Fields up with Birmingham Barons
Pitcher finished with rehab stint, now at the AA level
Josh Fields is settling into Birmingham, Ala., just fine.
The Columbia Falls native and former Glacier Twin, who finished a 30-day rehabilitation assignment with the Pioneer League's Great Falls White Sox a few weeks ago, was called up to the Chicago White Sox AA affiliate, the Birmingham Barons, and has already pitched in two games there.
He's pitched 3 1/3 innings in those two appearances, giving up two hits and two walks with two strikeouts. He hasn't allowed a run and has a 1.20 WHIP.
Fields left the Pioneer League in style on July 17. The relief pitcher hurled 1 1/3 innings that night and earned his first win against Orem, Utah, in an 11-10 victory.
He finished for the Great Falls White Sox with stellar stats. In almost 11 innings pitched, he gave up just eight hits and a walk and no runs. He struck out 10. Two of the hits that he gave up came against the Missoula Osprey in Missoula on July 7, while he was battling a groin injury.
Fields was pitching for Chicago's Class AAA affiliate - the Charlotte Knights - in 2005 and was its top man out of the bullpen with 68 2/3 innings pitched and a 2.75 ERA before tearing the labrum in his throwing shoulder. The labrum is a ring of fibrous cartilage that aids in shoulder stability. It is a common injury among pitchers.
Birmingham's season started way back on
March 29. The Barons are 45-58, 19 games out of first place in the Southern League's South Division. But they've won three of their last four games.
Fields throws four different pitches: cut fastball, slider, change-up and two-seam fastball. He said he is throwing in the upper 80s (mph), but had gotten into the low 90s before getting hurt.
The 6-foot-1, 180-pound, 27-year-old was an all-conference quarterback and free safety for the Columbia Falls High School football team. The 1998 C-Falls grad played American Legion baseball for the Glacier Twins and earned state tournament MVP honors his senior year.
Fields has been in professional baseball since 2001 and has pitched for every White Sox affiliate. He spent 2001 with the Bristol (Va.) Sox of the rookie Appalachian League, which is similar to Montana's Pioneer League, as a 23rd-round draft choice out of Mesa Community College in Arizona. He advanced and started 2002 at low Class A and a month into the season was promoted to high Class A, where he spent a season and a half. He started the 2004 season with the Barons, who Michael Jordan played for after retiring from the NBA in the mid-1990s.
He was in his fifth season of professional baseball and pitching very well - and was potentially a late-season call-up for the eventual World Series champions - at the AAA level when he suffered the injury.
He is in the final season of his original six-year contract.