THT Daily: Phillie Fantastic
by Matthew CarruthJune 14, 2008
Major League News for June 14
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 RotoworldChris Carpenter is feeling renewed discomfort in his surgically repaired right elbow and will seek a second opinion on the health of his arm.
Setbacks are hardly unusual following Tommy John surgery, and while the Cardinals were hoping for a boost from Carpenter in the second half, it was never something they could count on. "Could 'Carp' still pitch for us sometime this year? We think so," GM John Mozeliak said. "But will he pitch sometime around the All-Star break like we were hoping? That's not likely."
Nomar Garciaparra, eligible to come off the DL on June 25, will begin a rehab assignment Tuesday at Triple-A Las Vegas.
Garciaparra will play shortstop upon returning, so he'll likely need to play several minor league games at the position to get his feet back.
Jim Thome missed his second consecutive game Friday and may be out Saturday with back stiffness.
Thome believes he's fine, but manager Ozzie Guillen is using his normal level of precaution. "We'll see how he feels," Guillen said. "I don't mind giving him another day... I'd rather give him one more day and let him rest."
Ryan Howard went 3-for-5 with two homers and five RBI as the Phillies annihilated the Cardinals 20-2 on Friday.
Chase Utley, Howard and Pat Burrell set the tone with three straight homers off Todd Wellemeyer in the first. Howard later added a three-run shot off Mark Worrell. The Cardinals had Russ Springer ejected for hitting Howard with a pitch in the eighth, and Aaron Miles ended up pitching a scoreless ninth to save the team's pen. Howard is up to 17 homers and 54 RBI through 69 games.
Jason Isringhausen (hand) will throw a bullpen session Saturday and could return to the Cardinals' bullpen Tuesday.
"Yeah, I feel good," Isringhausen said. "You never know until you start facing hitters, but yeah, I feel good." He has been on the DL since May 17 with a laceration on his hand and major mental issues. Izzy is eight saves from 300 and should be thrown back into the closing position as soon as he returns.
Mets acquired outfielder Trot Nixon from the Diamondbacks for cash or a player to be named.
The Diamondbacks had to be nervous about helping a team they could face in the postseason, but letting Nixon go to a team that could use him was the right move. The Mets should immediately make the 34-year-old their right fielder against right-handers. He was hitting .309/.437/.558 with 10 homers for Tucson. Endy Chavez, Marlon Anderson and Fernando Tatis stand to lose playing time.
Not having made as much progress with his strained quad tendon as expected, Frank Thomas has been told not to participate in any baseball activities until July 1.
The hope was that he'd return next Friday after the A's were finished playing in NL parks, but that won't happen now. As a result, both Daric Barton and Jack Hannahan will keep their jobs. One could be dropped from the roster after Thomas returns.
Chipper Jones was scratched from Friday's lineup after suffering an eye injury in an accident during batting practice.
Jones fouled off a pitch, and the ball ricocheted off the crossbar at the top of the batting cage and struck him near the left eye. He's believed to be day-to-day with a contusion.
The Mets have reportedly placed Moises Alou on the 15-day disabled list and replaced him with Robinson Cancel.
