THT Daily: Eastern races
by Matthew CarruthAugust 31, 2008
Major League News for August 31
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 RotoworldThe Dodgers organization is expecting negative results from Jeff Kent's MRI and fear that his career may be over.
Kent has apparently been playing with some amount of torn cartilage in his knee, but the tearing this time around is thought to be much more severe. The MRI results should be revealed on Sunday, but Joe Torre believes this season would have been Kent's final campaign either way. "All the hinting seemed to say that this probably was going to be it for him," Torre said. "I really respect what he has done here, and I have been very comfortable with our relationship. He is a pro. I guess that is the only way you can categorize it."
Athletics placed designated hitter Frank Thomas on the 15-day disabled list with a strained quad.
Just as it seemed he was pulling out of his recent slump. Thomas apparently aggravated the strain that cost him June and July. The A's will likely put Jack Cust back at DH now, with Aaron Cunningham getting many of the open at-bats in the outfield. Emil Brown also figures to benefit.
Kevin Gregg, who blew his ninth save last week, is likely to sit out at least the next week because of a sore left knee.
The Marlins have been letting him pitch through the problem for some time, but as poorly as he's performed as late, the decision was made to shut him down for now. Manager Fredi Gonzalez indicated that Matt Lindstrom would be the favorite for saves for now, with Arthur Rhodes potentially getting chances against left-handed hitters. Joe Nelson wasn't mentioned, but he still might be an option as well.
41-year-old Omar Vizquel said he's not ready to retire and may choose to play in Japan next year.
"I've played here long enough in America," Vizquel. "I've seen every team, every ballpark. I think it would be great to experience a new league and something new. I played in Japan in 2000 on the major-league all-star tour and I found it very cool - good baseball, good fans. Why not? It's a new culture." Vizquel has hit just .187/.251/.217 in 203 at-bats this season, and even though the Giants made him available at the deadline, no one seemed interested. He'd have a better chance of playing regularly in Japan than in the U.S. next year.
The Red Sox are planning to call up Michael Bowden prior to Saturday's game, the Providence Journal reports.
Surprising news. The Red Sox are still planning on bringing up David Pauley to start, so Bowden will be available out of the pen. Perhaps the team intends to give him a chance to crack the postseason roster as a reliever.
According to pitching coach Dave Duncan, the Cardinals have approached Chris Carpenter (shoulder) about returning this season as a reliever.
With just one month to go, and Carp struggling to raise his pitch count, it makes some sense. He'll toss a bullpen session and could face hitters on Sunday. If all of that goes well, the Cardinals will have a more serious discussion about his role for the rest of the season. Duncan claims "nothing has been determined" at this time.
Diamondbacks activated outfielder Justin Upton from the 15-day disabled list.
Upton, who missed seven weeks with a strained oblique, doesn't figure to resume playing regularly unless he gets hot. Still, the Diamondbacks will find starts for him against lefties and some righties. Chad Tracy and Tony Clark stand to lose at-bats to him, though the Diamondbacks have the option of trying Tracy ay third and Mark Reynolds at second. It's an alignment that could work when Randy Johnson and Yusmiero Petit are on the mound.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BOS 8 CHA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 7 NYA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 10 BAL 9 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 4 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 13 DET 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 4 TEX 3 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 3 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 4 NYN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 9 ATL 8 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 5 CHN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 7 SF 6 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 8 