THT Daily: Slugfest in Detroit
by Matthew CarruthJuly 20, 2008
Major League News for July 20
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 RotoworldPedro Martinez won't start Tuesday, it was decided following his bullpen session on Saturday.
Martinez's shoulder is OK, but his hip apparently need some additional time to calm down. The Mets have Monday off, so they won't need to find an extra starter as long as Pedro can start on Saturday.
The Nationals intend to place Dmitri Young on the 15-day disabled list and activate Ryan Zimmerman on Tuesday, they announced after Saturday's game.
Young has missed two games with a condition related to his diabetes. With Zimmerman returning as the everyday third baseman, the Nats figure to give Kory Casto some time at first. Paul Lo Duca will also try not to embarrass himself at the position.
The Brewers could be on the verge of acquiring Ray Durham from the Giants for outfielder Darren Ford, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
That's the guess right now. The Giants wouldn't need more than a lesser prospect like Ford if the Brewers were willing to take on the rest of the $7.5 million that Durham is owed this season. The Brewers would be picking Durham up as a bench player, but there's always the chance that he could get a chance to start at second if Rickie Weeks fails to pick it up. Unfortunately, they'd be picking up one of the few NL second basemen who is actually more of a liability than Weeks on defense. If the Giants trade Durham, they could go with Eugenio Velez and Ivan Ochoa at second base or bring back Travis Denker.
Astros placed RHP Roy Oswalt on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to July 12, with a strained left hip abductor.
Oswalt had an MRI Saturday morning that confirmed the diagnosis of a hip abductor strain. "His regimen will be rest and conditioning for the hip abductor," GM Ed Wade said. "Talking to (athletic trainer) Dave Labossiere, (Oswalt is) going to probably do a couple of bullpens this coming week. After talking to him, we're still hopeful that he's going to be able to make his start on the 28th, which would be the first day that he'll be eligible to come off the list." Runelvys Hernandez will be promoted to take his spot in the rotation and start on Monday.
Adam Loewen is giving up pitching after his latest setback with his elbow and will try to make it back to the majors as an outfielder/first baseman.
Complicating things is that Loewen is out of options. However, there's probably not going to be a host of teams looking to grab him off waivers when he's physically incapable of pitching at the moment. Had he chosen surgery on his elbow, he likely would have been out until 2010. Given that Loewen never hit in the minors and has just two major league at-bats since being drafted in 2002, it's hard to imagine him becoming a useful hitter for the Orioles.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BAL 11 DET 10 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 4 OAK 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 6 TOR 4 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 9 CHA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 14 TEX 2 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 4 BOS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 9 SEA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) National League WAS 8 ATL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 9 PHI 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 7 NYN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 4 CHN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 6 SD 5 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 3 LAN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 7 PIT 1 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 8 SF 5 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Philadelphia Phillies at Florida Marlins, 1:10 PM (L) Cole Hamels (9-6) vs. (R) Josh Johnson (0-0) New York Mets at Cincinnati Reds, 1:15 PM (R) Mike Pelfrey (8-6) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (12-3) Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves, 1:35 PM (L) Odalis Perez (2-7) vs. (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (3-8) Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, 2:05 PM (R) Ryan Dempster (10-4) vs. (R) Brandon Backe (6-9) San Diego Padres at St. Louis Cardinals, 2:15 PM (R) Cha Seung Baek (2-4) vs. (L) Jaime Garcia (0-0) Pittsburgh Pirates at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM (L) Zach Duke (4-6) vs. (R) Aaron Cook (11-6) Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM (L) Manny Parra (8-2) vs. (R) Tim Lincecum (11-2) Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 4:10 PM (R) Derek Lowe (7-8) vs. (R) Brandon Webb (13-4) American League --------------- Oakland Athletics at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (R) Justin Duchscherer (10-5) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (10-7) Detroit Tigers at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM (R) Justin Verlander (7-9) vs. (L) Brian Burres (7-5) Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays, 1:40 PM (L) John Parrish (1-0) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (5-6) Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM (R) Brian Bannister (7-8) vs. (L) John Danks (7-4) Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins, 2:10 PM (R) Vicente Padilla (10-5) vs. (R) Scott Baker (6-2) Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM (L) Cliff Lee (12-2) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (4-11) Boston Red Sox at LA Angels of Anaheim, 6:00 PM (R) Tim Wakefield (6-6) vs. (R) Jon Garland (8-6)
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 TB 57 39 .594 0.0 53 4BOS 57 42 .576 1.5 59 -2
NYA 52 45 .536 5.5 52 0
BAL 47 49 .490 10.0 48 -1
TOR 47 50 .485 10.5 51 -4
American League Central CHA 55 41 .573 0.0 57 -2
MIN 55 42 .567 0.5 52 3
DET 48 49 .495 7.5 49 -1
KC 44 54 .449 12.0 43 1
CLE 42 54 .438 13.0 49 -7
American League West LAA 59 38 .608 0.0 52 7
OAK 51 46 .526 8.0 55 -4
TEX 50 48 .510 9.5 46 4
SEA 38 59 .392 21.0 42 -4
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 53 45 .541 0.0 57 -4
NYN 52 46 .531 1.0 52 0
FLA 51 46 .526 1.5 46 5
ATL 46 51 .474 6.5 52 -6
WAS 37 61 .378 16.0 37 0
National League Central CHN 57 40 .588 0.0 59 -2
STL 56 43 .566 2.0 52 4
MIL 54 43 .557 3.0 51 3
CIN 48 51 .485 10.0 45 3
HOU 46 51 .474 11.0 44 2
PIT 44 53 .454 13.0 41 3
National League West ARI 48 49 .495 0.0 49 -1
LAN 47 50 .485 1.0 50 -3
COL 42 57 .424 7.0 42 0
SF 40 57 .412 8.0 41 -1
SD 37 61 .378 11.5 39 -2
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 TEX AAA Nelson Cruz....... 5 3 0 0 3 0 1 5 RBI ! TB AAA Dan Johnson....... 3 3 1 0 2 1 0 LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 4 3 0 0 2 0 0 TEX A+ Marcus Lemon...... 5 3 3 0 0 0 1 SEA AAA W. Balentien...... 3 3 0 0 1 2 0 3 R SF AAA Nate Schierholtz.. 3 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI BAL AAA Michael Costanzo.. 4 2 1 0 1 1 1 PHI AA Jason Donald...... 5 3 1 0 1 0 1 LAA A+ Peter Bourjos..... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 TEX AAA Joaquin Arias..... 5 3 2 0 0 0 1 BOS AAA George Kottaras... 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 COL AA Dexter Fowler..... 5 4 1 0 0 1 1 3 R ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes TEX A+ Derek Holland..... 8 2 1 0 9 0 0 NYY AA Phil Coke......... 6 2 0 0 10 4 0 SF A+ Tim Alderson...... 6 7 2 2 8 0 0 SF A Craig Clark....... 7 2 1 1 7 1 1 CIN AA Jordan Smith...... 6 5 1 1 7 1 0 FLA A Kyle Kaminska..... 5 4 2 2 8 0 1 TB AAA Jeff Niemann...... 7 4 0 0 5 2 0 NYY A Dellin Betances... 6 2 0 0 5 2 0 BAL AA David Hernandez... 6 7 2 2 8 1 1 SEA A Brett Lorin....... 5 5 1 1 5 0 0 NYY AAA Ian Kennedy....... 7 3 1 1 2 1 0 DET A Alfredo Figaro.... 5 8 2 2 5 0 0 10 GB
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.