Torres takes Danks' spot tonight vs. Rays

He has been one of the White Sox' best minor-league pitchers all season, but there's been little or no talk about Carlos Torres.

That changed Tuesday, when the Sox announced the 26-year-old righty is coming up from Class AAA Charlotte on Wednesday to start in place of John Danks.

Torres is 8-4 with Charlotte, and his 2.20 ERA leads the International League. A Kansas State product selected by the White Sox in the 15th round of the 2004 draft, Torres ranks second in the IL with 96 strikeouts.

The White Sox will purchase Torres' contract before tonight's start. After Tuesday's game, they optioned reliever Aaron Poreda to Charlotte.

As for Danks, he has been bothered by a circulatory problem in his left index finger in each of his last 2 starts. The Sox don't think the left-hander needs to go on the disabled list with the ailment.

"I'm pretty optimistic it's just 1 start he is going to miss," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "I don't think it will be more than that. I talked to him about it. He only feels bad when he throws his cutter. But I don't like the way he was looking. Obviously, I'm not the doctor."

Danks' finger initially started bothering him during a July 10 start at Minnesota. He started against Baltimore on Friday to open the second half of the season and allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks over 5 innings.

Trade winds: The July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline is almost here, but it doesn't look like the White Sox are going to be big players.

"It's quiet," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "It's very quiet. A lot of people are making rumors about different players. Right now the only thing you're going to hear is rumors.

"Right now we don't have anything on the table. I don't expect anything to happen. I think if those guys go out there and (Bartolo) Colon comes back and throws the ball the way we think he can help us, then we add another pitcher.

"But right now we don't have anybody."

Halladay update: The White Sox don't seem willing to part with a package of young talent for Toronto ace Roy Halladay.

Apparently neither does any other major-league team.

On Tuesday, here's what Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi told Toronto reporters:

"At this point, it's probably unlikely that we'll trade Doc. No one has really stepped up yet. We've got to be highly motivated to move him. We haven't been highly motivated yet."

Ricciardi told reporters he has set a July 28 deadline to trade Halladay, who is 11-3 with a 2.73 ERA.

Catching on: In Monday night's win over Tampa Bay, Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 throwing out basestealers.

Heading into the game, Pierzynski was just 4-for-59 on the season.

Pierzynski doesn't have a rocket throwing arm, but manager Ozzie Guillen continues pointing the finger of blame at most of the pitching staff.

"I always say, 'When you've got people on base and they steal the base, that's your ERA going up,' and we're going to lose games for that," Guillen said. "You have to take a little pride about giving your catcher an opportunity to throw the guys out."