BP’s prospect team released its Midseason Top 50 Prospects list on Friday (read the whole thing here), and the White Sox were about as well represented as you might expect, with Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease, and Luis Robert making the cut. That the two pitchers on the list are two of the White Sox prospects not befallen by injury this year is not surprising, nor is the inclusion of Jimenez or Robert, despite their injury woes.

There’s not much that can be written about Jimenez at this point that hasn’t already been said. After destroying Double-A for the better part of two months, he kept pace in Triple-A for a few weeks before being disabled for the second time this season with a strained left adductor muscle that isn’t expected to keep him out for a prolonged period of time. One can reasonable surmise that if it weren’t for that and the missed time during the first month of the season, he’d be ineligible for this list as he’d be in the majors already. Barring further setbacks, he’ll likely be in Chicago at some point this summer.

Kopech is another name that you might not have expected to be eligible for the Midseason Top 50 at the beginning of the season, but his command struggles have at least given some pause for a pitcher who still has No. 1 starter upside. Kopech has walked at least four batters in nine of his last 12 starts and failed to get through five innings in five of those. It’s both easy and foolish to scout the stat line, but those who watch him have expressed some concern about the fact that he hasn’t yet harnessed his command, as that will be the different between Kopech being the starting pitcher everyone hopes he can become and a pitcher whose stuff plays better in relief.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the White Sox trading Jose Quintana to the Cubs, and while Jimenez remains the prize of that trade, the continued progress of Cease has been perhaps the biggest bright spot for the White Sox farm system this year. After pitching a combined 162 innings in his first four years as a pro and never topping 93 1/3 in any single season as the Cubs handled him extremely carefully following Tommy John surgery in 2014, not only is Cease already at 88 1/3 innings in early July, he dominated High-A and hasn’t missed a beat in three starts since a late June promotion to Double-A. Pure stuff has never been the question for Cease, it’s been a question of both mechanics and command. He’s passed every early test the White Sox have given him so far and is starting to serve notice.

Robert is the biggest enigma of the group, just as he was before the season. After spending all of 2017 after his signing in the Dominican Summer League, he’s been limited to fewer than 100 plate appearances between Low-A and High-A this season, but has shown enough of why the White Sox gave him a $26 million signing bonus despite the limited action for him to remain one of the top prospects in the game.

BP’s lead prospect writer, Jeffrey Paternostro (who is doing a Q&A on the list at 2 p.m. CT today, follow along and ask questions here), has said on a number of occasions that the midseason list is constructed from scratch and not based on the Preseason Top 101 at all. Still, it’s tough not to compare the two. In the White Sox case, the most notable difference is with Alec Hansen, who checked in at No. 40 in the Preseason 101 and was omitted from this iteration. This makes sense if for no other reason than because Hansen hasn’t pitched much since that preseason list was constructed. He made just one appearance in the Cactus League before being shut down with a forearm muscular issue that wound up sidelining him for three months. He’s made five starts since his return and hasn’t quite returned to the form that shot him up the rankings a year ago.

Beyond Hansen, there aren’t a lot of players you could’ve expected to see. Luis Alexander Basabe is definitely trending up despite a rough start at Double-A, and Dane Dunning was likely close despite an injury that will sideline him likely through the end of the season. Blake Rutherford and Zack Collins are both having fine seasons and if this were a Midseason Top 101, might have made the cut.

Lead Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

1. An uptick in velocity and command of his breaking pitches were the main fuel behind a month where Dylan Covey seemingly transformed from Rule 5 afterthought to a legitimate candidate for future rotation consideration. A Friday night in Texas where he struggled to command anything and left quite a few changeups high in the zone showed just how small his margin for error is, as Covey was tagged for eight earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings in a start that more resembled his forgettable 2017 than the pitcher we saw for the majority of June.

Covey didn’t show any ill effects of the groin injury that forced him out of his previous start early, but was routinely beat around during a second inning in which he allowed three of the four home runs the Rangers hit off him on the day. The fact that he walked three and struck out zero — he induced just four swinging strikes on the evening — only further illustrated how badly he was locating throughout his 74-pitch outing.

