Righthanders Lance Broadway and Jack Egbert, two of the White Sox’ top pitching prospects, call Charlotte home this summer, but not even they have helped boost the Knights’ 4.56 ERA out of 12th place in the 14-team International League.

The 15th overall pick in 2005 from Texas Christian, Broadway also pitched for Charlotte last season, but he had shown much-improved command and results in 2008. He was 5-3, 2.95 with 38 strikeouts and 17 walks through 73 innings, third most in the league. Despite a strong 1.70 groundout-to-flyout ratio, Broadway had surrendered 10 home runs.

A National League scout who saw Broadway, 24, this season liked the 6-foot-3, 190-pound righthander’s plane to the plate and his pitchability, but wondered if he had enough fastball (he sat at 89 mph and touched 90 periodically) to find success as more than a No. 4 or 5 starter in the big leagues.

"Broadway knows how to set up hitters and work both sides of the plate—and he’s composed out there—but he really pitches with a fringy fastball," the scout said. "He does have an above-average changeup and slider, which he calls a spike curveball, but while he has a plus pitch with that breaking ball (he graded it a future 60 on the 20-to-80 scouting scale), he doesn’t have much margin for error."

Egbert, a 13th-round selection in 2004 from Rutgers, has posted sparkling strikeout-to-walk ratios as he’s moved up the ladder (2.6 for his career entering 2008), but he was struggling as he adjusted to life in Triple-A. The 25-year-old was 1-4, 6.39 with 30 strikeouts and 16 walks through 38 innings. Like Broadway, Egbert had given up more home runs (five) than his groundout rate (1.42) would seem to suggest.

The scout graded Egbert’s fastball as a future 55 ("He touched 92, but sat at 90-91 with flat plane and below-average command that day") and his curveball, changeup and slider all as fringy 45-50-type pitches. ("He threw a few good changeups and a few good curves, but his slider was flat.")

"He’s got a wrap in his arm action in back, where he kind of stabs," the scout said, "which made it tough for him to get the ball to the glove side of the plate. He pitched mostly to the middle and arm side of the plate.

"He must have a little deception in his delivery, or a little life up in the zone—even though the (radar) gun doesn’t say much more than average—because (the opposing team) wound up fouling back or missing a lot of pitches up."