scenario

Two Norfolk players who had multi-hit games against Charlotte today... Alex Cintron (2 hits) Luis Terrero (3 hits)

Norfolk @ Charlotte Egbert pitching Montgomery @ Birmingham Omogrosso pitching Winston-Salem @ Potomac Game Postponed Kannapolis No game tonight

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 02:44 PM) 5'9", damn. That's not bad. Brian Roberts is 5'9". So are Dustin Pedroia, Orlando Cabrera, Corey Patterson, me, and lots of other famous people. Chone Figgins is 5'8".

They don't want Danks or Buehrle to have to pitch on 3-days rest. Friday's rainout forced that situation. Ha... you put it up there while I was still typing Balta. edit: here's some additional info from whitesox.com... The other starting options for the White Sox on Wednesday would have been working John Danks or Mark Buehrle on three days' rest. Both pitchers worked in Saturday's split twinbill, but Guillen opted against using either one after a shorter break than normal. "One [has been] overused for all these years, and one is too young," said Guillen of Buehrle and Danks. "I can't take any chances. We can't take that risk. "If this game was in September, or we were in the pennant race late in the season ... we'd think about it. Right now, it's too early to make those crazy decisions."

My problem with Uribe is that he is one of the easiest outs in major league baseball. Yes he runs into a pitch every once in awhile, but players who are consistent easy outs kill scoring opportunities and handicap ballclubs. I've heard Steve Stone say a couple of times now, "If this next pitch is in the ballpark, Uribe will be swinging." Pretty much sums up my frustration watching Juan. He swings at practically anything and everything. He's kinda like the kid at the playground growing up who you just knew was going to make an out... and everyone was surprised the few times when he actually got a hit.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 12:11 PM) i just had a flashback to '07, when I kept telling myself that same thing over and over. My flashback of 2007 is picturing Andy Gonzalez playing 7 different positions for us... and leading off. That's how thin this team was due to injuries. This year, Gonzalez might not even be starting in Charlotte. Pretty much says everything somebody would need to know about why we sucked last year.

A couple of random minor league notes... Dewon Day has been pretty good so far this year. In 10 2/3 innings, he's given up 2 earned runs, striking out 10 and walking only 2, for a 1.69 ERA. If he develops control, he could turn out to be useful. Now that Wasserman has been called up, it looks like Adam Russell is going to get a shot as Charlotte's closer. So far this year Russell has a 2.00 ERA: 9 innings; 2 runs; 10 strikeouts; 4 walks. The #1-2-3 starters at Kannapolis (Carter, Shirek, and Rice) have a combined 71 strikeouts vs. 13 walks so far. Kannapolis closer Henry Mabee has a 0.69 ERA: 13 innings; 1 earned run; 14 strikeouts; 4 walks; and a 1.00 WHIP. Logan Johnson has the 5th highest OPS in the South Atlantic League (.995).

Durham pounded Charlotte 11-4. Charlie Haeger got lit up like a Christmas tree in 4 2/3 innings: 9 runs on 9 hits + 6 walks. Birmingham beat Montgomery 4-0. A nice outing for Carlos Torres: 6 innings; 0 runs; 2 hits; 6 K's; and 2 BB's. Schnurstein hit a 3-run homer to provide the offense. Winston-Salem lost 6-3 to Wilmington. Rasner pitched. No performances worth noting. Kannapolis won 2-0 over Lake County in the completion of last night's suspended game. Anthony Carter with another great start. Logan Johnson with a 2-run homerun. Kannapolis was supposed to have another game but it was postponed due to rain.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 27, 2008 -> 11:41 AM) Agreed about Dotel. I wouldn't be surprised if he were eventually released and Mac were brought back up for mop-up duty. No chance. There are $11 million reasons they won't release him. Besides, mechanically he is MUCH more sound than Mac. So, the likelihood of Dotel finding his control is much higher. I bet he figures it out pretty soon and becomes a major part of our pen.

Wassermann has gone 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA (7.2 IP) and six saves in eight relief appearances with Charlotte this season. He ranks third in the International League in saves and has not allowed a base hit this season (24 batters faced). (0 hits and 3 walks in 7.2 innings = 0.38 WHIP) MacDougal is 0-0 with a 2.08 ERA (2 ER/8.2 IP) and eight hits allowed in eight relief appearances with the White Sox this season. The right-hander also walked seven and registered seven strikeouts. (Eight hits and 7 walks in 8.2 innings = 1.73 WHIP)

Good info. Thanks. I wish there was better communication through the Sox organization about the status/health of minor league players. Sometimes finding out what's going on with guys is pretty difficult.

