THT Daily: Jeff beats Jered
by Dave StudemanJune 21, 2009
Major League News for June 21
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 RotoworldRussell Martin hit his first home run of the season Saturday night as the Dodgers captured a 6-4 victory from the Angels.
It's June 21, Martin is over 220 at-bats into the season, and yet he just now hit his first dinger of the year. Fantasy owners have to be relieved and disappointed all at the same time. The catcher is now batting .249 with 21 RBI. Hopefully this is the start of something good.
Jeff Weaver improved to 4-1 after holding the Angels to two earned runs over five innings Saturday.
Looking a bit more like his younger brother than we're used to, the veteran fanned four Angels batters and walked none. He allowed just six hits while improving both his ERA and WHIP. With a solid record and a decent stat line, Jeff is slowly gaining the Dodgers' trust. We'll see if he can continue improving when the Mariners come to town next week.
According to the New York Post's Bart Hubbuch, Carlos Beltran's right knee MRI is set for Monday.
Beltran feels pain in his knee from time to time, especially when he has to decelerate abruptly. The MRI results should clear things up and provide an official diagnosis. At this point, he's not expected to miss any time. That could always change, of course.
An MRI on Daisuke Matsuzaka's shoulder showed no structural damage, but the Japanese right-hander has been diagnosed with "weakness."
Matsuzaka has already been told he'd be skipped in his next turn through the starting rotation. It's not clear what the next course of action will be. Maybe a stint on the disabled list and subsequent rehab assignment could do him some good. Stay tuned.
Joe Mauer topped his career high in home runs Saturday after hitting his 14th of the season over the left-center field wall.
Mauer accomplished the feat in only 168 at-bats. He's batting .417 this season with 42 RBI, one stolen base (swiped tonight), 11 doubles and 40 runs scored. There's no sign of him slowing down, either.
Ryan Howard hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in the seventh inning of the Phillies' loss to the Orioles on Saturday.
Howard was held out of the starting lineup Saturday after battling a 104 degree fever overnight, but manager Charlie Manuel found a good spot to use him. His blast helped the Phillies take a sizable lead, but the O's fought back and eventually proved victorious. Howard is batting .257 this season with 20 home runs and 54 RBI.
Josh Beckett tossed a complete-game shutout Saturday as the Red Sox blanked the Braves 3-0 at Fenway Park.
It was Beckett's first shutout in a Red Sox uniform. He struck out seven Atlanta batters without walking a single one, and surrendered just five hits. The man's ERA is down to 3.74 and he now stands at 8-3 on the year. He'll face the Braves again next week.
Endy Chavez was diagnosed Saturday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
Chavez was sporting a large cast when he showed up to the clubhouse Saturday, just hours after colliding with infielder Yuniesky Betancourt. He'll undergo surgery next week. Wladimir Balentien will step in as the primary left fielder.
Rangers activated RHP Frank Francisco from the 15-day disabled list.
