scenario

Hurt in his final at-bat in a meaningless end of season AAA game. Great. Add him to the list of wounded. I think somebody up in Minneapolis has a WhiteSox voodoo doll.

I'm not sure what you have a problem with in my comment. You said Charlie Haeger was one of our top pitching prospects in a lousy system. Two years ago this was true. Today it is not. The Sox have done a good job of drafting pitchers the last two years, and a few other guys from previous drafts have stepped up and shown promise. As a result, the quality of pitching in our system has improved significantly and Charlie has slipped down the prospect depth chart. Bottom line: If the Sox still thought Haeger was one of their top pitching prospects they would not have DFA'd him. Pretty simple.

Prognosis for Konerko positive

Start? LOL. There have been people on here panicking for months. Every game we lose there are people bungee-jumping off of ledges. I'm sure the usual suspects will be lining up.

I'm getting tired of staring at the 67 cent slider on Comcast. Anyone able to see the game on TV?

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 9, 2008 -> 06:48 PM) Blue Jays are close to having 4 homers so far. Thome was close to having two homers in the first game. Long outs... and that's it.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 9, 2008 -> 06:08 PM) Those are probably the same people who let Hawk tell them who's good and who's not good. Bunting in the AL is just stupid, especially given the state of our pitching staff the last few months. I don't think bunting in the AL is stupid. But I think asking guys to bunt who continually prove they can't is extremely stupid.

QUOTE (Sox It To Em @ Sep 9, 2008 -> 02:08 PM) Harden is a FA? I don't think so. I think he has one more year on his contract. Edit: You were quicker on the trigger shipps.

Thought it was worth commenting on this where most people would see it. Great Falls (the Sox advanced rookie league club) is going to the Pioneer League finals for the second year in a row. Is this a big deal? It's only rookie ball, right? Well, consider that the core of last year's GF team skipped a level and played in Winston-Salem this year... and went to the Carolina League playoffs. (Three Sox farm clubs made the playoffs in their respective leagues this year.) If you follow the minors it's pretty clear that teams that consistently have minor league clubs in the playoffs are the ones thought of as having good farm systems. I think it's fair to say that a consistent high level of play is a good sign that our minor league talent has improved significantly and that overall our system is turning the corner. (Add GBeck and Danks for a full season next year and things look even better.) Three Great Falls pitchers finished 1, 2, 3 in strikeouts in the league: Daniel Hudson, Dexter Carter, and Kevin Skogley. GF also finished a close second to the Angels farm club in team ERA. The Angels team has been in the finals 6 of the last 8 years... and might be our competition again this year. The league championship starts on Wednesday in Great Falls. More info will be posted in the FutureSox forum.

Pronk powers Aeros into Eastern League (AA) finals Something I just don't like about this. Having a major league player as a ringer for AA playoffs, even if it is a rehab assignment, just smacks of abusing the rules IMO. If I were the players or management on the other team, I'd be pissed. You spend a whole season trying to get into the playoffs against other AA players and then the other team pulls something like this... putting an MLB player on the club just for the playoffs. Doesn't seem fair to me.

Voyagers return to Pioneer League Finals 09/07/2008 11:57 PM ET MLB.com Dan Hudson struck out seven over 6 2/3 innings and Johny Celis homered Sunday as the Great Falls Voyagers advanced to the Pioneer League Championship Series with an 8-3 triumph over the Billings Mustangs at Centene Stadium. Hudson (1-0) allowed three runs on five hits without a walk as Great Falls swept the best-of-3 series. Penn State product Drew O'Neil recorded the final five outs to pick up the save. The Voyagers await the winner of the Orem-Ogden series in next week's Finals. Great Falls fell to Orem in last year's championship series. Celis went 2-for-4 with a solo shot in the second off Mustangs starter Oscar Castro. Great Falls took the lead in the fourth when Tyler Kuhn hit an RBI single and Mike Grace followed with a run-scoring double. Lee Fishcer added a two-run double for the Voyagers. Billings had taken a 2-0 lead in the second on run-scoring hits from Dave Sappelt and Mike Konstanty. Jose Gualdron added a sacrifice fly in the second. Dan Zeffiro (0-1) allowed three runs -- two earned -- on four hits over two innings. Castro was charged with three runs on five walks in 3 1/3 frames.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Sep 7, 2008 -> 09:07 AM) i think he has a point...knuckle ballers are an entirely different entity than normal ptichers....they take longer to develop and their metrics appear to not follow the same rules as normal pitchers.. i dont think it would have hurt to have haeger around for a little while longer My point was that Haeger was one of our top pitching prospects two years ago. Right now he's not even in the top 10 pitchers in our system.

Cassel Earns Southern League ERA Title

Warthogs lose to Myrtle Beach and lose the series 3 games to 1 Barons lose to Mississippi getting swept in their series. Great Falls and Billings playing game 1 of their series tonight GF ahead 2-1 in the 6th inning

QUOTE (Baines3 @ Sep 2, 2008 -> 01:31 AM) That's ashame. I hope somebody picks him up. Looks like Philly signed him.