Covey showed enough during his hot stretch to earn more opportunities on a team going nowhere in 2018. But he’s now on a three-start stretch where he’s walked 12 against just three strikeouts, so while optimism regarding the 26-year-old is obviously higher than it was even just a month or so ago, it will be interesting to see how he adjusts and if he’s more like the pitcher we saw for the majority of June or not.

2. Carlos Rodon certainly has more margin for error than Covey in any given start, but the Rangers jumped all over his first sign of command issues and what started out as a dominant start ended earlier than expected. Rodon retired the first seven Rangers he faced, including three strikeouts, but hung a fastball to Joey Gallo in the third inning for a solo home run and lost control in the fourth when a single and a pair of walks came home on a Robinson Chirinos bases-loaded double.

It was the first truly bad start of Rodon’s five since returning from injury on June 9, but what’s prevented him from truly living up to his potential during his three-plus years in the majors has been an inability to consistently command from start to start or, like Saturday, inning to inning. The good news for Rodon is that he seems completely healthy after being plagued by injury for the better part of the last year and a half, but we’re still waiting for Rodon to put together a complete and consistent performance like we know he’s capable of.

3. The White Sox weekend woes were not limited to the poor starts by Covey and Rodon. The bullpen was overburdened and allowed eight earned runs in 8 1/3 innings between Friday and Saturday, although a large chunk of that can be attributed to Bruce Rondon, whose ERA has ballooned up to 8.31 after allowing five earned runs while retiring just one batter on Saturday. Similarly, the White Sox committed a pair of errors in each of their two losses and five for the entire weekend, which is only part of the story of a weekend where a team that already wasn’t exactly known for its smooth fundamentals appeared to lose control of it entirely

Things like this are going to happen when a team rosters a handful of borderline major leaguers or young players still getting their feet wet, but while we’ve somewhat gotten used to the White Sox losing more often than they win, one thing you’d prefer they shore up is on that side of the ball. It’s easy to excuse a rebuilding team playing, say, Adam Engel when his bat isn’t up to snuff,, but when players who are already limited extrapolate things by failing to communicate, missing the cutoff, or some other mental miscue, it becomes much more difficult to excuse. Those are aspects of the game within their control, and while mental errors costing the White Sox wins is hardly detrimental to the immediate future, it’d at the very least make watching the losing more aesthetically appealing, and one would hope they get under control if and when they have eyes on contention.

4. The White Sox did win a game this weekend, as Reynaldo Lopez threw 6 1/3 mostly successful innings in a 10-5 win on Sunday, allowing just two earned runs with three walks and six strikeouts. Most notable in the win, and over the weekend as a whole, was Jose Abreu busting out of his slump and Avisail Garcia putting together a nice post-injury streak. Abreu, who hit was in the midst of a .188/.233/.325 slump from June 5 through 26, is 6-for-20 with a home run, a triple, and three walks since Wednesday, hardly world-mashing numbers, but a vast improvement coming out of one of the worst slumps of his career. Garcia went 4-for-5 on Sunday and is hitting .333 with six extra-base hits in 42 plate appearances since returning from the disabled list on June 22. He’s still hacking away at an absurd rate — zero walks in 118 plate appearances overall this season — but if he can start making solid contact again like he did in 2017, it would be a great sign.

5. A mostly unsuccessful weekend was also felt at the minor league level, where Luis Robert was placed on the seven-day disabled list and Eloy Jimenez left Sunday’s game with an apparent leg injury (the severity is not yet known). The arms fared better, as Michael Kopech tossed six innings on Saturday, giving up just three hits and striking out eight, although he also walked four. Dylan Cease continues to be the biggest bright spot in their stable of prospect arms, rebounding from a rocky debut at Double-A to toss seven innings on Sunday, allowing just one earned run with seven strikeouts and two walks. Alec Hansen has yet to get completely acclimated to the same level since returning from injury, however, as he turned in his third straight rough start on Thursday, giving up three earned runs with five walks and four strikeouts in just 3 2/3 innings.

