The White Sox finally took a college pitcher with their first pick of the second day of the draft. Chris Beck, a RHP out of Georgia Southern, was taken by the ChiSox at 76 overall in the second round.
The guys on the live draft stream on MLB.com mentioned Beck as a top 10 talent after a strong showing in the prestigious Cape Cod League, but his spring season didn’t match that production so he slipped. Beck threw 103.2 innings this spring for Georgia Southern and posted a 3.91 ERA with 115 strikeouts and 29 walks. The peripherals are strong, but opponents hit .288 against him.
The Georgia native was drafted in the 35th round out of high school, but elected to go to college. He was raw as a freshman and only worked in limited action. Last spring he emerged as one of the best pitchers on the team. As a sophomore he had a 3.23 ERA with 109 strikeouts and 40 walks in 103 innings.
It was the summer after his sophomore year that Beck became an elite draft prospect. In 51 innings in the Cape he struck out 41 against 13 walks and 48 hits. He posted a 2.12 ERA and was named the No. 2 prospect in the league. He featured a mid 90s fastball, a good cutter and workable or sometimes better in his slider and change up.
This spring his fastball hasn’t reached the same velocity. It has sat more frequently around 90 and his cutter hasn’t been as good. It will be up to the Sox to make sure they get his stuff back to its previous level. If they do, they snagged a nice value in the second round.