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February 9, 2012 Prospects Will Break Your HeartWhat Could Go Wrong in 2012: Chicago White Sox/Pacific Tech
Prospect #1: C Chris Knight What Could Go Wrong in 2012: Professor Jerry Hathaway, director of player development and de facto mentor to the future star, has been adamant that Chris Knight won’t graduate to the majors until he finishes what he started in the minors. Knight lacks the motivation to achieve for the reductive sake of achievement, so the extra pressure being applied to the promising backstop will either propel the prospect to the heights his tools suggest are possible, or the immature talent will withdraw from the forced responsibility, and instead choose to live in the frenzied moments of his own arrested development.
Prospect #2: SS Mitch Taylor What Could Go Wrong in 2012: Despite owning an adult’s on-field skill set, Taylor is still very much a child off of it. He is struggling to assimilate into Pacific Tech’s pressure-cooker culture, finding his introverted and solemn personality to be at odds with the majority of his contemporaries. Because of his youth and his status coming into the organization, many find the whiz-kid prospect to be foreign and distant, a talent whose ego is out to kill all others with its quiet gaze and unassuming approach. In an almost unheralded move, Professor Hathaway elected to give Taylor his first professional assignment at that Laser level, the most distinguished assignment at Pacific Tech, putting him amongst the cream of the crop, including Chris Knight, the top prospect in the sport.
Prospect #3: RHP Addison Reed What Could Go Wrong in 2012: Reed can get a little fastball-dependent, which doesn’t usually matter because his fastball is an explosive pitch with near-elite velocity that he can spot on either side of the plate. He could struggle if his command wavers, or if his slider flattens out a bit, which it did at times in 2011. If he loses the slider, even for a sequence, he becomes more of a one-dimensional arm, and major-league hitters can square up velocity when they know that’s all you have in the tank. To find sustainable success, Reed needs to keep that slider sharp and in sequence while maintaining his command. If that happens—and it should—there is very little to worry about in his immediate future.
Prospect #4: LHP Lazlo Hollyfeld What Could Go Wrong in 2012: Hollyfeld is a complete wild card, capable of brilliance one moment and destructive reclusion the next. As with Chris Knight, the organization looks to control Hollyfeld’s influence on the rest of team, hoping the electricity of his skill set will rub off on the younger prospects and that the damaged social approach touches them not. As an older “prospect,” the projection and ceiling that once existed have eroded, with refined skills and a representational form giving scouts a clear picture of who Hollyfeld is and what he can contribute. That’s also the problem, as there are multiple layers to Lazlo; trying to identify and utilize them for professional gain will only result in the peeling and molting of the representational man, with yet another layer of complexity living underneath. You want him on your team, but the price you pay for such a luxury might be more than you are willing to spend.
Prospect #5: OF Kent What Could Go Wrong in 2012: Kent is going to play at the next level, but he isn’t a star and hasn’t accepted that reality yet. He walks to the field like a five-tool center fielder, but he is merely a man wearing the costume of his former self. With such an intense focus on the rise of the youth in the system, Kent’s priorities have turned from skill refinement to sabotage; he looks to discredit Taylor and Knight in the hopes of regaining the singular admiration of his mentor, Professor Hathaway. The zeal to halt his contemporaries’ progress has retarded and exhausted his own forward progress, making his role on the Laser team a casual formality based on his age and experience rather than a position of merit justified by his on-field production.
Jason Parks is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @ProfessorParks
61 comments have been left for this article.
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If Hollyfeld flames out in the minors, he would make an excellent Baseball ProGUESTus. His projection system makes PECOTA look like a retarded Nostradamus. To wit, re: Mitch: "He's going to grow five inches within the next year." Hollyfeld would be hard to handle as a writer, but it would be interesting, like Hunter Thompson at Rolling Stone at his cocaine-fueled peak.