Lead Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

But no longer.  Despite graduating three players off the Midseason Top 50, the White Sox still lead all teams with eight players on the list.  Although the sequence of names was not a surprise, given that we’ve had the White Sox Top 10 list for weeks now, it was far from obvious as to how many on the back half of the org ranking would make it onto the global one.  Jake Burger, Dane Dunning, and Blake Rutherford all appear between 80-90, as Burger survived our prospect team’s (justified) skepticism of likely R/R 1B prospects and Rutherford’s underlying skills and draft pedigree overcame his poor results in 2017.

Jeff Paternostro will be doing a chat to answer any 101 questions you might have (or you can read the transcript there once it is over).

Still, I take the opportunity to remind you that, as fun as it is to see “White Sox” next to as many names as possible in the 101, the further down the list you go, the gaps between prospects shrink. The prospect team likely has a list of anywhere from 20-50 more names you could try to argue on to the 101, and the gap between, say, 50 and 75, or 75 and 90 could very well be within the error bars.

Given the bust rate on prospects overall, even the very highly regarded ones, volume is the exciting thing here.  Dylan Cease on his own is a risky proposition.  Alec Hansen on his own is a risky proposition.  Michael Kopech might not work.  Dane Dunning might not work.  Then again, all four of them could wind up being major league contributors, and a few of them could be of the impact variety.

It is a different world for White Sox fans than even a few years ago, but now the game becomes watching and waiting, seeing what becomes of this collection of talent.  And the season is rapidly approaching.

Photo credit Matt Marton

• The overall state of the White Sox farm system.
• The upside of Eloy Jimenez and Michael Kopech, what sets them apart from the rest of the system, and what went into picking between the two for the No. 1 spot.
• The high upside but risk of a prospect like Dylan Cease.
• Alec Hansen’s roller coaster ride from potential No. 1 draft pick to terrible college performance to top prospect.
• How the hell you rank Luis Robert.
• The next group of guys, what to like and dislike from Jake Burger, Dane Dunning, Blake Rutherford, and Zack Collins.
• Thoughts on guys outside the Top 10, including Micker Adolfo, Spencer Adams, A.J. Puckett, Yeyson Yrizarri, and more.
• The construction of the White Sox Under 25 rankings, as authored by Nick.
• Some always necessary talk about Japanese wrestling between Jarrett and Collin, while Nick tries not to fall asleep.

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by searching for “The Catbird Speaks.” Please be sure to rate and review us!

This is something I’ve thought about a lot over the last year as the White Sox have restocked their farm system with a number of promising young arms. It’s fun to think of a future where the rotation is some combination of Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Michael Kopech, Alec Hansen, Dylan Cease, Dane Dunning, and Carson Fulmer.

That’s eight names, five of whom were acquired via trade in the last 12 months. Even with the acquisitions of exciting bats Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez, and Luis Robert, pitching is clearly the strength of the organization, as has been the case for the last ~15 years.

You don’t need me to tell you how unlikely it is that all eight of those aforementioned young pitchers live up to their potential. The idea of all of them even carving out prolonged careers as relievers isn’t even that great. But what the White Sox are doing in acquiring a plethora of promising arms is increasing the odds that some of them will live up to their expectations. If six or five or even three of those pitchers become worthwhile rotation pieces, that’s already the makings of a solid rotation. If Fulmer or Cease or Lopez wind up as bullpen arms, that’s something you can live with if Rodon and Kopech are anchoring your rotation. If Dunning busts, you can survive because Hansen turned into a viable No. 3 or 4. Maybe the next contention cycle sees the White Sox use one of those arms in a trade for that missing piece in center field or at third base.

The White Sox have developed a reputation for getting the most out of the pitchers, but they’re of course not infallible. For every Jose Quintana there’s an Erik Johnson. For every Matt Thornton there’s a Mike MacDougal. But the odds of developing enough pitching to carry the next contender increases exponentially when you have six or seven or eight talented young arms. And in an era where, as noted on a recent episode of Effectively Wild, teams are using more pitchers per season than ever, you can never have too much pitching. Building a team around young pitching is a risky proposition, and with the Cubs and Astros winning the World Series while doing basically the inverse of this — drafting a boatload of young hitters and figuring out their pitching later — it seems a unique position.

