Prospects on the rise for ChiSox
As an organization, the White Sox Minor League clubs combined to finish just over .500 (352-347), good for 12th best out of 30 Major League teams. But the 2005 season saw several notable performances within the system, from both teams and individuals.
Kannapolis won the second-half South Division title in the South Atlantic League and then went on to win five of six postseason games to capture the franchise's first championship. And while Birmingham's offense faltered in a first-round playoff sweep at the hands of eventual champ Jacksonville, the Barons were 25 games over .500 for the season, thanks to a prospect-packed lineup that included Josh Fields, Jerry Owens, Casey Rogowski, Ryan Sweeney and Chris Young, who was one of just four players in Minor League Baseball's 25-25 club, as he hit 26 home runs and stole 32 bases. Topping that was Winston-Salem's Leo Daigle, who won the Carolina League Triple Crown by hitting .341 with 29 homers and 112 RBIs.
Meanwhile, on the mound, Bobby Jenks and Brandon McCarthy both made successful jumps to the Major League club, while youngsters Giovany Gonzalez, Ray Liotta and Lance Broadway all had seasons to stir up excitement about the Sox's future rotation.
| 2005 Organizational Record | ||||||
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LEVEL AAA AA A (Adv) A R R |
LEAGUE INT SOU CAR SAL APP PIO |
TEAM Charlotte Birmingham Winston-Salem *Kannapolis Bristol Great Falls TOTAL: |
W 57 82 77 74 30 32 352 |
L 87 57 64 59 36 44 347 |
PCT .396 .590 .546 .556 .455 .421 .504 |
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| * Won the South Atlantic League Championship | ||||||
| 2005 Organizational Leaders | ||||||
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Average Home Runs RBIs Stolen Bases ERA Wins Strikeouts Saves |
.332 31 120 52 2.02 14 163 22 |
Noah Hall Leo Daigle Leo Daigle Robert Valido Ray Liotta Four tied at 14 Gio Gonzalez Matthew Zaleski |
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Complete MiLB statistics | |
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At the start of the season, MLB.com identified five prospects to keep an eye on. Here's how they fared in 2005:
Brandon McCarthy, RHP
Maybe it was all the shuttling between Charlotte and Chicago, but the White Sox's top pitching prospect struggled early on in his foray at the Triple-A level, going 3-7 with a 5.56 ERA in his first 12 games. His performance with the parent club mirrored his time in the International League, as the 6-foot-7 right-hander struggled in separate stints with the Sox in May, June and July. But he returned to Charlotte and turned his season around in July and August, going 4-0 with a 1.87 ERA over eight starts, resulting in another call-up. McCarthy went 2-1 with a 1.69 ERA with Chicago, earning a regular role in the rotation and even consideration for a postseason roster spot.
Brandon induces a DP for the Knights
Brian Anderson, OF
Anderson didn't have an All-Star season, but he didn't disappoint either and put up solid numbers each month at Triple-A Charlotte before making his Major League debut in August. Of significance was the fact that he played the entire season injury free after being sidelined off and on since his college days at Arizona. The Sox's 2003 first-round pick hit .295 with 16 homers, 57 RBIs, a .469 slugging percentage and a .360 on-base percentage -- not bad for having played just 130 Minor League games prior to this season. When Scott Podsednik went down with an injured groin in August, it was Anderson who got the call, not former prospect extraordinaire Joe Borchard.
Brian talks about making it to the Majors
Brian laces a double for Charlotte
Ryan Sweeney, OF
Just 20 years old, Sweeney spent the entire season at Double-A Birmingham in the Southern League, where he hit .298 in 113 games. Possessing a 6-foot-4 frame and a sweet left-handed swing, the former second-round pick is expected to add some pop to his game as he matures, but 2005 was a step back in the power department. After hitting seven homers in 134 games for Winston-Salem in 2004, Sweeney managed just one roundtripper and a .371 slugging percentage for the Barons. His walks-to-strikeout ratio was good as usual (35-to-53) and defensively, he was fifth in the league with 12 outfield assists, compared to just three errors.
Sean Tracey, RHP
The good news for the White Sox is that Tracey tied for the Southern League lead in wins (14) and was second in innings pitched (163 2/3). The bad, but not surprising news is that he once again was among league leaders in walks (76), hit batsmen (14) and wild pitches (12). The UC Irvine product finished 14-6 with a 4.07 ERA and 106 strikeouts. The 6-foot-3 right-hander did appear to make some strides with his control, as he walked four or more batters four times in his first seven games and only three times in his final 21 outings.