The Mets just couldn't go without carrying a totally useless 25th man for more than a day or two. The idea that Cancel is a better choice for the roster than Val Pascucci is absurd. This leaves Endy Chavez, Fernando Tatis, Marlon Anderson and Damion Easley as the Mets' corner outfielders. That GM Omar Minaya has so far done nothing to upgrade is quite disturbing.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BAL 9 PIT 6 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 7 FLA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 3 CHN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 5 COL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 9 SD 5 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 5 LAN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 5 LAA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 7 SEA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) National League NYN 7 TEX 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 3 BOS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 2 HOU 1 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 10 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 20 STL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 1 KC 0 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 5 SF 1 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals, 3:55 PM (R) Adam Eaton (2-3) vs. (R) Kyle Lohse (7-2) Inter-League ------------ Chicago Cubs at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (R) Jason Marquis (4-3) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (8-5) Boston Red Sox at Cincinnati Reds, 3:55 PM (R) Tim Wakefield (4-4) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (9-2) Los Angeles Dodgers at Detroit Tigers, 3:55 PM (R) Brad Penny (5-8) vs. (R) Eddie Bonine (0-0) Florida Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays, 6:10 PM (L) Mark Hendrickson (7-4) vs. (R) Matt Garza (4-3) Minnesota Twins at Milwaukee Brewers, 7:05 PM (L) Glen Perkins (2-2) vs. (R) Jeff Suppan (4-4) Pittsburgh Pirates at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (L) Zach Duke (4-4) vs. (R) Radhames Liz (1-0) New York Yankees at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM (R) Mike Mussina (9-4) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (2-2) San Diego Padres at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Cha Seung Baek (1-1) vs. (L) Cliff Lee (10-1) Colorado Rockies at Chicago White Sox, 7:05 PM (L) Jorge De La Rosa (1-3) vs. (L) John Danks (4-4) Texas Rangers at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (L) Kason Gabbard (1-2) vs. (R) Pedro Martinez (1-0) Kansas City Royals at Arizona Diamondbacks, 8:10 PM (R) Luke Hochevar (3-5) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (4-3) Atlanta Braves at LA Angels of Anaheim, 9:05 PM (R) Charlie Morton (0-0) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (8-2) Oakland Athletics at San Francisco Giants, 9:05 PM (R) Rich Harden (3-0) vs. (R) Matt Cain (3-4) Washington Nationals at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (R) Tyler Clippard (0-1) vs. (L) Erik Bedard (4-4)
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 42 28 .600 0.0 41 1TB 39 28 .582 1.5 36 3
NYA 35 33 .515 6.0 33 2
TOR 35 34 .507 6.5 38 -3
BAL 33 33 .500 7.0 32 1
American League Central CHA 38 29 .567 0.0 41 -3
MIN 33 35 .485 5.5 31 2
CLE 32 36 .471 6.5 36 -4
DET 30 37 .448 8.0 32 -2
KC 26 42 .382 12.5 26 0
American League West LAA 41 27 .603 0.0 34 7
OAK 36 31 .537 4.5 39 -3
TEX 34 35 .493 7.5 33 1
SEA 24 43 .358 16.5 27 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 41 28 .594 0.0 44 -3
FLA 36 31 .537 4.0 33 3
ATL 33 35 .485 7.5 38 -5
NYN 32 34 .485 7.5 34 -2
WAS 27 42 .391 14.0 26 1
National League Central CHN 43 25 .632 0.0 44 -1
STL 40 29 .580 3.5 37 3
MIL 35 32 .522 7.5 32 3
HOU 33 35 .485 10.0 32 1
PIT 33 35 .485 10.0 32 1
CIN 33 36 .478 10.5 32 1
National League West ARI 37 31 .544 0.0 38 -1
LAN 31 36 .463 5.5 34 -3
SF 30 38 .441 7.0 30 0
SD 30 39 .435 7.5 28 2
COL 26 41 .388 10.5 27 -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 ATL A F. Freeman........ 3 2 1 0 1 2 1 SF A C. Culberson...... 4 4 1 0 1 0 0 6 RBI ! SEA AAA Matt Tuiasosopo... 3 2 0 0 1 2 1 3 R SD AAA Chase Headley..... 5 2 1 0 1 0 2 BOS AAA Chris Carter...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 BOS AAA George Kottaras... 2 1 0 0 1 3 0 MIL AA Michael Brantley.. 3 1 0 0 1 2 1 SF A+ Pablo Sandoval.... 6 4 0 0 1 0 1 3 R SEA AA Michael Saunders.. 4 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 R SEA A+ Carlos Peguero.... 4 2 2 0 0 0 2 MIN A Ben Revere........ 5 3 0 1 0 0 1 NYY A Brandon Laird..... 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CHW AAA Jack Egbert....... 7 5 0 0 9 0 0 ATL A Jeffrey Locke..... 6 3 3 2 7 2 0 12 GB MIN AAA Kevin Mulvey...... 4 1 0 0 7 1 0 OAK A+ H. Rodriguez...... 6 6 3 3 10 2 1 ATL AA Thomas Hanson..... 4 0 0 0 6 1 0 LAA A Trevor Reckling... 8 3 0 0 4 2 0 SD AA William Inman..... 5 2 0 0 8 4 0 TB AA Wade Davis........ 7 4 0 0 4 1 0 OAK AAA Gio Gonzalez...... 6 4 5 3 8 3 1 FLA AA C. Volstad........ 4 3 2 1 4 0 0 STL AAA C. Mortensen...... 5 6 3 3 7 3 0 STL A Nicholas Additon.. 5 3 0 0 5 2 0
Access all of THT’s stats here…
|
|
Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.