Even with Moncada, Jimenez, and a few others in the fold, the White Sox seem to know their developmental strength and that’s developing pitchers. They’re not going to hit on every one, but they’re setting themselves up to have the best odds possible of building a contending rotation.

Lead Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Hansen has alluded to a crisis of confidence, a sort of feedback loop wherein he struggled with his command, which meant Oklahoma downgraded his role on the pitching staff, which meant Hansen doubted himself further, rinse and repeat.  The lost season meant the former 1-1 candidate fell to the White Sox at pick number 49 instead, as the White Sox were banking on their pitching development, and that perhaps rival organizations were overvaluing recent performance.

Since the goal was to rebuild Hansen’s mechanics—even setting the disaster season aside, the guy was a 6’7” amateur pitcher anyway—as well as his confidence, the organization started him all the way down at Rookie Ball and let him annihilate it for 43 innings before promoting him to Low-A to conclude 2016.

The stuff was certainly there, and he was throwing it over the plate enough to obliterate less experienced hitters, but in an abundance of caution, the White Sox started Hansen in Low-A Kannapolis again in 2017, and did not promote him to Winston-Salem until he had thrown over 70 more innings of 4.00 K:BB ball there. He continued to post similar impressive rate stats to go along with his imposing size and stuff—you can read more about how he does what he does in this excellent writeup from our prospect team’s Jarrett Seidler–in High-A, but even so, the White Sox let him throw another 58 innings before finally getting him to Double-A at the very end of August, and basically the end of the minor league season.

Because there’s so little time left, the promotion serves largely as a reward for good performance and hard work more so than any extensive look he’ll get at the higher level–it’s likely he’ll only get one more start.  Even so, in his first Double-A appearance on Monday, he looked pretty incredible out of the gate.  Indeed, through five shutout innings, Hansen had struck out 8.  Then he lost it, failing to record an out in the 6^th and walking in a run before being pulled.

And that’s fine—pitchers sometimes lose their control in the 6^th inning, and even mega aces like Chris Sale have games where they get shelled.  Granted, with Hansen instances of him losing it can be a bit scarier given his junior year at Oklahoma, but the more data piles up, the more that season is looking like an outlier.

As it stands, Hansen has thrown 136 innings this year, and has posted a K:BB of  182:51 with an ERA of 2.78 across three levels.  He’s positioned to start next season in Double-A, landed himself on our midseason Top 50 prospects list, and if all goes well, should earn a September call-up in 2018 and potentially challenge for the rotation as soon as 2019.

The White Sox look to have cannily scooped up a lot of value with this pick, based on patience, and confidence that their pitching development staff could get the most out of an immensely talented amateur. So far so good.

Lead Image Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

2. The loss to the Cubs Tuesday afternoon wasn’t the headlining news of the day, but it did bear significance for the White Sox rebuild. That significance was in a puzzling outing for Carlos Rodon. The problem for Rodon is the same problem he’s had since he joined the team — he can’t find the strike zone. Or perhaps more precisely, he has no command. He has been able to find the strike zone at times in his career, but his finding of the strike zone has been paired with hitters feasting on fastballs in the zone. Not ideal.

On Tuesday Rodon struggled to command, or even control, his pitches the same way he’s struggled to do so in each of his starts this season. That’s still a very limited sample size, but some concern is warranted. The good news is that Rodon managed to strike out 11 batters while pitching just four innings. He also walked three batters, allowed seven hits, and gave up four earned runs. His inability to tap into his incredible potential has been extremely frustrating for both the White Sox and their fans. Some patience is required, however. Rodon is coming off an arm injury that knocked him out for half the season. There’s bound to be some rust there. The strikeouts in Tuesday’s game are a good sign that he’s beginning to shake that off but, like always, the command has to come. The good news is that the White Sox aren’t trying to win anything as they witness Rodon’s growing pains, so for now he can struggle in the big leagues and find his way well before the next competitive White Sox roster arises.