Sean talks to Around the Minors
Josh Fields, 3B
After being drafted 18th overall in 2004, Fields jumped straight from Oklahoma State to the Class A Advanced Carolina League, where he hit .285 with seven homers and 39 RBIs in 66 games. In 2005, he spent his first full season of pro ball in the Southern League and held his own there, too. While his average dropped to .252 -- thanks in large part to a forgettable May, in which he hit just .146 -- he popped 16 longballs and drove in 79 runs while hitting in the same lineup as fellow prospects Chris Young, Ryan Sweeney and Jerry Owens. Fields was named the Southern League Offensive Player of the Week at the beginning of July, when he hit an even .500, doubled in five straight games and launched his first career grand slam.
Cinderella Story
Casey Rogowski, 1B
Drafted in the 13th round in 1999 after a storied high school career that included an upper-deck shot at Tigers Stadium during his junior season, Rogowski put up unspectacular numbers through his first five seasons before breaking out in 2004 at Winston-Salem. The big left-handed first baseman followed up with an All-Star year at Double-A Birmingham in '05, finishing third in the Southern League in hits (148), second in doubles (37) and fourth in RBIs (78) and extra-base hits (52). His power numbers dropped off from last year's career-best 18 homers and .471 SLG to nine and .449, but he also stole a career-high 20 bases -- impressive for a 6-foot-3, 230-pounder. Rogowski continued to show good plate discipline, although his 58 walks were a far cry from his 91 the previous year, and he also broke the century mark in strikeouts for the first time, with 111. He's been around for a while, but he's still only 24 years old.
Casey goes deep in the Southern League All-Star Game
Breakout year
Bobby Jenks, RHP
The Angels used Jenks almost exclusively as a starter over his five injury-riddled years in their system before finally giving up on him last winter. The White Sox picked him up, dropped him in Birmingham's bullpen and then sat back and watched his 100-mph fastball and nasty curveball quickly transform him into a Major League reliever. The 6-foot-3, 270-pound right-hander was leading the league in saves with 19 when he got the call up on July 4, jumping straight from Double-A into the American League pennant race and shortly thereafter into the Sox's closer role. With the exception of the saves, Jenks' numbers were nearly identical at both levels: 1-2 with a 2.85 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 41 innings for Birmingham; 1-1 with a 2.75 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings for Chicago.
Chris Young, OF
Along with Delmon Young, Reggie Abercrombie and Matt Miller, Chris Young was one of just four Minor Leaguers to amass at least 25 homers and 25 stolen bases in 2005, corking 26 longballs and swiping 32 bases. And while he put up similar numbers in Kannapolis in '04 (24 HR, 31 SB), this year he did it in the Southern League, leading the circuit in home runs, doubles (41), runs scored (100) and extra-base hits (70). And he just got better and better as the season progressed, culminating with a .320 average in August and September, during which he hit nine homers, drove in 24 runs and stole 15 bases in 37 games. All that and he didn't even turn 22 until the last day of the season. Young was the key ingredient in the Sox's package that landed right-hander Javier Vazquez from Arizona in December and should be the D'backs' starting centerfielder by 2007.
Jerry Owens, OF
The Sox seem to have gotten a steal in February when they received Owens from the Washington Nationals for 27-year-old journeyman Alex Escobar. Owens was considered one of the top prep wide receivers in the country when catching passes from current Baltimore Ravens quarterback Kyle Boller at Hart High School in Newhall, Calif. The 6-foot-3 speedster spent two years on the football team at UCLA before transferring to Masters College (Calif.), where in just his second year playing baseball since his sophomore year of high school he set the school's single-season record by hitting .451 in 2003. The raw talent had his first eye-opening season this year, leading the Southern League in hitting (.331) and hits (173) while finishing second in runs (99) and third in stolen bases (38).
Ray Liotta, LHP
Okay, so Liotta actually broke out at Great Falls last year, when he went 5-1 with a 2.54 ERA in 14 games after being taken in the second round out of Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla. But he just kept on breakin' in 2005, first going 8-2 with a 2.26 ERA at Kannapolis in the Sally League, then jumping up to Winston-Salem for the final month and going 6-2 with a 1.45 ERA. So his numbers after his first two professional seasons look like this: 19-6, 2.16 ERA, 79 walks and 209 strikeouts in 228 2/3 innings.
