Posted by Rob McQuown on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 10:51 am

What does Gordon Beckham have to do to earn national respect?  Sure, people know he’s pretty good.  And SOM World recently predicted he’d be the 5th-best rookie “Strat Card” to be drafted next year behind Wieters, Hanson, Neftali, and Latos.  Now, that’s good company, to be sure, but why not #1?

Pre-draft, BA wrote, “While no one questions his ability to hit, scouts are split on whether Beckham [can] stay at shortstop.” For those of you new to “scout speak”, that means he’s not a shortstop in the majors about 99% of the time. For people who don’t follow college baseball, “ability to hit” in this case means a .411/.519/.804 (89% Ct%) batting line in his final (Jr.) year at UGA, which plays in the conference that most consider the strongest in college baseball (SEC). Buster Posey won the Golden Spikes award hitting .463/.566/.879 in an easier conference. Beckham was arguably the 2nd-best college player in 2008.

So, the White Sox inked him to a deal, and gave him a taste of A-ball in 2008. Meaningless sample size that it is, hitting .300/.365/.500 in 63 PA with 7 K’s at age 21 in his first exposure to pro ball can’t be a bad thing. He started 2009 at AA (skipping high-A), and did enough to warrant a promotion to AAA. Between the two, he hit .326/.378/.526. Having impressed in spring training also, “Bacon” (as his name sounds when Ozzie Guillen says it) was called up to replace floundering Josh Fields.

Okay, 22-year-old kid, less than a year out of college, comes to the bigs… as Ozzie quipped, “If we need Bacon save us, we got problems.” But he is saving the White Sox! After warming up in June, he hit .330/.382/.526 in July. He’s hitting .300/.390/.500 in August. all the comparisons to Molitor and Sandberg suddenly don’t seem so crazy. Longoria at age 22 last year hit .272/.343/.531, for comparison.

Anyway, long story short – if he’s still available in your league, it would be a grave mistake to not pick him up this year, especially while he’s SS-eligible. And if you’re drafting keepers, there’s a lot of building evidence that he should be The Man from this rookie crop.

Starting Pitchers:

In other news, I’ve pulled into first place in the 11-team league, and am going to forego drafting Luke French today, as he’s going against the Yankees.

• Joel Pineiro (vs SD)
• Gavin Floyd (@Oak)

Batters:

• 3b/1b Casey Blake
• 3b Mike Lowell
• ss Yunel Escobar
• ss Elvis Andrus
• c Yadier Molina
• of Lastings Milledge
• of Michael Cuddyer
• 2b/3b Ian Stewart
• 2b/3b/1b Martin Prado