The White Sox draft a football player. They're due, right?

Yesterday, Sports Illustrated ranked how successful each team has been in the MLB draft over the last 10 years. It shouldn't be a huge surprise that the White Sox were placed at No. 29, ahead of only the Astros. Some of the guys they've taken this decade never even sniffed the majors (Kris Honel, Kyle McCullough), others got there and failed (Joe Borchard, Royce Ring). It looks like we'll probably be able to add three more names to the second category - Brian Anderson, Josh Fields, and Lance Broadway - sometime soon.

But what you have to remember is that all those picks came under Duane Shaffer, the former director of amateur scouting, who the Sox fired in June 2007. Since he has left, they've been pretty good.

Aaron Poreda - the Sox' first pick in 2007 - was called up yesterday, joining last year's top pick Gordon Beckham on the roster. Beckham was up in a year, Poreda in two. That's impressive by any measure, but for the White Sox it's nothing short of a miracle.

The 2009 draft was yesterday, and the Sox had five picks in the first 102. Their first selection was Jared Mitchell, a center fielder from LSU.

Here's what MLB.com says about him:

Mitchell certainly was one of the more intriguing college bats as Draft day approached. Playing for a high-powered LSU team, he showed the exciting athleticism that made him a two-sport standout, with plus speed and flashes of raw power. He's got some serious holes in his swing and, perhaps because of his split focus, he's more projection than anything else right now. Whoever takes him -- and it could be in the first round -- will likely see him as a center fielder who will steal bases and hit for power in the future.

A former football player with serious holes in his swing? Hello, Jerry Owens!

The Sox just love taking football players. Joe Borchard and Josh Fields were both big time college quarterbacks (Borchard probably would have been a first round pick had he chose football out of Stanford) who the Sox took in the first round. Borchard got a phat signing bonus and failed epically. Fields has been pretty bad this year and looks like he's losing his job to Beckham. The obvious comparison with Mitchell is Owens, who played receiver at UCLA (only missing Cade McNown by a year!). The Sox thought they could turn him into a center fielder/leadoff man too, but forgot there is more to baseball than speed (like, um, hitting). The only guy with a chance for success is Clayton Richard, who competed with Chad Henne as a freshman quarterback at Michigan. 

That's not to say I think Mitchell is a bad pick. How would I know? The MLB draft is 100x more random than its NFL and NBA counterparts, and it looks like Mitchell was taken about where he was supposed to go. It's a fine pick, in my book.

We'll end this with a tweet from Cowley, who couldn't pass up the easiest joke in the world:

Mitchell is officially the best wide receiver in the city of Chicago.

At least until the Bears sign Plaxico Burress. (Teaser! More on that soon.)

Be sure to check out SoxMachine for a good rundown of all the Sox' first day picks.