The White Sox have agreed to terms with first-round draft pick Jake Burger, according to MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). Burger, the 11th overall selection, will reportedly take home a $3.7MM bonus. With a slot value of $4,199,200 available at that pick, Chicago will save a bit of cash to put towards other players.
Burger played his college ball at Missouri State, excelling there as a power-hitting third baseman. Scouts note that he succeeds despite lacking smooth baseball actions. Indeed, one who spoke with the MLB.com prospect team “compared him to Hunter Pence for his ability to get the job done in less than pretty fashion.”
MLB.com ranked Burger 16th overall among draft prospects, while Baseball America slotted him at 20th and ESPN.com’s Keith Law had him at 21st and Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen placed him 24th on his board. All agree that Burger has significant power potential and a solid overall profile at the plate, though those that are less bullish see a lower likelihood that he’ll be able to handle the hot corner at the major league level.
The right-handed hitting version of Kyle Schwarber. As such, his ceiling will be that of Lou Gehrig rather than Babe Ruth. lol
God I hope he doesn’t resemble Schwarber in any way shape or form
better body than Schwarber
Chitown 311 learn the game Kyle will still be a legend in north Chi town
Gehrig hit LH
Yeah, brain cramp. I’ll put Burger’s ceiling at Evan Longoria who is also a 3B of similar size and weight. Former Cub HOF 3B and White Sox bust Ron Santo might also be a comp with his body despite being shorter and less weight than Burger.
Thanks for your insight
You meant the insult
IMO one of the most underrated picks in the first round. Sox are steadily piling up a very deep system
Lol
LOL
Yes
Solid pick at #11 overall considering what was on the board, especially at a cost savings of $500K.
Agreed. Draft played out pretty much exactly how I didn’t want it to, but it was a solid pick all things considered.
Yes, especially considering the White Sox were prioritizing advanced college bats to supplement a speedier rebuild which pretty much eliminated high school prospects and the college arms that they have had their most recent success with.
A key formula for the White Sox reaching the postseason since they opened their newer ballpark has been solid pitching paired with 200+ HR’s in a season. Burger was considered the best right-handed power bat in this draft class. The White Sox chose another college hitter with their second round pick, Wake Forest’s 1B Gavin Sheets who was considered one of the premier left-handed power bats in the 2017 draft. This follows the White Sox #1 overall pick from the 2016 June draft, left-handed power hitting catcher Zack Collins.
Adding in recently signed top international FA Luis Robert in CF and trade acquisition Yoan Moncada at 2B now gives the White Sox some hitting prospects with well above average power tools at each of those positions. Coupling that with their cache of power arm pitching prospects, the future bodes well for the White Sox on the South Side of Chicago.
Terrible overdraft.
Better prospects were available.
Extra $ to sign Skoug? Who cares. Kid can’t catch.
Hardly a terrible overdraft for one of if not the best college bats in the draft. As far as Skoug a 7th round pick for a kid that was a possible day one talent I disagree. Time will tell
Terrible overdraft? in what way? Top power bat in the draft, no.1 3B in the draft, and what many considered a top 3 college hitter in the draft with 500K savings. nothing about that says overdraft at pick 11
16th-26th ranked prospect with serious questions about his ability to stick at 3B, a hitch and a hook in his swing, and a lack of bat speed all say overdraft at #11.
Same ?’s, which are now being proven legitimate, as Collins at #10 last year.
Rutherford and Whitley were available then, Bukauskas, Faedo and Baz could’ve been had this year.
Overdraft.
We have loads of pitchers we needed bats he was the best one.simple as that
not sure where you’re getting the lack of bat speed from. The only place that’s even been mentioned is in relation to how he generates his power from his pure strength rather than bat speed.
People question his ability to stick at 3B because he’s unorthodox, not due to skill set as his arm was graded anywhere from a 50-60 through the draft process and fielding in general around a 50.that actually compares quite well to former sox 3B, Joe Crede, as a prospect.
Comparing him to an OFer who isn’t exactly tearing up A ball in Rutherford doesn’t make much sense and neither does Whitley who was supposedly advanced for a HSer who also hasn’t lit up A ball like he was supposed to and if a.nything both have been average prospects
Seeing as none of Burger, Bukauskas, Faedo, or Baz have even played one game of pro ball not sure why you would even make that comparison.
Collins defense much improved and reaching base at a .380 clip. Hardly a lost cause. Bukauskas, Faedo and Baz all have their own questions as well.
Yes, Zack Collins has nailed 40% of would be base stealers at A+ Winston-Salem, a superior rate to what White Sox catchers have been doing at the MLB level in 2017. Their 25-year old backstop Omar Narvaez has improved from a paltry 8% CS rate in 2016 to 31% this season but rookie Kevan Smith has an abysmal 6% metric since being recalled to the big league roster on May 10th to take veteran Geovany Soto’s spot and replace his poor 11% number.
teams 8 months into a rebuild need to go for the best available talent, regardless of position.
Simple as that.
Caught stealing rate in A ball?
Oh, brother.
Collins caught stealing rate is improved. Not his D. Walk rate (and associated OBP) from a 22 yo in A ball is not a predictive stat for future success.
Bukauskas, Faedo and Baz have fewer ?’s than Burger. That’s why they were more highly rated prospects.
None of this is based on fact. Can’t write a novel picking it all apart. So:
Bat speed= scouting report.
Fielding= repeatedly falling down during routine cape cod fielding drill.
Comparing Collins to Rutherford and Whitley= More highly rated draft prospects. (and they are 2-3 years younger than Collins and far outperforming him)
Making same comparison for Burger to Bukauskas, et al., because they were also more highly rated prospects.
Bukauskas is a pitcher with a decent slider we already have a few of those we don’t have a good 3rd baseman in the system so burger gains priority
Yeah because high school right handers are easily predictable that’s why so many have been selected #1 overall so many times. Bukauskas is a bullpen risk anywhere you look. As far as Collins approach and results to date hi A ball is where he’s at so yeah it all matters. How does it not genius? Please enlighten
Bungalows- You don’t use your top pick to address need. You never say “well we have that position covered.” You use it on the best available prospect. That’s draft 101.
Saleaway- Pitching isn’t good at A+. So a 22 yo college kid being able to recognize balls out of the zone and getting a lot of walks does not translate up the ladder the way his difficulty doing damage with balls in the zone does.
His 28% K rate and .220 BA are more predictive of what will happen as the level of competition increases.
A simple google search can yield a lot of info. “What do Minor League BB and K rate tell us about Prospects: an update” SB Nation- 6/7/’13 would be a good starter.
“Success rate for Advanced A League Prospects based on BB and K rates” 11/27/’13 SB Nation breaks down A+, BB, K and age.
Your right in that your supposed to take the best player available except for when your the white sox and have an insane amount of pitching depth and zero position players excluding moncada, then you take the best position player who was Jake burger or maybe Evan white but burger played third and had more power which is what we NEED in our current state
No except. Always.
I’ll bet you’re one of the people who made fun of the Cubs for continuing to add SS prospects.
Castro, Alcantara, Russell, Baez. They acquired the best available prospect regardless of position. When you have the best talent, things work themselves out.
You can NEVER have enough pitching. It’s the hottest commodity in MLB.
Clearly you don’t truly know how much pitching the sox actually have.
If you’re ranking his playability in both leagues, then his ranking between 16th – 26th makes sense. However if you adjust his ranking by AL only, I think he slides up 4 or 5 notches because he can DH and become more valuable to an AL team.
Considering that the many of the pics between 10 and 20 were high school prospects, I’d say the Sox didn’t reach in picking Burger 11th because a high school player would make it to the show by the time their window starts closing.
Yes. The White Sox also signed the #1 international FA in Cuban CF Luis Robert a few weeks ago who instantly became their #3 overall prospect and is rated #25 on mlb.com’s top-100 list. As a 19-year old he falls into a similar age bracket of the players who were available in the just completed June Rule 4 Draft. Of course, playing for Cuba’s top national team gave him competition far greater than any high school player and at least as good as any Division I college talent.
Robert would have easily been a top-3 pick in this year’s amateur draft, if not #1. He also gives them another advanced positional prospect to pair with Yoan Moncada, as well as all the college players they have drafted and developed in recent seasons, especially pitchers.
The White Sox were also able to parlay 2 quality young veterans on team friendly contracts, Chris Sale and Adam Eaton, into 7 more regarded prospects last December. They also have a couple more similar assets left in Jose Quintana and Jose Abreu to also potentially deal. This is not typical of most MLB teams that go forward with a full on rebuild who would typically elect to build around such talent. Of course, the White Sox had already spent a few years going the route of retooling and reloading that resulted in zero postseason appearance which prompted GM Rick Hahn to convince Jerry Reinsdorf and Kenny Williams to go with the more drastic direction of a rebuild.
As a result of their recent drafts and trades, the White Sox can accelerate their goal of becoming perennial contenders much fast than normally is the case. Because of the Robert signing and the fact that they didn’t have their first pick until #11 in the just concluded domestic amateur draft, the White Sox had the “luxury” of targeting a specific need with their first selection and went with the top-rated power hitting college 3B prospect rather than with some high school players who would need a far greater window to develop, or adding more college pitchers to an already stocked group in their system. They continued this philosophy with their #2 pick also, this time selecting a power hitting college 1B who also happens to bat left-handed, yet another prospect that their system currently lacks.
Bottom line: The White Sox now have enough prospect pieces and a few core MLB players in place to have a reasonable expectation to contend as soon as 2019, especially in a division where two of their rivals, the Tigers and Royals, are also expected to go into rebuild mode in the short term. They are building a pitching staff to compete with and surpass the quality one the Indians have and are now attempting to match the strong positional talent that the Twins have built up with their own recent rebuild. The future not only looks bright on the South Side of Chicago but should also result in a much quicker window to contend than what the Cubs or any other rebuilding team would typically expect.
Perhaps the White Sox will have better success with left-handed hitting catcher Evan Skoug as a 7th round pick out of TCU than the Cubs have had with Kyle Schwarber who was their #1 selection and the 4th overall pick in the 2014 draft as a C/OF from the University of Indiana.
Btw-I’m still a big fan of Schwarber despite some of my sarcastic comments. As a die-hard fan of both Chicago teams I’d love to see a swap that would keep two of my faves in Chicago, with Jose Quintana pitching on the North Side and Schwarb’s hitting bombs in Guaranteed Rate Field. I blame Joe Maddon’s ill-conceived idea of batting Schwarber lead-off for much of his hitting problems in 2017. Rick Renteria would never have been so stupid had the Cubs retained him as their manager nor would he utilize Schwarber so ludicrously in the White Sox lineup.
Mrs. Schwarber?
White Sox wouldnt trade Quintana for Schwarber cubs would have to atleast also include Candelario, and other prospects in the deal
I never suggested a straight one for one swap and many Cub fans wouldn’t want Quintana straight up for Schwarber either.
It’s likely a moot point since the Cub front office has already intimated that they will not be trading any players off of their active roster for starting pitching help as the non-waiver deadline approaches. Any trade involving “Q”, Sonny Gray or the like will have to be for Cub prospects.
I’m certain Rick Hahn would be thrilled with Cubs #1 prospect, corner OF Eloy Jimenez, as a centerpiece for any trade involving Quintana, perhaps with switch-hitting 3B Jeimer Candelario as the primary secondary piece. As a fan of both teams, I’d be good with that trade for both franchises.
Agreed me too and Quintana would be a way better pitcher in the NL
I’d rather they get Jimenez than Schwarber. I definitely think Schwarber will be fixed and become a good major leaguer, but I think Jimenez has the talent to be better overall.
Sox and Cubs aren’t linking up on a Q deal.
Rosterbating on it is silly.
Agreed 100% on Eloy over Schwarber.
I’m not convinced a trade between them is impossible. The Sox didn’t want to trade Sale to the Cubs because Sale sells tickets. Q doesn’t sell many, he just (usually) gives them a good chance to win. The Sox need another outfielder and the Cubs need to shore up their starting pitching; a deal just makes sense for both of them.
I agree. If the Sox can get Eloy and another top prospect plus a lottery ticket or two, it’d be stupid not to pull the trigger. Heck, if they get Eloy on the table, I probably wouldn’t even demand Cease (although value-wise, those two would make perfect sense) if the third prospect they get is slightly upgraded.
But he can strike out
I love how all the clown “experts”, or better described as less than clever trolls, like to jump on the Schwarber hate bandwagon. Fact is, there is a reason that GMs around the league CONTINUE to call the Cubs to see if he’s available. The dude missed the entire year, showed up in the World Series and was vital to helping the Cubs win the World Series. He still hasn’t even played one full season’s worth of games. He’ll be fine, all these kids will be fine, most of them haven’t even peaked yet. So, if you hate them now, just stay tuned… you’re REALLY gonna hate them, it will only get worse for you and your pathetic existence.
As far as you sad, pathetic West Indiana White Sox fans. You’ll always be the second team in the second city. You’re gutting your team to TRY and take a page out of the Cubs book. Well, I’ll spare you the suspense, it’s not that easy. MANY teams have tried this approach, very VERY few have succeeded. The Cubs have the best front office in baseball and since the Cubs own Chicago, they have unlimited resources to go along with the smartest minds in the game. The White Sux have neither of those, not even sort of close. So, just crawl back in your lil south side, ghetto cave and continue to be the most irrelevant team in baseball. Once Reinsdorf passes, his son will move the team, as speculated, to a city with a fan base that might actually show up to the ballpark or at least tune in.
Mr. Bryzzo2016, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
-Red Sox Fan
LMAO!
Hahaha! Love that quote, what movie? Ahhh, Old School. Well done!
Billy Madison
Hey Bryzzo, how about some thoughts on your namesake’s slide into the Padres catcher last night? Are you going to be honest or offer yet another “homer” point of view.
Imo, Rizzo deserves to be disciplined by MLB for his blatant barrelling into the catcher who was abiding by the new rule and allowing the base runner a clear path to home before receiving the throw from CF…and this is coming from one of Rizzo’s biggest fans in Chicago.
Yeah, that was a lousy play by Rizzo but he was still out and Hedges’ injury doesn’t seem to be too severe. A mountain out of a molehill. I hope it doesn’t turn into a beanball thing tonight.
I agree with you there, though for me it’s less about violating the rule and more about protecting one of the most valuable assets the team has. There are 162 games in a season; it does them no good to lose Rizzo for 15 games or more to try to win 1.
I love Rizzo, love how he plays the game. That being said, he was dead wrong last night. He had a clear path to the plate, he should have never done that. Seems out of character for him, perhaps he was trying too hard to get his team going; pumped up. Whatever the reason, it was a dirty play by an otherwise great pro. No one’s perfect I guess.
Shortened version – Someone made a joke about a Cubs player. Cubs fan got his feeling hurt and felt the need to stick up for his guy. Cubs fan continued to rant about how great everything about the Cubs is and how pathetic the White Sox organization/fanbase is.
Future prediction – When time comes for the Cubs and White Sox to play each other, you can all but guarantee said Cubs fan and his little friends will continue taking unnecessary shots at the White Sox and their fans while proclaiming “Cubs fans don’t care about the White Sox.”
That should cover it.
Well said.
As of today Cubs aren’t even the best team in their own division.
As of today they are the defending World Series Champs with the youngest core in baseball. Hahaha
CLOSE, almost covers it. But to be clear, judging by the attendance, ratings and overall tone of local sports radio I would argue that NO ONE really cares about the Western Indiana White Sux, it’s not just Cubs fans that don’t care.
Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Enjoy your .500 ball club.
Dumb
impossible to judge a draft pick until 3/4 years down the road. that being said, its not like drafting a guy rated 16th-21st by sports writers (not scouts) at 11 is an egregious overdraft. this isn’t matt bush over justin verlander. we’ll see how burger stacks up with guys like shane baz, evan white, etc over the next few years. in the meantime, sox fans will be hoping for seth beer in 2018 for the obvious ‘burgers & beer’ marketing campaign.
Yeah. Let’s do that. Marketing is more important than talent.
Puns are funner than wins.
I think it’s a small reach based mostly on questions about whether he can stick at 3rd. Good-hitting 1B are plentiful; good 3B are a shorter list. If he projected to be at least average at 3rd, I think he would’ve been ranked higher.