3. Down on the farm, two of the top pitching prospects took the mound on Tuesday. Lucas Giolito had a fine night in Charlotte, going seven innings with no earned runs. He allowed four hits while walking three, but he struck out six. Jeff Long of the BP prospect team got a good look at him two weeks ago and remarked that, “This new Giolito is still very, very good. He’s just not a dominant stuff guy anymore, showing elite pitchability and getting outs by outsmarting hitters rather than overpowering them.” Alec Hansen, another darling of the BP prospect staff, also pitched Tuesday. He went six innings while giving up two earned runs on two hits. He did walk three batters, but he struck out seven. Hansen is relatively new to the level, so that’s certainly a good performance. There’s no rush, but the White Sox would surely like to see a college arm make his way past A-ball by 2018. He looks in line to do so.

4. Avisail Garcia’s first half of 2017 is well-documented. He got in shape, improved his plate discipline, and became an All-Star. With a little boost from a .371 BABIP, he posted a .310 average with an .850 OPS. His 125 wRC+ made it seem like he had become a legitimate weapon. In the past week he has gone 3-for-19 with four strikeouts and one walk. That’s a small sample size and certainly something he can crawl out of, but it does appear as though the BABIP dragon is beginning to breathe a little fire on Garcia. His BABIP in the second half (small sample!) is down to .333, which is a reasonable place for a player like Garcia if he continues to show some speed down the line and hit the ball hard. Maybe it’s the cynic in me expecting the bad Garcia to return, but the cracks in his dream season are already starting to show.

5. A player who is even more difficult to figure out than Garcia is Matt Davidson. Co-editor-in-chief Nick Schaefer wrote about the mystifying Davidson last month, and not much has changed. It is worth noting, however, that he’s striking out at a 39.0 percent rate while still managing to post an above average 103 wRC+. This is reminiscent of Todd Frazier’s 40 dinger season a year ago where he looked abysmal aside from the times the ball flew over the outfield wall. What is even more impressive than Frazier’s season is that Davidson is doing it not as a three true outcome player. He’s striking out far more than Frazier did and walking at just a 4.8 percent clip. Even the .255 ISO is good but not all that great. Hitting 19 home runs in fewer than 300 plate appearances, however, remains an impressive feat that has allowed him to find success. Where the team goes with him in the future is a decision to be made down the road when the major league roster starts to fill. For now, they can afford to play a mediocre to bad defensive player at third who strikes out almost half the time but still clobbers dingers.

Lead Photo Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

Among the specific topics:

-Why Reynaldo Lopez was omitted from the Top 50.

-The difficulty of slotting in the newly signed Luis Robert.

-Why they prospect team has always been so high on Alec Hansen.

-What’s the deal with Lucas Giolito?

-Why Yoan Moncada isn’t in the majors yet.

-Lower ranked White Sox prospects and what Craig thinks of them.

-Best names in the White Sox farm system.

Also be sure to check out the chat transcript from Jeffrey Paternostro, as he talked about the Top 50 list and more on Thursday. And Jarrett Seidler wrote up how the prospect team narrowed down its choices to ultimately land on Yoan Moncada as No. 1.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or our BlogTalkRadio page by searching for The Catbird Speaks.

Before the season, BP had four White Sox prospects in its Top 50 and six in the Top 101, which of course was helped by an offseason in which the White Sox traded away their two best players for a plethora of young talent. This updated version, with 51 fewer names, also has four in the Top 50, but not the same four as were there in the preseason.

Let’s look at where BP has these guys slotted as well as some of our own thoughts on the progress of these players. For the full list, which is absolutely worth your time, click here.

No. 1: Yoan Moncada

Moncada is BP’s top prospect in baseball, which isn’t a controversial pick as you’ll find his name at or near the top of literally any other publication’s list of top prospects. Moncada was No. 5 on the preseason list, but his four spot jump can be misleading. Of the four ranked ahead of him, two are no longer eligible for the list because of promotion (Dansby Swanson, Andrew Benintendi), one had Tommy John surgery shortly after the initial list was published (Alex Reyes), and one has flat out stunk this season (J.P. Crawford).