Pitching duel going on in the Kanny game. 0-0 at the end of 5. Carter has given up only two hits. Struck out 4 and walked none so far. The game is currently being delayed by rain.

CJ Retherford heating up for W-S. Third consecutive multiple hit game tonight... third consecutive game with a homerun. Average on the season up to .310 Starting to look like he did at Great Falls last year. Very nice.

I feel like I'm becoming the official apologist for McCulloch. Yeah, that was not a good game for him, but let's see what's going wrong to determine if he's broken or fixable. If you break down McCulloch's games, he's had 3 good starts and two bad starts. In the two bad starts, he had one bad inning in each: - April 10th, he gave up 5 of his 6 runs; and 5 of his 9 hits; in one inning - April 25th, he gave up 4 of his 5 runs; and 5 of his 8 hits; in one inning So... he's given up 15 runs all year. 9 of them in two innings. He's given up 26 hits in 26 innings, but 10 of those hits in his two bad innings. Meanwhile in his 3 good starts, he's gone an average of 5 2/3 innings, only given up an average of 3 hits, and less than 2 runs per game. He's not having bad games. He's had a couple of bad innings. And that's all. Sounds fixable to me.

Here's the way the Charlotte game closed out tonight... Durham Top 9th Pitcher Change: Ehren Wassermann replaces Rob Bell. John Rodriguez strikes out swinging. Josh Johnson strikes out swinging. Fernando Perez strikes out swinging. Charlotte won 5-2.

Interesting. I would have thought they'd bring Shelby up for a week and see how he looked against AA pitching.

Oops. Just noticed this was a duplicate thread. Feel free to delete. I did add links to the box scores in here and game notes, if you want to transfer those to the other thread. ------------------------------------------------------------ Edit: Thanks for moving the post.

Durham @ Charlotte Whisler pitching Charlotte up 5-2 after 3 innings. Eldred, Fields, and Rouse with homeruns. Montgomery @ Birmingham McCulloch pitching Game Notes (pdf) Winston-Salem @ Wilmington Ely pitching Lake County @ Kannapolis Rice pitching Game Notes (pdf)

Thanks for pointing out the book. Looks like an interesting read.

Here's a link to a page on baseballreference.com that lists MLB teams and their all-time records. http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/

QUOTE (DBAH0 @ Apr 24, 2008 -> 07:49 AM) I mean we took Josh Fields at #18 the previous draft, and he's certainly a much better prospect than Broadway. Hindsight is wonderful. But Broadway was one of three finalists for the two top pitching awards in college baseball, along with Luke Hochevar and Cesar Carrillo. I think it was pretty clear he was going to be a relatively high first round pick, while some of the other players from that draft class who have succeeded were not.

Rasners not doing doing favors for hitters Cousins Darrell and Jacob Rasner dominate in their respective shutout victories An article from mlb.com http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/ar...sp&sid=l122

QUOTE (DBAH0 @ Apr 23, 2008 -> 10:35 PM) That has been an issue for him in the past IIRC. His control was only a problem last year when they had him spend the entire season learning a 2-seam fastball. Except for 2007, he's been an extreme control pitcher (about 2.5 BB/9) http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/L...-Broadway.shtml And so far this year... 2.57 BB/9 Somebody with that type of control and pitches that move is going to get a shot somewhere. And he has great late movement on his pitches.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 23, 2008 -> 10:20 PM) 89 mph fastball and a TERRIBLE Bulls hitting team. Joel Guzman is quite the bust. So, the reason he did well is only because Durham sucks. OK... what about his last 3 starts where he gave up a total of 2 earned runs? They didn't all suck. One game was an 8-inning start against 1st place Scranton? (Scranton is second in both OBP and SLG in the entire International League.) He doesn't need a blazing fastball to be a starter. With the late movement he has on his pitches, if he shows good command he could start. There are alot of starters in MLB I can think of who are similar.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 23, 2008 -> 09:51 PM) Someone who's at the game surrounding by scouts (he said there were more scouts than usual at the game tonight). LOL. I always love guy at the ballpark evaluations. Any reasons stated or just didn't like him? Anything that would invalidate what we saw when he was called up last year? 14 K's; 5 BB's; in 10 innings with a very solid start.