scenario

Charlotte @ Buffalo Charlie Haeger (1-3, 7.34) on the mound, looking for rebound from a disastrous start last time out. Mobile @ Birmingham JCassel (1-1, 1.75) with the start for the Barons. Wilmington @ Winston-Salem Jacob Rasner (2-1, 1.71) starting. Shelby back in the lineup tonight. Kannapolis @ Lakewood Anthony Carter (3-0, 1.61) gets the start. On the season, in 28 innings (5 starts), Carter has struck out 29 and walked 4. Teams in the Sally League are hitting .168 against him.

Jason Rice rebounded decently after a rough first inning in a 6-3 win for Kannapolis. 5 players for Kanny had multiple hit games. And check out the reliever numbers. Setup man Levi Maxwell went 2 innings for the hold: 0 runs, 0 hits. 3 K's, no BB's. Closer Henry Mabee went 2 innings for the save: 0 runs, 0 hits, 4 K's, no BB's. On the season Maxwell's ERA is now 0.49; Mabee's ERA is now 0.60.

I'd like to hear his perspective on the difference between the pitchers in the Sally and the Carolina League... big difference? Little difference? Anything in particular stand out about difference is their stuff?

A note on the new Kanny shortstop... Luis Sierra. He was pencilled in at leadoff tonight. Singled in his first at-bat. Stole second. And stole third. Interesting. Did a little searching and can't find much on him other than what's listed at the milb.com link.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 1, 2008 -> 03:26 PM) Not bloody likely for McCulloch. One can't throw the same pitch over and over and expect to get guys out, he isn't Brandon Webb. Explain more JPN! You've seen him... what is his pitch repertoire? Are you only seeing one or two pitches thrown consistently?

I'm impressed that Poreda hasn't given up a walk in his last two outings. It would be nice to see him start striking more people out though... and giving up a few less base hits. He's giving up over a hit per inning and he's not the kind of guy I'd expect to be a "pitch to contact" pitcher. It's resulted in him having to pitch out of several jams. So... Poreda has a good ERA but he clearly hasn't dominated this year yet. Rice's peripherals are better, even if his ERA is a little higher.

Sort of sad to think that the four pitchers we have going today have one win between them.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 1, 2008 -> 11:54 AM) If Buehrle gets hit around, you leave him in there until he throws 110-120 pitches. And then you tell him to start throwing with his right hand. If the Sox are down by 9, they odds of them coming back are like 50:1; you may as well just throw Buehrle until he's fatigued and let him get through 5-6 innings, even if he gives up 12 runs. Past that, there will always be a starter who is on his throwing day - have him come in and get some work done in the game rather than on the side. Not really a huge deal if you ask me. What you're saying makes sense, but according to Reinsdorf it sounds like they're calling up a pitcher anyway. BTW - congrats on your 18,000th post!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 1, 2008 -> 10:28 AM) With an off day today that rests the bullpen, it makes very little sense to bring up another pitcher just to serve as a long man for 1-2 games. Especially with Buehrle going in game 1. So... let's say Buehrle gets hit around tomorrow night. Not a scenario that's completely unbelievable. Let's say he get's bounced in the third inning, or even the second... who comes in? Masset on one day of rest after a start... and expected to cover multiple innings? Probably not. It's easy to imagine, if this situation were to occur, that the Sox could use 4 relievers to cover the remainder of the game. So... how much risk are you willing to take that they potentially burn the entire bullpen in the first game of a series? Because they can't cover a failed start? IMO, it makes perfect sense to bring up a pitcher (one capable of going multiple innings) for 4 days to prevent that type of situation from happening. It's a short-term insurance policy - plain and simple.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 1, 2008 -> 10:31 AM) You are saying you think they'll carry 13 pitchers? And only 3 bench guys? I think that's highly unlikely, especially if PK is sore. Didn't JR say on the Mike North show that a pitcher is being called up? I thought the only question was 'who?'.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 1, 2008 -> 10:09 AM) I'm not sure it'll be Broadway.... Toma Ohka has been starting. Last started 4/26 and had a solid outing and has ML experience so who knows. Good point. Forgot about Broadway's start. I don't think Ohka is on the 40-man, so I doubt it would be him.