2005 draft recap
1. Lance Broadway, RHP
The big Texan hit the wall in his final two outings for Class A Winston-Salem, making his final numbers of 1-1 with a 4.58 ERA a bit misleading. Broadway had already tossed 117 innings in compiling a nation-best 15 wins for TCU before joining the Warthogs, and he threw 47 2/3 effective frames in the Carolina League before getting hammered for 13 runs on 17 hits in his last 7 1/3 innings. Excluding those final two starts, Broadway was 1-1 with a 2.83 ERA and a .255 batting average against. Overall, he struck out 58 hitters in 55 innings.
2. Ricky Brooks, RHP
Another guy who had thrown a full college season before beginning his pro career, Brooks was started at a slower pace than Broadway, first being shipped to Bristol in the Rookie Appalachian League, then on to Low-A Kannapolis, where he struggled. The 6-foot-3 right-hander was 5-5 with a 3.46 ERA in his sophomore season at Eastern Carolina, where he tossed the first no-hitter in Conference USA history less than one month after losing a no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth. The 21-year-old posted a 2.89 ERA and struck out 25 batters in 18 2/3 innings with Bristol before stumbling to a 1-2 record with a 9.13 ERA in the Sally League.
3. Chris Getz, 2B
The only position player Chicago selected in the first five rounds, the former Michigan Wolverine hit in six straight games for Great Falls in the Pioneer League before spending the rest of the season at Kannapolis. Getz showed no signs of slowing down there, hitting .304 with a home run, 28 RBIs and 11 stolen bases in 55 games for the Intimidators. He also returned to his high school position of shortstop, playing 19 games there after being used almost exclusively at second base during college.
Chris plates the winning run in a 21-inning playoff game
4. Ryan Rote, RHP
After thrice being a late-round draft pick, the grandson of Hall of Fame quarterback Tobin Rote was ultimately taken by the Sox in the fifth round after his senior season with Vanderbilt. The 6-foot-4 right-handed closer began his pro career at Great Falls, where he was 3-3 with two saves, a 3.52 ERA, .232 average against and 19 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings. He then went to Kannapolis, where the 23-year-old was either unhittable or entirely ineffective, with nothing in between. In five of his nine outings in the Sally League, Rote tossed a combined 4 2/3 shutout innings, striking out seven of the 16 batters he faced and allowing just one hit and no walks. But in the other four appearances, the big right-hander was shelled for 16 runs on 11 hits and six walks in just 3 1/3 innings. The stats broke down almost precisely with his home-road splits: at home, he allowed no runs on one hit in four innings (.071) while on the road he gave up 16 runs on 11 hits in four innings (.458), with a 29.25 ERA.
5. Aaron Cunningham, OF
Cunningham showed great consistency for a 19-year-old hitter, batting .315 for Bristol in 56 games and keeping his average above the .300 mark for all but seven games during that span. The Washington native also showed good pop for his 5-foot-11, 195-pound frame, hitting five homers, 10 doubles and two triples in 222 at-bats. The step up to Kannapolis posed a problem, however, as he managed just three singles and three walks in 29 trips to the plate, striking out seven times.
2004 draft recap
How the top three from 2004 fared in their first full season of pro ball.
1. Josh Fields, 3B
Oklahoma State's all-time leader in touchdown passes went deep 16 times for the Birmingham Barons in his second pro season, but he also struck out 142 times -- second-most in the Southern League. His numbers would have looked a lot better if it weren't for a crushing month of May, in which he was 15-for-103 (.146) with 36 strikeouts. To his credit, he rebounded to hit .274 the rest of the way.
2. Giovany Gonzalez, LHP
Gio was one of the most impressive young pitchers in the Minors in 2005. At just 19, he breezed through the South Atlantic League, where he held hitters to a .175 average while striking out 84 in just 57 2/3 innings and posting a 1.87 ERA. Then, despite being one of the youngest hurlers in the Carolina League, Gonzalez went 8-3 with a 3.56 ERA. His strikeout ratio dipped a bit, as he fanned 79 in 73 1/3 innings, but he still held hitters to a .228 average. Curiously, Carolina League lefties hit the southpaw much harder than right-handers did, to the tune of .298 to .190. He ended up being the player to be named later in the Jim Thome-Aaron Rowand deal and will likely start the '06 season at Double-A Reading for the Phillies.
3. Tyler Lumsden, LHP
Lumsden turned down a $420,000 offer in 2001 after being drafted in the fifth round by the Marlins out of Cave Springs High School in Roanoke, Va., where he also played basketball with Duke All-American J.J. Redick. After his junior season at Clemson, the 6-foot-4 lefty was taken third by the White Sox and threw primarily out of the bullpen at Winston-Salem in order to rest his arm. To no avail though, as Lumsden missed the entire 2005 season after having surgery remove bone spurs from his pitching elbow.