As far as I’ve seen, he does project to be an average 3B right now. MLB.com gave him a 50 field and 55 arm. Fangraphs said something along the lines of he’ll be able to play third in pro ball and be a fringe (average) defender but might ultimately end up at first. Everything I’ve seen basically makes it sound like it won’t be pretty/smooth, but he’ll get the job done there (hence the Hunter Pence comps).
What I’ve read (which doesn’t sound like as much as you have) leaned more heavily toward him having to switch to 1B. If he sticks, great, but considering all the holes the Sox have in their lineup, his bat should find him a spot in a couple years.
not like it really matters but he did win 2 gold gloves in college playing 3B. sox will give him the reps there and we’ll see what kind of defense he offers. its rarely a bad idea to take the top available bat.
True. And it’s been a long while since a bat the Sox have drafted has made a significant impact on the team. Hoping Collins and Burger can change that.
Wasn’t “top available bat” Pratto,White and Warmoth had higher rated hit tools.
Burger just has more power.
Is power not a component of being one of the “top available bats” to you?
He didn’t say “one of”.
“bat” is hit tool. Not power tool.
That’s why they are separated on scouting reports.
He had the most power on the board.. Was not best bat, was not best prospect.
I hope he turns out to be a great major leaguer. But I don’t agree with the direction the Sox have gone with their top picks the last 2 years. I will never be OK with passing on more complete prospects, with more 6’s and 7’s on their scouts cards, and drafting on need. It’s not what successful teams do.
“Hit” is hit tool. “Power” is power tool. “Bat” is a combination of both.
Going into the draft, there was pretty much a consensus that after the top 3-5 guys, the next 10-15 guys were relatively similar value-wise. You can say all you want about them reaching based on your board or whatever big boards you’re finding online, but the fact of the matter is you have ZERO idea who was atop the White Sox draft board. With the way the top of the draft played out, Burger EASILY could’ve been the top guy left on the White Sox board. It’s not like we’re talking about a 2nd round or later prospect going at the top of the draft.
The funniest part to me is that I wasn’t even high on their draft, but I think you’re being absolutely ridiculous talking about how it was such a “terrible overdraft.” Talk about reaching. I wasn’t/am not sold on Burger, but basically none of the guys that were consensually ranked higher dropped to the Sox, and it came down to personal preference. Personally, if it were up to me, I would’ve taken Pratto or White, but the guys in the White Sox front office clearly preferred Burger, despite what you or any of these so-called “experts” (pretty sure none of whom are working in front offices…) think about him.
*They also saved half a mil to use elsewhere, which can’t be overlooked.
Pretty sure Schwarber was considered a reach in the draft by experts. Experts looked wrong in the playoffs last season. The experts look correct this season. Enjoy your team, no one knows for sure how a 20 year old will mature. Players have a great year, a team can win a championship, it guarantees nothing the next season.
Pratto was a high school bat. Those are harder to project and he would most likely arrive when the Sox window starts closing.
socalsoxfan78, true on their being harder to project, but I disagree on the arrival time. A high school project doesn’t need that much more time than a college prospect, especially if drafted fairly highly. The Sox’ window doesn’t open until 2019 at the very earliest (and that’s assuming hits on pretty much all their top 10 prospects) and more likely 2020 or even 2021. That’s more than enough time for a high schooler drafted this year to learn the ropes and get promoted to the bigs if he’s good enough. As for him vs Burger, only time will tell. Trout wasn’t drafted until 25th; every last team that passed him up would love to have a do-over on that. So you never know who will work out and who won’t.
This would be true if Trout was the rule. He’s an exception because he’s a generational talent. I think we can agree that most high school bats aren’t going to turn into Trout and it’s a toss up whether Pratto will too. Don’t get me wrong. I initially thought this pick was a reach by the Sox and thought they should have gone with the best available prospect (even if that meant drafting another college pitcher) and eventually trade for a for an advanced bat. I guess only time will tell.
Trout is a generational talent, but every draft is littered with guys who performed far better than others drafted in front of him. My point is that you never know who will work out or just how good someone can be. There are #1 picks who never played an MLB game and guys drafted late who became HOFers. Nobody knows until they actually play.
It would have been more of a reach had it been a National League team drafting with the 11th pick.
Well, the White Sox #3 pick in the 2014 draft was Oregon State southpaw pitcher Jace Fry. Anyone up for a Burger and Fry?