White Sox Instructional League Roster – Who is going and why

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***UPDATE 9/23: Our Kim Contreras will be taking in some of the games at Instructs, and getting video, which we will publish later.
The White Sox are sending 50 of their minor leaguers to the fall Instructional League in Arizona. Instructs are an annual camp conducted by all thirty major league clubs, bringing some of their (usually) younger prospects in for closer work with coaching staffs before launching fully into the offseason. For the White Sox, their prospects are set to report by September 16th to Camelback Ranch in Glendale, where they will stay until October 11th (right around the time the Arizona Fall League begins). In addition to instruction, the team will play 14 games against other teams’ campers on the back fields.
The list of players attending Instructs for the White Sox is an amalgam made primarily of the true prospects from the rookie leagues and, to a lesser extent, A and A+ clubs. Most of the players are 22 or younger, with some as young as 16 (Fernando Tatis Jr was born 1/2/1999, in case you want to feel old). Let’s take a look at the list of names (and their last roster levels) and talk about a few that stand out (players with ** after their names are on the disabled list)…
INFIELDERS

This is obviously a very young crowd, including five players who have yet to appear stateside. And in fact these will probably be the infielders most likely to come north next year. You’ve also got basically the entire AZL White Sox infield, along with Cruz and Jarvis from Great Falls. The fact that there are so many DSL-level names here speaks to the strengthening of the team’s Latin American development. Michalczewski stands out as the only full season player here, but he’s also the highest ranked prospect among infielders in the system at either A-ball level and they may be focusing on his defense (where he’s had some hiccups). One surprise here – no Maiker Feliz.
OUTFIELDERS

This unit is mostly the starting outfields from the two rookie clubs. Adolfo and Hawkins are both here on the disabled list, for rehab and possibly get into some games. Hawkins is slated for the Arizona Fall League starting in October. Reyes has yet to play in organized league ball.
CATCHERS

Similar to the outfielders, the catching corps is made up mostly of the backstops from each of the two rookie affiliates during the year. Schroeder and Zavala in particular are likely vying for a starting role in Kannapolis for 2016, with Alfaro more likely to be back in rookie ball again. Fish is older and has already seen full season ball, but he’s relatively new to catching, so very likely he’s in Arizona to work on the defensive and pitcher handling aspects of his game. Austin on the other hand struggled with the bat in 2015, so perhaps he’s here for work with his bat more than anything else.
PITCHERS

There is a strong core of young pitching in this group. There are high round 2015 draft picks here, led of course by Fulmer, Erwin and Stephens. But there are other draftees worth monitoring here, including Comito, Dopico and Quintero. Latin American products make up a big chunk of the list here, with Solorzano and Sanchez standing out as high potential arms.
One surprise here is the number of full season pitchers present here. Martinez and Peralta are considered key prospects but both had problems with consistency. Peralta will be playing winter ball in the Dominican as well. Trexler and Cooper are both older pitchers who performed well (especially Cooper), so the team is likely challenging them to gear up for potentially big jumps next year. Wheeler is still relatively raw as a pitcher (converted from outfielder in college). Fry will not pitch, but he’s likely on the roster just because he’s in camp doing his rehab from his second TJ surgery.
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