I'd put the odds of seeing Fields at 2B as only slightly better than winning the Lotto.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 1, 2008 -> 09:44 AM) But it's just to cover our asses during the Toronto series if we need a long man. It's not supposed to be permanent at least not at this point. Exactly. Whoever is being brought up is probably only here until Tuesday, not long term. Given that... it makes more sense to bring up a pitcher since our long reliever is coming off a spot start and may have limited availability the next few days. I'd guess Broadway will get a few days in Canada and then be sent back to Charlotte.

Here's a player who was in the lineup tonight for Kanny that I'm not familiar with... Luis Sierra - a 20-year old shortstop We just promoted him to Kanny. Played in the Dominican Summer League last year. Hit pretty well. Anybody know anything else about him?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 30, 2008 -> 05:34 PM) He was pulled for precautionary measures after a hard slide. The hard slide was in the first inning. They pulled him out six innings later. So, I don't think the slide had alot to do with it. http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune....rez-likely.html

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 30, 2008 -> 05:42 PM) A guy with Fields swing would be brutal off the bench. Not to mention that it's a horrible move for his personal development. I don't see him being a typical off-the-bench player. They could give him enough at-bats in a rotation resting Crede, Konerko, and Thome to keep him pretty active. And why would this be horrible for his personal development? Does he have something left to prove in AAA? I don't think he's going to be worse off working with major league coaches on fielding drills than our minor league coaches.

The more I think about it, the more I believe we could see Fields recalled in the near future. We've got 4 outfielders + Ozuna can play corner in a pinch. And we don't need two backup second basemen. Sending Alexei down and bring up Fields would give us alot more power coming off the bench. Plus it would give us an option for resting Paulie and Thome without losing too much punch from the lineup.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 30, 2008 -> 09:50 AM) They actually lost 3-2, but still, that is something you don't see every day!!! Interesting... the box score last night showed 3-0. Hmmm... I think the data on the milb.com scoreboard isn't in sync. Some parts update before others. The pitching data seems to update first. Then the inning by inning recap. Then the boxscore and scoring. It couldn't have been me screwing up. It must the system. Yeah, that's it.

QUOTE (Chet Lemon @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 07:36 PM) The 0BB over 8 innings really jumps out at me. I remember last year he was walking a lot of guys. Last year, the Sox told him during spring training that they wanted him to add a new pitch to his repertoire. It took him awhile to gain command over it. That's why his walks were uncharacteristically high. He really is a control pitcher... a career average of about 2.5 BB/9

Kannapolis leading 2-0 in the 5th... http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...kanafx_lwdafx_1 Kanny took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th and lost.

Quite a pitching battle going in Game One of the Warthog doubleheader.. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...wswafa_potafa_1 Michael Dubee lost a complete game 1-0. Tough way to lose. W-S only got two hits. In Game Two... GET THIS... Three Warthog pitchers combined on a NO-HITTER and the Warthogs still lost 3-0. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...wswafa_potafa_2

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 03:24 PM) He was just doin' a friend a solid. I think 3 of the 5 hits Lance gave up today were to Cintron and Terrero.

The one run that Broadway gave up today was a homerun to Alex Cintron.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 02:44 PM) I'm always a bit skeptical of Lance Broadway since he can only average 4.5 to 5 K/9 against AAA hitters. I'm assuming you're talking about his K/9 this year... that's a sample size of 5 games. Last year in a full season of AAA (26 games) his K/9 was 6.27. And so far, his minor league average is 6.88 So, it's likely as the season goes on, he trends back to those numbers, rather than staying between 4-5.

Birmingham won 4-0. The pitching was good obviously, particularly Brian Omogrosso who threw 6 innings of shutout ball to lower his ERA to 1.59