THT Daily: No hitter
by Dave StudemanJuly 11, 2009
Major League News for July 11
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 RotoworldAlan Embree, who was hit by a comebacker during Friday's game, has a fractured tibia and will undergo season-ending surgery on Saturday.
The disappointing news is sure to cause the Rockies to intensify their search for bullpen help. Embree had a 5.86 ERA in 36 appearances, but he had been pitching better lately. Randy Flores figures to replace him in the pen.
Jonathan Sanchez threw a no-hitter in an 8-0 win over the Padres on Friday night.
Not only was it the first complete game of Sanchez's career, but he set a new career high with 11 strikeouts. Sanchez actually had a perfect game going Chase Headley reached on an error by third baseman Juan Uribe with one out in the eighth inning. Sanchez threw 110 pitches in the outing and didn't walk a batter. It was the 17th no-hitter in team history and the first since John Montefusco in 1976.
Dan Haren hurled a complete-game shutout against the Marlins on Friday night.
The D'Backs topped the Marlins 8-0. It was a rare night of run support for Haren, but he wasn't taking anything for granted, allowing just four hits against 10 strikeouts and one walk. It was the second complete game shutout of his career. Haren leads the majors in ERA (2.01) and WHIP (0.81). He's gotta be the favorite to start the All-Star game for the National League at this point.
Jeff Niemann hurled a complete-game shutout against the Athletics on Friday night.
Niemann held the Athletics to just six hits -- all singles -- walking three and fanning six. The shutout was in danger in the ninth, with two runners on and one out, but Niemann managed to get consecutive groundball outs to end it. He induced 11 groudball outs in the win. It was his second complete-game shutout of the season. Neimann finishes the first half with a team-leading eight wins to go along with a 3.73 ERA.
Freddy Sanchez was 2-for-4 with a strikeout in his return to the lineup against the Phillies on Friday night.
Sanchez missed six straight games due to a sore lower back. Surrounded by trade rumors, Sanchez is tenth in the National League in batting with a .318 average.
Mets acquired OF Jeff Francouer from the Braves for OF Ryan Church.F
Francouer's struggles for the last two years have been well documented, but the Mets must think that he gives them a better shot at the plate than Ryan Church. That's highly debatable, although Frenchy does give them better power potential, something the Mets desperately need. He'll be their new right-fielder, while Angel Pagan and Jeremy Reed will split time in center until Carlos Beltran returns.
Mets traded OF Ryan Church to Braves for OF Jeff Francouer.
Church is heading to a better situation, as now he won't have to deal with a manager who never seemed to like Church. Church will provide the Braves with an immediate improvement over Francouer, even though Church is struggling on offense as well. While the Braves need right-handed bats, they'll take the lefty bat over Francouer's 88 OPS+ over his last 2,000 at bats. Church has a better shot than Francouer of a revival at the plate.
Hanley Ramirez is returning to the lineup Friday.
Ramirez had missed five straight starts with a strained hip flexor, but came off the bench Thursday night to contribute in the club's 10-run 8th inning. He's back batting third and is safe to activate.
Phillies activated OF Raul Ibanez from the 15-day disabled list.
While you shouldn't expect the MVP-level numbers Ibanez has posted in 2009 going forward, he should immediately be returned to the lineup in all formats.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League TOR 2 BAL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 1 KC 0 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 6 OAK 0 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 5 CLE 1 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 6 CHA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 10 NYA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 6 SEA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League CIN 3 NYN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 3 PIT 2 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 8 CHN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 6 WAS 5 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 12 MIL 8 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 8 FLA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 4 COL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 8 SD 0 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 4:10 PM (R) Brad Thompson (2-5) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (8-6) Washington