Here come the ‘Stros
by Dave StudemanJuly 25, 2009
Major League News for July 25
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldMatt Holliday was 4-for-5 with an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base in his Cardinals debut on Friday night against the Phillies.
It's fair to say that three of his four hits were cheapies, but he nearly hit one out in the seventh. It doesn't take a fantasy genius to realize that Holliday figures to benefit greatly by leaving Oakland. Did you hear that? It's the Cardinals lineup suddenly becoming quite scary.
Joba Chamberlain tossed seven innings of one-run ball as the Yankees extended their winning streak to eight games on Friday night.
After a bit of a rough patch, Chamberlain has put together consecutive strong starts. He held the Atheltics to just two hits against three walks and six strikeouts. It was the first time he had gone at least seven innings since June 1. He faces the Rays next time out.
Adrian Beltre is hoping to return to the Mariners in two weeks.
Beltre has been playing catch and fielding groundballs, and is expected to hit off a tee Saturday. He underwent elbow surgery on June 30 and was given a six-to-eight week recovery range. It appears he's on the six-week side of that projection.
Matt Garza held the Blue Jays to two runs over nine innings in a 4-2 win on Friday night.
While Halladay was getting most of the attention, and rightfully so, Garza was spinning a gem of his own. He held the Jays to just five hits, whiffing nine while not issuing a walk, improving to 7-7 on the year. He finished his night in impressive fashion, striking out the side to end the ninth. Garza is seventh in the league with 116 strikeouts.
Roy Halladay hurled nine brilliant innings of two-run ball against the Rays on Friday night, but suffered a no-decision in an eventual 4-2 loss.
If this was truly Halladay's last start as a member of the Blue Jays, he went out on the top of his game. Doc limited the Rays to just four hits while fanning 10 and walking three. It was his second straight start of nine innings and his fifth of the season. Hey J.P. Ricciardi, good luck finding something like that again. Doc still lines up for a probable start against the Mariners on July 29.
Carlos Guillen was 2-for-3 with a homer in his return to the lineup Friday night against the White Sox.
The Tigers swept the doubleheader from the Sox. Guillen blasted a solo shot -- his first of the season -- to even the score at two in the second inning. He later added a single in the sixth inning. He looks safe to activate, at least in AL-only leagues.
According to FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal, the Cardinals will attempt to deal Troy Glaus before the July 31 trade deadline.
Glaus is currently rehabbing with Triple-A Memphis. He's still unable to throw across the diamond, but may be attractive to American League clubs who can stick him at DH or first base. The Giants, Braves, Rangers and Tigers are expected to scout him in the minors over the weekend.
According to Jamey Newberg of the Newberg Report, Texas right-hander Vicente Padilla has been diagnosed with swine flu.
Padilla was scratched from a scheduled start Wednesday with flu-like symptoms, but this is obviously much more serious than the Rangers could have expected. If he has been around the clubhouse recently, which he probably has, teammates and staff members may have also contracted the virus. Tests are probably being run as we speak. He's still scheduled to start Tuesday against the Tigers, but that could soon change.
Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said Friday that he plans to ease Matt Lindstrom (elbow) back into the closer's role.
Lindstrom, on the disabled list since late June with a right elbow strain, is hoping to return by the end of next week. He is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Monday with Single-A Jupiter. Leo Nunez and Dan Meyer will continue sharing ninth-inning duties for the time being.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BOS 3 BAL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 8 OAK 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 4 TOR 2 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 4 CHA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 5 CHA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 2 KC 0 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 MIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 9 SEA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League STL 8 PHI 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 6 WAS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 8 CIN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 5 NYN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 9 MIL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 10 