Colson Montgomery – The Player Comps

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 Colson Montgomery Will Be Will Middlebrooks

Will Middlebrooks was a highly rated Red Sox prospect that got to the majors at 23 years old and just never played well enough to ACTUALLY be considered good. The power never fully got there, the batting average cratered after a hot rookie season and the strikeouts ate him up. He provided okay defense at third base, but really nothing to write home about. His prospect prowess ended up getting him 1,234 Plate Appearances with four different teams before on team number five he suffered a career ending leg injury and was forced to retire at the age of 30.

If Things Go Pretty Good Colson Montgomery Will Be Kevin Kouzmanoff

Kevin Kouzmanoff was a league average third baseman through his pre-arb years, lead by good defense and 18 to 23 home run pop generally. As he got to the back half of his twenties, the thunder in the bat started to dissipate, the defense regressed and he faded off into the seas of replacement level players via for NRI’s come spring. He did have a real fun comeback at age 32 where he smoke the daylights out of the ball for the Texas Rangers for two weeks, never to be seen again. But getting four team controlled years of 2 fWAR or higher and 18 home runs sounds like a pretty godddamn solid result!

If Everything Goes Right And Colson Montgomery Sticks at Shortstop (kinda) He Will Be Jhonny Peralta

White Sox fans should remember Jhonny Peralta well as he played many years with the then Indians of Cleveland. He was big, a pretty weak defender at shortstop, although good enough to stay there considering the bat. A lot of extra base power, even though it was more 20 HR / 35 2B, and a ton of strikeouts (for the era). Peralta was a very productive player into his early 30’s in which he registered some excellent seasons. A Colson Montgomery that mainly sticks at shortstop at books 30.4 bWAR would be an incredible late first round draft pick.

If Everything Goes Right And Colson Montgomery Ends Up As a Third Baseman He Will Be Eugenio Suarez

But what if Montgomery succeeds but doesn’t stick at shortstop? Enter, Eugenio Suarez who long-time BeefLoaf stans know I have a HISTORY WITH. Suarez strikes out a fucking ton, but he’s been a very good player in the majors for a long time on the strength of quality defense at the hot corner and a TON OF POWER! Including a 49 HR season in Cincy (the year after I suggested the White Sox trade Luis Robert Jr. for him), he’s had power to spare for years and continuing on into today in which he hit 30 home runs for the Diamondbacks last season.

If I were picking one of these last two player comps, it’s Suarez as I think that’s a player the White Sox could build around and in Sox Park they are desperate for that thunder in the bat.

-BeefLoaf