Are Sox eyeing college arm with No. 8 overall draft pick?

With the No. 8 overall pick in Monday's draft, the White Sox select ... a college pitcher?

"It looks like it," said Doug Laumann, the Sox' director of amateur scouting. "The strength in the draft right now is that. There's only a few premium college position players in the draft and I think we completely anticipate that they're going to be probably gone before we pick at eight.

"Ultimately, I think our player is probably going to end up being a college pitcher, but we're prepared in case one of those guys falls to us."

With four left-handers in their starting rotation, the White Sox are likely to draft a right-handed college pitcher. The best bets are Vanderbilt's Carson Fulmer and UC Santa Barbara's Dillon Tate.

"We've gone through a bunch of them," Laumann said. "Probably 20, 25 of them and ultimately it keeps coming back to about two or three guys, and more likely it will be one of those two or three guys that we end up with."

The Sox desperately need help at catcher, and Tyler Stephenson, a high school star from Georgia, might be tempting if he's still available.

"He's a big, strong, talented kid and we've got him up on our board," said Laumann, who saw Stephenson play in Atlanta a few weeks ago. "We've heard rumors of No. 1 all the way down in the 20s somewhere. You never know. We'll see where he falls. He's in play on our board and we'll just see where he ends up."

Lukewarm Melky:

Batting .197 over his last 27 games and just .080 (4-for-50) from the right side on the season, switch-hitting left fielder Melky Cabrera was held out of the starting lineup Saturday night.

"Just giving him a breather," manager Robin Ventura said. "He doesn't necessarily want to be out, but I think one day is important for him just to watch and take a breather and he'll back in there tomorrow."

While he is struggling hitting right-handed, Cabrera is not going to start swinging exclusively from the left side.

"Even though the numbers don't look right, you want him to find it on that side more than you want him to swing left-handed," Ventura said.

Jones update:

After having Tommy John elbow surgery on July 29 last year, White Sox reliever Nate Jones was hoping to be back around the all-star break.

He looks to be right on schedule.

Jones threw two simulated games last week and is getting closer to being ready for a minor league rehab assignment.

"He continues to progress," manager Robin Ventura said. "Things are going well, no setbacks. In everything he's done, he's checked all those points off that you need to get to and he'd be a nice guy to have."