Mike Shirley prepares for his first draft as White Sox scouting director

Following nearly 20 years as a member of the Chicago White Sox scouting department, Mike Shirley was promoted to director of amateur scouting in September of 2019. Shirley filled the position of Nick Hostetler, who was moved to a higher position within the organization that same year.

Leading the White Sox charge for the first time as Major League Baseball’s 2020 first year player draft approaches, Shirley faces circumstances unique to the event’s 55-year history. The June 10^th amateur draft will be limited to five rounds as opposed to 40 in previous years.

On top of that, the college seasons were cut short after roughly two months of play across the country, and many high school players had limited opportunity to take the field and improve their draft stock. Shirley also must incorporate the element of an undrafted free agent strategy.

With a rule in place that will allow teams to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players for $20,000, the White Sox must deal with variables that may influence a prospect’s decision to sign. College athletes may return to school as a result of their eligibility being unaffected, while high school players could decide to continue their careers at the junior college or NCAA levels.

What may be considered the biggest question surrounding this draft is the scouting department’s ability to acquire the full scope of a prospect due to the limitation of in-person evaluation. Despite the plethora of challenges, Shirley and his staff are prepared for the upcoming draft process and the White Sox feel they are in a position to build on the progress they made within the organization.

“Our ability to actually be boots on the ground in a typical cycle means we’re grinding every day at the ballpark and that was eliminated from us,” Shirley said in a conference call Tuesday. “We felt like we had prepared extremely well heading into this spring. In a lot of ways, we didn’t get what we needed, but we are prepared to make five rounds.”

Thanks to the advancement in scouting technologies, teams are able to take advantage of resources despite the limited amount of games in the 2020 season. There is an advantage to evaluating collegiate talent based on previously played seasons, as well as video scouting.

“From a college standpoint – this is the most access we have had to college players since I’ve been scouting,” Shirley said. “We have a video service by the name of ‘Synergy’ that gives us the capacity to look at every college game that has been played over the last three cycles; that’s ’18-’19-’20. So, for college players, you’re able to go back and watch a player go through that playing activity hopefully throughout his college career.”

The high school scene presents different obstacles, although Shirley is confident in where their evaluations stand across the board thanks to the efforts put forth last summer. He stated:

The high school players have been a little bit different due to the fact that the activity watching them play during the spring has not been there, but we spent so much of our summer on the high school player. For the most part, I want to say about 60-65 percent of the high school players we did actually see play this spring. Especially in the warmer climates of Florida, California and Texas. We did attack those players and we did get some looks at these guys.

Mike Shirley

The strategy behind assessing high school talent is specific under typical circumstances and it applies even more so now. As a result, the White Sox are incorporating a process that typically begins during a prep player’s junior year of high school, which is carried into his draft year.

“The best players who took a step forward in the high school class still had a chance to present themselves to us,” Shirley said. “Based off their track record of what they’ve done their junior year in high school, we start evaluating at that point.”

“To watching their offseason workout, to seeing them play in the summer, to getting to them this spring, we do have track record on a lot of these high school guys,” he continued. “So, we still feel good about this and there are high school players that are clearly in our mix that we’ve been able to evaluate, interview and get to know and show comfort where we have them.”

Shirley mentioned the White Sox are targeting roughly “15 players” in the first round as he prepares for who may be available at pick No. 11. The organization could go a multitude of ways with their first selection, but the strategy may be contingent on how depth-laden this year’s draft class is shaping out to be across five rounds.  

“It’s a deep draft,” Shirley said. “It’s a heavy pitching draft and it’s a depth of college pitching and there are high school pitchers we really like. So, the bulk of what we think the depths of this thing will be in five rounds – the pitching is out front.”

Prep arms that we’ve profiled at FutureSox could very well be in the mix as a first round choice. Two names to keep an eye on are Jared Kelley and Mick Abel. Collegiate pitchers of note include: Garrett Crochet, Max Meyer, Cade Cavalli and Reid Detmers.  

With the amount of pitching depth across a limited round draft, Shirley may opt for a position player his department feels is too good to pass up – whether that’s a prep or college talent. Specifically, local product Ed Howard was brought up in the conference call and the director of amateur scouting had nothing but positive things to say about the Mt. Carmel shortstop.

Eddy Howard has been tremendous. We feel like we have a great relationship with that kid and he’s been nothing but a tremendous citizen; someone Chicago should be very proud of. He set himself apart last summer, last fall. We’ve been scouting that guy for a while now, so I think what he’s done for himself personally is only going to make himself valuable regardless if you had a chance to see him or not. Would it had helped if he played 10-15 games? Absolutely. That always helps you. I like Ed Howard a lot. I like the family. I wish him the best. He’s a player we continue to talk about. We like Ed Howard.

Mike Shirley

The White Sox have collectively built a product within their organization that allows them flexibility in the 2020 draft. As technology develops and remains prevalent in the game, Shirley understands the value of utilizing that aspect as not only evaluation tools, but ways to allow players to feel confident as members of the organization.

“I think players should want to play for the White Sox,” Shirley said. “I think we are as locked and loaded as any organization in baseball right now where we’re going and I think that’s due to the men who lead this charge.”

He made mention of Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams, Rick Hahn, director of player personnel Chris Getz and assistant general manager Jeremy Haber, among others, as catalysts who have allowed the department to grow.

“We’ve got the new lab in Arizona; we have so many technology pieces that are available to the player now,” Shirley said. “The guidance of Jerry, Hahn, Kenny and Jeremy Haber have provided us the access to do our job. We feel like we are on par with all the other 29 league clubs to make data a big part of this and we’re ready to attack that piece as well.”

As it pertains to the undrafted free agent strategy, Shirley was transparent enough to say there really is no set plan, as that aspect remains fluid based on specific players unique career situations. There are players the Sox are targeting, however. The result is a matter of a player’s belief in the organization’s ability to accelerate their career path, as well as the player’s willingness to accept what is, quite frankly, an unfortunate undrafted value of $20,000.

Obviously, the NCAA ruled these college players are going to be given their eligibility back. You have an incoming class of freshman. You have a lot of heightened profile programs that are going to have a deep inventory of players available to them and I think the college player who could be caught in this situation is still figuring what’s best for them. We have a list of players that we’ve been active with that we hope after the draft is over and they want to sign, we hope they want to be White Sox. We’ve worked really hard to scout those players because we want those players to want to play for us. Just because you go after the fifth round doesn’t mean you can’t play in the major leagues.

Mike Shirley

Above all else, Shirley believes the White Sox are ready for the upcoming draft.

“We feel like from pick one to 150, we feel good about where we have the players on the board,” he said. “We’re excited about where the White Sox are. There is so much exhilaration about where this organization is and to continue to add to this and make this thing right is what we’re all excited for.”

Photo credit: Clinton Cole/FutureSox

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