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 3 COL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 6 LAN 3 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs, 1:05 PM (R) Johnny Cueto (8-6) vs. (R) Kevin Hart (1-1) St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies, 4:05 PM (R) Kyle Lohse (4-6) vs. (R) Rodrigo Lopez (2-0) New York Mets at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM (L) Jonathon Niese (0-0) vs. (R) Russ Ortiz (3-4) San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Tim Stauffer (0-1) vs. (R) J.D. Martin (0-1) Atlanta Braves at Milwaukee Brewers, 7:05 PM (R) Tommy Hanson (5-0) vs. (R) Yovani Gallardo (8-7) Pittsburgh Pirates at Arizona Diamondbacks, 8:10 PM (R) Ross Ohlendorf (8-7) vs. (L) Doug Davis (4-10) San Francisco Giants at Colorado Rockies, 8:10 PM (L) Jonathan Sanchez (3-8) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (7-7) Florida Marlins at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Rick VandenHurk (1-0) vs. (R) Hiroki Kuroda (3-5) American League --------------- Oakland Athletics at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (L) Gio Gonzalez (1-2) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (8-5) Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (L) David Price (3-4) vs. (L) Brian Tallet (5-6) Minnesota Twins at LA Angels of Anaheim, 4:10 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (8-4) vs. (R) Matt Palmer (7-1) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers, 4:10 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (8-6) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (7-5) Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM (L) Jeremy Sowers (2-7) vs. (L) Erik Bedard (5-2) Baltimore Orioles at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) Jeremy Guthrie (7-8) vs. (L) Jon Lester (8-7) Texas Rangers at Kansas City Royals, 7:10 PM (L) Derek Holland (3-5) vs. (R) Luke Hochevar (5-3)
Standings
The graphics next to each team are called "sparklines.” They depict each team’s performance over the last month. Each "up" bar is a victory and a "down" bar is a loss. There are horizontal lines for home games and red bars represent games decided by two runs or less. "PWins" is short for Projected Wins, based on each team’s Run Differential, and is often a better measure of a team’s true strength. Other team graphs and stats can be found on our Team Page.American League East Pwins Diff NYA 59 37 .615 0.0 55 4BOS 56 39 .589 2.5 55 1
TB 53 44 .546 6.5 56 -3
TOR 47 50 .485 12.5 52 -5
BAL 41 54 .432 17.5 42 -1
American League Central DET 51 44 .537 0.0 51 0
CHA 50 47 .515 2.0 48 2
MIN 48 49 .495 4.0 50 -2
CLE 39 58 .402 13.0 44 -5
KC 37 58 .389 14.0 37 0
American League West LAA 57 38 .600 0.0 53 4
TEX 53 41 .564 3.5 51 2
SEA 51 45 .531 6.5 46 5
OAK 40 55 .421 17.0 43 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 54 40 .574 0.0 53 1
ATL 50 47 .515 5.5 51 -1
FLA 50 47 .515 5.5 47 3
NYN 44 51 .463 10.5 42 2
WAS 28 68 .292 27.0 36 -8
National League Central STL 53 46 .535 0.0 53 0
CHN 49 45 .521 1.5 48 1
HOU 50 46 .521 1.5 46 4
MIL 48 48 .500 3.5 47 1
CIN 44 51 .463 7.0 40 4
PIT 43 53 .448 8.5 47 -4
National League West LAN 61 35 .635 0.0 59 2
COL 52 44 .542 9.0 53 -1
SF 52 44 .542 9.0 52 0
ARI 41 56 .423 20.5 44 -3
SD 38 59 .392 23.5 35 3
Top Minor League Games
The following list, provided by First Inning, includes the top minor league batting (based on Runs Created) and pitching (based on Game Score) performances from yesterday.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes CIN AA Juan Francisco.... 4 4 1 0 2 1 0 3 R DET AA Alexander Avila... 5 3 0 0 3 0 1 7 RBI ! ATL AA Jason Heyward..... 5 3 1 0 1 1 0 3 R LA A Kyle Russell...... 4 2 0 1 1 1 2 3 R BOS A+ Anthony Rizzo..... 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 4 LD DET AAA Jeff Larish....... 3 2 2 0 0 2 1 3 R CHC A Ryan Flaherty..... 3 2 0 0 1 2 1 4 R LA A A. Delmonico...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 WAN A Derek Norris...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 STL A+ Curt Smith........ 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 COL A+ Hector Gomez...... 4 3 1 1 0 0 1 DET AA Casper Wells...... 3 2 0 0 1 2 0 3 R ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes COL A+ C. Friedrich...... 5 2 0 0 11 1 0 CHW AA Daniel Hudson..... 8 2 0 0 7 1 0 PHI AA Michael Stutes.... 7 6 1 1 8 2 0 ARI AA Jarrod Parker..... 6 4 1 1 7 1 0 ATL A Ezekiel Spruill... 7 2 2 2 7 1 1 TB AAA J. Hellickson..... 6 5 2 2 6 3 0 ATL A+ Jacob Thompson.... 6 3 1 1 5 3 0 12 GB BOS AAA Michael Bowden.... 7 4 2 2 5 0 2 FLA A Brad Hand......... 5 11 1 1 7 1 0 ATL AA Scott Diamond..... 6 7 0 0 5 2 0 12 GB BAL AAA Kameron Mickolio.. 2 1 0 0 4 0 0 OAK A+ Anthony Capra..... 5 6 4 3 6 3 0
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Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.