MLB.com and Baseball America both issued revised rankings of individual farm systems and top 100 prospects on Monday, and both paint a rather muted picture of the White Sox's placement in the next batch of farm system rankings next year.
The MLB Pipeline list runs 30 deep, but a mere look at the top 10 shows the transitional year that lies ahead:
- Braden Montgomery
- Noah Schultz
- Colson Montgomery
- Billy Carlson
- Caleb Bonemer
- Hagen Smith
- Jaden Fauske
- Tanner McDougal
- Christian Oppor
- Kyle Lodise
That's especially the case when you pair it with BA's new top 100. It features five White Sox prospects, which isn't a bad number on its face, but it loses a little luster when seeing who and where they are:
- Noah Schultz (29)
- Kyle Teel (35)
- Caleb Bonemer (74)
- Billy Carlson (78)
- Braden Montgomery (82)
Teel has already graduated from some prospect lists, so when he matriculates out of BA's eligibility, that leaves four. Of those four, two of them are in A-ball or lower, while the other two have lost a little bit of standing from previous rankings. Schultz started the season as a top-10 prospect, while Montgomery has fallen 30 spots from his previous ranking due to his muted showing at Double-A. And then there's the matter of Hagen Smith, who has tumbled out of the top 100 entirely.
What's left is not a bad list, per se, but it lacks the certainty or consensus of a top-10 system, and probably even a top-half system.
Here's where Colson Montgomery provides both some silver lining and a counterpoint. He'd fallen off top-100 lists -- and even off of some White Sox top-10 lists -- based on his atrocious showing at the start of the season, and now he's on the verge of shedding his prospect eligibility before his powerful first month in the majors could merit proper consideration in this regard. This is the danger of the in-season revision, as it seems like volatility should be baked into the original ranking, and then you spend the next several months seeing how it resolves itself.
DSL White Sox 13, DSL Arizona Black 3 (Completion of July 18 game, 7 innings)
- Frank Mieses homered, singled, got plunked and struck out.
- Jose Mendoza went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Alejandro Cruz was 1-for-2 with a homer, walk, HBP and stolen base.
DSL White Sox 2, DSL Arizona Black 0 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Frank Mieses went 1-for-3.
- Jose Mendoza, 0-for-3.
- Alejandro Cruz was 1-for-2 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Eduardo Herrera went 0-for-3 with a strikeout
- Yordani Soto was 0-for-2 with a walk and a steal.
