THT Daily: into the Ethier
by Dave StudemanJune 27, 2009
Major League News for June 27
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 RotoworldAndre Ethier had his first ever three-homer game and drove in six runs Friday to lead the Dodgers to an 8-2 win over the Mariners.
Incredibly, it's Ethier's fifth multihomer game of the season. He has 14 homers, but he's homered in just eight of the 72 games in which he's played. He had just one multihomer game in his career prior to this season. With the six RBI, he's now tied for James Loney for the Dodger lead at 49. Casey Blake is one behind.
Josh Beckett improved to 9-3 on the season with seven shutout innings in a 4-1 win over the Braves on Friday night.
Figuring in his complete game shutout against the Braves last time out, that makes 16 consecutive scoreless innings against them. Beckett was brilliant, scattering just six hits while striking out six and not issuing a walk. He has a solid 94/32 K/BB ratio in 98 1/3 innings this season. His ERA is down to 3.48 -- it's lowest point since his second start of the year. Beckett has won seven out of his last eight decisions.
Ricky Romero didn't allow a hit over the first six innings, but threw seven scoreless in a 6-0 win over the Phillies on Friday night.
Chase Utley lined a single to right to break up the no-hit bid to lead off the seventh inning. Romero finished allowing just two hits while fanning seven and walking one. The 24-year-old southpaw has allowed three runs or less in five straight starts to bring his ERA down to 3.20 in the win. Romero has a pretty nice 54/20 K/BB ratio in 64 2/3 innings this season. He's worth a start in mixed leagues right now.
According to the New York Post, Xavier Nady will require Tommy John surgery to repair his ailing right elbow and is done for the season.
Nady is also questionable for most of 2010. "It's disappointing," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "I am more disappointed for him than I am the club. You would love to have him back. He has put a lot of time into this. I know how bad he wants to play." He's a free agent after this season, so it's probably safe to assume his time with the Yankees is up.
Aramis Ramirez (shoulder) is hoping to begin a rehab assignment soon.
Ramirez felt strong enough to take batting practice with the rest of his teammates at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday. "I think this is the final step in his rehab," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "I think he'll need three or four games, and maybe [be the designated hitter once], third base a few times. Then we'll get him back in our lineup." He should return before the All-Star break
Roy Halladay (groin) tossed a 50-pitch bullpen session Friday and afterward declared himself ready to go.
Doc said his groin discomfort is "completely gone." Barring some unforeseen setback, he'll be activated from the disabled list Monday to start against the Rays. He'll return to a 10-1 record, a 2.53 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP.
The Mets scratched John Maine from his Saturday rehab start.
Maine had a cortisone shot, and said he expects to be back after the All-Star break, though how soon remains to be seen. None of the estimates have come to pass so far, and he'll be dealing with pain regardless, so don't expect a healthy Maine for a while.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BAL 11 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 7 FLA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 6 PHI 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 5 CHA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 9 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 4 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 12 SD 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League BOS 4 ATL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 9 NYN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 5 DET 4 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 5 SF 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 5 KC 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 3 STL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 12 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 8 SEA 2 