Draft Preview - Chicago White Sox

The twelfth team draft preview on my blog focuses on the Chicago White Sox and their scouting director Doug Laumann.

Here's an excerpt from the writeup, which features small writeups on 25 players involved with Laumann's work:

If you’re looking for a place to point the finger of blame, point it at the people who make the budgets. There is no other way to put it. Since Laumann has moved back in to the scouting director’s chair, the White Sox have had a combined draft budget of $8.9 million. Looking at that in comparison to the rest of the league, there have been 11 individual drafts done by teams that have spent as much or more than that in a single year during that span. That’s $8.9 million in a single year, while the White Sox have been stuck at that total for a two year span. That’s not due to picking at the back of the first round or missing picks. They had the number eight pick in 2008, which they put to good use, and while they were missing a second-rounder that year, they added a supplemental first-rounder and second-rounder in 2009. Let’s put this in perspective. There is a grand total of one Major League team that has spent less in the draft than the White Sox for 2008 and 2009 combined. That’s the Los Angeles Dodgers. Surprising? Not to me, but then again, I follow this a little more closely than the average person. Only four scouting directors have had less allocated to them per year than Laumann, and I outlined them in my last weekend column. Looking at draft budgeting for the coming draft, the White Sox own picks 13, 63, 95, 114, 128, and every 30 picks after that, assuming that Rod Barajas signs a Major League contract with another team before the draft. That’s one extra pick, the compensation pick in the supplemental third round for not signing Bryan Morgado. I expect another budget in the area of $4.5-5 million this year, and that definitely impacts what sort of talent they can expect to get.

Direct link here.

I'm also running a special on the 2010 MLB Draft Notebook, as the next 23 buyers will be entered in a drawing for an autographed baseball from Jameson Taillon. If you'd like to read more about the promotion, go ahead and do so here.

What do you think? What will the White Sox do?