Jun 25th, 2009

Harrell Up, Cassel Down

By John Norris

After struggling in most of his starts in Charlotte this season, including last night, Justin Cassel was demoted to Birmingham. Cassel went 3-8 with a 5.26 ERA in 12 starts. Lucas Harrell was promoted to Charlotte in his place. Cassel won the 2008 Southern League ERA crown. He started 2009 on the DL for Charlotte for reasons unknown. Perhaps that’s what lead to his struggles with the more advanced hitters he was facing. Harrell more than deserved the promotion to AAA, going 8-3 with a 3.25 ERA in 14 starts for the Barons. It will be interesting to see how he handles AAA, considering that he hasn’t found a balance between attacking hitters and nibbling at them in AA. As well as with much less run support. Hopefully, Cassel can find his rhythm with the Barons and get them out of their 4 game funk.

Cheers,
JPN

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4 Responses

  1. Chisoxfn on June 25th, 2009 at 12:56 pm:

    Congrats Lucas. You battled back from a major injury and have put together a very good season now that your healthy. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, Lucas, has always thrown the bell well for the Sox, excluding the period where he was still recovering from injury. In addition Lucas is widely regarded as a “good” guy and based upon the one conversation I’ve had with him (spring training in Glendale) I can confirm such. Look forward to seeing what he can do at Charlotte. Two years ago he was one of the best arms in the org but now that the system is a lot stronger he’s really going to have to kick butt to get a chance. That said he fits into the Sox top 20 and has an outside chance of making it with the Sox and a decent chance to get at least a season in the majors (if not more).

    For those of you that don’t know it. Harrell was a 4th round selection of the White Sox out of college and at 21 (2006) he made his debut for the Barons (towards the end of the season). Harrell injured himself shortly after his promotion and he eventually underwent surgery, which forced him to miss the 2007 season. He rehabed in Kannapolis in 2008 and than put up very good numbers in Bham and than again repeating in Bham.

  2. bart on June 25th, 2009 at 2:05 pm:

    I think Lucas will fit in fine and fast. I hear that his arm is better than ever. With the ground ball to fly out ratio he has always had, if the defense is any good, he will do well. Good Luck to him

  3. zam989s on July 22nd, 2009 at 12:50 pm:

    Harrell was drafted out of high school in 2004, not out of college in 2006.

  4. Chisoxfn on July 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm:

    Woops, Brain Fart. Thanks for the correction Zam :)

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