On the heels of his best game in about a month,
Aaron Cunningham is no longer in the White Sox system. Today,
Kenny Williams shipped him over to Arizona in exchange for infielder
Danny Richar.
Here's what the Baseball America Scouting Handbook says about Richar, the 24th-best prospect in the Diamondbacks system:
Richar looked like a utility player in his first few seasons in the organization, but he kept getting bigger, stronger and better. He was the Double-A Souther League's all-star second baseman last year and was added to the 40-man roster after the season, though his performance tailed off late in the year as he got tired. He started working on his swing with hitting coach Damon Mashore in high Class A, and he has developed a good approach at the plate. He has a much better swing now and has even shown a little power in the last couple of seasons. He has also settled in at second base after working at shortstop and third base earlier in his career and has become a solid defender. He has an average arm and above-average speed. While Richar has become a solid player, he's not dynamic. He's a good bet to get to the big leagues, but the question is how much he'll hit when he gets there. Other teams have asked about his in trade talks, so his best value to the Diamondbacks might be as a bargaining chip. He'll open the season in Triple-A.
I'm a little bit nervous about trading another outfield prospect to Arizona -- even though
Chris Young has made it a little bit easier by getting off to a slow start. At the same time, Cunningham is no Young. In fact, with the state of the current White Sox farm system, it's hard to tell how good Cunningham is. Baseball America ranked him No. 7 in the Sox system, but that could easily translate to a dozen spots lower in a system as stacked as Arizona's.
The Sox have a shortage of hitters overall, but unfortunately, Cunningham has shown himself to be a good-average, fair-power outfielder in a system that already has Ryan Sweeney and Brian Anderson in the queue. Sweeney
didn't hit as well at Winston-Salem as Cunningham hit this year, but Sweeney was three years younger and fast-tracked. Meanwhile,
Anderson walloped the ball at High-A ball and also succeeded at Charlotte before hitting the wall last year in the majors.
It's also reported that Cunningham doesn't have the defensive chops of the other two. One advantage Cunningham holds is speed -- he's 22-for-30 in the stolen base department. Then again, Anderson was 10-for-11 in 69 games himself back in 2004, so who the heck knows. It's somewhat a shock to see Cunningham moved, but it's hard to shed any tears knowing what has happened to every other homegrown hitter over the last several years.
Richar feels like an underwhelming return, because he's essentially filler in a system full of it. The hair of upside is what separates him from Andy Gonzalez, and to a lesser extent guys like Tomas Perez. There doesn't seem to be one thing he does particularly well. He does have an .827 OPS at Triple-A this year, but he's played half of his games in the hitter-friendly Tucson Electric Park.
However, I suppose it's hard to get more for a non-dominating hitter who hasn't experienced Double-A yet. In fact, considering nobody was blocking Cunningham in Birmingham, I wonder if Williams was shopping him all along. Any early struggles at Double-A would have crushed his trade value.