Archive for Chicago White Sox

The South Korean media should love Luke Scott. The outspoken outfielder will be playing for SK Wyverns this season and there’s a good chance not all of his bombs will come via his bat. Controversy and Scott have gone together like hand in glove.

That is not an indictment of his character. In a politically-correct climate where many athletes coat their opinions with vanilla, Scott’s candidness is refreshing. You may not agree with his views, but they’re dead honest. The erstwhile Astro, Oriole and Ray doesn’t shoot from the hip so much as he shoots from the heart.

Talking with Scott last summer, I learned that a pair of events helped shape not only his career, but also how he approaches life. Read the rest of this entry »

Matt Harvey will be as confident as ever when he returns from Tommy John surgery. Not only does he expect to be fully healthy, he’ll be back to where he feels most comfortable. The young New York Mets ace said as much when I spoke to him in January.

The first time I talked to Harvey, he wasn’t yet in his comfort zone. It was April 2012 and he was pitching for Triple-A Buffalo. His big-league debut was still three months away.

At the time, Harvey was chomping at the bit. Questions remained about his readiness, but they weren’t being raised by the right-hander. Harvey told me, “I’d like to think I’m right there. It’s never my decision, but I’m always going to be ready, both mentally and physically.” He went on to say he wouldn’t be intimidated.

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Quick: Who led minor league pitchers in FIP this year?* You might guess one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, such as Archie Bradley, Taijuan Walker, or Robert Stephenson. Or you might rack your brain thinking about 2013 breakout A-ball pitchers like C.J. Edwards, Tyler Glasnow, or Edwin Escobar. In either case, you’d be wrong, because the answer is little-known White Sox pitching prospect Tony Bucciferro.

*Minimum 80 IP. Giants relief prospect Derek Law had a lower FIP in 77 2/3, but I wanted to isolate starters.

Bucciferro’s 2013 numbers are certainly something to behold. Across three starts in the Rookie-Advanced Appalachian League and 13 outings (12 starts) in the Low-A South Atlantic League, he amassed 96 strikeouts, six walks, and a mere three homers allowed in 90 2/3 innings, good for a 1.74 FIP (2.48 ERA). Those numbers seem impossible to ignore, and yet Bucciferro registers barely a blip on the prospect radar. In this post, I will examine why he’s been successful, why he’s been ignored, and take a systematic look at how pitchers with this sort of statistical profile fare.

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Coming into the 2013 season, Marcus Semien was a nothing-special prospect in a not-so-good Chicago White Sox system. Eight months later, the system isn’t markedly better, but the 23-year-old infielder is.

A sixth-round pick in 2011 out of Cal-Berkeley, Semien broke out this year. Playing in Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte, he hit a robust .284/.401/.479 and earned a September call-up. In 21 games for Chicago’s south-side squad, he batted .261 and banged out his first two big-league home runs. The former Golden Bear is currently wrapping up his second-full professional season in the Arizona Fall League with the Glendale Desert Dogs.

Semien — who climbs to No. 4 in this year’s White Sox rankings — talked about his much-improved game last week. Read the rest of this entry »

The annual managerial carousel has started. Little more than a week after the completion of the regular season, there are already openings in Chicago [Cubs], Cincinnati, Seattle and Washington. Don’t be surprised if there are more.

Who will step in to fill these positions? Speculation abounds, with no shortage of names being bandied about. Some have previously managed in the big leagues, while others are looking for their first opportunity. Joe McEwing, who just completed his second season as the White Sox third base coach, is among those in the latter category.

The 40-year-old former infielder has been viewed as a future MLB manager since retiring after the 2006 season. “Super Joe” managed in the White Sox system for three years prior to joining Robin Ventura’s staff, and is highly-regarded thanks to his people skills and knowledge of the game.

In the first of a series of interviews with up-and-coming managerial candidates, McEwing discussed the approach and philosophies he would bring to the job. Read the rest of this entry »

Two things jump out when you watch Nate Jones deliver a pitch. The Chicago White Sox righthander has an unorthodox delivery and he throws hard. Working primarily as a setup man, he features a 97-mph fastball.

What doesn’t jump out is that he is putting up better numbers than last year. The 27-year-old Northern Kentucky product is 4-5, 3.86, compared to 8-0, 2.39. But a closer look tells a completely different story. Jones has improved in nearly every other category, with a markedly better FIP.

Jones, who has made 63 appearances this season, discussed his evolution as a pitcher — including his funky delivery — on a recent visit to Fenway Park. Also weighing in were former teammate, and current Red Sox reliever Matt Thornton, and White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper. Read the rest of this entry »

The preliminary rosters were recently announced for the impending Arizona Fall League. If you’re not familiar with the AFL, all you really need to know is that it’s an off-season league that offers addition innings/at-bats to prospects from around baseball. Some of the names you’ll know quite well. Others, well, you’ll probably never hear from again. And, frankly, a lot of players fall under that latter grouping.

