Two Montgomery natives have signed with the Chicago White Sox, who assigned them to their Rookie-level team in Montana.
Jeff Davis High’s Paul Burnside and St. James graduate Brandon Kloess are both on the pitching staff of the Great Falls Voyagers.
Burnside was Chicago’s 39th-round draft pick this month out of Auburn University. Kloess was with the independent Windy City Thunderbolts after playing at Florida Atlantic from 2004-08.
June 24, 2009
Sox sign RHP Paul Burnside (39th round) and RHP Brandon Kloess (Indy)
Six HRs
The six home runs hit by the White Sox against the Dodgers on Wednesday night were the most hit by the team since they knocked out six on June 8, 2004 against Philadelphia.
Greg Walker: Alexei Ramirez had a career year in 2008
“Did he have a career year in 2008? Probably. But maybe he lost confidence early in this season and was trying to do too much. His focus was not as good, at times. He’s looked bad at times, and he’s not getting the consistency he had. But he’s still giving us a lot of production.”
Walker must ask someone knowledgeable about this hitting thing.
White Sox against pitchers they see for the first time
Opposing pitchers facing the White Sox for the first time are 7-1 with a 1.46 ERA this season (12 earned runs in 74 innings pitched).
Justin Smoak update
Kevin Goldstein writes:
After missing nearly a month with an oblique problem, Smoak beat up the Arizona Summer League for a couple days, but didn’t get a mention here, as when you are an elite-level 22-year old beating up on teenagers in a complex league, it just doesn’t count. This does however, as last year’s first-round selection picked up where he left off, raising his season averages to a fantastic .331/.450/.506. Meanwhile, in big league news, Rangers first baseman Chris Davis is 4-for-30 with 14 whiffs in his last nine games. We’re just sayin’.
and Jamey Newberg:
Smoak is back. Returning from an oblique strain that cost him nearly a month, the switch-hitter rehabbed twice in Surprise, Ariz. — with the big club in town for the D-backs series and some key front office officials along for the trip — going 4-for-6 with two home runs and a triple, and upon his return to Frisco he’s gone 3-for-6. As Chris Davis’ struggles continue, the Smoak clock is starting to tick more loudly.
Dan Black scouting report
FutureSox has the scoop:
When doing my research on Black I found it very hard to find any negatives about him, and believe me I tried. His numbers are fantastic, he was a career .313 hitter at Purdue with lots of power and a phenomenal ability to get on base with him tying a Big 10 record for walks in a season with 62 this year. Then I started delving into the scouting reports expecting to find lots of negatives on his bat speed but nothing, all the reports I read indicated the same things as the numbers, plus raw power, a great ability to get on base and also a very strong arm. So this is where Black really started puzzling me as the reports and numbers don’t match the 14th round draft grade, so I sent some E-mails out to people in the industry to try and dig up anything and thus far the only negative report I’ve received was from Baseball America’s John Manuel (via Aaron Fitt, thanks for that!) with him saying “The feeling is that he doesn’t have a position. No scouts loved him and I didn’t put him high on the Indiana list. I just don’t think teams believe in him much and my guess is he put out a higher number than teams were willing to go for.”
White Sox 2009 draft selections
baseball-reference has all the selections:
Peytra Eileen? That doesn’t sound grindy!
nor Chicago Tough:
Outfielder Scott Podsednik is expected to rejoin the Sox on Tuesday after his wife, Lisa, gave birth Sunday to a 7-pound girl named Peytra Eileen.
