Minor League Ball daily discussion, February 20, 2017

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Minor League Ball daily discussion for Monday, February 20th. I trust you all had a good weekend.

This morning we posted National League Central Division sleeper prospects. We also got our 2017 MLB Draft coverage underway with profiles of University of Tampa right-hander Garrett Cave (by Wayne Cavadi) and Missouri State University slugger Jake Burger (by Jacob Markle, a new contributor).

This afternoon I am working on a report about players where my Top 200 MLB prospects lists differs most from consensus. I hope to have that finished this afternoon. Tomorrow we will write up American League Central sleepers.

In the meantime, here is a discussion question for you.

Bob Nightingale at USA Today has some interesting quotations from Chicago White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito.

“The trade, to be honest with you,’’ Giolito, 22, tells USA TODAY Sports, “was like an immediate breath of fresh air. I’m still young, and my career is just getting started, but last year I dealt with so much adversity. I moved up and down so many times between the big leagues and Triple-A last year, I never really got a feel. I never really settled in.’’

“Every start was like I have to do well or I’m going to get sent down to Triple-A,’’ Giolito says. “The team wanted to win, and if I wasn’t going to give them an opportunity to win, then they wouldn’t want me there. It made sense.”

Giolito goes on to discuss the difficulty he had making adjustments at the major league level when things went wrong and the impact this had on his confidence. His Hollywood family background also comes up.

What’s your expectation for Giolito in 2017?