Chris Sale is the 25th of MLB.com’s 2011 Top 50 prospects

Merkin @ CWS:

That talent also earned the southpaw spot No. 25 on MLB.com’s list of Top 50 Prospects, officially released on Tuesday night. Sale was the lone White Sox prospect on the list, coming in just behind fellow 2010 draftee, Baltimore’s Manny Machado.

As the 13th selection overall in the 2010 First-Year Player Draft, Sale became the lone player to reach the Majors from that particular class. The idea arrived upon shortly after the pick was to use Sale as a big league reliever just months after he was anchoring the Florida Gulf Coast University rotation, although his future was as a starter. This potential promotion came with the assumption he could prove his mettle during Minor League stops at Class A Winston-Salem and Triple-A Charlotte, and Sale gave up six hits and struck out a combined 19 over 10 1/3 innings thrown for the Dash and Knights.

Video (click picture or link on the bottom of the picture):

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13095807&topic_id=16431558&c_id=cws (0:48)

Sale’s scouting report is inside.  BTW, Mayo is holding a live chat tomorrow at 1 pm CT.

Kevin Goldstein’s 2011 Top 11 White Sox prospects [UPDATE]

Goldstein @ BP:

Five-Star Prospects
1. Chris Sale, LHP
Four-Star Prospects
2. Eduardo Escobar, SS
3. Brent Morel, 3B
Three-Star Prospects
4. Dayan Viciedo, 1B/3B
5. Jared Mitchell, CF
6. Jacob Petricka, RHP
7. Greg Infante, RHP
8. Trayce Thompson, OF
Two-Star Prospects
9. Addison Reed, RHP
10. Thomas Royse, RHP
11. Andre Rienzo, RHP

9 more and Goldstein’s scouting report on Chris Sale at the link.

UPDATE: Goldstein discusses the White Sox Top 11/20 on Episode 25 of his podcast (mp3). The White Sox discussion is at the 72:30 mark and runs for about 12 minutes.

THT looks on spending by MLB clubs over the last decade

From the AL Central section of Matt Binder’s article on THT:

While the AL East graph showed some team-to-team consistency (save possibly the Rays), the AL Central graph shows a mess. The Twins have been an underdog, spending more than the league average only once, in 2010 . This is especially impressive considering they were almost contracted into oblivion. The AL Central is the lowest-spending division on average, with the White Sox being the only team to average above the major league average during the ten-year period.

John Sickels’ Jim Thome Career Profile

Sickels @ MLBall:

Jim Thome was drafted in the 13^th round by the Cleveland Indians in 1989, out of Illinois Central Junior College, where he played shortstop. He began his career in the Gulf Coast League, hitting a mere .237/.314/.296 in 55 games, 186 at-bats. He showed decent strike zone judgment but little power. He split time defensively between shortstop and third base, though scouts felt he would end up at third in the long run due to lack of range. There was little to distinguish him at his point from the mass of rookie-ball players: a junior college guy drafted in the 13^th round who couldn’t hit in rookie ball wouldn’t end up on many prospect lists. …