FutureSox looks at the White Sox infield prospects

The IF prospects were Eduardo Escobar, Brent Morel, Dayan Viciedo, Andy Wilkins, Jon Gilmore, and Tyler Saladino:

Wilkins is a definite sleeper candidate this year. Any early draft pick hitter coming from an advanced college program (Arkansas) that has a strong rookie debut is expected to continue that success. Wilkins showed power, plate discipline and contact. As a corner infielder, he sits behind Morel, Viciedo, Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko. Sounds like a possible trade piece to me.

FutureSox’ White Sox Top 25 post-season prospects list [UPDATE]

FutureSox:

1. Chris Sale
2. Dayan Viciedo
3. Brent Morel
4. Jared Mitchell
5. Tyler Flowers
6. Trayce Thompson
7. Eduardo Escobar
8. Jacob Petricka
9. Jordan Danks
10. Addison Reed
…

UPDATE: Jim covers the White Sox Top 10 prospect list by Phil Rogers for Baseball America.

Manny Ramirez claim official; too late for tonight’s White Sox lineup

Bob Nightengale tweets that Manny Ramirez is on his way to Cleveland and should be in the White Sox lineup tonight.

Earlier Nightengale tweeted that the Dodgers haven’t decided if they want a prospect from the White Sox for Manny, meaning it’ll be a straight waiver claim. Before that Nightengale tweeted that the Dodgers are trying to decide whether to take 22-year old Winston-Salem 3B Jon Gilmore, who’s hitting .318/.354/.404, and pick up some of Manny’s salary or take only the salary relief.

UPDATE #1: And the move is done tweets Nightengale. Peter Gammons tweets that the White Sox decided to pick up all of Manny’s remaining salary ($3.8 million) and not give any prospects. Nightengale tweets that the Dodgers rejected the White Sox offer and chose salary relief.

Nightengale, also, tweets that Manny waited for the deal to be finalized before leaving for Cleveland, and won’t be in time for tonight’s game. He’s scheduled to play in the Tuesday night game.

UPDATE #2: Here’s the press release.

And here are a few more Manny to the White Sox links: BB Musings, HardballTalk, Fangraphs.

Baseball America on Jon Gilmore

From the ‘Not So Hot Sheet’ section of today’s ‘Prospect Hot Sheet’:

Jon Gilmore, 3b, White Sox: Perhaps Gilmore has run out of steam. He’s hitting just .224/.250/.241 in August and hasn’t homered since June 25. His struggles worsened last week, when he was just 2-for-23 and both were singles. More nettlesome, the big picture for Gilmore, 21, isn’t adding up. He’s hit .321 this season, but it’s fairly empty with a 27/72 walk/strikeout ratio and just 28 extra-base hits. His .355 OBP and .402 slugging marks are greatly enhanced at home (.357/.391/.446 vs. .286/.318/.359), and he’s committed 35 errors while also grounding into 18 double plays. He’s a .321 hitter, but the rest of the numbers don’t scream “prospect.”

Gilmore’s stats and splits.

FutureSox’ Midseason Top 25 Prospects

Cassidy:

Rank	Player	Points	Previous	Change
1	Dan Hudson	179	1	unch
2	Dayan Viciedo	172	4	+2
3	Chris Sale	168	n/a	NEW
4	Tyler Flowers	161	2	-2
5	Jared Mitchell	156	5	unch

…

I’d rank them in this order: Hudson, Sale, Flowers, Mitchell, Viciedo.

SoxMachine’s midseason prospect progress report

Jim @ SM:

Jose Martinez

.333/.392/.486 in 72 ABs; 2 2B, 3 HR, 7 BB, 10 K.

It feels like he’s pushing 30, but Martinez will turn only 22 later this month.  He’s been out of baseball for two full years, but the Sox aren’t shying away from testing him.  He played just 39 games at Kannapolis before his knee injury, but he’s succeeding in Winston-Salem.

That could be a factor of the apparently friendly hitting environment at BB&T Ballpark, but if Martinez can finish the year healthy and hitting like this, the Sox have a genuine outfield prospect in the fold.

Martinez’ stats @ FI.

