{"id":2955,"date":"2011-02-17T12:49:31","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T18:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=2955"},"modified":"2011-02-17T12:51:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T18:51:18","slug":"the-golden-sombreros-top-50-prospects-18-chris-sale-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2955","title":{"rendered":"The Golden Sombrero’s Top 50 Prospects: #18 – Chris Sale (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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#18 Chris Sale<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Chicago White Sox<\/p>\n

LHP<\/p>\n

DOB: 3-30-89<\/p>\n

ETA: 2011<\/p>\n

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This ranking is based entirely on Sale\u2019s potential as a starter.\u00a0 The White Sox are scaring all rational baseball fans with their use of Sale thus far, but the results have been so positive that they may waste another season of his development in 2011 by sticking him at the back end of the pen.<\/p>\n

Sale already boasts three pitches that can grade as plus.\u00a0 His fastball touches 96 mph, but generally sits a few ticks below that pace.\u00a0 His best breaking ball is his slider, although he also uses a loopier curveball.\u00a0 His changeup is already plus and possesses excellent arm-side action.<\/p>\n

With a chance at three realistic plus pitches, a 6-foot-5 frame, experience as a starter college, and left-handedness, Sale should be logging around 200 innings a season.\u00a0 To date he has only thrown 33.2 professional innings, but over half of them came out of the Sox bullpen.\u00a0 Between the Bigs and the Minors, Sale struck out 51 guys and only walked 16.\u00a0 He posted a 1.93 ERA and appears to be every bit as advertised given his 13th<\/sup> overall selection last June.<\/p>\n

Sale should slot in behind John Danks<\/a><\/strong> for the White Sox for years, but he will need innings at either Double-A or Triple-A to develop as a professional starter.\u00a0 Sox fans, pray that this is the route they take with an arm like Sale\u2019s, because any time he spends in the bullpen this or any other season is only stalling his development.<\/p>\n

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#18 Chris Sale \u2013 Chicago White Sox LHP DOB: 3-30-89 ETA: 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,1300,6,9,11,13,10,14,1616,775],"tags":[1841,264,700,396,1730,3463,1839,1840],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2955"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2959,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions\/2959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}