The White Sox All-Star Prospect You Haven't Heard About...Yet

The Chicago White Sox farm system is teeming with upper-echelon talent that has attracted laser sharp focus from local and national media. But with an embarrassment of riches swimming through the minors, players without glitzy cache are easily overlooked. Luis Robert is the most well-known minor-league prospect underneath A-ball but a few levels above him lies a player with an astounding stat line. Over 114 games, Craig Dedelow has batted .286 with 31 doubles, 31 home runs and 104 runs batted in. As the Great Falls Voyagers close in on the second-half Pioneer League title, Dedelow and others find themselves on the end-of-season All-Star list.

He was a career .288 hitter at Indiana University batting .325 and .302 his sophomore and junior seasons respectively. Dedelow was a three-time All-Big 10 third team selection and blasted 19 long balls in his final season with the Hoosiers. The White Sox swept him away in the ninth round of the 2017 Rule 4 draft and given the breadth of talent culled from the draft waters, Dedelow was sent to Great Falls. In a phone interview with Voyagers manager Tim Esmay, it was clear that the slugger from Munster, Indiana possessed the skill-set to reach the majors, a feeling seconded by Indiana head coach Chris Lemonis.

“I told him when he left here,” Lemonis said, “…I really truly believe in my heart that he had a chance to be a big leaguer because he could handle the day-to-day grind of Major League, Minor League Baseball.”

Besides skills and makeup, scouts scrutinize whether players can withstand the daily grind of a major-league season, something Esmay and Lemonis believe Dedelow has. And the evidence supports their conclusion. Between both 2017 seasons, Dedelow has played 114 games with 19 games remaining. In comparison, Brady Conlan has played 111 games for Winston-Salem, Nick Basto and Danny Hayes have played 123 games for Birmingham and Charlotte respectively, and Zach Remillard leads White Sox minor leaguers having played 127 games for Kannapolis. Dedelow’s potential 133 appearances since the end of February with nary a hint of deterioration illustrates his ability to endure a grueling season.

"He hasn't hit the proverbial professional wall," Esmay said, something I have intimate knowledge of.

Baseball, long a sport fraught with beer-bellied chain smokers, has evolved into a measured community of athletic wonders. When I left for my first minor-league assignment I weighed 185 pounds. I played 50 games spread over two and-a-half months and lost almost 25 pounds. The daily routine of physical workouts had worn my -- what I learned was -- delicate body into a withering skeleton. I had played more games the previous two seasons -- approximately 100 games before fall-ball -- but professional baseball crams more games into fewer days in areas of the country with unbearable weather conditions. I played 30 consecutive days in one stretch and that is when Cal Ripkin Jr.'s Iron Man record came into focus for me. That Dedelow has not shown signs of decay validates his position among other major-league prospects.

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After thrashing Pioneer-Leauge pitching for most of the summer, Dedelow was briefly promoted to Kannapolis with Kade McClure on Aug. 18. (Dedelow was crisscrossing the country for the few weeks I tried to reach him). But following a sour five-game audition, Dedelow was rapidly reapplied to Great Falls on Aug. 23 where he has been setting the Pioneer League ablaze since. There is no question that Dedelow is well beyond Pioneer League talent. The 22-year-old has posted a .332/.360/.605 slash line in Great Falls accompanied by 11 round-trippers and a .964 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). He has driven in 49 base runners and slugged 19 doubles as well. But this cross-section of data only peels back the first layer. Looking further into the splits, he has crescendoed into the season batting .302, .323 and .362 from June through August. And not only has he cast a sweeping net over the strike zone but added a staggering .550 batting average with runners on second base while logging a .392 batting average behind in the count; hallmarks of a professional hitter. I asked Esmay whether Dedelow’s .300 average had any myth to it. His response, “He’s hitting a hard .320. Not missing too many barrels.” Esmay went on, “[Dedelow] Makes good adjustments. I would have to say probably has above average power but also the capability of maintaining the swing plane for an average, high average hitter also.”

“He’s a very athletic guy that has a really compact kinda simple swing that I think is gonna allow him to move up the ranks pretty good,” Esmay added when asked about his first impressions of Dedelow.

