Levine: Is The Truck Backing Up At U.S Cellular Field?
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The White Sox have made their decision to move ahead with a plan.
That plan, although unannounced, appears to be to move players who have potential to bring back parts that fit into a longer-range plan. Getting younger skill-position defenders will be a must in any trades the White Sox make in the next six weeks.
Chicago's minor league system has produced a lot of quality pitching in the last 15 years. It has done a poor job of producing position players. Going back to the mid-1990s, the only position players that have contributed at a near All-Star level can be counted on one hand.
You can start with Magglio Ordonez and Ray Durham, quickly move to Carlos Lee and wrap it up with Joe Crede and Aaron Rowand. That's what you have to show for player development at the eight fielding positions. If you insist, you can put Gordon Beckham on the list.
That's about it for homegrown position player talent. No catchers of top quality, zero shortstops and not a speed player of impact in a decade-and-a-half. You can actually go back to the early 1990s and see this dearth of development for position players since Larry Himes and Al Goldis left the front office in 1990. The White Sox aren't alone in having trouble getting position players to the big leagues, but it has had an impact on the way they have had to go about their business.
What the White Sox have been really good at is identifying other organizations' young talent and trading for it. This is how former general manager Kenny Williams, along with then-assistant GM Rick Hahn, developed the 2005 world championship club. The keen eye of the team's international scouting people and Williams-Hahn tandem have brought outstanding Cuban players into the mix as free agents.
Ten years down the road from that championship, the White Sox have one playoff entry (2008) to show for their efforts. The minor leagues still aren't producing major-league position player talent. Two talented players moving through the minor leagues, Micah Johnson and Tim Anderson, are promising infielders who may be better suited defensively to play the outfield. At this juncture, the White Sox brass must once again reload as they did in 2013 and 2014. The main objective must be once again to trade for other teams' quality position players.
The question that remains to be answered is this: Do they have productive veteran players to move before the non-wavier trading deadline on July 31? This is a difficult question to answer at this time. Yes, they have accomplished players to deal. No, these players haven't played up to their potential. Adam LaRoche, Melky Cabrera and Alexei Ramirez have been at the head of the class of disappointing players. A free agent-to-be this November, Jeff Samardzija, hasn't been himself consistently in his first 15 starts.
That's the core group that could bring you back a cache of young talent. Of course, the only way that happens if the White Sox begin to play the way they're capable of. Toronto was in the house with a top scout watching Samardzija pitch against Pittsburgh on Thursday evening.
Chicago could change their plan before we are told what it is. Trailing division leader Kansas City by 10 games entering play Thursday makes staying with the group they have now unlikely.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
