THT Daily: Nats on fire
by Dave StudemanAugust 09, 2009
Major League News for August 9
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
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 RotoworldAramis Ramirez departed Saturday's game with a sore left shoulder.
It's the same shoulder that put him on the disabled list for two months earlier this season. Jake Fox entered as his replacement. Stay tuned.
Albert Pujols collected three RBI Saturday night as the Cardinals topped the Pirates 5-3 at PNC Park.
Pujols drove in all three runs on a bases-clearing double in the sixth inning, bumping his season-long RBI total to 100. He's now 8-for-10 with 27 runs batted in this season when the bases are loaded. Think that's amazing? Try this: Pujols is now the only major leaguer to begin a career with nine straight 30-plus home run and 100-plus RBI seasons. The Cardinals are 61-51 on the season, good enough for first place in the NL Central.
Making his Twins debut, Carl Pavano held the Tigers scoreless over seven innings, allowing his new club to pick up an 11-0 win.
Pavano is now 4-0 against Detroit this season. He looked sharp as a tack, fanning five without giving up a walk and lowering his ERA from 5.37 to 5.09. With the roller coaster-like season he's had, it's hard to have too much faith in the guy. But perhaps he'd make for a worthwhile add in some deep mixed leagues.
Jake Peavy (ankle) is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte on Thursday.
Peavy will throw two or three innings in his first live action since undergoing June ankle surgery. The White Sox have a three-start plan setup for him, but there's chance he could return after just two. "I've expressed to him a desire that I would like to see him get three rehab starts," GM Kenny Williams said Saturday. "I suspect after watching him today, I suspect at some point he is going to come to me that he doesn't need it."
CC Sabathia tossed seven-plus innings of shutout baseball on Saturday as the Yankees topped the Red Sox 5-0.
The Yankees are finally seeing their offseason investments pay off. A.J. Burnett and Sabathia have tossed 15 1/3 innings of scoreless, three-hit ball the last two nights against the hated Red Sox and have pushed the Yankess to a major league-leading 68-42 record. Sabathia was brilliant Saturday, fanning nine batters and allowing just two hits. He now stands 12-7 with a 3.76 ERA and 1.17 WHIP.
John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Scott Rolen is out of the lineup due to "concussion-like symptoms."
Rolen has been in and out of the lineup all week after being plunked in the head by Jason Marquis last Sunday. Look for the Reds to show great caution with the veteran third baseman.
Cubs placed RHP Carlos Zambrano on the 15-day disabled list with a sore back.
The move was made retroactive to August 1 -- his last start -- so he can return as soon as the 15th. We haven't heard the results of an MRI scheduled for Saturday, but the pain was enough for him to skip his scheduled start on Friday. Zambrano is 7-4 with a 3.35 ERA in 20 starts for the Cubbies this season.
Red Sox placed SS Jed Lowrie on the 15-day disabled list.
Lowrie experienced numbness Thursday night that was thought to be related to his wrist surgery earlier in the year. The Sox are putting him on the disabled list as a precaution to get an extra arm in the bullpen after last night's 15-inning affair. He should be back when his time is up. Nick Green becomes the new starting shortstop, again.
Chad Billingsley exited Friday's game in the sixth inning with a mild strain in his left hamstring.
Joe Torre said he didn't believe the injury was serious, but Billingsley was in obvious discomfort talking to reporters. He didn't think the injury was serious as well, but will be evaluated Saturday. He's in danger of missing his next start.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League NYA 5 BOS 0 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 3 BAL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 8 CLE 5 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 11 DET 0 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 12 OAK 6 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 3 TEX 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 10 SEA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 6 PHI 4 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 5 ARI 2 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 12 HOU 5 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 5 PIT 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 6 COL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 2 LAN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 3 NYN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 4 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
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 68 42 .618 0.0 64 4BOS 62 47 .569 5.5 62 0
TB 61 49 .555 7.0 64 -3
TOR 52 57 .477 15.5 58 -6
BAL 46 64 .418 22.0 48 -2
American League Central DET 58 51 .532 0.0 56 2
CHA 57 54 .514 2.0 57 0
MIN 54 56 .491 4.5 56 -2
CLE 47 63 .427 11.5 53 -6
KC 43 67 .391 15.5 43 0
American League West LAA 65 43 .602 0.0 61 4
TEX 61 48 .560 4.5 59 2
SEA 57 53 .518 9.0 49 8
OAK 48 62 .436 18.0 51 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 61 47 .565 0.0 61 0
FLA 57 53 .518 5.0 54 3
ATL 57 54 .514 5.5 59 -2
NYN 51 59 .464 11.0 51 0
WAS 39 72 .351 23.5 46 -7
National League Central STL 61 51 .545 0.0 60 1
CHN 58 50 .537 1.0 58 0
MIL 55 55 .500 5.0 52 3
HOU 54 56 .491 6.0 48 6
CIN 47 62 .431 12.5 45 2
PIT 45 65 .409 15.0 50 -5
National League West LAN 67 44 .604 0.0 67 0
SF 61 49 .555 5.5 60 1
COL 60 50 .545 6.5 61 -1
ARI 50 61 .450 17.0 53 -3
SD 47 65 .420 20.5 42 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 CIN A Cody Puckett...... 6 4 2 0 0 1 1 HOU AAA C. Johnson........ 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 NYM AA Ruben Tejada...... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 CLE AA Carlos Santana.... 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 TEX A+ Michael Bianucci.. 5 2 1 0 1 1 1 HOU A+ Jonathan Gaston... 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 MIN A Angel Morales..... 2 2 1 0 1 0 0 3 R OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 4 2 1 0 0 1 0 2 SB STL AAA Jonathan Jay...... 5 2 0 1 1 0 0 WAN A+ Michael Burgess... 4 2 1 0 1 0 2 5 RBI ! BAL A Xavier Avery...... 5 3 1 1 0 0 0 LA AAA Blake Dewitt...... 5 2 0 0 1 1 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes NYY A+ Hector Noesi...... 6 3 1 1 7 0 0 TB AAA Wade Davis........ 7 6 2 2 8 1 0 SEA AAA Brandon Morrow.... 6 5 1 1 8 1 0 KC A Timothy Melville.. 7 3 1 1 6 1 0 PIT A+ Rudy Owens........ 5 3 0 0 6 0 0 TB A Joseph Cruz....... 5 3 2 2 6 1 0 KC A+ Daniel Gutierrez.. 3 1 0 0 6 0 0 CLE A T.J. House........ 6 1 0 0 6 3 0 MIN A+ Tyler Robertson... 6 6 4 2 5 0 0 ATL A+ Richard Sullivan.. 6 4 3 1 5 1 0 LAA AA Trevor Reckling... 7 1 1 0 5 4 0 CLE AA Jeanmar Gomez..... 6 3 1 1 7 2 1
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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.