only 2 homeruns of the season in his last two games there. This gives me more confidence that he might not embarrass himself in the ACL this year despite being younger than all but one player who has gotten any plate appearances there this season.
As someone who has followed the Sox closely for 40+ years, I never assume that the Sox are more clever than everyone else. It’s safer to assume that they are cheap, incompetent, taking short cuts, and/or half-assing it. The sample size is large, and the organization does not have a good track record.