The Ballers’ offense, combined with top-notch pitching, showcased this week why they were the South Division First Half Champs.

Time is starting to run short enough on the season to make an overall .500 season impossible, but Charlotte still has a great shot at getting even for the second half, hopefully pointing toward sunnier days (and playoff contention?) in 2025. And if scroll all the way down, when you see how the bats are heating up here in late summer, you can see that postseason goals may not be too nutty looking ahead, because Charlotte’s been mashing hell outta the ball.

Record 1-5 (August 21-27) 55-66 (overall) 24-31 (second half) The Dash continued their skid this week, dropping five of their six games and only averaging 3.5 runs per game (sadly, the White Sox would happily accept 3.5 runs per game). On the bright side, the Dash had several strong pitching performances throughout the week, and… read more

The Cannon Ballers finished with the best record of the week, going 4-2 against Fayetteville. Much of that performance was led by Sam Antonacci, the White Sox’s fifth-round pick in this year’s draft. The Knights and Barons finished .500 this week, and overall, there was plenty of competition for this week’s honors.

The Birmingham Barons split a six-game set with the Biloxi Shuckers. Solid pitching performances from Noah Schultz, Jairo Iriarte, Jacob Gonzalez, and more!

Blake Shepardson – San Francisco If there was ever a project of a draft pick with sky-high upside, it’s University of San Francisco’s Blake Shepardson. Shepardson pitched his first two collegiate seasons at Regis University, a Division-II school in Colorado. There, Shepardson struggled through those first two campaigns with an 8.89 ERA over 85 IP,… read more

This week brings some additional categories, comparisons to last week’s lists, and short spotlights on Jairo Iriarte, Sean Burke, Aaron McGarity, Jesús Méndez and other top arms.

The bullpen piles on another loss in what was once a close game.

Despite a stretch of two wins in six, the Norfolk Tides actually played worse, and fell to the bottom of the International League East Division … the Knights are no longer a last-place team! And really, with the talent in Charlotte now (and with as much likely still to come as to be lost to the parent club), there’s no reason the club should fall back into the basement. The charge to .500, at least for the second half, continues!