THT Daily: Giants sweep Rockies

by Dave Studeman
August 31, 2009

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 Rotoworld
Chad Qualls will have an MRI for a dislocated kneecap sustained on the final play of Sunday's game.
You could see the dislocation," said Arizona manager A.J. Hinch. "The trainer popped the kneecap back in place, but now we'll just have to wait and see how much damage there was." The Diamondbacks just traded their fallback for Qualls, Jon Rauch, to the Twins, so it's uncertain who will save games if Qualls lands on the DL. Juan Gutierrez would seem to be the best bet.

Zack Greinke allowed just one hit in a complete game shutout over the Mariners on Sunday.
The lone hit came in the second inning off the bat of Kenji Johjima. Greinke also walked just one batter while striking out five. The best hitter in the Mariners' lineup today was Franklin Gutierrez and his 776 OPS, so it's probably not even Greinke's most impressive outing of the season. His owners will surely love it though, as Greinke is now 13-8 with a 2.32 ERA.

Jake Peavy will have his sore elbow examined Monday after leaving his Saturday rehab start with what the White Sox called a "recurrence of tightness."
Peavy lasted just 3 1/3 innings in Saturday's outing, so he's clearly not close to joining the White Sox's rotation even if no further elbow problems are found.

Red Sox purchased the contract of RHP Paul Byrd from Triple-A Pawtucket.
Byrd signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox on Aug. 5, having taken the first half of the year off. Byrd will oppose the Blue Jays, fitting as Byrd pitched five of his last nine starts last year against Toronto. His last start in Triple-A resulted in one earned run over seven innings. Against weaker hitting teams like Toronto, he's a fine play.

Jake Peavy was pulled from his rehab start Saturday with a "recurrence of tightness" in his right elbow.
Peavy lasted just 3 1/3 innings and 64 pitches, giving up two runs. He had hoped to go at least six frames and wanted to eclipse, or come close to eclipsing, the 100-pitch mark. He'll probably require at least a week of rest and one or two more rehab outings.

Cliff Lee was shelled for six earned runs over five innings Saturday evening in a loss to the Braves.
Trouble in paradise. Lee entered the night 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA as a member of the Phillies, but was tagged for 10 hits -- including three home runs -- in the contest. Even the best aces have bad starts, but he looked totally ineffective against the Braves' lineup. Hopefully he'll right the ship next week against the Astros. Lee is still one of our favorite fantasy pitchers down the stretch.

An MRI on Alfonso Soriano's left knee Saturday revealed only treatable inflammation, and no structural damage of any kind.
Soriano will be given an anti-inflammation injection on Sunday and could return to the Cubs' lineup as soon as Tuesday. Of course, he'll have to prove his health with a few drills before that happens. "I'm not going to put him out there [if] he can't move the way he should," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella. "Let's get him well and then we'll get him back out there."

Mariners placed first baseman Russell Branyan on the 15-day disabled list with a herniated disc.
Branyan's MRI on Saturday revealed inflammation and a herniated disc in his back. He's had similar issues for much of his career, but the hope is he'll be ready to return once his 15 days are up. Jack Hannahan will draw most of the starts at first base while Russell "The Muscle" is out.

Diamondbacks recalled outfielder Chris Young from Triple-A Reno.
Young was optioned to Reno on August 10 after batting just .194 with 95 strikeouts in 103 games for the D'Backs. He righted the wrong on the Triple-A level, hitting .370 in 13 games. Ideally, Arizona will play an outfield of Young, Justin Upton and Gerardo Parra the rest of the way.

Yesterday’s Results

For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.

American League
BAL     5  CLE     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     7  TOR     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     8  CHA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     4  TB      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     5  TEX     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     9  OAK     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      3  SEA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
FLA     6  SD      4    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     3  ATL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     4  CHN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     3  CIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     4  PIT     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     2  WAS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     4  HOU     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      9  COL     5    (Recap and Boxscore)

Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.

Today’s Games

Rays (70-59) @ Tigers (69-60), 1:05pm
    James Shields (27, RHP) vs. Jarrod Washburn (34, LHP)
Yankees (82-48) @ Orioles (54-77), 7:05pm
    Andy Pettitte (37, LHP) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (30, RHP)
Blue Jays (58-70) @ Rangers (72-57), 8:05pm
    Brett Cecil (22, LHP) vs. Derek Holland (22, LHP)
WhiteSox (64-67) @ Twins (65-65), 8:10pm
    Gavin Floyd (26, RHP) vs. Nick Blackburn (27, RHP)
Royals (50-80) @ Athletics (57-73), 10:05pm
    Luke Hochevar (25, RHP) vs. Gio Gonzalez (23, LHP)
Angels (77-52) @ Mariners (68-63), 10:10pm
    Joe Saunders (28, LHP) vs. Lucas French (23, LHP)
Pirates (53-75) @ Reds (56-73), 1:10pm
     Unknown() vs. Kip Wells (32, RHP)
Pirates (53-75) @ Reds (56-73), 7:10pm
    Paul Maholm (27, LHP) vs. Johnny Cueto (23, RHP)
Braves (68-62) @ Marlins (68-62), 7:10pm
    Kenshin Kawakami (34, RHP) vs. Josh Johnson (25, RHP)
Astros (62-68) @ Cubs (65-63), 8:05pm
    Roy Oswalt (31, RHP) vs. Rich Harden (27, RHP)
Nationals (46-85) @ Padres (56-76), 10:05pm
    Livan Hernandez (34, RHP) vs. Tim Stauffer (27, RHP)
D'backs (59-72) @ Dodgers (78-53), 10:10pm
    Doug Davis (33, LHP) vs. Randy Wolf (32, LHP)

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     82  48 .631    0.0   77     5    
BOS     76  54 .585    6.0   75     1    
TB      70  59 .543   11.5   72    -2    
TOR     58  70 .453   23.0   65    -7    
BAL     54  77 .412   28.5   58    -4    
American League Central     
DET     69  60 .535    0.0   66     3    
MIN     65  65 .500    4.5   66    -1    
CHA     64  67 .489    6.0   65    -1    
CLE     58  72 .446   11.5   62    -4    
KC      50  80 .385   19.5   51    -1    
American League West        
LAA     77  52 .597    0.0   72     5    
TEX     72  57 .558    5.0   71     1    
SEA     68  63 .519   10.0   60     8    
OAK     57  73 .438   20.5   60    -3    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     75  53 .586    0.0   74     1    
ATL     68  62 .523    8.0   72    -4    
FLA     68  62 .523    8.0   64     4    
NYN     59  72 .450   17.5   59     0    
WAS     46  85 .351   30.5   54    -8    
National League Central     
STL     77  55 .583    0.0   74     3    
CHN     65  63 .508   10.0   66    -1    
MIL     64  66 .492   12.0   63     1    
HOU     62  68 .477   14.0   56     6    
CIN     56  73 .434   19.5   54     2    
PIT     53  75 .414   22.0   57    -4    
National League West        
LAN     78  53 .595    0.0   80    -2    
COL     72  59 .550    6.0   73    -1    
SF      72  59 .550    6.0   69     3    
ARI     59  72 .450   19.0   63    -4    
SD      56  76 .424   22.5   51     5    


Wildcard Standings
American League             
BOS     76  54 .585    0.0
TEX     72  57 .558    3.5
TB      70  59 .543    5.5
SEA     68  63 .519    8.5
MIN     65  65 .500   11.0
National League             
COL     72  59 .550    0.0
SF      72  59 .550    0.0
ATL     68  62 .523    3.5
FLA     68  62 .523    3.5
CHN     65  63 .508    5.5

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
COL A   Delta Cleary...... 6  3  2  0  0  1  1  2 SB
TOR AAA J. Arencibia...... 4  3  0  0  2  0  0  3 R
CIN A+  Neftali Soto...... 4  3  3  0  0  0  0  3 LD
ATL AA  Brandon Hicks..... 4  3  1  0  0  1  1  2 SB
NYM AA  Isaac Davis....... 4  3  1  0  1  0  0  
DET AA  Casper Wells...... 3  1  0  0  1  3  1  
CHC A+  Brandon Guyer..... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  
WAN A   Derek Norris...... 4  2  2  0  0  1  0  4 RBI
BOS A-  Derrik Gibson..... 4  3  1  0  0  0  0  2 SB
CIN AAA Todd Frazier...... 5  4  1  0  0  0  0  
SD  AA  Lance Zawadzki.... 4  3  1  0  0  1  0  3 R
LAA AA  Hank Conger....... 3  1  0  0  1  2  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
TB  AAA J. Hellickson..... 8  1  0  0 12  2  0  
ATL A   J.J. Hoover....... 7  5  2  2 11  0  0  
TOR AAA David Purcey...... 9  3  0  0  5  0  0  
CHC AAA Mitch Atkins...... 6  5  0  0  8  1  0  
BAL AA  Brandon Erbe...... 6  5  2  2  8  2  0  
NYY A+  Hector Noesi...... 5  3  0  0  5  0  0  
SF  A   Eric Surkamp...... 6  4  1  1  8  4  0  
SD  A   Simon Castro...... 6  3  1  1  5  1  0  
STL AA  Lance Lynn........ 6  6  2  2  7  2  0  
PIT A   Brett Lorin....... 6  6  1  1  8  1  1  
KC  A+  Daniel Duffy...... 6  2  1  1  8  3  1  
NYY AAA Jason Hirsh....... 5  2  0  0  5  2  0

First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

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.

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