That isn’t selling Moncada short, of course. If you’re anywhere near the top of this list, it’s for good reason. And Moncada has performed at Triple-A this season about as well as one could have expected. As you’ll see in the write-up from BP’s prospect team, Moncada remains a five-tool talent with the only legitimate question coming about his hit tool. He’s still striking out a ton — 27.6 percent strikeout rate in Charlotte this season — while displaying otherwise phenomenal power and speed.

When the season began, many believed we’d see Moncada in Chicago relatively soon. That hasn’t happened, whether because of service time, the injury that cost him a few weeks and saw him slump badly upon his return, neither, or both, but it likely won’t be long before we see him get another shot at the big league level after a short, forgettable promotion with the Red Sox last fall.

No. 25: Michael Kopech

Kopech made a small jump from No. 36 in the preseason to No. 25 on the current iteration, and the White Sox were aggressive with him from the onset of the season as he’s spent the entire season at Double-A after spending most of last season in High-A with the Red Sox.

He’s pretty much been as advertised from when the White Sox acquired him over the winter, with an electric fastball that reaches triple digits on a regular basis, a plus slider, and all sorts of command issues. He’s had mixed results in Birmingham, striking out an absurd 101 in 78 1/3 innings, while also walking 53 batters.

Kopech’s progress over the next couple years will be as interesting as any of the guys on this list, given the thin margin for error there is for a guy with his repertoire between being a lights-out frontline starter and a hard throwing bullpen dude who struggles to find the strike zone. He won’t turn 22 until the first month of next season, so there’s plenty of time, and you know the White Sox are going to do everything in their power to make sure he ends up the former.

No. 31: Lucas Giolito

Giolito, along with Reynaldo Lopez (not on the Top 50 after being ranking No. 30 in the preseason) both fell from their preseason positions on BP’s list. Giolito was the No. 10 prospect in baseball according to BP just 3 1/2 months ago, but hasn’t done much to alleviate the concerns over his declining velocity.

We’re not very far removed from Giolito being considered by many to be the top pitching prospect in baseball, and there’s still plenty of hope. The White Sox have only been able to work with him for a few months now, and their reputation for both fixing and developing starting pitchers means there are worse places for Giolito to be, but his struggles thus far make it easy to see why he’s taken such a fall in the rankings.

No. 42: Alec Hansen

The biggest riser among White Sox on this list is Hansen, who was No. 97 on the preseason version. Hansen’s ceiling might not be all that high, but BP sees two plus pitches and mid-rotation upside, which is a hell of a projection when you consider just 13 months ago he was a second round pick who fell in the draft after a hellacious final season of college ball at Oklahoma.

Bonus: Luis Robert

Robert was left off the midseason list, but as noted within the article, it was mostly because the prospect team hasn’t yet gotten a look at the 19-year-old Cuban outfielder the White Sox inked to a $26 million deal less than a month ago. You’ll likely see him rank highly on most prospect lists going forward, but there’s a clear line between teams and evaluators who like Robert and those who don’t. Which side of the line BP’s prospect team falls is still to be determined.

Omission: Reynaldo Lopez

As mentioned above, Lopez was No. 30 on the preseason Top 101 and failed to make the Top 50 this time around. Whether or not a pitcher can last as a starter once reaching the big leagues is a question surrounding any pitching prospect, but the concerns seem much greater concerning Lopez than any of those who made the list, hence the omission. The White Sox obviously express publicly confidence that Lopez will remain a starter, and of the top pitchers in the system, he’s the one guy who seems closest to major league promotion at the moment, so we may find out if that’s truly the case sooner than later.

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

I had taken to Gonzalez last year when he placed another feather in the cap of Don Cooper and his reclamation projects. The Jeff Samardzija situation could be tossed away as Gonzalez went from “please, please be better than Mat Latos or John Danks” to reliable fourth or fifth man in the rotation after being claimed on waivers from the Baltimore Orioles. This season has been a bit of a struggle, but as I basked in the sun on Sunday afternoon, Gonzalez threw away all the disasters of past starts and treated me to a splendid pitching performance. For a few hours, Gonzalez reminded me, every White Sox fan in attendance, and those watching at home that, in baseball, an incredible feat can be accomplished any day by even the most ordinary of players. While the perfect game, no-hitter, and shutout were wiped away in comic fashion by three successive batters, the value and awe of Gonzalez’s effort were not lost.

