The White Sox are at that point in their (whatever number) rebuild that you really don’t know too much about the players that are expected to rise up from the earth like the second stanza of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and take over Sox Park. Sure you might know if they are ranked, or if you attended Sox Fest LIVE! you might have caught a quick glimpse and because they had uniforms on you could match player to name, but truthfully you don’t know much about these guys. Me either. Even prospect write-ups are of limited utility to you, the everyday fan.
So, it implores me to do something that the prospect hawks hate. PLAYER COMPS!! Now, the standard explanation from these folks is each player is different and you don’t want to layer a former player over a unique player, but that’s all bullshit. They just don’t want their fucked up player comp stuck in your head when dude fails. Who wants to be the guy that claimed Brooks Baldwin got some Luis Arraez to him? You don’t want to be the guy that claimed Nick Madrigal was destined for 3,000 hits and kept calling him LASERSHOW, do you? Nah, nobody does, but here, we’ll be brave and try it. Enjoy!
If Everything Goes Wrong Chase Meidroth Will Be…..
Like any minor league stud with great batting eye and contact ability he’ll be a guy you rarely think of. I thought about putting Nick Madrigal here and he fits, but so does Jack Hannahan (pictured) and Cesar Crispo and Dave Berg or whoever else. They’ll play in the major leagues, it will be very disappointing, a wet fart of a career. Ugh.
If Things Go Pretty Good Chase Meidroth Will Be Tom Herr
Tom Herr had a long and productive mlb career, mainly with the Saint Louis Cardinals on those 80’s Whitey Herzog teams. Herr kept his strong walk rate (10.3%), which exceeded his strike out rate for his entire career, however he just never developed the power. So when he had a nice BABIP season, his stats would flourish and he’d look like a league average regular. When he had a bad BABIP season, well, you’d wonder why the fuck we can’t find someone better to take his place. Herr played his entire career at Second Base which would limit Meidroth’s utility and I don’t think that would be the approach for the White Sox entirely, but we’ll see.
If Everything Goes Right Chase Meidroth Will Be Michael Young
If the high walk rate turns into a hitter finding the pitches he can drive and becomes legitimate power out of a high contact hitter, we could have Michael Young on our hands. Now scanning bWAR and fWAR totals you’d think Tommy Herr and Young were similar players but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Young was a 7-time all-star who was a legit threat at the top of the Texas Rangers lineup. The fact that they kept him in an everyday shortstop role which he wasn’t very good at dragged his defensive stats, which in turn dragged his WAR totals.
He was also a super durable player in his day playing 155 games or more in 10 different seasons. A couple of seasons leading the league in hits, a batting title, four seasons of 100 runs scored (something the White Sox haven’t seen since 2006). A stud.
So there you have it, some prospect PLAYER COMPS. Agree, disagree? Come at me bro.
-BeefLoaf