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers, 7:05 PM (L) Barry Zito (4-7) vs. (R) Seth McClung (3-1) Inter-League ------------ Philadelphia Phillies at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (L) J.A. Happ (4-0) vs. (L) Brad Mills (0-0) Minnesota Twins at St. Louis Cardinals, 1:10 PM (R) Kevin Slowey (10-2) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (6-7) Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox, 4:05 PM (R) Ryan Dempster (4-5) vs. (L) Mark Buehrle (7-2) LA Angels of Anaheim at Arizona Diamondbacks, 4:10 PM (R) John Lackey (2-3) vs. (L) Doug Davis (3-8) Boston Red Sox at Atlanta Braves, 4:10 PM (R) Tim Wakefield (9-3) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (5-6) Cincinnati Reds at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Homer Bailey (0-0) vs. (R) Tomo Ohka (0-1) Detroit Tigers at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM (R) Alfredo Figaro (1-0) vs. (R) Felipe Paulino (1-4) Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Shairon Martis (5-2) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (5-7) Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (L) Bruce Chen (0-0) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (4-4) Florida Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM (R) Chris Volstad (5-7) vs. (R) Jeff Niemann (6-4) New York Yankees at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) A.J. Burnett (5-4) vs. (R) Tim Redding (1-2) San Diego Padres at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Kevin Correia (4-5) vs. (L) Derek Holland (1-4) Colorado Rockies at Oakland Athletics, 9:05 PM (L) Jorge De La Rosa (3-7) vs. (R) Trevor Cahill (5-5) Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (7-3) vs. (L) Eric Milton (2-0)
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 45 28 .616 0.0 43 2NYA 41 32 .562 4.0 41 0
TOR 41 34 .547 5.0 43 -2
TB 40 35 .533 6.0 45 -5
BAL 33 40 .452 12.0 32 1
American League Central DET 41 32 .562 0.0 40 1
MIN 38 37 .507 4.0 40 -2
CHA 35 38 .479 6.0 34 1
KC 31 41 .431 9.5 30 1
CLE 31 44 .413 11.0 36 -5
American League West TEX 40 32 .556 0.0 38 2
LAA 39 32 .549 0.5 37 2
SEA 37 36 .507 3.5 34 3
OAK 31 41 .431 9.0 32 -1
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 37 34 .521 0.0 37 0
NYN 37 35 .514 0.5 36 1
FLA 38 37 .507 1.0 35 3
ATL 34 39 .466 4.0 34 0
WAS 21 50 .296 16.0 27 -6
National League Central MIL 39 34 .534 0.0 37 2
STL 40 35 .533 0.0 40 0
CHN 35 35 .500 2.5 36 -1
CIN 35 37 .486 3.5 34 1
HOU 34 37 .479 4.0 32 2
PIT 34 39 .466 5.0 37 -3
National League West LAN 48 26 .649 0.0 46 2
SF 39 33 .542 8.0 37 2
COL 38 35 .521 9.5 39 -1
SD 31 41 .431 16.0 27 4
ARI 30 44 .405 18.0 33 -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 SD AA Cedric Hunter..... 5 4 2 0 0 0 0 3 LD DET AA Alexander Avila... 3 2 1 0 1 1 1 SD A Blake Tekotte..... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 CHC A+ Starlin Castro.... 4 2 1 1 0 1 0 5 RBI ! KC A+ Mike Moustakas.... 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 3 R SD AA Logan Forsythe.... 4 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 LD NYM A Wilmer Flores..... 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 LA A Kyle Russell...... 4 3 1 0 0 0 1 CHC A Josh Vitters...... 4 2 0 0 1 0 1 BOS A+ Tim Federowicz.... 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 KC A+ J. Giavotella..... 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 LA A+ Pedro Baez........ 4 2 1 0 0 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SEA A+ Steven Hensley.... 8 4 1 1 11 1 0 SF A+ Scott Barnes...... 6 5 2 0 10 0 0 MIL A+ Evan Anundsen..... 7 5 3 3 9 2 0 ATL A+ Jacob Thompson.... 7 3 0 0 8 2 0 SF A Eric Surkamp...... 7 5 1 1 7 1 0 MIL A Wily Peralta...... 6 5 2 2 10 1 1 LAA AA Jordan Walden..... 7 6 2 2 6 0 0 CLE A T.J. House........ 6 7 2 1 5 0 0 ARI AAA Bryan Augenstein.. 4 5 2 2 6 0 0 CLE AAA Chuck Lofgren..... 7 10 5 4 5 0 0 WAN AAA Collin Balester... 7 6 3 1 5 2 0 PHI AAA Carlos Carrasco... 6 7 1 1 7 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.
Could you guys do a article on Jimmy Rollins? Maybe you have and I missed it…
if you haven’t, you could title it WHAT IN THE HOLY NAME OF HARRY KALAS IS WRONG WITH JIMMY ROLLINS?! I wouldn’t miss it then.
Keep up the good work.