This Week in White Sox Minor League Baseball

This week:

• The topic of last week's poll was when Tyler Flowers would be called up.  Not surprisingly, the result was June, garnering 50% of the vote.  Depending upon which conspiracy theory you prefer - either suppressing Flowers' service time or A.J. Pierzynski's vesting of ten and five no trade rights on June 14 - next month is certainly the sweet spot.  While Pierzynski has, as one would expect, shown some signs of life in the last week, how likely is it that we actually see Flowers in the near future?  Flowers is certainly raking - .282/.385/.513 - and, while Kevin Goldstein reported one scout's view that Flowers' defense has regressed, I put more stock in the numerous reports of his defensive improvement.  The rub is, though, that Flowers certainly could improve more behind the plate - some would say needs to improve more. So if you think he's a catcher for at least the near-term - and the White Sox have always maintained that they believe that - he needs regular playing time there.  That suggests it's not the former theory that is really the obstacle. Don't expect to see Flowers next month unless A.J. isn't around.
• Brent Morel: .310/.352/.440.
  
• Sox Machine recapped the month of April for Charlotte and Birmingham and Winston-Salem and Kannapolis.
• I was intrigued to see that Juan Silverio was assigned to Kannapolis to start the season.  In 2008, he was well-hyped by Phil Rogers and others as the shortstop of the future.  He proceeded to stink as a 17 year old for Bristol.  He was back in the Dominican Republic last season for the DSL White Sox (where he put up a .986 OPS) because of an inability to get a work visa due to a discrepancy in his papers over his age.  I felt this season would finally be the test to find out about his actual prospect status.  Thus far, he's disappointed with a line of .135/.177/.230, making him the worst teenager in professional baseball according to Baseball America.  This has resulted in him being benched for the last four games.  Even if he really is 19, this isn't good.
  
• Jordan Danks: .255/.333/.431 and 31.3% K rate.
  
• 2009 8th round pick RHP Ryan Buch received some attention this week: "He was one of those guys that wake up the scouts and demand their attention," said the evaluator. "There are some command issues for sure, but he had two plus pitches by sitting at 91-92 mph with his fastball while touching 94 and a plus, classic 12-to-6 curve." On the season, 15 IP, 11 H, 7 BB, 11 K, 37% GB rate.
  
• The Dash's Brandon Short has a 25 game hitting streak, fueling a .366/.387/.550 line for the 21 year old.
  
• Dan Hudson showed why people probably shouldn't worry about him with a nice start: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 10 K.  He's scheduled to start today.
• Dayan Viciedo has a clue: .284/.318/.490.