The last day of the mid-season break is upon us and the White Sox will tackle the second half of the season on Friday. Don’t expect much to change in the second half. The rebuild is still grinding its way through 2018, but today is a good opportunity to revisit the optimism teaming in the minor leagues.
Kieth Law of ESPN updated his top-100 prospects and several prospects shuffled up and down that list. Notably absent is Alec Hansen who has endured a mysterious hand injury that delayed his start and seems to have dogged his performance this season. Still, Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech and Luis Robert have climbed in the latest rankings while Dylan Cease shot up the charts from an unranked position.
Chuck Garfien recently checked in around the minors with several of those players and gathered some interesting insight from Omar Vizquel who is right in the middle of the prospect pond in High-A.
“We’re seeing a lot of explosive players who can go through the system and maybe surprise some people and be in the big leagues a little sooner than people expected,” Vizquel told Garfien in a phone interview.
Vizquel rattled off all the usual suspects around the minors as players to watch, but he also explained that other players have increased raised their stock and are developing faster than expected.
The names are legion and too many to list. Take one glance around the White-Sox beat and you’ll find unheralded prospects like Jimmy Lambert and Laz Rivera siphoning helium. But, besides the diamonds in the rough, Cease has become a hot topic of discussion lately with an elite fastball and unflagging stamina. Vizquel had this to say about Cease in his conversation with Garfein:
“A guy I can compare (Cease) with, I would say he’s a Justin Verlander type. I was with Justin the last four years in Detroit and obviously he’s one of the most veteran pitchers in the game. Just the way he handles the situation when he’s on the mound, he’s just amazing. What impressed me about Cease was his composure. The way he takes the mound every time,” Vizquel said. “Obviously, he’s got a really good fastball that can go up to 98, 99, and he can go to 100 pitches and he still has the strength to go out there in the 9th inning and shut people down. At his age it’s really tough to find guys like that who can handle the pressure and everything that goes around the pitcher’s mound. And he has that.”
Personally, I don’t put much weight on comparisons. Cease may have Verlander-esqu stuff, but he has a long way to go before he delivers on that promise. Still, it’s always fun to dream, and from what I’ve seen from Cease he has the pure stuff to be mentioned with Verlander.
Shifting to the outfield, the White Sox at the forefront of a shift in Major League Baseball: versatility over a single, elite tool. Gorilla baseball is phasing out, and despite league-wide calls to “kill the bunt,” the White Sox are building a roster filled with guys that can expose opponents’ weaknesses in several ways.
Luis Basabe is one of those guys with helium in his pocket.
“He’s one of those guys who can run balls down in every outfield position. We used him in every spot. Right, center and left. With his speed and his arm he can play anywhere. He can hit the ball with power, he can hit consistently for average,” Vizquel said about Basabe. “He can be one of those players who can change the game with one at-bat. He can bunt, he can hit for power and he can also steal a base. When you have a player that is complete in every aspect of the game, he can be a really good player for anybody.”
Listen, I understand that outs are currency and you only get so many, but ignoring the risk/reward relationship fundamentally inherent in the game leads to power arms versus power bats…and a whole of boredom. It’s obvious that strikeouts are up and power is down, so how will baseball respond? With teams that can balance the scales and beat you in many different ways.
“In 2018, baseball has had more strikeouts than hits. Jayson Stark wrote in The Athletic in Maythat 2018 could see 10,000 fewer balls hit in play since 2009. Attendance through the first half of the season is down 6.5%, a 15-year low,” Observes Seth Everett of Forbes.
Yoan Moncada is an obvious example of this shift. Add Luis Robert, Basabe, Blake Rutherford, Joel Booker and a host of other prospects with an array of elite tools and the future comes into view. Heck, add Tim Anderson to that power/speed conversation.
Garfien’s discussion with virtually the entire Winston-Salem Dash is dense and far too thorough to include here. But two other notes worth mentioning is the ascension of Luis Gonzalez and the development of Zack Collins behind the dish.
Gonzalez erupted at High-A after earning a promotion from Kannapolis last month. He’s slashing .310/.363/.470 with Winston-Salem and batted .404 in his first 10 games with the Dash.
“Luis Gonzalez is one of these guys who can hit in every spot in the lineup. He’s a good leadoff guy and is very aggressive with the count. He likes to swing the bat. As a matter of fact, he got mad at me because I don’t let him hit in the 3-hole sometimes. He can tell you that he’s ready to swing at every pitch,” Vizquel said about Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was a third-round pick in 2017 and seems to have a nose for hitting. With his first-half performance in 2018, he certainly appears to be an increasing option. Vizquel added the following evaluation.
“He’s a left-handed hitter who doesn’t care if he has a left-handed pitcher on the mound. He still sticks his nose in there and he’s going to give you a great at-bat every time. That’s who I have at the top of the lineup right now and he’s another player who’s learning the game real quick. Even in his young age, he looks like a veteran out there.”
Deep in Garfien’s article is insight from several pitchers about how they feel with Collins behind the plate. When Collins was drafted in 2016 it was for his precocious ability at the plate, not his talent behind the plate. In fact, there were many questions about whether Collins would remain at catcher, but the White Sox have had an unwavering commitment to allowing Collins to develop as a backstop.
“From when I threw to him during spring training to now he’s like almost a new guy,” Cease said about Collins. “He’s framing well, calling a good game and blocking and that’s all you need from a catcher.”
That’s high praise from a pitcher. Cease could have dished out the garden-variety soundbite, “he’s great. Love throwing to him and he’s really come a long way.” But, adding that he’s come a long way from the beginning of the season is exactly what you want to hear.
Tomorrow begins a new season for the White Sox. We will all watch with bated breath for Kopech and Jimenez (not likely) to make their debuts in Chicago. Trade chatter is ramping up with July simmering deep into the summer, and a recent proposition with the Atlanta Braves even surfaced the past few days.
Rest assured, trades of the magnitude we saw last season will not surface this year. Most deals involving the White Sox will be more subdued and search for more depth. Remember, prospects don’t always reach their potential and stars are made from all corners of the minor-league universe.
