White Sox first-round draft pick Jared Mitchell and the LSU Tigers won the College World Series last night, with Mitchell also being named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. This is the 2nd straight year the White Sox's first round draft pick made it to the CWS finals. It'll be interesting to see if the Sox treat him like they did Gordan Beckham, or if Mitchell spends more time in the minors.

Guys advance at the pace their skills allow. Beckham was fairly polished player when he became a pro and was hitting everywhere he went. Hard to keep a guy hitting at every level down even if his defense needs a little work.

Mitchell is said to be more raw. Chances are his progress will be more conventional. Hard not to like his baseball ability though. Very Granderson-like.

(06-25-2009 08:16 AM)DogTracks Wrote:  Guys advance at the pace their skills allow. Beckham was fairly polished player when he became a pro and was hitting everywhere he went. Hard to keep a guy hitting at every level down even if his defense needs a little work.

Mitchell is said to be more raw. Chances are his progress will be more conventional. Hard not to like his baseball ability though. Very Granderson-like.

From a couple of sources close to the Sox, they sum Mitchell's potential up this way:

At his best, he's like Lance Johnson

At his worst, he's Jerry Owens

Dogtracks is correct, Mitchell will take a lot longer to reach the big leagues. He's not the type of player Beckham is. He could be as good as him someday, but with playing football and baseball at the same time, along with Beckham being so much more advanced than your average player, it's not really fair to compare the two guys.

That being said, I really like the pick, and couldn't be happier the guy fell to us. I really like picking the guy with the most potential over low ceiling / low risk guys. I'd rather fail going for the guy with the potential than settle for another mediocre player like a Lance Broadway.

poor guy.