More prospects reports at the link.

Happy Gilmore

Collins @ W-S Journal:

As a 21-year-old playing baseball for a living, third baseman Jon Gilmore of the Winston-Salem Dash has more reasons than most for looking forward to work every day. But the biggest reason that Gilmore can’t wait to get to BB&T Ballpark is not so much what he does, as how well he has been doing it. Baseball is a blast when you’re hitting .397, Gilmore’s average going into last night’s home game against the Frederick Keys. He was coming off a four-hit game against the Keys that ran his hitting streak to 14 games and propelled him to third in the Carolina League in batting average behind Eric Hosmer of the Wilmington Blue Rocks (.435) and Oscar Tejada of the Salem Red Sox (.403). “It’s nice when you come to the ballpark and you think you’ve got a good chance of getting a couple of hits,” Gilmore said.

… Gilmore also has benefitted from his relationship with Ben Zobrist of the Tampa Bay Rays, who is married to Gilmore’s sister Julianna. Zobrist played every position but pitcher and catcher last season with the Rays and hit .297 with 27 homers and 91 RBIs.”He’s been a huge help, really,” Gilmore said. “He can help me with my approach. I got to hit with him a few times in the offseason, and I take every piece of advice I can get from him.”

the .484 BABIP holds me back…

FutureSox Minor-League podcast

Mazzuca:

This month, Anthony Mazzuca talks to Alex Vispoli, Winston-Salem Dash Director of Media Relations and Broadcaster, and Josh Ellis, who holds the same positions with the Kannapolis Intimidators. Dan Santaromita also gives a run down of the recent happenings with the Knights and Barons, as the FutureSox.com Podcast has the White Sox minor league system covered.

Jon Gilmore is hitting .366/.391/.463/.854!

Jon Gilmore is hitting .366/.391/.463/.854. Is this a break out? FutureSox takes a look.

FutureSox’ Top 25 White Sox prospects

FutureSox:

Rank	Player	Points	Previous	Change
1	Dan Hudson	208	2	1
2	Tyler Flowers	203	1	-1
3	Jordan Danks	194	4	1
4	Dayan Viciedo	186	3	-1
5	Jared Mitchell	184	6	1
6	Brent Morel	178	7	1

…

FutureSox reviews Sox corner infield prospects

Here’s what they have to say on Dayan Viciedo:

What needs to improve: A little bit of everything. So far in his professional career, Viciedo has been unable to hit the breaking ball with any sense of consistency, leading to frequent strike outs. His defense was also put into serious question, after committing 30 errors at the hot corner in 284 chances.

Jon Gilmore scouting report

FutureSox:

He supposedly has power to all fields, but only has 10 home runs in over 1000 professional at-bats. His strikeout rate isn’t a major concern, but like many raw hitters, he doesn’t draw enough walks. …

Here’s the ‘Scouting the sally’ scouting report on Jon Gilmore from last week.

Jon Gilmore scouting report

scouting the sally:

A former supplemental first round pick of the Atlanta Braves, Gilmore was a piece of the deal which brought Javier Vazquez to Atlanta. In 2009, he posted a .274/.322/.361 line as a 20-year old for Kannapolis. Pedestrian as those numbers may be, his .355/.410/.491 August and even more impressive September will earn him some looks as a sleeper entering 2010. Last season I pegged him in a “sleeper potential” piece and have my doubts after watching him play. …

FutureSox’s Midseason Top 25 Sox Prospects

Here’s FutureSox’s Midseason Top 25 Sox Prospects list. I’d put Viciedo lower and, of course, my guy Jack Egbert higher.

FutureSox interviews Kevin Goldstein

On Flowers defense:

KG: I think the catching future is still debatable, he’s just so huge a sluggish back there. That said, there has been some progress — they’ve shortened his release a bit, and the results are encouraging.

Nice interview. His reports on Viciedo are disappointing. No plate discipline at all. Goldstein also talks about Dexter Carter, John Shelby, Jon Gilmore, Jared Mitchell, Trayce Thompson, Josh Phegley, Brandon Allen, Tony Pena, and Jordan Danks. He even talks about Roy Halladay.