THT Daily: No hitter

by Dave Studeman
July 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 Rotoworld
Alan 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     2    
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

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.

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