Positive trends continue for the White Sox under the leadership of Mike Shirley. The 2021 MLB Draft increased from five rounds to 20 in Shirley’s second year leading the charge.
The scouting director waxed poetic about the prep infield class last week and after the White Sox went to that well twice to kick things off. The club hadn’t selected a prep player in the first round since tabbing Texas athlete Courtney Hawkins back in 2012. Shirley has been a significant voice in regards to the franchise drafting younger players recently.
Prep righty Jared Kelley was considered a top 25 prospect in last year’s draft class and the White Sox floated him to the second round with a bonus around $3 million. The prior year, the club drafted and signed eight high school players including pitchers Matthew Thompson and Andrew Dalquist for over-slot bonuses. College heavy draft classes of the past are slowly transitioning into a mix with high upside preps and it’s a positive development for the organization.
Preps in focus
19-year-old shortstop Colson Montgomery was the pick at the 22nd overall spot and the organization’s interest in him was well known. He’s a 6-foot-4, 190 pound left-handed hitter with a projectable frame. The White Sox feel like Montgomery is a no doubt shortstop with the ability to hit and hit for power. “When he delivers the barrel, he gets to his power,” said Shirley. “That was the thing offensively that jumped out at us. You think about a plus bat in terms of the hit tool plus power, that was the exceptional piece. You have an easy-moving athlete, graceful, does the part defensively, gets to the impact of the bat, that jumped out at us as well.”
Shirley lauded the three sport star and doesn’t feel like professional baseball will be too tall of a task because he’s spent his life preparing for this opportunity.
“You guys understand high school basketball in Indiana, right?” Shirley continued: “Colson Montgomery is a star. He carries a lot of weight and a lot of responsibility. Everyone knows who the kid is. He goes to high school as a star every day. It’s a dream come true for them. You spend your life, time and investment in this and it’s what it takes.”
The White Sox were ecstatic to land their preferred target in the first round but they successfully pushed another high upside prep player to their second pick at #57 overall. Wes Kath was a definite option for the team in the first round and securing him in addition to landing Montgomery adds a real jolt to the farm system.
“When you talk about who these kids are and the left-handed potential of two bats that can grow up together and understand what it’s like to be White Sox, those are pieces of the puzzle that are hard to find and when you want to go find high school players, you want big upside and both of these guys possess it,” said Shirley. “They have looseness to their swings and strike zone management. The people they are. How they react to adversity. Both come from great families and have the high level of maturity that makes us willing to invest dollars into. They check so many boxes. Putting them together was too attractive to pass on. It’s a bet we’re willing to make on high school players”.
The 6-foot-3, 200 pounder from Arizona has a 60-grade throwing arm according to evaluators and it should work nicely at third base. He impacts the baseball consistently and has become more aggressive this year. Plus power in the future isn’t out of the question either.
“Wes Kath is mature. He has this balance in the delivery of his barrel, you see it in the box. There’s not a lot of stress to it. When you think of the Andrew Vaughns and Gavin Sheets. As you scout these guys, you see the maturity in how they handle a bat.”
Mike Shirley
The White Sox landed two of the best prep hitters in the draft class but they didn’t stop there. Tanner McDougal was a surprising selection in the fifth round and he’s expected to be paid over-slot money and become a professional. The 6-foot-6, 210 pound right hander is an Oregon commit from Silverado High School in Las Vegas. He was ranked as the No. 148 overall player in the class according to Baseball America. The publication noted that McDougal didn’t play in many showcase events outside of the Area Code Games but that his 55-grade fastball and 60-grade sliders are prevalent.
The 18-year-old has a solid, projectable frame and a very loose arm with a fastball that touches 96 mph. The breaking ball is the premium offering and varies in speed while being a bit slurvy. The pitch flashes plus and there’s also a changeup that he doesn’t really have a feel for currently. There is some head whack and moving parts in the delivery which often cause below average command. His pitch characteristics are elite and they suggest that there’s lots of untapped potential with this pitcher.
The White Sox are very excited about McDougal and Shirley was effusive in his praise of that selection.
“Tanner McDougal is a high upside right handed starter who has elite metrics,” he explained in a conference call. “His breaking ball has 3,000 spin so it’s this elite weapon that the science of the modern game says is unique. It’s athletic, it’s 6-foot-5, its’ a starter.
“He has a weapon that is unique. We saw him at the draft combine and he jumped out at us again. How easy he gets to his velocity, the strikes he throws. There are parameters that we think can be better so we think we bought a big time front line possible starter and we paid for it in the 5th round. He didn’t get the normal slot money. We invested money in him and he’s an exciting piece of the puzzle for us.”