2. Gonzalez wasn’t the only pitcher in the Chicago system to put together a great performance this past weekend. On Thursday, Lucas Giolito was pitching the first half of a doubleheader. That meant the game would only last seven innings. Giolito managed to pitch a technically complete game without giving up a single hit. It was a no-hitter with a big fat asterisk, but it was a no-hitter nonetheless. For a struggling Giolito, the confidence that comes from such a feat could be enough to get him back on track.

Alec Hansen had himself a fine start Sunday in low-A Kannapolis. The gargantuan righty, armed with a terrifying pitch face, mowed down hitters on his way to a seven inning outing where he gave up just five hits and a single run. Most impressively, he was able to strikeout 15 batters while walking none. The White Sox have been methodical with their assignments for Hansen, who dropped in the 2016 MLB Draft because of his lack of command and utter collapse in his final college season. There’s also no rush in moving a pitcher of Hansen’s ilk through the system. If he can slowly progress as a starter and clean up his delivery, the White Sox may have found a diamond in the rough. His raw stuff and athletic build instilled enough confidence in the BP Prospect team to rank him 97th among all prospects coming into the season, and Sunday’s performance was a strong indicator of why those evaluators thought so highly of him.

3. It hasn’t been a successful start to the season by any means for Todd Frazier. While a year ago his average similarly sat right around the Mendoza line, he was crushing dingers left and right. This year, he’s failed to raise his average and fallen way behind the home run pace he set for himself just a season ago. With just six home runs on the season in 41 games played, he’s on pace to barely crack the halfway mark to the 40 he hit last year.

One thing Frazier has excelled at is seeing a lot of pitches. He leads the league in pitches seen per plate appearance at 4.42, but unfortunately that doesn’t directly lead to success. While it’s been pounded into hitters’ heads that seeing more pitches is a good thing (and perhaps it is in the long run), it doesn’t appear to have a direct effect on the stat line of the hitter. In fact, I whipped together a little chart showing the correlation between TAv and pitches seen per plate appearance is essentially no correlation at all.

It may be a sign of better things to come that Frazier has been relatively patient at the plate, but the results simply aren’t coming. He did hit a screaming home run in Sunday’s game, but the White Sox severely need him to heat up in the coming months in order to gain some value in return when he’s inevitably traded at the deadline.  Hopefully the slow start can be chalked up more to his bout with the flu than any permanent deterioration in skill.

4. The White Sox pitching staff struck out 49 Tigers hitters throughout their weekend series that spanned three days and four games. With Tyler Danish, Mike Pelfrey, Derek Holland, and Gonzalez taking the mound in each of the four games, that’s a bit of a surprise. Pelfrey was able to find a way to mysteriously miss bats, and the bullpen took over and dominated in the first game. Danish showed good stuff, along with Holland and Gonzalez in their starts. Those combined with a strong weekend from those in the bullpen resulted in a lot of swings and misses from Tigers hitters.

5. Our good friend and former editor-in-chief James Fegan wrote brilliantly about Yolmer Sanchez’s effect on the White Sox clubhouse. While his humor and playfulness off the field has a significant effect on the players, especially on a young rebuilding team, it has been his presence on the field that has mattered the most. In 2015 when he acted as the White Sox everyday second baseman, he hit just .224/.268/.326 with a 61 wRC+. It has never quite clicked for Sanchez at the major league level. That is, until now.

Sanchez is in the midst of his best season to date. While there is a fear of regression on the horizon, he is still in good shape to surpass his career-best mark of 61 wRC+. Right now he’s hitting .306/.346/.430 with a 109 wRC+. It’s not the prettiest line in the world, but for a player that has oft struggled to reach even the Mendoza line while showing little to no pop in his bat it’s been quite a year. His month of May has been the most impressive of all with a 126 wRC+ in just shy of 100 plate appearances. He hasn’t had a season like either of the Garcias, Leury and Avisail, but his clubhouse presence combined with competence at the plate has made him a valuable asset to the 2017 Chicago White Sox.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports