FutureSox Archives

For die hard baseball fans, the winter months can be tough. Sure, there's the hot stove to watch, but usually all that provides is a couple days of simmering and a whole lot of watched pots. So let's turn our attention south, where the weather is actually suitable for outdoor activity, and where some White Sox talent (both major league and minor league) are getting in some work... The Caribbean Winter Leagues.

Written by, Jeff Buchanan, FutureSox.com

This year, for the first time, PITCHf/x was running for the Arizona Fall League. This gives us a wealth of data on what the pitchers in Arizona threw, from velocity to pitch locations, pitch movement etc. etc. and instead of having to rely on vague, second hand reports thrown at us from the likes of Phil Rogers, we can instead get an accurate and detailed look at each pitchers repertoire from the data provided.

The Arizona Fall League concluded with the Peoria Javelinas taking the title behind the bat of C.J. Retherford, but it was Brent Morel that left the best impression among the White Sox prospects.

White Sox hitting prospect and Dash third basemen Brent Morel took some time recently to have a conversation with FutureSox's Anthony Mazzuca. Morel was a third round pick of the White Sox in 2008 after spending three years at Cal Poly. The slick fielding Morel was named best defensive third basemen of the Carolina League, and has his sights set on Chicago.

There have been a couple roster changes involving White Sox prospects at the Arizona Fall League, but the Peoria Javelinas are still rolling. They sit at 13-8, the league's best record. Let's take a look at how the Sox prospects are faring in the Arizona heat.

It has been a very successful year for White Sox Minor League affiliates with four of the organizations six U.S. based teams reaching the postseason. While the Great Falls Voyagers still have a couple of regular season games left to play before starting their playoff run, the Birmingham Barons, Winston-Salem Dash and Kannapolis Intimidators have all finished their regular season's and will play their first postseason games either tomorrow or Thursday.

Top catching prospect Tyler Flowers highlights the September call-ups for the White Sox.  What can he bring to the table in the short-term?

SoxNet.net has looked to its sister site, FutureSox.com, to break down the youngsters heading to Chicago as part of the Thome and Contreras trades. 

In one of Kenny Williams’ lower profile moves from this season he dealt a young 1st base prospect, Brandon Allen, to the Diamondbacks for reliever Tony Pena. Since the trade Pena’s performances have been uninspiring, to say the least, and Brandon Allen has been destroying PCL pitching, resulting in a promotion to Arizona. So I find myself posing the question; was trading Brandon Allen a mistake?

Dan Hudson has been the buzz of the White Sox minor leagues since Gordon Beckham earned his promotion to the White Sox. He started the season in Low-A Kannapolis and is currently pitching for the AAA Charlotte Knights. He has pitched in four levels this season, a mostly unheard of feat. So the question this brings up is how does Hudson’s stellar 2009 stack up against previous pitching prospects in the White Sox system that had torrid campaigns?

With four pitchers leaving the organization, three in AAA or higher, as a result of the Jake Peavy trade there was a domino effect of promotions throughout the organization to fill the vacated spots. Read more

In a surprise move that started to get reported after the deadline, the White Sox acquired Jake Peavy from the San Diego. Here's more on who they coughed up...

61st overall pick Trayce Thompson has signed a contract for $625,000. The minor surprise is that he signed for just under $30,000 over slot. The numbers floating around were a little bit higher. Thompson is the first high draft pick of the White Sox to sign for over slot this year.

In honor of Mark Buehrle's perfect game, Seven Costanza of our sister site, FutureSox.com, decided to write-up a prospect retro which highlights Buehrle's earlier years. 

FutureSox.com has received a lot of questions over the past couple weeks regarding the status of some of the un-signed picks from the White Sox 2009 draft class. In fact our readers have also pointed out that there have been very little information on anyone's draft picks, including any of the Sox more notable un-signed picks: Trayce Thompson (2nd), Bryan Morgado (3rd), Justin Jones (7th), Dane Williams (15th), and Brian Goodwin (17th).

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.