THT Daily: Pedro returns
by Dave StudemanAugust 12, 2009
Major League News for August 12
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 RotoworldPhillies activated RHP Pedro Martinez from the 15-day disabled list.
Pedro will make his Phillies debut Wednesday against the Cubs. In three minor league rehab starts, spanning 12 1/3 innings, Martinez allowed seven earned runs and nine hits, but also tallied 16 strikeouts. He's worth grabbing in most leagues, but we'd definitely give him a few warm-up starts.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Justin Duchscherer (elbow) could return to the A's rotation as soon as Friday
With Dallas Braden making a slow recovery, Oakland is in need of a starter. Duchscherer has made just one rehab start, but he did look impressive. He's been out all season after undergoing elbow surgery in late March.
In his first major league start, Doug Fister tossed six shutout innings and allowed only one hit against the White Sox on Tuesday.
The gem was spoiled when David Aardsma blew a 1-0 lead in the ninth inning by serving up a three-run gopher ball to Alexei Ramirez. Still, it was a night for Fister to remember. He struck out four and walked four before leaving the game after having thrown 94 pitches. This performance should be enough to give Fister another start. If so, he would draw the Yankees on Sunday.
Ervin Santana delivered a complete-game shutout Tuesday to carry his Angels over the Rays 6-0.
Santana needed just 97 pitches in the outstanding performance. He struck out six batters, allowed only two hits and walked just two. His ERA fell almost a whole run, from 7.20 to 6.38. It's a sign that a turnaround might be ahead, and boy do the Angels need him down the stretch.
Adrian Gonzalez finished 6-for-6 with three RBI as the Padres topped the Brewers 13-6 on Tuesday night in Milwaukee.
Gonzalez's six hits are the most by any Padre in a nine-inning game. Three others have accomplished the feat, but did it in extra-inning contests. Gonzalez hit five singles and a double, bumping his batting average from .251 to .262. He has 29 home runs and 67 RBI in 385 at-bats this season.
Miguel Cabrera has been diagnosed with a left hand contusion and is being called "day-to-day."
Cabrera was taken for X-rays after exiting the game in the top of the second inning. They were negative. He's likely to miss a day or two, but it appears the Tigers have avoided a major scare.
Kevin Youkilis was ejected from Tuesday's game in the second inning for charging the mound against Rick Porcello.
Youkilis was hit by a pitch for the second straight day and both seem pretty intentional as payback for the Red Sox going up and in on Miguel Cabrera. Plus, Porcello had just brushed back Victor Martinez. After getting hit square in the back, Youkilis charged the mound and threw his helmet at Porcello before the two went to the ground. He's almost certainly due a five-game suspension. We'll see if the act of tossing his helmet adds to the penalty.
Aramis Ramirez was given a cortisone shot in his left shoulder Tuesday and is expected to miss the next two or three games.
The Cubs will wait and hope the cortisone solves his soreness. Ramirez aggravated his dislocated left shoulder on Saturday. The injury cost him two months of the season, mostly in May and June.
Jamie Moyer is "disheartened" about the team's decision to move him to the bullpen, but doesn't want to be a distraction.
"I'm really not happy with this decision that the Phillies have made," Moyer said. "I will take what they've asked me to do, but I'm not really excited about the decision that has been made. Ultimately, I'm a little disheartened because this past winter when I was negotiating with the Phillies this was a sore thumb, if you will, about this potentially happening." Moyer went on to suggest that he was misled by general manager Ruben Amaro Jr, who once assured him that a situation like this wouldn't happen. A team spokesperson said Amaro declined comment because he doesn't discuss contract negotiations.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BAL 3 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 7 DET 5 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 7 TOR 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 5 TEX 0 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 14 MIN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 TB 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 3 SEA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 8 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 9 HOU 8 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 4 CHN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 13 MIL 6 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 5 STL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 6 NYN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 7 COL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 9 SF 1 (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 70 43 .619 0.0 65 5BOS 64 48 .571 5.5 64 0
TB 61 52 .540 9.0 64 -3
TOR 54 58 .482 15.5 60 -6
BAL 47 66 .416 23.0 49 -2
American League Central DET 59 53 .527 0.0 57 2
CHA 58 56 .509 2.0 58 0
MIN 54 58 .482 5.0 56 -2
CLE 49 63 .438 10.0 55 -6
KC 44 68 .393 15.0 44 0
American League West LAA 67 44 .604 0.0 62 5
TEX 62 49 .559 5.0 60 2
SEA 59 54 .522 9.0 52 7
OAK 50 63 .442 18.0 53 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 62 48 .564 0.0 61 1
FLA 60 53 .531 3.5 56 4
ATL 59 54 .522 4.5 61 -2
NYN 52 61 .460 11.5 53 -1
WAS 40 73 .354 23.5 47 -7
National League Central STL 63 52 .548 0.0 62 1
CHN 58 53 .523 3.0 58 0
MIL 55 57 .491 6.5 52 3
HOU 55 58 .487 7.0 50 5
CIN 49 63 .438 12.5 47 2
PIT 46 66 .411 15.5 51 -5
National League West LAN 69 45 .605 0.0 69 0
COL 62 51 .549 6.5 63 -1
SF 61 52 .540 7.5 60 1
ARI 52 62 .456 17.0 55 -3
SD 48 66 .421 21.0 43 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 LAA AAA Sean Rodriguez.... 3 3 1 0 1 2 0 SEA A+ Alex Liddi........ 4 3 1 0 2 0 0 FLA AAA Gaby Sanchez...... 5 3 0 0 2 1 0 5 RBI ! ARI AAA Brandon Allen..... 4 3 1 0 0 1 0 2 SB KC A+ Mike Moustakas.... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI HOU AAA C. Johnson........ 3 2 1 0 1 0 1 CLE AA Carlos Santana.... 5 3 1 1 0 0 0 OAK A+ Greg Desme........ 5 2 1 0 1 0 2 BOS A+ Che-Hsuan Lin..... 3 2 1 0 0 2 0 OAK AAA Travis Buck....... 4 3 1 0 0 0 1 SEA AAA Adam Moore........ 4 4 1 0 0 0 0 FLA AA Michael Stanton... 5 3 0 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CLE AAA Carlos Carrasco... 8 4 1 1 10 0 0 HOU A Jordan Lyles...... 6 1 0 0 7 2 0 TB A Nick Barnese...... 6 2 1 0 8 3 0 TOR A H. Alvarez........ 7 3 0 0 4 0 0 13 GB LAA A Tyler Chatwood.... 6 2 0 0 6 2 0 COL AAA Esmil Rogers...... 6 4 3 3 7 1 1 NYY A Jairo Heredia..... 6 3 1 1 4 1 0 NYY A+ Pat Venditte...... 3 2 0 0 6 1 0 SF A Eric Surkamp...... 6 8 4 4 8 3 0 PHI AA Michael Stutes.... 6 7 3 1 6 2 0 KC A+ M. Montgomery..... 5 2 1 1 4 2 0 10 GB STL AAA P.J. Walters...... 8 10 2 2 6 3 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.
Regarding the minor league performances, it’s clear you aren’t using Game Score for the pitchers, since relief pitchers are often included and they don’t get Game Scores. (See Pat Venditte, for example, and I’ve seen others in the past.) What criteria are you actually using to make these selections? Just wondering.