Reliever Jon Link & firstbaseman/outfielder Seth Loman are a couple of longshots to make the White Sox, but baseball is a funny game, so you never know.
The White Sox acquired Jon Link from the San Diego Padres in exchange for Rob Mackowiak, a half eaten bag of potato chips would’ve been a fair exchange, in my opinion, so Link’s got anything, it’s a great deal. In 2003 Link was drafted by the Montreal Expos with the 45th pick, after a year of college ball where he walked 14 in 81 innings with a 2.13 ERA, the Pads signed him after taking him in the 26th round of the 2005 draft. The 6’1″ 175 pounder (slimmed down from 200) out of Columbus, OH, did pretty well at Class A in 2008. Jon had a 2.91 ERA with 64 strikeouts in 58″ innings pitched, 48 hits, 16 saves. He was particularly effective after coming to Winston-Salem, where his strikeout to walk ratio was an impressive 19/4, allowing only one homer over 17″ innings of work. It’s always tough finding quality middle relief, never know what’s inside a guy’s heart.
Seth Logan was drafted by the Los Angels of Anaheim in the 47th round of the 2005 draft out of Lamar Community College in Texas. The 6’4″ 225 pound switch hitter spent his two years with the Angels in Rookie Ball, where he batted .206 with 4 HRs in 2006 & .323 with 9 HRs in 2007, then LAA released him. The 22 year old turned to the independent Golden Baseball League where he put up some pretty good numbers. In 2008 Loman batted .350 with 19 HRs & 60 RBIs in just 60 games, slugging .709. Seth was selected by Baseball America as a Top Independent league prospect. Here’s hoping Seth Loman finds as much success with the White Sox as another Angels castoff, Bobby Jenks.