Cameron Butler really popped this spring and Baseball America listed him as the No. 210 ranked overall prospect in the class. The 6-foot, 185 pounder played shortstop, center field and pitched for Big Valley Christian High School in Modesto, California. The 18-year-old throws and hits right handed and he really excelled this year with high level decision makers rushing in to see him late. Butler has plenty of bat speed and projects for plus power but he played for a really small school and against inferior competition consistently.
Swing and miss is prevalent in the outfielder’s game but he’s a plus runner with a plus arm. Butler played shortstop primarily in high school but the White Sox selected him as an outfielder. There’s lots of projection and strength and he’s been lauded for his work ethic and makeup. His high school statistics from this spring are absurd. For BVCHS, Butler hit .741/.779/.1.641 with 15 homers in 22 games. On a conference call with Shirley, he made sure to elaborate that Butler wasn’t a “pop-up guy” for the White Sox.
“To be honest with you — not a pop-up guy for us, Shirley said. “Adam Virchis has done a tremendous job. We’ve known about this kid since jump street. Due to the relationship with Adam, we were able to secure this player. We’re very excited to have him. There are a lot of people who think he might possess five tools someday. We like where he’s at presently and we think the ceiling is significant. We had several people scout him. Several supervisors scout him. There is lots of upside and lots of tools here. We are lucky.”
Collecting college arms
Since Mike Shirley took over as the director of amateur scouting, he’s made stacking pitching a priority. The organization acknowledges that developing a sustainable pipeline of young arms is essential to remaining a contender over the long haul. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the club added 11 college pitchers in the 20 round draft class. It started in the third round with Maryland righty Sean Burke. The White Sox selected the 6-foot-6 hurler with the 94th overall pick. Burke was ranked as the 53rd overall player according to Baseball America and 75th overall at MLB Pipeline.
Burke will fit firmly in the organization’s top 30 prospects lists and he’s the most noteworthy name of the pitchers selected on day two and three. Bradley southpaw Brooks Gosswein was the selection in the fourth round. The 6-foot-2 180 pounder is athletic with a four pitch mix and BA ranked him as the No. 310 player in the class. The 22-year-old shows big life on his sinker and he’s ground ball heavy while running his fastball up to 95 mph. He’s a starter but could move quickly in a relief role. The rest of day two was comprised of pitchers that the organization likes but with the primary purpose of saving money against their bonus pool. When a club goes over-slot in the early rounds, it’s necessary to save money on the back end.
Rounds 6-10 have been kind to the White Sox of late and they used 2019 sixth rounder Avery Weems as the second piece of the Lance Lynn trade. Ole Miss righty Taylor Broadway was the sixth rounder this year and the 24-year-old was ranked at No. 368 overall by Baseball America as well. The 5-foot-11, 205 pounder is an undersized righty who posted a 3.44 ERA with 66 strikeouts and 9 walks over 49.2 innings closing things out for the Rebels this spring. Broadway’s fastball generally sits 91-95 mph with riding life and he shows two different breaking balls. The stuff and strike throwing ability should allow him to move quickly through the system.
Righty Theo Denlinger is 25-years-old and was the closer at Bradley University. The 6-foot-3, 240 pound pitcher throws very hard and he was selected in the seventh round.
Lefty Fraser Ellard out of Liberty was taken in the eighth round and he was one of the best relievers in the Atlantic Sun Conference with a wipeout slider out of a three quarter delivery. The southpaw is 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds with a reliever profile.
Gil Luna is a 5-foot-10 left-hander from Arizona who has been tough on lefties and he was taken in the ninth round. Day two was rounded out by the selection of 6-foot-4, 220 pound right hander Tommy Sommer out of Indiana.
In many instances, players drafted on day three have more upside than some of the day two draftees. Due to the nature of the bonus pool rules, this happens often and it’s the case for the White Sox in this class as well. Righty Johnny Ray and southpaw Haylen Green were taken in the 12th and 20th rounds respectively out of Texas Christian. Green is funky and pitches out of the bullpen from the left side. Ray is a Quincy, Illinois product that had big expectations that he didn’t live up to for the Horned Frogs.
Ranked No. 350 in the class over at Baseball America, Carlos Collazo noted that he once looked like a top five round player. The 6-foot-2, 220 pounder rushes his fastball up to 98 mph but doesn’t garner enough swings and misses and gave up 11 homers on fastballs in 2021. The 22-year-old flashes an above average curveball but really struggles to repeat his delivery and posted a 6.50 ERA for TCU this year.