Francisco will be available out of the bullpen Saturday night, but he'll be eased back into the closer's role and might not start picking up saves again until late next week. C.J. Wilson did a fine job as his replacement.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BOS 3 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 9 MIL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 7 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 6 MIN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 6 LAA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 7 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 2 NYA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 3 NYN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) BAL 6 PHI 5 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 5 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 6 CLE 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 10 CIN 8 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 9 PIT 7 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 6 SD 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 2 TEX 1 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Colorado Rockies, 3:10 PM (L) Paul Maholm (4-3) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (2-7) Inter-League ------------ Milwaukee Brewers at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM (R) Yovani Gallardo (7-3) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (7-3) Chicago White Sox at Cincinnati Reds, 1:10 PM (L) Mark Buehrle (6-2) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (5-6) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Mets, 1:10 PM (R) Jeff Niemann (6-4) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (5-2) Baltimore Orioles at Philadelphia Phillies, 1:35 PM (R) Jeremy Guthrie (4-7) vs. (L) Cole Hamels (4-2) Toronto Blue Jays at Washington Nationals, 1:35 PM (L) Ricky Romero (3-3) vs. (R) Shairon Martis (5-1) Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox, 1:35 PM (R) Jair Jurrjens (5-5) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (9-3) Houston Astros at Minnesota Twins, 2:10 PM (L) Wandy Rodriguez (5-6) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (2-3) St. Louis Cardinals at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM (R) Adam Wainwright (7-4) vs. (R) Gil Meche (4-5) Cleveland Indians at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (L) Jeremy Sowers (1-4) vs. (R) Randy Wells (0-3) Oakland Athletics at San Diego Padres, 4:05 PM (L) Dallas Braden (5-5) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (3-5) Texas Rangers at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM (R) Kevin Millwood (7-4) vs. (L) Barry Zito (3-7) Arizona Diamondbacks at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM (L) Doug Davis (3-8) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (7-3) New York Yankees at Florida Marlins, 5:05 PM (L) CC Sabathia (6-4) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (4-7) Los Angeles Dodgers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 8:05 PM (L) Clayton Kershaw (3-5) vs. (R) John Lackey (2-2)
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 41 27 .603 0.0 40 1NYA 38 30 .559 3.0 37 1
TOR 37 33 .529 5.0 39 -2
TB 36 34 .514 6.0 42 -6
BAL 31 37 .456 10.0 29 2
American League Central DET 37 31 .544 0.0 37 0
MIN 35 35 .500 3.0 37 -2
CHA 32 36 .471 5.0 31 1
KC 29 38 .433 7.5 29 0
CLE 29 41 .414 9.0 34 -5
American League West TEX 37 30 .552 0.0 35 2
LAA 36 30 .545 0.5 34 2
SEA 34 34 .500 3.5 32 2
OAK 30 37 .448 7.0 30 0
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 36 30 .545 0.0 35 1
NYN 34 32 .515 2.0 33 1
FLA 34 36 .486 4.0 32 2
ATL 32 35 .478 4.5 32 0
WAS 20 46 .303 16.0 26 -6
National League Central STL 38 31 .551 0.0 37 1
MIL 37 31 .544 0.5 35 2
CHN 33 31 .516 2.5 33 0
CIN 34 33 .507 3.0 33 1
HOU 31 35 .470 5.5 29 2
PIT 31 37 .456 6.5 34 -3
National League West LAN 45 24 .652 0.0 43 2
SF 36 31 .537 8.0 34 2
COL 35 33 .515 9.5 36 -1
SD 29 38 .433 15.0 26 3
ARI 29 40 .420 16.0 31 -2
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 A Kyle Skipworth.... 5 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 LD BAL A+ Brandon Waring.... 5 3 1 0 1 1 1 3 R ATL A+ Cody Johnson...... 5 3 0 0 2 0 2 FLA AAA Gaby Sanchez...... 5 2 0 0 1 1 2 2 SB OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 5 4 0 0 1 0 0 3 R CIN A Joey Votto........ 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 BOS A Anthony Rizzo..... 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 3 R SEA A+ Alex Liddi........ 6 3 2 0 0 0 0 3 R SEA A+ Joseph Dunigan.... 5 3 0 0 1 1 0 4 RBI LA AA Joshua Bell....... 4 2 1 1 0 1 0 SD AA Lance Zawadzki.... 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 4 R HOU AAA Justin Towles..... 3 2 2 0 0 1 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes HOU AAA Bud Norris........ 8 3 0 0 10 4 0 CHW AA Daniel Hudson..... 7 3 1 0 8 2 0 CLE A Alexander Perez... 6 3 2 2 9 0 1 NYM AAA Jonathon Niese.... 7 6 0 0 8 1 0 NYY A Hector Noesi...... 7 3 3 3 7 0 1 FLA AAA Rick Vanden Hurk.. 6 3 0 0 6 1 0 CLE AA Hector Rondon..... 5 3 0 0 6 0 0 SD A Nick Schmidt...... 5 3 1 0 5 1 0 9 GB PHI AAA Carlos Carrasco... 7 5 1 1 5 2 0 CLE A+ Eric Berger....... 7 2 0 0 4 3 0 CHC AAA Jeff Samardzija... 8 6 0 0 6 4 0 PHI AA Joe Savery........ 5 4 0 0 5 1 0 9 GB
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