Rodon roundtable

Members of The Catbird Seat staff have been floating in and out of a google doc all night sharing their thoughts on the White Sox draft pick, Most of it is unusable.

James: So, the White Sox have selected Carlos Rodon, a highly-polished college pitcher who doubles as a high-ceiling talent who drew plenty 1-1 consideration during his Sophomore year. There’s both enough here to convince they got high potential value, and also the kind of fast-track potential that this organization needs to have at all times to keep from coming unglued. Scott Merkin has already tweeted that he expects Rodon in the bullpen

Matt: I’ve seen the 2014 bullpen expectation out there a few times already on Twitter, which might have played into the pick with the current struggles and Rodon being so close to “polished”. Or as close you can get to that as a pitcher just getting drafted. I do wonder what difference it makes if the White Sox make any sort of competitive push over the course of the summer.

James: Sale’s usage kept ramping up even while they slipped out of it in 2010, so who knows. These people are maniacs who cannot be denied.

I don’t think there’s any room to really be upset here on value, though. There was a consensus top-3, and this guy was one of them, and he’s shaded higher at times. Injury and wear and tear are always concerns, but are mostly negligible compared to the field. If anything, Rodon offered the rare combination of polish to keep the Sox brass happy without compromising a shot at a superb No. 2 starter, with an off-chance at some ace-level years.

Matt: Also a fast-track guy backs the team’s heavy belief in their window being in the next couple of years. Not that I doubted they believed in the first place.

James: Fast-tracking could also be a way to make the Boras negotiations more palatable. They could offer the same wink-and-nod to get him MLB money and start his arb clock that they gave to Sale.

Should we address concerns about the Sox being lefty-heavy, or just cackle?

It’s like people think these guys are going in a lineup together. A starting pitcher has to deal with everyone in the lineup. If they’re effective, it’s because they have enough of their own tools to attack right-handed hitters multiple times through the order.

Collin: I’m not gonna lie. I’m a little giddy right now. I had talked myself into Kolek over Rodon a little bit over the past week or so (Nick played a role in this), but I’ve been on Rodon for about a year now.

And if nothing else, this just further illustrates the ongoing trend under Rick Hahn of the White Sox shift of organizational philosophy. We’ve seen it in bits and pieces over the past year or so, such as going outside of the organization for a hitting coach, playing more into shifts and valuing prospects more than they used to, and this just furthers that development. Not being afraid to fail, and not being afraid of “Big, Bad Scott Boras” is a great sign to me, regardless of if Rodon works out or not.

James: That said, the next month of Boras posturing will be not fun.

Matt: I’d hesitate to say that the Boras stance has really changed. There is only so much damage that can be inflicted with the bonus pools and you don’t have to worry about actually signing the kid to any real money for quite a few years if you don’t choose to. They wouldn’t have drafted him if they didn’t think they could sign him though, so they’re prepared to do what it takes right now.

James: The harder slotting is Jerry’s tool against Boras, so it would be a shame to  never try it against it’s inspiration.

It will be nice to have an upper-tier arm in the system again. The last one who made his way in worked out pretty well.

Collin: Kyle McCulloch?

James: That’s the one!

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