Regarding weaknesses, Esmay noted he hasn’t really found one yet, and his comments on Dedelow’s swing plane support his conclusion. Yet, while I had Esmay on the phone Dedelow was on his way to Kannapolis and a 2-for-19 spell. While with the Intimidators, the outfielder batted .105 and managed to swat one home run before he was returned to the Voyagers. However, Dedelow’s journey from Rookie to Full Season-A was an arduous 10-day trek across two time zones and bus trips traversing three states while never reaching Kannapolis, N.C. Kade McClure joined Dedelow on this voyage and teased his grown-up proclivities in a tweet.

I certainly won’t conjure excuses for Dedelow’s poor display in his brief promotion, but 10-days away from “home-away-from-home” while packed for three days of scant provisions is difficult to overcome; but hey, that’s the minors for you. And since returning to Great Falls he has rediscovered the sweet spot with an 8 for 18, five-game hit streak punctuated by one home run and eight RBI.

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The person that knows him best is his college coach, Chris Lemonis. Someone who has his fingerprints all over the White Sox organization.

“I came from Louisville,” Lemonis told me. “I recruited [Zack] Burdi, then they [White Sox] got Logan Taylor, Kade McClure, Lincoln Henzman…Adam Engel is a kid that played for me at Louisville I recruited…The White Sox have done a great job in our area.”

And now Dedelow joins the pack of Lemonis pupils trickling through the White Sox farm system. I spoke to Lemonis about Dedelow’s performance the last three seasons and what he meant to the team. “Craig was a great player coming out of high school; probably more as a basketball player than a baseball player and so he still had a lot of growth…,” said Lemonis. In fact, Dedelow was not offered a scholarship by Indiana until late in his high school career. Besides his physical attributes, Lemonis extolled Dedlow’s makeup; something echoed by Esmay.

“He’s a high-energy guy,” Lemonis said. “He comes and gives it all every day. You know, he’s one of those guys that comes and gives it all day-in and day-out that brings a real consistent, fun effort to the ballpark.” Esmay added, “He’s the kind of guy players gravitate towards.”

Painting a portrait of the Indiana slugger transitioning from college to professional baseball is as simple as drawing a thick, dark line across a blank canvas. He is metronomic in his collegiate feats and changed his spots as needed. Dedelow batted over three hundred twice in college but never swatted home runs at the rate many scouts expected him to. At 6-foot-4 and 175 pounds, it is not a stretch to believe many evaluators wanted to see increased power from such a raw frame. After a disappointing offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates who drafted him in the 34^th round in 2016, Dedelow hit the weight room.

“This past year…he put a lot of emphasis into the weight room,” Lemonis told me after I probed for a deeper understanding of where Dedelow’s power surge came from.

Quite simply, Dedelow played at 199 pounds his senior season adding 25 pounds of muscle to his lanky frame and unlocked a wellspring of power, something that has carried over into his professional debut with wood bats. Dedelow has posted a major league all-star season. Over 100 RBI, 31 home runs, and near-three-hundred batting average. And his production in college should not be overlooked considering they played one of the toughest schedules in college baseball. According to WarrenNolan.com, Indiana had the 33^rd toughest schedule in division one, ahead of Louisville, Alabama, Stanford and Arizona. Nineteen home runs placed Dedelow second in the Big-10 behind Iowa’s Jake Adams’ staggering 29 long-balls and thrust him ahead of the rest of the conference, except Adams, of course, in total bases. The quandary Dedelow faces with the White Sox is that he must rocket through the minors to maintain himself as a prospect while leapfrogging ahead of players like Eloy Jimenez, Blake Rutherford and Micker Adolfo. Dedelow is one and-a-half years older than the average Pioneer-League player and must vault his way to Winston-Salem next season to catch pace with the school of prospects. Yet, the White Sox and Dedelow could extract value in a trade. It is too early to speculate on a package considering he has yet to play a full professional season, but his current trajectory could launch him to the big leagues at a searing clip. But all of that can wait. Right now, Dedelow will relish his All-Star season and prepare for the ride ahead. In fact, after scanning his Twitter feed, the Chicago area native might include a few Bears game in his offseason routine just to mix things up a bit. Besides, hailing Mitch Trubisky along in his rookie campaign appears natural. After all, rookies have to stick together.