The 11th round is an important one and players typically go significantly over-slot because it’s the first of the bonus pool manipulation rounds. Christian Edwards of Jacksonville State was the choice for the White Sox. In his first year as a starter, the junior made 11 starts and struck out 83 hitters while walking 27 in 69 innings with a 2.48 ERA. The 6-foot-3, 205 pounder impressed Mike Shirley when the scouting staff saw him pitch this year. They witnessed him against Eastern Illinois and the 20th overall pick in the draft Trey Sweeney and Edwards was very impressive that day.
“His stuff was so loud, Shirley said. “I think it was 94-98 with a breaking ball that offered a lot of damage with the ability to start in the zone and really good spin to it that gets in and out of the zone quickly. We think it’s a plus athlete. We think he has starter materials but he also possesses big velocity. He’s just really athletic with big time stuff presently. We like how the fastball enters the zone and stays in the zone. It has a little hop to it, just some really attractive pieces. The kid, the makeup, the athlete, present stuff we think it’s loud.”
In the 14th round, the club also tabbed 20-year-old righty Noah Owen from Golden West College.
Targeting the power five
The White Sox took a break from pitching and added some position players on the draft’s third day and most most of them came from schools in the power five conferences. Shirley also lauded the work of the entire scouting department and mentioned that day three is an exciting day for scouts who have worked tirelessly for those rounds.
“First off, what an exciting time for our scouts,” Shirley said after day three. “This is the part of the draft where there is some equivalency with what you can do compared to the other 29 teams. $125K is the max you can spend on the player so it’s really about evaluation. It’s a great time to be a scout. It’s really fun to be a scout. We did a great job attacking power five conferences. Guys who come from programs that do a lot of the development already.”
“You think about the Johnny Ray’s of the world, Terrell Tatum, Jayson Gonzalez, Adam Hackenberg and Heylin Greene,” Shirley continued. “These guys come with the grit, the grind and the makeup to get in your system, balance it out and make a difference for you.
“I think sometimes when you think about taking Colson Montgomery and Wes Kath, you want to put pieces around these guys and help stabilize their peer groups and what it takes to be championship type players. You get those from these power five conference kids. It makes everybody better.”
Mississippi, Arizona, Indiana, Texas Christian, North Carolina State, Vanderbilt, Clemson and Northwestern were all represented.
21-year-old outfielder Terrell Tatum was selected in the 16th round out of North Carolina State and the second-year junior just completed a nice season for the Wolfpack. The 6-foot, 170 pounder hit 12 homers with a .317 batting average and .534 slugging percentage. 22-year-old Vanderbilt third baseman Jayson Gonzalez was scooped up in the 17th round and the 6-foot-2, 220 pounder hit nine homers for the Commodores. 19th rounder Shawn Goosenberg hit .358/.403/.696 with 13 homers as a junior for Northwestern. The 21-year-old can play multiple infield spots and stands at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds.
Catching depth was another priority for the White Sox when discussing their options on day three and the club spent two selections on the position. In the 18th rounder, 21-year-old redshirt Sophomore Adam Hackenberg was the choice. The 6-foot-1, 225 pound has been injured a lot for Clemson but Shirley is very excited about the future.
“We’ve been scouting this kid for a long time,” said Shirley. “We think it’s a plus defensive profile and the flashes of the bat. We need to make sure he gets healthy and gets back into it. He’s had some bumps in the road with his health but he’s back healthy now. The bat is coming back together. It’s a strong durable body, and he’s an interesting kid. He’s always been a big follow for us since high school. There was a lot of catching discussion in the room so we’re excited to get him along with Colby Smelley out of Shelton State.”
Smelley is a 6-foot-1, 190 pound backstop with a commitment to Louisiana Lafayette. The right handed hit slashed .435/.540/.661 with seven homers this year. He’s reportedly undecided on his future but Shirley was optimistic in being able to land the community college catcher.
“He’s a junior college kid with tremendous upside,” said the scouting director. “You get to land that kid because of Covid due to junior college kids being there a year longer than they should’ve. We’re excited about those two catching pieces”.
The scouting department is hard at work attempting to sign some non-drafted free agents for a maximum bonus of $20,000 and their progress can be tracked over the next few weeks. There are lots of players available and Shirley surmised that he was extremely proud of his staff and organization to add what they did under some trying circumstances.
“We are tremendously excited,” said Shirley. “Those first two pieces of the puzzle were something we targeted and were ecstatic to land. This was the highest draft inventory since 1965, we dealt with more players in this draft than we have in a long time. It’s been a lot of work. Since the draft last year ended, it’s been a non-stop grind. The staff has done a tremendous job. We worked as hard this year as we ever have. It was a challenge to scout players this year to even get on campus and evaluate players with the protocols. Games were cancelled on us. It was a tough challenge”.
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Excellent recap, James!
Great stuff, looking forward to the signings!
Great job of draft coverage.
Solid analysis!