THT Daily: Back in Action

by Matthew Carruth
July 14, 2007

Major League News for July 14

Links
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
Top Minor League Performances
Stats

You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/

Player News

Player news items are provided by Rotoworld
Brandon Phillips hit a grand slam and drove in six runs Friday as the Reds whipped the Mets 8-4.
Phillips' slam gave the Reds a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. In the top of the fifth, he had an RBI double -- his 14th two-bagger of the year -- to restore the four-run lead at 5-1. An inning later, Phillips' RBI single made it 8-1 for Cincy. Phillips, who scored twice, has struck out 61 times, but is batting .280. He's also surpassed his home run output from 2006 -- in 175 less at-bats.

The A's have abandoned the idea of having Mike Piazza return as a catcher. He'll begin DHing at Triple-A Sacramento on Friday.
That was a waste of a month. Piazza is likely to spend 7-10 days playing at Sacramento. The A's could opt to trade him when he's ready to return. The other option would be to start him over Jack Cust at DH. This means Jason Kendall will likely be Oakland's primary catcher the rest of the way.

Chris Carpenter experienced renewed stiffness and swelling of his right elbow after his last rehab start and will likely be examined within the next several days.
"We'll re-evaluate it after someone sees him," manager Tony La Russa said. "I don't know what it is or how substantial it is." There go Carpenter's chances of returning before the end of the month. The Cardinals think it might be the arthritic condition in his elbow causing his problems.

Rangers activated first baseman Mark Teixeira from the 15-day disabled list.
Teixeira's return will push Brad Wilkerson back to the outfield and should result in fewer at-bats for Sammy Sosa and Marlon Byrd, once Byrd cools off. Victor Diaz heads back to Triple-A to make room on the roster.

Curt Schilling, who was originally slated to throw 30-35 pitches, made 55 pitches Friday in his first mound session since landing on the DL with shoulder tendinitis.
"Didn't look like there was a whole lot of effort behind it to get the ball to come out of his hand well," Francona said. "It was a really good day. I think we thought it was going to be. That's the way we set it up." Schilling could throw an inning to hitters as soon as Monday and then possibly make a rehab start on July 21.

Carlos Zambrano allowed three hits over 6 2/3 scoreless inning to beat the Astros and become the NL's first 11-game winner on Friday.
Zambrano left with the bases loaded in the seventh, but Carlos Marmol retired Lance Berkman to get out of the jam. Zambrano struck out seven and walked three. He helped his cause with an RBI single in the fourth and a double and a run scored in the sixth.

Giants signed general manager Brian Sabean to a two-year contract extension with a club option for the 2010.
While they do have a large budget and one of the best groups of young starters in the game, the Giants' future appears bleak, especially now that Sabean is going to remain at the helm. Maybe things will change once Barry Bonds is gone and Sabean doesn't have to try to build the offense around him with aging hitters every year. We're pretty skeptical, though.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
BAL     2  CHA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     6  BOS     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      6  NYA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     5  KC      4    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     5  OAK     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     2  TEX     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     6  SEA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     9  PIT     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
WAS    14  FLA    10    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     8  NYN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI    13  STL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     6  HOU     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL    10  MIL     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     8  SD      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     9  SF      1    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs, 3:55 PM
  (R) Roy Oswalt (8-5) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (8-4)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies, 3:55 PM
  (L) Mike Maroth (0-1) vs. (L) Cole Hamels (10-4)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants, 3:55 PM
  (R) Derek Lowe (8-8) vs. (R) Matt Morris (7-5)
 Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM
  (L) Matt Chico (4-5) vs. (R) Sergio Mitre (3-4)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Braves, 7:05 PM
  (L) Tom Gorzelanny (9-4) vs. (L) Chuck James (8-7)
 Colorado Rockies at Milwaukee Brewers, 7:05 PM
  (R) Rodrigo Lopez (5-2) vs. (R) Ben Sheets (10-4)
 Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (R) Matt Belisle (5-6) vs. (L) Tom Glavine (7-6)
 San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (R) Chris Young (8-3) vs. (R) Livan Hernandez (5-5)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Chicago White Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Javier Vazquez (6-5) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (6-10)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM
  (R) Dustin McGowan (5-4) vs. (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (10-6)
 Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM
  (R) Gil Meche (5-6) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (12-3)
 Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins, 7:10 PM
  (R) Joe Blanton (8-5) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (6-10)
 New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM
  (R) Chien-Ming Wang (9-4) vs. (R) Andrew Sonnanstine (1-3)
 Texas Rangers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 9:05 PM
  (R) Kameron Loe (5-6) vs. (R) John Lackey (11-5)
 Detroit Tigers at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM
  (L) Kenny Rogers (3-0) vs. (R) Miguel Batista (8-7)

