THT Daily: Last to First

by Dave Studeman
June 10, 2009

Major League News for June 10

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
Pirates recalled RHP Charlie Morton from Triple-A Indianapolis.
Morton, acquired in the Nate McLouth trade, will start on Wednesday against the Braves. He should be around for the long haul. The Pirates pushed Jeff Karstens into a long relief role to accommodate Morton's inclusion in the rotation. Morton was 7-2 with a 2.26 ERA and 62 Ks in 71 2/3 innings over 11 starts at Triple-A this season. He's worth a flier in NL-only leagues.

Denard Span will fly to Minneapolis on Wednesday to meet with doctors after experiencing further dizziness during Twins' games.
Span suffered the same symptoms last month, but the condition subsided. The side effects reemerged in recent days. Span was pulled in the third inning of Tuesday's game against the A's after he "didn't even see the ball" in a second-inning strikeout. "I've never felt this way playing baseball," Span said. "It's kind of scary."

Angels optioned RHP Jose Arredondo to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Arredondo was 10-2 with a 1.62 ERA in 52 appearances as a rookie. He regressed to 1-3 with a 5.55 ERA in 25 appearances this year. "Jose needs to work some things out," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We saw what his upside was last year, how important he was, and how we were relying on his continued progression this year. He's obviously taken a small step backwards right here in the first two months. It doesn't seem like he's moving in the right direction with his stuff and his command. He needs to work it out."

Pablo Sandoval was 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBI in a win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.
The Giants cranked out 17 hits for the 9-4 victory. Sandoval was a big part of it, with an RBI single in the third inning and a two-run homer off Billy Buckner in the fifth. It was his second four-hit game against Arizona this season -- he went 4-for-4 against them on April 26. After a slow start out of the fantasy-gates, Sandoval has matched the preseason hype with a .318/.356/.497 line to go along with five homers and 26 RBI.

Ted Lilly blanked the Astros over 6 2/3 innings, allowing just three hits on the way to his seventh win on Tuesday night.
Lilly faced just two batters over the minimum over the first five innings. He ended up walking two and fanning four to improve to 7-4. Lilly has allowed just two runs over his last three starts combined to bring his ERA down to 3.00. With a 63/20 K/BB ratio and 1.05 WHIP over 78 innings this season, Lilly has been the Cubs' best starter.

Josh Willingham is expected to return to the starting lineup and move to right field Wednesday against the Reds.
Willingham had been playing in left field, but the Nationals want to keep Adam Dunn there. Instead, Willingham and Austin Kearns will split time in right field until one of them gets hot and runs away with the job. Kearns is hitting just .193 with one extra-base hit and no RBI since returning from a hand injury 21 games ago.

Jered Weaver improved to 6-2 on the season, allowing two runs over six innings in a 4-3 win over the Rays on Tuesday night.
He continues to shine this season, allowing two runs or less for the sixth time in his last seven starts. Tonight he limited the Rays to just five hits, walking four and striking out six. Weaver has an excellent 2.31 ERA and 1.04 WHIP through 12 starts this season. With the other Angels' starters sidelined, Weaver has emerged as a fantasy stud.

Jesse Litsch is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow on Friday.
Litsch had been rehabbing in Florida since mid April after two previous MRI exams revealed no ligament damage. He was never able to get over the hump, however, and was continuing to suffer from intermittent soreness. Dr. James Andrews, who twice ruled out surgery while recommending rest, will perform the operation.

Yesterday’s Results

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

American League
BAL     3  SEA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     7  NYA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     4  TB      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     8  KC      4    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN    10  OAK     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     9  TEX     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     4  PIT     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA     4  STL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     6  PHI     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     3  WAS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     7  HOU     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     3  MIL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      9  ARI     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     6  SD      4    (Recap and Boxscore)