QUOTE (Jeremy @ Sep 6, 2008 -> 06:14 PM) Well, I disagree that calling up Bourgeois is the big story here. Cutting lose one of the best pitching prospects in our (admittedly horrible) farm system seems like a pretty big deal to me. Charlie is more accomplished at his age than all but a few other knuckle ball pitchers in the history of the game; he'll stick with a major league club eventually. It blows my mind that we'd DFA him to free up a spot on the 40 man while holding on to garbage like Lucas Harrell. I think your knowledge of our farm system is about 2 years out of date.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 5, 2008 -> 09:48 PM) Sox dugout laughing at Wises' pain. Foul ball in the nads. Nailed with a pitch in his hamstring. Bad day at the office.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Sep 5, 2008 -> 06:32 PM) He can rise to the occasion in LF. Or, how about he loses 20 pounds of ass/gut fat? It couldn't hurt his speed. I honestly believe Guillen just doesn't understand the significance of defense. If he didn't understand the significance of defense, why would he have played Uribe so much these last couple of years?

This may not seem logical... but I think it's because they believe Griffey will rise to the occasion. That a combination of pride, desire, and adrenaline will help him peak in this last month. And that they're banking on his experience and instincts in CF taking over as part of that process. Again... may not seem 'logical'... but if it works, I'd give KW and Ozzie bonus points for understanding how to tap into a player's psyche.

Cassel Earns League ERA Title 09/03/2008 3:19 PM ET MLB.com MARIETTA, Ga. - The Southern League announced Wednesday that Birmingham Barons right-hander Justin Cassel has earned the Southern League's ERA Award after posting a circuit-best 3.11 mark this season. The 24-year-old went 10-4 in 28 starts this year to anchor the Birmingham pitching staff, which collected a league-best 3.70 ERA as a group. Cassel finished the regular season tied for third in the league in victories and tossed the third-most innings (165) of any pitcher. He has been named the starter for Birmingham's first playoff game against Mississippi this Thursday. A native of Los Angeles, Cassel emerged as the anchor of the Birmingham pitching staff this season. He has tossed a team-high 18 quality starts (six or more innings, three or less earned runs allowed) and was one of six Barons selected to play in the Southern League's midseason All-Star game, in which he tossed a scoreless inning. Over a span of nine starts from early June until mid-July, he went 4-0 with a 2.09 ERA. Cassel, a seventh-round pick by the White Sox in 2006, also tallied an impressive 24.1-inning stretch from April 11 to May 7 where he allowed just two unearned runs. In the middle of that span, he threw seven shutout innings in a win over Mobile on May 2 and racked up a career-high nine strikeouts in the process. He was named the Southern League Pitcher of the Week for his efforts in the victory.

Nice article on the eve of the Pioneer League playoffs... Voyagers bring knockout punch to postseason 09/05/2008 10:00 AM ET By Bryan Smith / MLB.com It's going to click, Jerry Meyers would always tell right-handed phenom Dexter Carter. How could it not? Carter is 6-foot-6, a fantastic raw athlete and capable of throwing a baseball in the mid-90s. However, height and velocity do not guarantee success, and in two years under Meyers at Old Dominion University, it did not click for Carter. Entering his junior season, expectations were never higher for Carter and the ODU Monarchs. The team would finish 25-27. Carter would finish his last college season with a 8.76 ERA, issuing nearly a walk per inning. But while tools don't always translate to results, they certainly are always noticed. So despite his junior-season struggles, the Chicago White Sox drafted Carter and his big fastball in the 13th round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft. Since then? "I think everything started clicking for me," said Carter, reiterating that his success validates his college coach's longtime predictions. Carter finished his first pro summer as a Pioneer League All-Star, leading the league with a 2.23 ERA. However, the most glaring statistic -- for Carter and for the Great Falls Voyagers as a whole -- might be that Carter has struck out 89 batters in 68 2/3 innings. The Voyagers, who have one regular-season game remaining, will likely finish the season with the top three strikeout artists in the league in their rotation. Carter joined Kevin Skogley (88 strikeouts) and Daniel Hudson (a league-leading 90) atop the leader board. Joining Hudson on top is the icing on the cake, as Hudson was Carter's teammate for two seasons at Old Dominion. After the two struggled together in the Colonial Athletic Association all spring, thriving in the Pioneer League all summer was excellent, even if Carter finishes behind him in strikeouts. "We made a joke about [strikeouts] the other day, it's definitely a friendly competition," Carter said. "We've known each other for a long time, because we played baseball together in Virginia growing up. We're living together now. It's fun." The two have made big changes since struggling in the spring, as they are certainly the driving influences in Great Falls' playoff run. Carter made a commitment to throw across his body less, and his command improved immediately, with his walk rate dropping from once per inning to about once every three. He also has a new, aggressive approach that has been the driving influence in his strikeout numbers. "Just try to put batters away," Carter explains. "It's just like a boxing match. You want to throw the first punch, then you want to throw the second punch. If you get the second punch thrown, it's pretty much a knockout." While Great Falls certainly has its fair share of punch-outs this season, their dangerous pitching staff should be a useful knockout tool in the playoffs.

