White Sox say 3 candidates for No. 1 pick in MLB amateur draft - ESPN

CHICAGO — With just three days until the MLB amateur draft, the Chicago White Sox are still deciding among three players for the No. 1 pick: UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey and Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson.

«It's still a bit of an open book, but I think we all know who the candidates are here, and we're working extremely hard,» White Sox vice president of amateur scouting Mike Shirley said Wednesday. «The Cholowsky/Emerson conversation, the Vahn Lackey conversation, these are real. They are happening. They're happening up to the minute.»

Shirley made a case for all three players, citing how much Emerson closed the gap on Cholowsky during his senior year of high school while also acknowledging Cholowsky «held serve» during his junior year of college, hitting .320 with 21 home runs. Meanwhile, Lackey is a «supreme catcher who could define the position,» according to Shirley.

«It's not about what they are today,» he said. «It's about what they're going to be two to three years from now when they show up here at the major league level.»

Shirley was clear in the process that will lead to the pick, repeating general manager Chris Getz's stance that «we're taking the best player.»

«It's not about the major league team. It's not about the money,» Shirley said. «It's about who is the best player.»

It's also not about what the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players will look like in the future, either, according to Shirley. The league is proposing eliminating high school players from future drafts. The White Sox are blocking out all that outside noise, focusing on using all departments within their drafting apparatus to make the pick.

«Player development is