{"id":930956,"date":"2026-07-13T01:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T01:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/930956\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T01:08:22","slug":"chicago-white-sox-draft-dream-come-true-for-landon-thome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/930956\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox draft: ‘Dream come true’ for Landon Thome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pitching was a priority for the Chicago White Sox during the second day of the MLB draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sox selected eight pitchers Sunday, which featured rounds 5-20.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Sox took 10 pitchers, six infielders and four outfielders and one two-way player (outfielder\/pitcher Alex Weingartner of St. Augustine (N.J.) Prep in the sixth round) with their 21 picks over the two-day event. Here are three draft takeaways.<\/p>\n

1. Saturday was a \u2018dream come true\u2019 for the Thome family.
\n\"ChicagoChicago White Sox’s Landon Thome, right, the 34th pick in the 2026 MLB draft, and his father, left, Hall of Famer Jim Thome, pose for a photo before a baseball game between the Athletics and the White Sox in Chicago, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

Infielder Landon Thome had a special guest behind the plate when he threw out a first pitch before Sunday\u2019s game at Rate Field<\/a>: his father, Jim Thome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was telling my mom and my dad that this is the first time you walk into a stadium and people know who you are other than my dad,\u201d Landon Thome said. \u201cIt was pretty awesome today, this is such a cool experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox selected the Nazareth product at No. 34 in the Competitive Balance Round A<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always able to keep it together as a player,\u201d the Hall of Famer Jim Thome said. \u201cThis is tough. This is so special. What a day, just to watch your son go through that, his name be called, it\u2019s a dream come true, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou watch them as kids. They grow up, they love the game. And then as they love the game, they go through this process of just wanting to play. And then when you are in that moment yesterday, you don\u2019t really know if that will ever happen. When it does, it\u2019s so special. It\u2019s hard to explain, but what a great moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landon Thome, 18, also called Saturday \u201ca dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been growing up coming to games here since I was a little kid,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd to be able to hear my name called by the White Sox, it\u2019s really a dream come true. I\u2019m just ready to get to work and do everything I can to help the city and help this team. I grew up wanting to put up a banner somewhere because my dad never got to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something I dream about every day, to be able to win a World Series. And especially for this city. That\u2019s the dream. That\u2019s all I can say, dreams come true. Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll remember some advice from his father as he begins this journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says, being able to put something in the basket every day, whether it\u2019s an RBI, stolen base, anything like that, and then the basket\u2019s going to fill up at the end of the year,\u201d Landon Thome said. \u201cHaving that mindset, that positive mindset going into every day, especially now going from high school to pro ball, I know I\u2019m going to fail a little bit, but being able to have that positive mindset is going to help a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. The Sox stacked up on pitchers.
\n\"GeorgiaGeorgia pitcher Joey Volchko throws during a College World Series game against Texas on Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo\/Vera Nieuwenhuis)<\/p>\n

The Sox selected college right-handed pitchers with four of their first 10 picks through the two days.<\/p>\n

Saturday, they drafted Georgia\u2019s Joey Volchko in the third round and Eric Segura of Oregon State in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Volchko, 21, went 11-2 with a 3.68 ERA and 119 strikeouts in 95 1\/3 innings over 18 starts for the Bulldogs this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a monster, big, strong, athletic, the makeup, the intelligence, the aptitude off the charts,\u201d Sox director of amateur scouting Mike Shirley said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Sunday, the Sox selected Cal Scolari from Oregon in the fifth round and Luke Craytor from Virginia Tech in the ninth.<\/p>\n

They also took college pitchers in rounds 14-16 in right-hander Isaac Yeager of Oregon State, Oklahoma lefty Cameron Johnson and right-hander Darin Horn of Coastal Carolina. And the Sox selected Indiana right-hander Jackson Bergman in the 18th round and Connor Fennell of Vanderbilt in the 20th.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo hit Cameron Johnson, that\u2019s our lottery ticket, this guy is one of the power left-handed arms in the game,\u201d Shirley said during a video conference call on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Shirley said pitcher Kyle Casteel of Butler Area High School in Pennsylvania, who the Sox selected in the 11th round, was the \u201cbig piece of the puzzle on the pitch front.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in the strikes, the stuff and the makeup,\u201d Shirley said. \u201cHe does it really easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. It was an \u2018unbelievable\u2019 couple of days for the Sox.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago White Sox 2026 draft pick Roch Cholowsky signs autographs before a game between the Athletics and the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field on July 12, 2026. (Griffin Quinn\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Shirley said the draft \u201ctruly has been unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have the first pick, experience it from start to finish, understand what that\u2019s been like, you understand the staff, how we had to deliver,\u201d Shirley said on Sunday. \u201cThere\u2019s no excuses in professional baseball, you have to deliver. I understand the scrutiny that comes with the job, did you pick the right player? And everybody has an opinion. That\u2019s the best part. But to be able to execute it, for (top pick) Roch Cholowsky to show up today and talk the way he speaks, what he believes, fortifies the decision. You understand what kind of person you\u2019re getting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cholowsky, like Thome, threw out a first pitch before Sunday\u2019s game. His catcher was Hall of Famer Harold Baines, the No. 1 draft pick by the Sox in 1977.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust these moments \u2014 Jim Thome, a Hall of Famer, getting to walk in with his son and celebrate this in that room with the dedicated staff of the Chicago White Sox that worked so hard in this draft, was a magic moment,\u201d Shirley said. \u201cJust a great day, it was the icing on the cake today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pitching was a priority for the Chicago White Sox during the second day of the MLB draft. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":930957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[374379,375403,25865,960,1274,375411,375409,375406,5386,1818,375408,375410,375405,375407,375401,375404,211663,375402],"class_list":["post-930956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-2026-mlb-draft","tag-cal-scolari","tag-cameron-johnson","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-connor-fennell","tag-darin-horn","tag-eric-segura","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-isaac-yeager","tag-jackson-bergman","tag-joey-volchko","tag-kyle-casteel","tag-landon-thome","tag-luke-craytor","tag-roch-cholowsky","tag-white-sox-prospects"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116909998800298124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}