scenario

QUOTE (danman31 @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 09:10 PM) Shirek is dominating low-A ball like a major conference college pitcher should. Dominating A-ball just the way a pitcher selected in the 23rd round should, eh? He's right at the average age for pitchers in the league. Where he's been shouldn't make a difference at this point.

Michael Dubee came back from a bad 1st inning and put together a pretty nice outing for W-S. Went 7 innings for the win.

Chris Getz starting to put it together at Charlotte. 3 for 4 tonight. Has a 7 game hitting streak going raising his BA over .300 on the season.

Lee Cruz on fire for W-S. 10-22 over his last 6 games.

Boxscore Links Charlotte Might not want to check this one. It's not pretty. We're losing 8-1 in the 4th. Birmingham Cole Armstrong hit a 3-run homer in the 2nd to give Egbert some run support. Winston-Salem Big 6-run 3rd inning for Kanny in support of Dubee. CJ Retherford got a double and a single in the same inning!!! Kannapolis Charlie Shirek throws another BEAUTY. 7 innings; 4 hits; 7 strikeouts; no walks. Lowers his season ERA to 0.38

Depth is a very good thing. Keep Owens. We wouldn't get much for him in trade anyway. I hope he rakes in Charlotte, and if (God forbid) someone gets hurt, then at least we'll have a decent outfield reserve to call on.

I assume this is like a rehab assignment for him... going back to AA for a start or two.

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 11:44 PM) What has been up with Wes Whisler lately? I'm not sure he's pitching great... but he's not giving up alot of runs. For example, his WHIP is 1.38. He's only struck out 5 guys (and he's walked 5) in 16 2/3 innings. Can't knock him for the results, but I'd feel more confident that it might continue if those stats improved.

Records as of today: Charlotte 8-6 Birmingham 9-5 (1st place in Southern League south division) Winston-Salem 4-6 Kannapolis 7-8

Charlotte scores 5 in the 8th and ends up winning in a blowout 10-2. Owens got 3 hits. Fields got 2 hits. All the pitchers did well: Whisler, Day, Oneli P, and Wasserman combined for 8 strikeouts and 2 walks. Birmingham wins 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th on an RBI double by Schnurstein. Fernando Hernandez picks up the win in relief. Winston-Salem loses 7-2. Kanny loses 4-2.

Updates... Charlotte winning 4-2 after 6 innings. Lucy with a 3-run homer for the Knights. Another nice outing for Whisler. Birmingham up 2-0 after 3 innings. Torres on a roll with 6 strikeouts. W-S losing 6-2 in the 8th. Brooks got roughed up for 5 runs in 4 innings. Kanny losing 4-2 after 7 innings. Starter JLo gave up all 4 runs in his 4 innings on the mound.

Scranton @ Charlotte. Wes Whisler on the mound Mississippi @ Birmingham Carlos Torres with the start for the Barons Frederick @ Winston-Salem Richard Brooks pitching for W-S. Kannapolis @ Augusta JLowe on the mound for Kanny

I don't know where this thread belongs, but the video is hilarious and worth watching. "STOLEN-BASE CHALLENGE | In 2007, White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski threw out only 16 percent of attempted base stealers. How many times will he throw out a 39-year-old sportswriter?" Article Link The video is 10 minutes long, but it's worth it. Cowley is miked up and attempting to steal against AJ... and you get to see and hear the entire thing as he tries it 10 times. I laughed through most of it.

Pros & cons of eliminating baseball's anti-trust exemption Pros & cons of paying college athletes for participation in sports: (colleges providing some small amounts of cash in addition to tuition to help avoid challenges created by financial hardship... to keep student/athletes in college... cut boosters and other forms of temptation out of the process... that sort of thing)

I hope Owens has an outstanding year.... in Charlotte. It amazes me that despite the mountains of evidence piled up in the last 20 year that steals do not correlate to wins... and that OBP does... that some people still feel the need for a 'steals guy' at the top of the order. Swisher is the perfect prototype of the modern leadoff guy. And the Sox would be stupid if they move him from that role.

Not a good night for Charlie Haeger... 5 innings; 6 runs; on 7 hits; 2 strikeouts; and 7 walks. Seven walks!! Ouch. So much for his improved control this year.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 08:03 PM) he kinda came outta no where didn't he? Funny how that happens in A-ball. DLS came out of nowhere about this time last year too. That's one of the things I love about the low minors. There's always a few surprises each year.

GREAT outing for Anthony Carter tonight! 6 innings; 0 runs; 2 hits; 8 strikeouts; only 1 walk. Game still in progress although he's done for the night. Including this performance, here's Carter's season statline: 18 innings; 3 runs; 9 hits; 22 strikeouts; 3 walks 1.50 ERA; 0.75 WHIP; K/9 = 11

Also... Poreda is very lucky his first start got suspended mid-game due to a power outage. He was on the verge of getting blown out in the 3rd inning, when the power went out. (Had already given up 3 runs on 7 hits; the other team had the bases loaded with no outs; and he was struggling with control.) That game hasn't shown up on his record. If it had, his ERA wouldn't be looking very good.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 02:21 PM) Good to see 3 significant (and perhaps 2 of the most significant) pitchers in our farm system off to good starts, hopefully they keep it up tonight. As for McCulloch, oy vey. McCulloch's first start was very good. He went 5 innings, gave up 2 runs on 3 hits, struck out 4, and walked 0. In his second start, he got slapped around for 9 hits in 5 innings. But most of the damage (5 of the 6 runs he gave up) was done in one inning where he gave up 5 hits and the only two walks he's had this year. So... outside of that one inning... he's been pretty good. Of course, my history of saying good things about players suggests that he'll get killed tonight... probably won't make it out of the first inning. LOL.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 12:33 PM) I've seen him make one start this year, and a handful last season. He hasn't gone past 5 innings. He's gotten lit up in all but one of the starts. None of the tangible stuff seems to be an issue. I don't think he's ready for the Southern League. The jury's still out, but I don't think he'll turn out to be any good. Plus he's kind of a d**k. I've had some conversations with a guy from Texas on another board who's met Kyle several times. Says Kyle works at baseball camps for kids and helped teach his son to pitch. Says he's a great guy. Could be that he's just struggling with the adjustment since his promotion late last season. He looked pretty good in the Carolina league where he won Pitcher of the Week 3 times. Of the 17 different pitchers who won the award last season, only 3 of them won it more than once. And McCulloch was the only guy who won it more than twice.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 11:16 AM) Jeez - I've never seen a number that high for somoene with a decent amount of innings. That's insane. Even more impressive when you consider it happened in the Pioneer League which is considered an offensive league.

Yeah... the Royals have been winning so far, but their offense is far from impressive... ranking in the bottom 5 in MLB in OBP and OPS... and finishing 2nd to last in runs scored. Even the pathetic Giants have scored more runs than the Royals. Their pitching is going to have to be REALLY good for them to keep winning games unless they start hitting the ball.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 03:03 AM) McCulloch is the one to worry about. He is the only player on the entire team who concerns me. What do you see (or not see) with McCulloch? Pitches? Command? Mound presence? Anything specific that concerns you? Or a combination of things?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 14, 2008 -> 10:30 PM) Richard pitched well, but the bullpen let the M-Braves back in it. Link is good, kinda bulldoggish. He did give up a double, but closed it out. Nanita is en fuego, already has 10 RBI's on the season, two of which were tonight. Plus he stole a base and hustled on a sac fly by Schnurstein. Gartrell also manufactured a run. Ahhh... thanks. I missed the hit against Link when I looked earlier. You've been to a couple of the Barons games so far, right? What do think about the players you've seen so far?