Nationals at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM (R) Craig Stammen (1-4) vs. (L) Mike Hampton (5-5) Pittsburgh Pirates at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Ross Ohlendorf (7-7) vs. (L) Cole Hamels (5-5) Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee Brewers, 7:05 PM (R) Jeff Weaver (5-2) vs. (R) Mike Burns (1-2) Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Johnny Cueto (8-5) vs. (L) Johan Santana (9-7) Florida Marlins at Arizona Diamondbacks, 8:10 PM (L) Sean West (3-3) vs. (R) Jon Garland (4-8) Atlanta Braves at Colorado Rockies, 8:10 PM (R) Jair Jurrjens (6-7) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (11-5) San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants, 9:05 PM (R) Tim Stauffer (0-0) vs. (R) Matt Cain (10-2) American League --------------- New York Yankees at LA Angels of Anaheim, 4:10 PM (L) Andy Pettitte (8-4) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (9-3) Oakland Athletics at Tampa Bay Rays, 6:08 PM (L) Dallas Braden (6-7) vs. (R) Matt Garza (6-6) Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Carl Pavano (7-7) vs. (R) Armando Galarraga (5-7) Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (L) Ricky Romero (7-3) vs. (L) Rich Hill (3-2) Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, 7:10 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (6-6) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (4-4) Kansas City Royals at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) Gil Meche (4-8) vs. (R) John Smoltz (0-2) Texas Rangers at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (R) Kevin Millwood (8-6) vs. (L) Jarrod Washburn (5-6)
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 52 34 .605 0.0 50 2NYA 51 35 .593 1.0 49 2
TB 48 39 .552 4.5 52 -4
TOR 44 44 .500 9.0 47 -3
BAL 38 48 .442 14.0 37 1
American League Central DET 47 38 .553 0.0 45 2
CHA 44 42 .512 3.5 44 0
MIN 44 43 .506 4.0 46 -2
KC 37 49 .430 10.5 36 1
CLE 34 53 .391 14.0 40 -6
American League West TEX 48 37 .565 0.0 46 2
LAA 47 37 .560 0.5 44 3
SEA 44 42 .512 4.5 40 4
OAK 35 49 .417 12.5 37 -2
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 46 38 .548 0.0 46 0
FLA 45 43 .511 3.0 42 3
ATL 42 44 .488 5.0 42 0
NYN 40 45 .471 6.5 38 2
WAS 25 60 .294 21.5 32 -7
National League Central STL 48 40 .545 0.0 48 0
MIL 44 42 .512 3.0 42 2
HOU 43 43 .500 4.0 40 3
CIN 42 43 .494 4.5 38 4
CHN 41 42 .494 4.5 41 0
PIT 38 48 .442 9.0 42 -4
National League West LAN 55 31 .640 0.0 54 1
SF 48 38 .558 7.0 49 -1
COL 46 40 .535 9.0 47 -1
ARI 37 50 .425 18.5 40 -3
SD 35 51 .407 20.0 31 4
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 A Tony Sanchez...... 4 3 2 0 1 1 1 5 RBI ! PIT A Robbie Grossman... 4 2 1 0 1 2 1 3 R SF A+ Conor Gillaspie... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 LAA AA Hank Conger....... 5 3 1 0 1 0 1 COL A Delta Cleary...... 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 3 R PHI A Travis D'Arnaud... 2 1 0 0 1 3 1 3 R HOU AA Collin DeLome..... 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 WAN AAA Elijah Dukes...... 4 2 2 0 0 1 0 WAN A Derek Norris...... 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 HOU A Jay Austin........ 4 2 1 1 0 0 0 ATL A+ Cody Johnson...... 3 1 0 0 0 2 0 3 SB OAK A+ Greg Desme........ 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SEA A+ Juan Ramirez...... 8 7 2 2 6 1 0 OAK A+ Tyson Ross........ 6 2 0 0 8 4 0 BOS A+ Kyle Weiland...... 6 5 3 3 7 2 0 NYY A- Arodys Vizcaino... 6 2 1 1 3 0 0 CLE A+ Alexander Perez... 6 6 0 0 6 2 0 TEX A- Robert Ross....... 5 2 0 0 5 2 0 TB AAA Wade Davis........ 6 5 5 5 9 2 2 NYY AA Jeremy Bleich..... 7 5 4 4 6 4 0 WAN A Drew Storen....... 2 0 0 0 4 0 0 TEX A Martin Perez...... 5 4 2 0 5 2 0 CIN AAA Matthew Maloney... 7 10 3 3 4 0 0 DET A+ Mauricio Robles... 6 4 0 0 4 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.







 
NYA 51 35 .593 1.0 49 2
TB 48 39 .552 4.5 52 -4
TOR 44 44 .500 9.0 47 -3
BAL 38 48 .442 14.0 37 1
American League Central
DET 47 38 .553 0.0 45 2
CHA 44 42 .512 3.5 44 0
MIN 44 43 .506 4.0 46 -2
KC 37 49 .430 10.5 36 1
CLE 34 53 .391 14.0 40 -6
American League West
TEX 48 37 .565 0.0 46 2
LAA 47 37 .560 0.5 44 3
SEA 44 42 .512 4.5 40 4
OAK 35 49 .417 12.5 37 -2
National League East Pwins Diff
PHI 46 38 .548 0.0 46 0
FLA 45 43 .511 3.0 42 3
ATL 42 44 .488 5.0 42 0
NYN 40 45 .471 6.5 38 2
WAS 25 60 .294 21.5 32 -7
National League Central
STL 48 40 .545 0.0 48 0
MIL 44 42 .512 3.0 42 2
HOU 43 43 .500 4.0 40 3
CIN 42 43 .494 4.5 38 4
CHN 41 42 .494 4.5 41 0
PIT 38 48 .442 9.0 42 -4
National League West
LAN 55 31 .640 0.0 54 1
SF 48 38 .558 7.0 49 -1
COL 46 40 .535 9.0 47 -1
ARI 37 50 .425 18.5 40 -3
SD 35 51 .407 20.0 31 4 