[jksander]

July 20, 2026: Cody Bellinger made it into the home-run challenge this year, giving White Sox fans who had made the trip to Loan Depot Park in Miami something good to cheer about. In round one he faced off against Nolan Gorman of the St. Louis Cardinals, and he put up 23 homers to the 22 Gorman offered up, getting him a shot at Joey Gallo in the second round! Gallo had destroyed Baltimore’s Marcell Ozuna in the first round 27-17, but this time he only put up 23 in his four minutes, so Bellinger certainly wasn’t out of his league ... at one point in the round he hit six in a row, and in the final minute he hit two to get over the hump, finishing with 24 and a win with just over 40 seconds to spare! That earned him a shot at Shohei Ohtani in the final round ... Ohtani had beaten Aaron Judge 33-32 in the first round and Cal Raleigh 26-25 in the second. He went first, knocking in 19, and suddenly this looked like Bellinger’s to win ... and after a very slow start, with just four dingers in his first minute, the wind began to work in his favor! With :45 left on the clock he slammed his 19th over the wall, and #20 followed a few seconds later, as Cody Bellinger became this year’s Home Run Derby champion!

In other news, starter Brandon Pfaadt was ready to come off the IL today, so we sent him to start his rehab assignment in the minors. He’s been out battling elbow inflamation since May 13th, after starting the season for us with a 2-1 record, a 4.08 ERA and 28 K’s in 28.2 innings.
 
July 21, 2026: It’s All Star Game day, and all eyes are on the stars of Major League baseball in this fan-friendly exhibition showcase event! The Marlins’ stadium was packed to the rafters with fans who were lucky enough to score tickets, and Chris Sale (NL) and Garrett Crochet (AL) were the official “starting” pitchers for the game. Noah Schultz came out to pitch in the bottom of the second, the game still scoreless, and though he loaded the bases, nobody made it around to score ... a solid All Star debut for the young phenom! The game turned into a real pitcher’s duel, which is crazy considering each inning featured a new round of pitchers, and you could sense the fans getting restless wanting SOMEONE to score. The NL thought they had their chance in the bottom of the fifth when Jeimer Candelario hit a blistering double into right field, but Mariners pitcher Hunter Harvey struck out Brady House and got Etsuo Den to fly out to left and this game went into the sixth as a scoreless affair. But the National League did finally break through with an RBI double by Jefferson Quero into center field, putting them ahead 1-0, Shane McClanahan giving up the earned run on their seventh hit of the game, while our AL hitters had just one hit to our name. A number of fans booed loudly in the bottom of the seventh when Jeimer Candelario hit into a fielder’s choice, with the out coming at home ... preventing another NL run, but they got what they wanted in the bottom of the eighth when Max Kepler hit an RBI double to extend the NL lead to 2-0. We left runners on the corners in the top of the ninth, and the National League stumped us in the end by that same 2-0 margin. If you wanted offense, this was as dull an All Star game as you’ll see.

Bellinger had a walk and a strikeout, and Kjerstad had two strikeouts ... poor Brandon Valenzuela didn’t do anything in his at-bats. Schultz had a great inning with a hit, a walk and a strikeout, no runs, but Eduard Bazardo didn’t even get into the game ... he and Sonny Gray, along with third-backup catcher Cal Raleigh, were the only players to not get a chance to play in the game. The NL’s Jefferson Quero (two hits, a run and an RBI) was named All Star MVP as the NL All Stars outhit us 11-3.

July 22, 2026: We’ve made a series of promotions within our minors for the final stretch of the season. Below are our key players and their new teams, along with the stats they accrued this season at the previous level. Nobody at the moment is being considered to move up from AA to AAA, and it is becoming clear to me that this offseason I’m going to need to clean house in A+ through AAA of players who are close to “aging out” beyond being actual useful pieces in our development system.

AA -- Birmingham Barons (Southern League)
SP Riley Gowens, 26 (7-4, 3.46 ERA, 93.2 IP, 135 K’s, 1.23 WHIP, 1.3 WAR)

A+ -- Winston-Salem Dash (South Atlantic League)
3B Sam Antonacci, 23 (.270/.379/.356, 15 2B, 23 RBI, 24 SB, 1.7 WAR)
RP Brett Barfield, 22 (1-1, 2 SV, 1.79 ERA, 45.1 IP, 61 K’s, 0.84 WHIP, 1.0 WAR)
CF Bryce Blaser, 22 (.278/.381/.337, 21 RBI, 6 SB, 1.1 WAR)
CL Estarlin Escalante, 22 (3-4, 13 SV, 36.2 IP, 52 K’s, 1.50 WHIP, 0.7 WAR)
SP Blake Larson, 20 (8-3, 3.44 ERA, 96.2 IP, 147 K’s, 1.33 WHIP, 3.1 WAR)

A -- Kannapolis Cannonballers (Carolina League)
3B Hendry Chivilli, 20 (.268/.433/.500, 11 2B, 28 RBI, 5 SB, 1.3 WAR)
CF Brock Sell, 19 (.302/.411/.434, 20 RBI, 17 SB, 1.0 WAR)

Of our players at AAA right now, the most likely to get a call-up late in the season would be:

- RF Calvin Mitchell, 27 (.340/.416/.621, 21 2B, 19 HR, 53 RBI, 5 SB, 1.4 WAR)
- SP Mason Adams, 26 (7-9, 5.70 ERA, 109.0 IP, 96 K’s, 1.50 WHIP, 1.3 WAR)

I’m pleased with the lower levels of our minors, but most of our farm system is young players with a ton of development yet to happen. Ryan Reich, at AA, is our top prospect (#31 BNN) and he’s currently at AA with a 5-4 record and a 4.04 ERA and putting up just shy of a game in WAR ... but he won’t be ready for AAA until next year at the least, and at 22 I don’t see the point in rushing him. Hagen Smith (#86 BNN) is at AAA but still super raw at 22 ... and Colson Montgomery has done moderately well in his 12 games up at the major league level but is not ready to stay up ... he’ll return to AAA once Vargas is done with his rehab stint, most likely by the time Toronto comes to town after our upcoming series against Houston this weekend. There’s a reason our farm system is currently ranked 21st out of 30 teams. But we’re winning games at the big league level, so we have time to start rebuilding the system through the draft and see where that can take us.

We return to action on the 24th with three games against Houston (44-54, 5th AL West) here in Chicago, followed by four against Toronto (47-49, 5th AL East). We’ll then hit the road for three in Cleveland (50-47, 2nd AL Central) before returning to Chicago for three against Arizona (46-50, 3rd NL West) and three against Detroit (42-56, 5th AL Central). We’ll face some tougher teams in the later half of August, but for now we have a chance to build off this break and finish what we started during the first half.