Because there is such a wide range of talent in the league — as well as for a smattering of other reasons — any numbers produced in the league should be taken with a grain of salt. Oh, and each organization is responsible for providing a specific number of prospects to play in the league.

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Former Texas high school star Courtney Hawkins famously performed a back flip after being drafted this past year. And now, it’s easy to see why: The Chicago White Sox top prospect has a lot to be excited about.

The 19-year-old [as of November] outfielder was drafted 13th overall in June and by the season‘s end, he was playing for High-A Winston-Salem. Prior to inking his contract, he was honored as the Texas High School Player of the Year. Hawkins talked about his introduction to professional baseball — and his athleticism — during the last week of this past season.

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David Laurila: Has it sunk in that you’re playing pro ball?

Courtney Hawkins: I’d say it’s like a dream. I’m still kind of shocked right now, playing in High-A. Everything is moving fast, but I like it. I like the speed of the game and I’m just out there playing ball and having fun.

Since I’ve been here — since I moved up — I’ve learned so much. You can tell the difference in the level of competition, so it’s a huge adjustment.

DL: When did you begin to realize you were going to be good enough to play professionally?

CH: It’s been my dream ever since I was a young kid. In a way, it was in my head then, but it really started sinking in around my freshman year of high school. That, or maybe my sophomore year.

When I was a freshman, I made the USA Team. I was a pitcher all the way up until my junior year. That’s when I switched over to being more of a hitter.

DL: You’ve been clocked in the low-90s. Were there discussions about your future position?

CH: With [Chicago], it was always, hands down, hitting. Other teams, it was pitching and hitting — some pitching — but with the White Sox, they told me it would be hitting.

DL: Which teams were interested in you as a pitcher? Read the rest of this entry »

Hector Santiago reads FanGraphs and throws a screwball. The former puts the Chicago White Sox southpaw in the minority among big-league players. The latter makes him quite unique.

A handful of present-day hurlers pull the occasional screwball out of their back pocket, but none feature the pitch. Santiago doesn’t either, but if he wins a job in the starting rotation next season — a distinct possibility — there is a good chance it will become his signature offering.

The 24-year-old New Jersey native worked out of the bullpen in 42 of his 46 appearances this year, which impacted his repertoire. As he explained during a visit to Fenway Park, “It‘s tough to come in for one inning and throw screwballs. As a starter, you have more opportunities to throw it.”

Santiago wants to start, and knows what he needs to do to earn that role. Along with reintroducing more screwballs to his mix, he said he needs to “work on a two-seam fastball, something that is going to sink down out of the zone, so I can get more ground balls.” His GB-rate was 38.2, which he’s well aware of. He hasn’t yet established himself as a starter, but he’s already a stat-savvy screwball artist.

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Santiago on his repertoire and approach: “I basically try to go after hitters and hit my spots. I’m a guy who is mostly on the inner half to right-handers and away to lefties. I try to get it down and in to righties and down and away to lefties, and let them basically get themselves out. How my ball moves is a big part of how I pitch.

“I watch at a lot of video, especially when I’m getting hit, or when I’m missing and think some of the pitches are balls or strikes. I go back and check the k-zone to see how the pitches were moving and where they finished up. That’s especially true on my off-speed. I feel that I can see pretty well on my fastball — where it’s going to go and where it lands — but with my off-speed, sometimes I think it’s a good pitch, just off the plate, and when I go back in, it’s more on the plate than I expected. When I get hurt is when I‘m missing over the middle of the plate. That‘s when they‘ll run into it.

“When I came into pro ball, I was a one-pitch guy. They helped me develop a changeup, and I started to be able to spin a slider in there. I can work in other pitches now. I can throw my changeup for a strike, or out of the zone, I have a cutter now. I can throw my slider early in the count or behind in the count, although it’s still a work in progress. And then there’s my screwball.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Chicago White Sox organization has done an outstanding job of squeezing every ounce of value out of its prospects this season.

Back in March, four prospect analysts/publications (FanGraphs, Baseball America, Keith Law, Kevin Goldstein) all agreed – in separate rankings of the 30 organizations in baseball – that the White Sox club was indeed the weakest in all of Major League Baseball in terms of prospects.

The perceived lack of quality hasn’t stopped the club from trotting out 12 rookies this season – for a combined value of 3.1 WAR. The majority of the contributions have come from the pitching side. Only outfielder Jordan Danks and infielder Eduardo Escobar – since traded to the Minnesota Twins for Francisco Liriano – have played the field for the White Sox. Danks has managed to provide 0.2 WAR, while Escobar was in the negative prior to his departure.

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