Mississippi @ Birmingham Poreda pitching Myrtle-Beach @ Winston-Salem Santeliz with the start

Billings Mustangs (41-31) vs. Great Falls Voyagers (38-36) Best-of-3 series begins Saturday, Sept. 6 The Voyagers had some work to do in the second half, finishing the first half in third place in the North Division, a game behind the Helena Brewers. The team got there with a 17-13 August, as the pitching staff got hot to the tune of a 3.42 ERA (and more than a strikeout per inning). However, even through a somewhat lackluster August, the story of this division all season has been the Billings Mustangs and their big offense. While Great Falls will be looking to get back to the championship and avenge last season's defeat against the Orem Owlz, Billings is looking for their first finals appearance since 2004, and their first championship since 2003. HEAD-TO-HEAD You'd be hard pressed to find things more even than the clubs have played this season, splitting the 16-game regular season. The Voyagers outscored Billings by 11 runs in those games, holding the Mustangs to just about four per game. In fact, Great Falls proved to be one of the league's only teams that could contain the Billings offense, holding it to a mere .238 average. Billings pitchers did their part to stay matched, holding the Voyagers to a .716 OPS. If the trend continues, and the series proves to be more about pitching than hitting, Great Falls will have their share of arms to throw at the Mustangs. The aforementioned Dexter Carter will certainly be salivating at a chance to face Billings for a sixth time, as he's allowed the league rival just one earned run in 22 1/3 innings. However, the Mustangs won't be outdone too easily, as both Jamie Arneson (2-0, 1.64) and Lance Janke (1-0, 3.27) have had success against the Voyagers this season. Offensively, Great Falls' focus will be on stopping David Sappelt, one of the few remaining hitters who has given the staff fits. Sappelt hit .362 in 13 games against the Voyagers this season, with eight extra-base hits and 10 runs scored. On the other side, the leader of the Voyagers offense, shortstop Tyler Kuhn, will certainly be expected to lead here, as Kuhn hit .404 against Billings this season. PLAYERS TO WATCH Billings: The Mustangs had one of the league's best players in Neftali Soto, only for awhile, as Soto's success was met with a promotion to the Midwest League. The team also hoped that Reds first-rounder Yonder Alonso would join the team, but he was sent to Sarasota instead. So while the current prospect landscape isn't as fruitful as it could've been, there is still a lot of talent. Infielder Alex Buchholz has picked up the slack in Soto's absence, batting .400 average in 33 games. The power comes from first baseman Michael Konstanty, who has 25 extra-base hits and 10 home runs in 51 games. The outfield is also dangerous with Tyler Stovall (.463 SLG), David Sappelt (.509 SLG) and Byron Wiley (.635 SLG). The pitching staff is led most by a diverse bullpen, though despite his troubles, starter Clayton Shunick (1-4, 8.45) is the team's highest Draft pick, selected in the fifth round this June. Great Falls: There might be no tougher assignment in a short three-game series than the Voyagers, who will likely toss the league's three best strikeout artists at the Mustangs. Dexter Carter is second in the race with 89 strikeouts, but his 2.23 ERA leads the league. Daniel Hudson was the highest Draft pick, struck out the most hitters and probably has the best stuff. But don't sleep on Kevin Skogley, who matches his strikeout-per-inning rate with a 2.24 groundout-to-flyout ratio. In Draft pedigree, reliever Drew O'Neil (fourth round) becomes one to watch, though the right-hander has had his struggles (6.97 ERA) this season. Offensively, it's the Tyler Kuhn show, as the shortstop guides the offense. Kuhn is hitting .378 with a .429 on-base percentage and a .568 slugging percentage in his first summer out of West Virginia, showing fabulous gap power. He'll be flanked by Kyle Shelton (.290 AVG) of the NCAA runner-up UNC Tar Heels and catcher Mike Grace, who leads the team with 13 home runs.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Sep 5, 2008 -> 03:02 PM) Here is the story from the Sun-Times. Obviously, one of the Sox players told Cowley that CQ punched a locker. I fear that's what really happened. BY JOE COWLEY Staff Reporter Carlos Quentin's season appears to be over as the White Sox left fielder and MVP candidate suffered a fractured right wrist that will require surgery Monday, according to sources. It's not certain how Quentin suffered the injury, but speculation is he punched a locker in Boston. He was a late scratch before Monday's game in Cleveland and hasn't played since. Typical Cowley... feeding the rumor mill. Might have helped if he looked at a boxscore before he wrote it. Quentin was NOT a scratch before Monday's game. He played Monday and went 0-4. He hasn't played since then but he was in the lineup for the first Cleveland game.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Sep 5, 2008 -> 02:35 PM) Sun Times says he punched a locker in Boston. Tribune says it happened on a swing and a miss against Cliff Lee. MLB.com says it happened in the Cleveland game on Monday, but doesn't describe how it happened.