STL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 11 PIT 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 6 ARI 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 9 COL 4 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds, 12:35 PM (R) Matt Cain (8-10) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (12-10) New York Mets at Florida Marlins, 1:10 PM (R) Pedro Martinez (4-3) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (6-8) Milwaukee Brewers at Pittsburgh Pirates, 1:35 PM (L) CC Sabathia (8-0) vs. (R) Jeff Karstens (2-3) Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals, 1:35 PM (R) Jair Jurrjens (11-9) vs. (R) Collin Balester (3-6) St. Louis Cardinals at Houston Astros, 2:05 PM (R) Todd Wellemeyer (11-5) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (7-6) Philadelphia Phillies at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (L) Jamie Moyer (11-7) vs. (L) Sean Marshall (3-3) Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres, 4:05 PM (L) Jeff Francis (4-8) vs. (R) Jake Peavy (9-9) Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 8:05 PM (R) Derek Lowe (10-11) vs. (R) Brandon Webb (19-5) American League --------------- Seattle Mariners at Cleveland Indians, 1:05 PM (L) Ryan Rowland-Smith (3-2) vs. (L) Zach Jackson (0-0) Toronto Blue Jays at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (R) Roy Halladay (16-9) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (13-10) Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM (R) Gil Meche (10-10) vs. (R) Armando Galarraga (12-4) Chicago White Sox at Boston Red Sox, 1:35 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (14-6) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (8-8) Baltimore Orioles at Tampa Bay Rays, 1:40 PM (L) Brian Burres (7-8) vs. (R) James Shields (11-8) Texas Rangers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM (R) Kevin Millwood (8-7) vs. (R) John Lackey (11-2) Minnesota Twins at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM (R) Scott Baker (7-4) vs. (L) Greg Smith (6-13)
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 TB 83 51 .619 0.0 77 6BOS 79 56 .585 4.5 81 -2
NYA 72 63 .533 11.5 71 1
TOR 69 66 .511 14.5 75 -6
BAL 63 72 .467 20.5 66 -3
American League Central CHA 76 59 .563 0.0 77 -1
MIN 76 60 .559 0.5 75 1
CLE 65 69 .485 10.5 70 -5
DET 65 70 .481 11.0 67 -2
KC 57 78 .422 19.0 55 2
American League West LAA 83 52 .615 0.0 74 9
TEX 66 71 .482 18.0 63 3
OAK 63 73 .463 20.5 65 -2
SEA 52 83 .385 31.0 56 -4
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 75 61 .551 0.0 75 0
PHI 74 62 .544 1.0 77 -3
FLA 69 67 .507 6.0 65 4
ATL 59 77 .434 16.0 65 -6
WAS 51 85 .375 24.0 52 -1
National League Central CHN 85 51 .625 0.0 87 -2
MIL 79 56 .585 5.5 76 3
STL 74 62 .544 11.0 73 1
HOU 70 66 .515 15.0 64 6
CIN 60 76 .441 25.0 58 2
PIT 57 78 .422 27.5 55 2
National League West ARI 69 66 .511 0.0 71 -2
LAN 66 70 .485 3.5 68 -2
COL 64 73 .467 6.0 63 1
SF 59 76 .437 10.0 56 3
SD 52 83 .385 17.0 56 -4
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 FLA AAA Dallas McPherson.. 4 2 0 0 2 1 1 5 RBI ! SD AA Kyle Blanks....... 5 4 0 0 2 0 0 3 LD CLE AA Wesley Hodges..... 5 3 2 0 1 0 0 4 RBI BOS A Oscar Tejeda...... 4 3 0 0 2 1 0 CLE AAA Trevor Crowe...... 5 3 1 0 0 1 0 2 SB CLE AAA Jordan Brown...... 6 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 R FLA AA John Raynor....... 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 SB CLE A+ Carlos Santana.... 4 2 1 0 1 1 1 3 R CHC AAA Josh Kroeger...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 2 STL AAA J. Hoffpauir...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 ATL AA Kala Kaaihue...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 1 LA AA Andrew Lambo...... 5 2 1 1 0 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes BOS AA Clay Buchholz..... 8 2 0 0 10 1 0 TB AAA Jeff Niemann...... 8 4 2 2 11 1 0 NYY AAA Ian Kennedy....... 7 6 0 0 11 0 0 SF A+ Tim Alderson...... 6 3 0 0 7 0 0 TEX A+ Omar Poveda....... 7 7 1 1 9 1 0 PIT AAA Jimmy Barthmaier.. 7 2 1 1 7 2 0 WAN AA J. Zimmermann..... 5 4 1 1 8 1 0 TEX A- Martin Perez...... 6 6 1 1 7 1 0 CIN AAA Daryl Thompson.... 6 5 1 1 5 0 0 BAL A+ Timothy Bascom.... 7 7 3 3 5 1 0 15 GB FLA AAA E. De La Cruz..... 8 3 1 1 5 4 0 14 GB TEX AAA Tommy Hunter...... 8 6 1 1 4 0 1 17 GB
Access all of THT’s stats here…
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.