White Sox select Peyton Pallette in second round of 2022 MLB draft
Back in 2015, the White Sox drafted Carson Fulmer eighth overall while his Vanderbilt rotationmate Walker Buehler lasted all the way until the Dodgers selected him at No. 24.
Fulmer held an edge through the 2016 season, not because Fulmer dominated the minors, but because Buehler had Tommy John surgery two months after he was drafted. The Dodgers were aware of some degree of arm troubles during the season, but they could only determine and declare a course for him once he had the full post-draft physical. They were able to draft him toward the end of the first round, and sign him for a little under slot.
Buehler only threw five innings through the 2016 season, but the next four standard seasons were better than the one that came before, culminating in a fourth-place finish in the National League Cy Young voting last year.
Pallette shares some characteristics with Buehler, but the White Sox will start with waiting out Tommy John surgery, as Pallette underwent the procedure in January. Prior to the injury, Pallette was expected to lead the staff for a talented Arkansas team, and if he’d made the strides expected of him, he had a decent shot at being selected in the first half of the first round. Instead, he fell to the White Sox at No. 62, which carries a slot value of $1,158,600.
What’s his game?
The Buehler comparisons are natural because he has the same frame — 6’1″, 180 pounds — and a similar fastball-curve attack with excellent spin rates on both. His fastball sat 93-95, and reports had him dabbling in the high-90s, but he hadn’t proven the in-game or in-season endurance to attach high-90s to his profile with enough confidence.
While they’re touting a comparable toolbox — and Pallette has shown more power at this stage in his career — teams had a better idea of how Buehler could deploy his arsenal over the course of a full championship season. Pallette threw only 61⅔ innings for the Razorbacks before the White Sox selected him, and both Eric Longenhagen and Keith Law referred to some mechanics the Sox might have to help him clean up once he’s ready to rehab.
Basically, whether building up his stamina or tweaking how his fastball leaves his hand, it sounds like there’s a little more work involved here, and this is why the 61st pick is appropriate with regards to where the main outlets had him ranked.
Where does he rank?
- ESPN: 37
- Baseball America: 38
- MLB Pipeline: 49
- Keith Law: 57
- FanGraphs: 69
What does he look like?
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I’m liking this pick as I had hoped they’d look at the injured pitchers and see if they could find value there. I wish his frame was a bit bigger but it doesn’t matter much if the stuff plays.
Are they hoping to sign him below slot because of the injury, such that they can go over slot for Schultz?
I don’t know enough about prospects to know if these are good or bad picks, but it doesn’t seem like either is likely to contribute in the not too distant future. I thought we were looking for high-ceiling bats that we could wait for or low-floor, well-developed pitchers that could fill out the high minors depth in short order. Maybe it was all just a smokescreen.
Lordy.
I like this pick a lot more then Schultz.
I have no idea why the sox who are doing a pretty poor job with their last 3 HS pitchers went with an even bigger project this year with what was on the board and with what the system needed.
Sox farm is vacant of upper level starting pitchers, and honestly not a lot of bullpen options either, really thought they would go college arm or prep bat in the 1st, not a hard to sign prep pitcher with a likely 4 or 5 year projection window, especially when they have a very small bonus pool.
I personally love the Shultz pick. Would rather go boom or bust at #26 than draft for need and end up with a bunch of organizational filler.
I think there were plenty of high upside options that would have fit organizationally much better.
Its not so much that I dont like Schultz, I know relatively little about him its really all the other extenuating factors:
Signability with a limited pool (even if he signs is it at the expense of a bunch of other picks)
Its that we have 3 very recent prep pitching prospects who are gaining no traction which worries me about the sox ability to develop this type of player
Its that the system is void of upper level pitching prospects.
I keep reading comments that the Sox are doing a poor job with their HS pitching picks and that they aren’t gaining traction, but it seems to me that Kelly and Thompson have looked pretty good this year, and Dahlquist (while not doing as well as the other two), is still showing improvement.
maybe im being harsh but the trifecta pack has like 5 era’s , injury woes, and none of them ever seem to throw more then 4 innings in a start… they havent bottomed out and still some projectable attributes but they seem a long long way away from contributing if they ever make it
Thompson’s in the high 4’s, but his strikeout numbers look decent and it seems like he pitches well in a lot of starts but just has one bad inning or gets hurt by the home run.
Kelley’s ERA is 3.64.
They all have FIPs in the 5s or higher. Thompson is the only one of the three with BB/9 under 5.
I’m not saying they’re setting the world on fire, but they’re both young for the levels they are at and all are doing far better than they did last year. Reading the comments this year makes it sound like they are total busts.
Glass half empty: what you said.
Glass half full: they are all about two years younger than their league average and are still finding ways to improve.
Pretty cool seeing Jermaine Dye up there to announce the pick too.