Kevin Goldstein rolled out his top 20 White Sox prospects list for Baseball Propsectus today, with Addison Reed and Nestor Molina 1-2. His complete list:
Four-Star Prospects
1. Addison Reed, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
2. Nestor Molina, RHP
3. Trayce Thompson, OF
4. Jake Petricka, RHP
5. Simon Castro, RHP
6. Keenyn Walker, OF
Two-Star Prospects
7. Eduardo Escobar, SS
8. Jhan Marinez, RHP
9. Myles Jaye, RHP
10. Tyler Saladino, SS
11. Andre Rienzo, RHP
He has nine more other non-graded prospects, complete with a sentence on each. A few thoughts on this list:
-- Seeing Myles Jaye, the 20-year-old pitcher the Sox acquired from Toronto in the Jason Frasor deal, ranked in the top 10 is interesting. While Jaye wouldn't sniff the top 10 of most other organizations, Baseball America does like the guy, and Larry says "He's pure projection at this point and it's an aggressive ranking but, in this system, it's hard to argue that he wouldn't fit in the back of the top ten."
-- Goldstein didn't even mention Hector Santiago, the screwballing lefty who both Larry and John Sickels had in their top five. Goldstein's reasoning was that Santiago projects as a middle reliever and didn't have a lot of good reviews. Those are certainly valid concerns -- Santiago's walk rate is somewhat worrying, as is his durability -- but in a system this thin, Santiago's gotta be a top 20 guy, even if it means leaving off Ozzie Martinez at the back of the list.
-- Jared Mitchell, yikes. The former first-round pick is ranked out of the top 10, which even Goldstein says is "dangerous."
@Dwade @JJStankevitz And it got worse for Mitchell as the season wore on. Just putting him 12 was a risk in some ways. Kevin Goldstein (@Kevin_Goldstein) January 16, 2012-- Jake Petricka is ranked ahead of Simon Castro, which tells me one of three things: 1) Goldstein sees both as relievers, with Petricka as the better bullpen arm, 2) Goldstein sees Petricka as a starter and Castro as a reliever, or 3) Goldstein sees both as starters, with Petricka as the superior one. My guess as to the most likely would be the second scenario.
-- Juan Silverio is starting to gain some momentum in these prospect listings. One of the products of the Dave Wilder scandal-ridden era, Silverio's bat finally started to come around between Single-A Kannapolis and Winston-Salem in 2011. He's still a questionable prospect, but he's not someone to write off just yet.
MLB
-The general consensus on the Sox system is this: it's thin and full of guys who need to refine a third pitch to avoid winding up in the bullpen. That's the bad news. The good news is that the Sox have a fairly decent track record in developing pitching talent, so maybe they'll strike gold in the form of improved changeups for a few of these guys at some point.