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

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Cincinnati Reds at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM
  (R) Aaron Harang (5-6) vs. (R) Shairon Martis (5-1)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM
  (R) Adam Wainwright (5-4) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (4-5)
 Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (L) Cole Hamels (4-2) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (4-2)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM
  (R) Charlie Morton (0-0) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (5-3)
 Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Carlos Zambrano (4-2) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (5-5)
 Colorado Rockies at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM
  (L) Jorge De La Rosa (1-6) vs. (R) Dave Bush (3-2)
 San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (L) Barry Zito (2-6) vs. (L) Doug Davis (3-6)
 San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (R) Kevin Correia (2-4) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (3-4)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM
  (R) Gil Meche (2-5) vs. (R) Carl Pavano (6-4)
 Seattle Mariners at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Felix Hernandez (5-3) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (4-5)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM
  (R) John Lackey (1-1) vs. (R) Jeff Niemann (5-4)
 New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM
  (R) Chien-Ming Wang (0-3) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (7-3)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (L) Ricky Romero (3-2) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (5-4)
 Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM
  (R) Justin Verlander (6-2) vs. (L) John Danks (4-4)
 Minnesota Twins at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM
  (L) Francisco Liriano (2-7) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (5-5)

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     34  24 .586    0.0   34     0    
NYA     34  24 .586    0.0   31     3    
TOR     34  27 .557    1.5   35    -1    
TB      29  31 .483    6.0   34    -5    
BAL     25  33 .431    9.0   23     2    
American League Central     
DET     31  26 .544    0.0   32    -1    
MIN     29  31 .483    3.5   31    -2    
CHA     27  31 .466    4.5   27     0    
CLE     26  34 .433    6.5   30    -4    
KC      24  33 .421    7.0   24     0    
American League West        
TEX     33  25 .569    0.0   31     2    
LAA     29  27 .518    3.0   27     2    
SEA     28  30 .483    5.0   26     2    
OAK     26  31 .456    6.5   26     0    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     33  23 .589    0.0   32     1    
NYN     31  25 .554    2.0   30     1    
ATL     29  28 .509    4.5   28     1    
FLA     29  31 .483    6.0   28     1    
WAS     15  41 .268   18.0   22    -7    
National League Central     
MIL     33  25 .569    0.0   31     2    
CHN     29  26 .527    2.5   29     0    
CIN     30  27 .526    2.5   29     1    
STL     31  28 .525    2.5   30     1    
PIT     26  32 .448    7.0   29    -3    
HOU     25  31 .446    7.0   25     0    
National League West        
LAN     40  20 .667    0.0   39     1    
SF      30  27 .526    8.5   29     1    
SD      27  31 .466   12.0   24     3    
COL     26  32 .448   13.0   30    -4    
ARI     25  34 .424   14.5   26    -1

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
PIT AAA Steven Pearce..... 5  3  1  0  2  0  0  4 RBI
BOS A   Tim Federowicz.... 5  3  1  0  1  1  0  3 R
BOS A   Anthony Rizzo..... 5  3  0  0  1  1  1  
DET AAA Wilkin Ramirez.... 3  1  0  0  1  3  1  
TOR A   T. Pastornicky.... 3  2  0  1  0  1  0  
CIN AA  Juan Francisco.... 6  4  1  0  0  0  0  
DET AA  Scott Sizemore.... 5  2  1  1  0  0  1  
TOR A   Yohermyn Chavez... 4  2  1  0  0  1  0  
MIN A+  Ben Revere........ 3  1  1  0  0  1  0  
CIN A+  Devin Mesoraco.... 3  1  0  0  1  1  1  
CLE A+  Tim Fedroff....... 4  1  0  0  1  1  1  
MIL AA  Jonathan Lucroy... 3  2  1  0  0  1  1  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
MIL A+  Jeremy Jeffress... 7  2  3  0  8  3  0  
DET AA  Alfredo Figaro.... 7  5  2  2  8  0  1  
LA  AA  Scott Elbert...... 7  11  3  3  9  0  0  
NYY A   Hector Noesi...... 8  6  2  2  7  2  0  
LAA A+  Alexander Torres.. 7  4  1  1  5  1  0  12 GB
MIL A+  Evan Anundsen..... 7  4  2  2  6  3  0  
MIL A   Wily Peralta...... 3  4  0  0  6  0  0  
CHC AAA Jeff Samardzija... 6  5  2  1  3  0  0  6 infield flies
CLE A   Alexander Perez... 6  2  3  2  3  2  0  
NYY AAA Mark Melancon..... 3  3  2  2  4  0  0  
SD  A   Simon Castro...... 6  3  3  2  3  0  1  
LA  A   Nathan Eovaldi.... 5  3  0  0  3  1  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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