Keith Law is one of those guys in baseball who you either love or hate. Some view his opinions as sacred, while others simply laugh and move on. White Sox fans in particular should be familiar with his thoughts on the team on the South Side of town. In a farm system with quite literally dozens of potential regulars, he only seems to view Eloy Jimenez as a legitimate future star.
The articles he posts on ESPN always require ESPN Insider to read, so I found out about his rankings from our good friends From the 108 on Twitter.
Keith Law's farm system rankings (AL Central teams only)
Twins #4
Indians #11#WhiteSox #13
Tigers #18
Royals #21— Section 108 (@fromthe108) February 4, 2019
This is actually INSANE. Law’s reasoning for the low rankings is that the White Sox are too top heavy and lack legitimate depth in the system. For the sake of his argument, let’s ignore the top 100 prospects (which the White Sox have 6 of).
Luis Basabe is a 5-tool right fielder with an incredibly high ceiling. You might be familiar with him turning on a 102mph fastball by Hunter Greene for an absolute piss missile last year in the future’s game.
Then you still have Blake Rutherford, Luis Gonzalez, and Micker Adolfo, all 3 of which are coming off of career years. Going by last year’s rankings by MLB Pipeline (2019 edition comes out later this month), here are the 13-16 ranked Sox prospects.
Jake Burger- A guy who when healthy can absolutely rake. He’s a great bet to be the first baseman of the future.
Luis Gonzalez, who was mentioned above.
Gavin Sheets- another potential 1B/DH with the most power in the farm if you don’t include Eloy.
Ian Hamilton- a future bullpen piece who saw some time with the White Sox last year. He throws a mid-to-upper 90’s fastball with sink and uses an effective slider as well.
Speaking of relief pitchers, Zack Burdi, who throws 100+ mph, is ranked 17th and should spend the majority of 2019 in Chicago. Tyler Johnson, ranked 23nd, has filthy stuff as well and can absolutely make a huge impact in the near future as evidenced by his career 1.40 ERA in the minors.
So for Law to say that the White Sox lack depth in the system is just wrong. And 6 top prospects including No. 3 overall doesn’t get you the 13th ranked farm. This is just Keith Law once again showing his dislike of the White Sox organization. There’s a reason he was once a special assistant to the GM and now, well, isn’t.