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
BOS     54  35 .607    0.0   54     0    
NYA     43  44 .494   10.0   51    -8    
TOR     44  45 .494   10.0   46    -2    
BAL     39  50 .438   15.0   44    -5    
TB      35  54 .393   19.0   33     2    
American League Central     
DET     53  35 .602    0.0   54    -1    
CLE     53  36 .596    0.5   50     3    
MIN     47  43 .522    7.0   49    -2    
CHA     40  48 .455   13.0   37     3    
KC      38  51 .427   15.5   41    -3    
American League West        
LAA     54  35 .607    0.0   49     5    
SEA     50  37 .575    3.0   45     5    
OAK     44  46 .489   10.5   47    -3    
TEX     38  51 .427   16.0   41    -3    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     49  40 .551    0.0   47     2    
ATL     48  42 .533    1.5   46     2    
PHI     45  44 .506    4.0   45     0    
FLA     42  48 .467    7.5   41     1    
WAS     37  52 .416   12.0   34     3    
National League Central     
MIL     49  40 .551    0.0   48     1    
CHN     45  43 .511    3.5   48    -3    
STL     40  46 .465    7.5   36     4    
PIT     40  49 .449    9.0   37     3    
HOU     39  51 .433   10.5   40    -1    
CIN     37  53 .411   12.5   42    -5    
National League West        
SD      49  39 .557    0.0   52    -3    
LAN     50  40 .556    0.0   49     1    
ARI     48  43 .527    2.5   43     5    
COL     45  44 .506    4.5   44     1    
SF      38  49 .437   10.5   43    -5

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
ARI AA  Carlos Gonzalez... 4  2  0  0  1  1  0  
LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 3  1  0  0  1  1  0  
TEX A+  C. Davis.......... 5  4  1  0  2  0  1  4 R
CLE AAA Brad Snyder....... 3  2  0  1  0  2  1  2 SB
BAL AA  Jeff Fiorentino... 5  3  0  1  1  0  1  4 RBI
BOS AAA George Kottaras... 4  3  0  0  1  0  0  
SEA AAA Adam Jones........ 6  1  1  0  0  0  2  
LAA A   Matthew Sweeney... 5  3  1  0  2  0  1  3 R
ARI AAA Chris Carter...... 5  3  1  1  0  0  0  
TB  AA  Reid Brignac...... 4  2  0  0  1  0  0  
COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 3  1  0  0  1  1  1  
OAK AA  Javier Herrera.... 4  2  1  0  0  1  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
NYY AA  Philip Hughes..... 3  3  0  0  6  0  0  
TB  AAA Mitch Talbot...... 5  4  1  1  8  1  0  
CLE A+  Ryan Edell........ 6  5  0  0  9  0  0  
CHC A+  Mitch Atkins...... 7  4  0  0  8  1  0  
COL AA  Franklin Morales.. 7  4  1  1  6  1  1  
CHC AA  Donald Veal....... 5  2  2  1  4  2  0  
COL AAA Ubaldo Jimenez.... 7  6  2  2  3  3  0  13 GB
ATL AA  Matt Harrison..... 7  7  3  3  6  2  1  
NYY A+  Kevin Whelan...... 5  3  1  1  7  2  1  
CLE AAA Edward Mujica..... 2  1  1  1  3  0  0  
HOU AAA Chad Reineke...... 2  0  0  0  5  2  0  
STL AA  Jaime Garcia...... 7  6  1  1  5  5  0  12 GB

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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.

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