Breaking Down the Non-Roster Invitees: Chicago White Sox

The White Sox don’t have the most interesting collection of NRI’s out there, but as always, there’s a few interesting stories here, headlined by the attempted resurrection of Lastings Milledge‘s career.

We’ll also look at a former top slugging prospect and two solid arms.

RHP Brian Bruney—The hard thrower has had periods of big league effectiveness–namely 2006 and 2008–but he walked over a batter per inning with the Yankees last year as his already-substandard control slid backward. Bruney’s velocity also took a hit, dropping 2.5 mph from its 2006 height and 1.8 mph from 2009. He’s never come up with a reliable second pitch, and Bruney’s control has never been good, so he’ll need to figure something out to get his career back on track. He has to pick up his lost velocity, throw more strikes, or improve his slider if he’s going to make the Chicago roster. Perhaps the fresh start will re-energize Bruney, whose best season came after switching organizations in 2006.

OF Jordan Danks—Danks will be trying to convince Chicago coaches to give him a mulligan for an awful 2010 that saw him hit .245/.312/.373 in Triple-A while striking out over a third of the time. At 24, he isn’t particularly young, and if he ever wants to join his brother John in the majors, let alone with the White Sox, the improvements are going to need to come fast and furious.

RHP Jeff Gray—Gray’s not a particularly interesting pitcher; he’s a useful arm who’s put up good numbers in Triple-A for seemingly forever without getting much MLB play. That’s not the story here, though: the interesting thing about Gray is that the White Sox are considering moving the longtime reliever to the rotation. 29 years old, the sinkerballer does have a good fastball/slider/curve repertoire, although he barely even throws a changeup, which could be problematic in the rotation. He hasn’t started since Low-A in 2006, so it’ll be fascinating to see if he can pick up a starting gig in the Majors.

3B Dallas McPherson—The longtime Triple-A slugger and former top Angels prospect is now 30 and on his fourth organization in four years. The career .248/.298/.458 MLB hitter bashed 22 homers in 84 games with Oakland’s AAA affiliate last year, but had his usual strikeout problems (101), and recurring injury issues continued to haunt him. He’s always going to be worth a spring invite as long as he’s putting the ball over the fence with this sort of regularity, and the White Sox got just a .372 slugging percentage from their third basemen in 2010, but with Brent Morel nearly ready for the full-time gig, it’s unlikely McPherson gets a shot. If Morel struggles and McPherson impresses in camp, though, you never know…

OF Lastings Milledge—It surprised most talent evaluators that Milledge wasn’t offered a big league deal after hitting .277/.332/.380 with average defense at age 25 last year for Pittsburgh. At 26, he probably is what he is at this point: a reasonably athletic contact hitter with passable plate discipline and power, worthy of a backup or platoon job. Scouts still like his potential, and there’s a chance he could improve and become a viable starter, but in any case, he’s worthy of a big league roster spot, and Chicago did well to bring him into camp on the cheap. It will be a surprise if he doesn’t make the team.