Major League Baseball conducted the Major League phase of its Rule 5 Draft process on Thursday, and the Chicago White Sox lost right-handed pitcher Terry Doyle, who was selected by the division-rival Minnesota Twins with the second-overall pick in the major league phase of the draft.
Doyle, a 26-year old right-handed pitcher who was selected by the White Sox in the 37th round of the 2008 MLB June Amateur draft, has never pitched above AA Birmingham and finished 2011 at 8-10 with a 3.07 ERA, 6.3 SO/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in 173 innings split between High-A Winston-Salem and AA Birmingham.
Here is a scouting report on Doyle from SB Nation's White Sox blog, South Side Sox:
RHP Terry Doyle will be the lone White Sox representative at the Arizona Fall League's Rising Stars Game (live tonight on MLB Network at 7:10pm central). This game is essentially a showcase for the top talents in the AFL, as well the league's standout performers. Doyle, who just turned 26, is certainly more of the latter. Until his most recent start, he'd been pretty much unhitttable over 19.2 IP. He got beat up on Wednesday but his overall numbers remain impressive: 21.1 IP, 10 H, 4 BB, 16 K. In the very hitter friendly AFL, a 0.66 WHIP is pretty extraordinary even in that small sample size. Baseball America sums Doyle up about as well as I could: "Righthander has dominated AFL with average stuff and good pitchability."
At the moment Sox fans don't seem to be too worried about the loss.
To be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, a player cannot have been on their team's 40-man roster and must have been either (a) signed at 18 or younger and in the system for five years, or (b) signed at 19 or older and in the system for four years. All Rule 5 players must stay with their new MLB club for the entire season or be offered back to the old team.
Stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago for more information, and for in-depth analysis on the Chicago White Sox be sure to visit South Side Sox. Visit Baseball Nation for more news and notes around the league, and check out MLB Daily Dish for off-season rumors and reports.