On ESPN.com, I caught this dig at White Sox GM Kenny Williams by Keith Law from Scouts Inc.:
The worst pick of the day belongs to the White Sox, who took GM Kenny Williams’ son in the fifth round. Kenny Williams Jr. is a senior at Wichita State who doesn’t even play every day and who was ruled academically ineligible for the 2007 season. He’s a good athlete and at least a 55 runner, but he’s 22 years old, played in 12 games in total prior to 2008, and wasn’t on most teams’ draft boards, although two or three other teams appeared to have had him inside the 10th round. It is hard to imagine that he would have been their 5th-round pick if his name was Kenny Smith, but the White Sox liked Kenny Jr.’s athleticism, something that was relatively scarce in this draft’s pool of college position players.
Williams was picked 180th overall.
With their very next pick, I noticed the Sox also selected Jordan Danks, brother of John Danks. Danks plays centerfield, the same position as Williams Jr. Danks looks to have good upside. Perhaps the Sox thought better of their original choice.
The Tribune has a story on both using the family angle.
I remember back in 1988 the LA Dodgers drafted a kid in the 62nd round as a favor to his Godfather Tommy Lasorda. Mike Piazza turned out to be pretty good.