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Feeling less bad about White Sox drafts

With the talent acquired from the 2016-17 fire sale and the high draft picks of 2018-19 now graduated (or traded), the White Sox are once again universally considered to have the worst farm system in the league.

Fans are plenty familiar with a pattern of poor drafting and busted picks that has led to this, but in fairness, have the White Sox really been THAT bad at drafting? An honest analysis of their trends would suggest that they’ve drafted some pretty well-regarded talents, while other teams had bigger picks turn out a LOT worse.

2009: Jared Mitchell

Famously taken 23rd overall, one spot ahead of Randal Grichuk and two spots ahead of some guy named Mike Trout, Mitchell actually was considered a solid pick at the time.