White Sox morning roundup

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From yesterday:

The Sergio Santos trade was surprising. But, while it's hardly as consequential as dealing for Nestor Molina, the biggest shocker of the offseason came yesterday when the White Sox signed former Arkansas and USC quarterback Mitch Mustain to a minor-league contract. The former five-star recruit will try his hand at pitching for the first time since his high school career ended in 2006. But as a college football fan...wow, Mitch Mustain.

MLB.com posted their top 20 White Sox prospects list, with Jared Mitchell failing to make the list. There were a few other interesting rankings and non-rankings in addition to Mitchell on there, too.

But even though the rankings from MLB.com and Keith Law cement the White Sox as having the worst farm system in baseball, there are some signs of improvement. And with the new CBA bringing other clubs to the White Sox level of spending on amateur talent, the Sox won't have an extended stay in the cellar of farm system rankings.

John Danks' poor start to the 2011 season was the product of him throwing fewer cutters and a slightly faster changeup, among other factors. But the good news is that his final 16 starts went quite well, and even with those 11 poor outings, he was still worth about 15 million in value last year per Fangraphs.

Ever wonder how a baseball is made? Check this video to see for your self.

Jim sifted through the often-hilarious PECOTA comps (Trayce Thompson to Willie Mays!) and found a few things of note -- mainly with regard to Dayan Viciedo. And James uses PECOTA as a jumping-off point to discuss some changes Jesse Crain has made that have projection systems finally warming up to him.

Alex Gordon and the Royals agreed to a one-year, 4.775 million contract to avoid arbitration, meaning he'll be a tremendous value to Kansas City this season. Another year of what Gordon did last year and he'll not only be deserving of more MVP votes, but he should get one hell of a contract.

On Indians fan sees Casey Kotchman's glove as being his greatest asset, but the guy also had a .378 OBP last year. That's probably his greatest asset because, you know, getting on base is the most important thing a position player can do.

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