While the Chicago White Sox are currently riding the high of their spectacular play over the last month or so, the team has been making sure to secure their future as soon as possible.
As of Thursday, the White Sox had already agreed to terms with 26 of their 41 picks from the 2012 MLB Draft. On Tuesday, the Sox signed 24 of their prospects, with seventh round pick Jose Barraza also signing 
Thursday. Currently, the thirteenth overall pick, outfielder Courtney Hawkins has agreed to terms with the team, but hasn’t signed yet and won’t until his physical next Monday has been completed.
It seems that Kenny Williams and the rest of the White Sox front office has high hopes for Hawkins. That optimism should be guarded though, as the eighteen-year-old outfielder is fresh out of high school.
A quick note; the last time the White Sox took a high school player with their first pick was back in 2001. That pick was phenom pitcher Kris Honel. You never heard of him? That’s because he never made it to the bigs and bounced around in the Sox organization until 2007. For those that have heard the name, then you remember hearing all the hype around him in the first half of last decade… along with hype for Joe Borchard…
Now of course there’s hardly any way of telling what the White Sox draft class will accomplish at this point. For all we know, one of the 30th round draft picks could become a legitimate all-star. But let’s take a look and see what the Pale Hose agenda was here.
Obviously pitching is key every year with the Sox taking five within the first ten rounds. The Sox also took a good amount of first and second baseman. Keon Barnum and Joey DeMichele top the list here. Both of these players, and many of the others as well, plan to report to Bristol or Great Falls in the very near future, but some people are already projecting Hawkins to reach Class A Kannapolis by the end of the year.
Hawkins’ numbers were outstanding this year as he batted .437 with 11 home runs and 39 RBI. Barnum, the White Sox second pick, also put up some monster numbers with a .417 average, and is already getting comparisons to Ryan Howard.
The Sox appear to be happy with this draft and the hope is these players add considerably to a very depleted farm system. It’s going to be at least two years before we can fully gauge this Sox draft class, but we can always have hope that somewhere in that number of 41 players, there is a diamond in the rough.
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