In breaking with recent trends, none of our Three Stars share a first or last name. Two shutouts (one going each way), crazy names in A-ball, another homer from the first-rounder, and Casey On The Mound.

Don't cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself.
--Casey Stengel, to his barber

Well. Shall we begin the post-mortems now, or is it too early?

You know, I'm thinking it would save us a lot of time if we just changed the MINOR LEAGUE UPDATE ball icon to read FREE JASON FRASOR.

I go
Where I please
I walk through walls
I float down the Liffey

The heart of the White Sox lineup is a patient, powerful animal.

You might have noticed in yesterday's Meet the S.S. All-Stars, that we tabbed the final roster with the team name "The S.S. Minnows." This was not to disparage the team's talent level or to strip it of potential "big fish" status; instead, it was simply an homage to the name of the vessel ("The tiny ship was tossed") that stranded seven famous "castaways" on a tropical island in the 1960s.

Well, we've done it for shows like Star Trek and The Simpsons so let's go Hall of Names on one of the iconographic TV sitcoms of all time, as we build ...

Francisco Rosario was called up from Syracuse today, and is apparently scheduled to start tomorrow. Jason Phillips was designated for assignment to make room for Rosario on the 25 man roster. Thanks to Dan Gordon for the tip.

It doesn't get any easier for the good guys this weekend. Next up are the White Sox, who like the Jays have lost 12 games since the all-star break. Unlike the Jays, they've won four of their last six, and they're only half a game behind Boston.

This week's Scout features the wit and wisdom of Ozzie. Everything else is meaningless, possibly including Sunday's tasty pitching matchup. Live from Waterloo/Toronto...

On to the Advance Scout!

It was a 2-4 evening for the farm affiliates.  Rob Cosby shone.

It's actually hard to settle on a final total of the number of big league ballplayers in MLB history with the initials S.S. -- do we count Sam "Pony" Sager, for instance? (Yes, we do -- and he even actually makes the team!) Okay, then what about Harry "Slim" Sallee? (No, we don't.) How about All-Star John Stanley "Jack" Sanford? (Nope, not him either.)

But that's okay. We still have plenty of options to form a full roster of players whose given first name (regardless of what other name or nickname they actually went by) and last/family name both started with the letter "S," the 19th such double-initial combination we have examined here on Batter's Box. Given all that, it's time to meet ...

There's nothing like breaking your coffee maker to reveal to you just how much you need coffee.

Maybe it's the three days with no coffee, or maybe this road trip has finally crushed my hopes for the season. But regardless of the cause, I have lost most if not all of my enthusiasm over the last week or so.

For your weekend viewing pleasure, here's Reed Johnson laying down a bunt:

That must be what it feels like to be rooting for the opposition when Doc pitches.

Dwight Evans had a long and productive career, but his moment came in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. We'll let Retrosheet take the call:

Syracuse and Pulaski had the day off. The rest...well, let's just say it was a night for mulligans. The farm went 0-4, being outscored 33-21.

Yesterday was Bengie Molina, so it's only fair that today's photo is of Gregg Zaun. Here he is, getting ready for the pitch: