Weekly White Sox farm update, 11/30

Welcome back to your one-stop shop for all things concerning the White Sox farm system through the Thanksgiving week. As the collective White Sox fanbase (and all of MLB?) holds their breath on a potential South Side fire sale, current prospects are honing their craft in the Caribbean Winter Leagues.
Arizona Fall League
The Glendale Desert Dogs finished their AFL campaign with a 17-15 record and fell short of qualifying for the AFL Championship game. Matt Cassidy posted the final stat lines in last week’s weekly farm update and Julie Brady published her complete AFL recap yesterday.
Caribbean Winter Leagues
Venezuela
Gerson Montilla (.083/.313/.083 in 6 games)
Cleuluis Rondon (.103/.133/.172 in 13 games)
Alfredo Gonzalez (.200/.286/.240 in 13 games)
The Venezuela League is complete and didn’t include a lot from the White Sox standpoint. Rondon, acquired from the Red Sox system in the 2013 Peavy trade, continues to display very a very weak hit tool. Gonzalez, a catcher who the Sox acquired during the 2016 season from the Houston organization, is mildly interesting as he preformed well in Birmingham.
Mexico
Jason Bourgeois (.303/.347/.337 in 22 games)
K.C. Hobson (.125/.125/.500 in 2 games)
Games in the Mexican League are still going on, but it appears OF Jason Bourgeois might be done, as he hasn’t played since November 26th. The veteran put up solid numbers in Charlotte and didn’t appear to have much trouble with the Mexican League either.
Puerto Rico
Wilfredo Rodriguez (.067/.263/.067 in 7 games)
Rodriguez is another minor league catcher the White Sox have acquired recently. Rodriguez was a 7th round by the Colorado organization in 2012 but spent 2016 in independent ball.
Dominican Republic
Rymer Liriano (.290/.389/.371 in 20 games)
Liriano’s off-season tune up appears to be done, as he hasn’t appeared in a game since November 19th. The toolsy outfielder put up impressive numbers in the competitive Dominican Republic League and has a good shot at making the big league club if he carries his performance over to Spring Training.
Transactions

• Signed catcher Roberto Pena to a minor league deal. The 24 year-old is a 2010 7th round pick by the Houston Astros and reached their AAA team in 2016. He has a career slash line of .237/.283/.337 over seven minor league seasons, but has also thrown out 45% of attempted base stealers in his pro career.
• The White Sox granted RHP Anthony Ranaudo his unconditional release to pursue a career in the Korean League. Ranaudo was acquired from the Texas Rangers last season and went 6-5 with a 3.35 ERA with the Charlotte Knights over 16 starts.

Links and Notes

• New FutureSox writer Julie Brady broke down the 2017 White Sox Player Development Staff. There was a lot of promotions and new faces, most notably former player Chris Getz being tabbed the new Director of Player Development.
• Jim Margalus at South Side Sox took a look back at the decisions made in the top of the 2014 draft.
• James Fegan of The Athletic made the case that the White Sox’ poor performance in producing homegrown position player talent may be coming to an end. (The Athletic is a subscription site, but it’s high quality writing worth the cost)
• The Winter Meetings should, in theory, start on December 4th (assuming a new CBA is agreed upon). Once the CBA is done and those meetings get started, trade and signing activity should accelerate quickly.

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