White Sox have their catching situation in hand

The White Sox improved their catching situation with the addition of Ramon Castro, but they would go with Tyler Flowers if they lost A.J. Pierzynski to injury. Broadcaster Hawk Harrelson calls Flowers “one of the strongest men in baseball,” and he’s showing it by hitting .280 with seven homers and 25 RBIs at double-A Birmingham. He scored 34 runs in his first 44 games, thanks in part to a nice batting eye. He drew nine more walks than he had strikeouts in May (27-18). The Sox have missed Javier Vazquez more than they would admit, but Flowers looks to be a future All-Star. . . .

Manager Charlie Manuel is a smart man. The Phillies walked Adrian Gonzalez seven times in 13 plate appearances in sweeping the Padres last week. . . .

Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona’s 2007 season looks like more of a fluke every time he goes to the mound. His career record has slid below .500 even though he was 19-8 that season. . . .

When the Cubs made Michael Barrett the bad guy for the 2007 fight, they lost the chance to force Carlos Zambrano to grow up. . . .

The Nate McLouth trade doesn’t sentence the Pirates to a 17th consecutive losing season, but it sure puts a lot of pressure on Andrew McCutchen. He will lead off and Nyjer Morgan moves to No. 2 to give the Pirates the speediest top of the order in the majors. . . .

Entering the weekend, the Dodgers’ Jonathan Broxton had struck out 42 in 27 innings while holding batters to an .090 average. No pitcher has been that dominant for a full season, including Eric Gagne in his Cy Young year in 2003.

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