Mock draft season is upon us; Munetaka Murakami szn may last the entire year
Entering last Friday, the White Sox were tied for 21st in homers. After belting 16 over the course of a successful 4-2 swing through Sacramento and Arizona, they return home to Rate Field tied for fifth. White Sox fans who witnessed an 0-6 homestand the last time around are hoping they brought some of that pop back to Chicago.
A lot happened out west, starting with Munetaka Murakami tying the rookie record for most consecutive games with a homer, with Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas not far behind. A lot also happened on Sox Machine, including Josh Nelson's first mock draft of the season, and a Jeopardy! debut for a longtime Sox Machine contributor.
Continue scrolling for all the details, and as always, thanks for supporting Sox Machine.
-Jim
FEATURED STORY
By JOSH NELSON
The NFL Draft is consuming a lot of sports oxygen at the moment, but we can't let them have all the fun. This 2026 MLB Draft Report marks our first mock draft of the season. After going through this drill, a few things stood out to me about this class:
No. 1: The first 20 picks are going to be college-heavy. Last year we almost saw an even mix of prep and college players selected in the first 20 picks (nine prep, 11 college), but this mock I have five prep to 15 college player ratio.
No. 2: This class is light on premium college pitching.
No. 3: I’m pretty confident who the first five picks would be today, so the draft starts at Pick 6 with Kansas City.
No. 4: Colorado could be a wild card as they have three picks in the first 40 selections.
We’ll go through this exercise monthly to see how the MLB draft winds shift. For the moment, with the first pick overall, the Chicago White Sox select…
THE WEEK'S BIGGEST STORIES
Munetaka Murakami made national news, while a longtime Sox Machine contributor went toe-to-toe with a Jeopardy! 29-time superchampion.
By JIM MARGALUS
Pnoles made his Jeopardy! debut Thursday, and we had tons of questions for him.
By JAMES FEGAN
The guy who started the season ambushing velocity has figured out something for waiting out slower stuff.
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