Rick Hahn continues to talk like a lawyer at SoxFest

Rick Hahn

Maybe I'm a bad White Sox fan. I won't allow general manager Rick Hahn to have his "victory lap."

I don't care if he "won the offseason." Until the team has a winning season *on the field* under his leadership, I'm not going to give him credit for much of anything.

So, I wasn't of the mindset to give him his round of applause at SoxFest this weekend. I didn't boo him when he was introduced, but I didn't cheer him either.

And I didn't lob him a softball question during the town hall with him and manager Rick Renteria on Friday night at McCormick Place.

When I stood before the crowd, I noted the Sox have a top-heavy farm system. The top four prospects -- Luis Robert, Michael Kopech, Andrew Vaughn and Nick Madrigal -- all are quite good. So good that we expect to see three of the four in Chicago this season. Then, there's a steep drop-off.

Quick, can you name the No. 5 prospect in the Sox organization?

My question for Hahn on this topic was twofold. First, is he concerned that he won't have the prospect capital to get the "finishing piece" at the trading deadline, should the moon and stars align and the Sox find themselves in contention going into the second half of the season?

Second, is it a point of organizational emphasis to improve in the draft? After all, most of these top young players we're talking about have been acquired one of two ways -- through the trades of topnotch major league talent, or tanking to get a high draft pick.

If this rebuild is truly going to work, don't the Sox have to hit on more of their second- and third-round picks?

Hahn basically told me he's not concerned about either of these things. He feels the lack of minor league depth is mostly attributable to injuries. It is true that several prospects have had injuries, including Dane Dunning, Zack Burdi, Jimmy Lambert and Luis Basabe.

The general manager expressed optimism that as guys get healthy, the system will prove to be much deeper than it seems. I'd like to believe that, but with the track record the Sox have, I'm not going to believe it until I see it. Citing injuries is always an irrefutable argument. It's not as if we can deny that they occurred.

On the second point, Hahn noted that a recent report found that the Sox rank second in all of baseball for the decade of 2010-19 in terms of WAR by drafted players. This is true, but let's understand that most of that WAR is tied up in just a handful of guys.

Chris Sale's career WAR is 45. Marcus Semien's career WAR is 20, and while he's a former Sox draft pick, he didn't blossom until he was traded to Oakland. Tim Anderson's career WAR is 10. Nobody else the Sox have drafted in the past decade has a career WAR above 6. For the record, the oft-injured Carlos Rodon is the next-best guy on this list.

Does that sound like a good draft record to you?

Once again, top-heavy, a few big hits, but a lot of misses. Hahn insisted his draft guys are doing their job. But for me, it's just unfortunate that Anderson is the only former Sox No. 1 draft pick who is actually helping at the big league level at present time. We need to see more of these homegrown guys come up and deliver. Let's hope Madrigal does that this season.

I'm sorry, but I can't help but be cynical about a GM whose record is 491–642 over seven seasons.