THT Daily: Something in the air
by Dave StudemanJune 16, 2009
Major League News for June 16
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 RotoworldX-rays revealed no major problems, but Torii Hunter does expect to miss some time after running into the center-field wall during Monday's game.
He has a contusion in his rib-cage area. "I hate to sit games out, but I don't think I'll be starting these next two games [against the Giants]," Hunter said. "I'm a little sore. Whiplash. That's probably as hard as I've hit a wall." Gary Matthews Jr. will likely fill in.
Ervin Santana will not pitch Tuesday due to right forearm tightness, according to manager Mike Scioscia.
Santana is awaiting the results of an MRI, which were taken Monday. The good news is that the pain appears to be unrelated to the elbow injury that sidelined him ealier this season. Sean O'Sullivan is expected to be recalled from Triple-A to pitch Tuesday. With the night off and other open dates in the Angels schedule, Santana will be off until June 23.
John Smoltz told WEEI.com that he wants to continue pitching beyond this year.
"The reason I had surgery was not to just come back for one year," Smoltz said. "Having surgery certainly quality of life was part of it, but I could have waited to have that. To have surgery at this point, when I did, and not try to milk anymore of the rest of that season, the reason I did that was to pitch well beyond. I figured if I was going to have surgery and I can pitch one year, what prevents me from pitching two years. Something will have to really go wrong to say, "OK I did everything I could and it wasn't working."
Roy Halladay (groin) played catch on flat ground Sunday.
"I just wanted to keep my arm going," said Halladay, of yesterday's session. "I didn't test (the injured muscle) at all. It's still a day-to-day thing." It's still not clear if he'll be able to make his next scheduled start, Saturday against the Nationals. If he's unable, look for the Jays to recall either Brett Cecil or Fabian Castro.
Denard Span could be headed for the disabled list with lingering pain and discomfort related to an inner-ear infection.
Span still experiences dizzy spells during baseball-related activities. He's begun taking medication again, but it might not help immediately. The 25-year-old outfielder is batting .291/.380/.386 with four home runs and 24 RBI in 223 at-bats this season. We'll keep you updated.
Glen Perkins (elbow) will be activated from the disabled list Tuesday.
Perkins will jump right back into the starting rotation, and hopefully he'll bring a little more to the table this time around. The 26-year-old left-hander left behind a 1-3 record, 5.36 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and 26/12 K/BB ratio.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League MIL 14 CLE 12 (Recap and Boxscore) National League LAA 9 SF 7 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Jair Jurrjens (5-4) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (5-6) Inter-League ------------ New York Mets at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Mike Pelfrey (4-2) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (4-6) Washington Nationals at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Shairon Martis (5-1) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (5-4) Toronto Blue Jays at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (L) Ricky Romero (3-3) vs. (L) Cole Hamels (4-2) Milwaukee Brewers at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Yovani Gallardo (6-3) vs. (L) Jeremy Sowers (1-3) Florida Marlins at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) Chris Volstad (4-6) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (8-3) Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (L) John Danks (4-5) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (4-2) Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (L) Wandy Rodriguez (5-5) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (6-4) Pittsburgh Pirates at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (L) Paul Maholm (4-2) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (1-3) Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (L) Doug Davis (3-7) vs. (R) Gil Meche (3-5) Detroit Tigers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Justin Verlander (7-2) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (6-4) Tampa Bay Rays at Colorado Rockies, 8:40 PM (R) Jeff Niemann (5-4) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (2-6) Seattle Mariners at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (6-3) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (3-4) Oakland Athletics at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Dallas Braden (5-5) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (3-5) LA Angels of Anaheim at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Sean O`Sullivan (0-0) vs. (L) Jonathan Sanchez (2-6)
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 38 25 .603 0.0 37 1NYA 36 27 .571 2.0 35 1
TB 34 31 .523 5.0 39 -5
TOR 34 31 .523 5.0 35 -1
BAL 27 36 .429 11.0 26 1
American League Central DET 34 29 .540 0.0 34 0
MIN 32 33 .492 3.0 34 -2
CHA 30 34 .469 4.5 29 1
KC 28 34 .452 5.5 28 0
CLE 29 37 .439 6.5 32 -3
American League West TEX 35 27 .565 0.0 33 2
LAA 33 29 .532 2.0 31 2
SEA 30 33 .476 5.5 28 2
OAK 27 35 .435 8.0 27 0
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 36 25 .590 0.0 34 2
NYN 32 29 .525 4.0 31 1
FLA 32 33 .492 6.0 31 1
ATL 30 32 .484 6.5 29 1
WAS 16 45 .262 20.0 23 -7
National League Central MIL 35 29 .547 0.0 34 1
STL 34 30 .531 1.0 33 1
CHN 30 30 .500 3.0 31 -1
CIN 31 31 .500 3.0 31 0
PIT 30 33 .476 4.5 32 -2
HOU 29 32 .475 4.5 28 1
National League West LAN 42 22 .656 0.0 40 2
SF 34 29 .540 7.5 33 1
COL 31 32 .492 10.5 34 -3
SD 28 34 .452 13.0 24 4
ARI 27 37 .422 15.0 28 -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 CHW AA Dayan Viciedo..... 4 3 1 0 1 1 0 3 R OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 4 2 1 1 0 1 0 OAK AA Adrian Cardenas... 6 4 2 0 0 0 1 4 LD BOS A Tim Federowicz.... 5 4 1 0 0 1 0 MIL A+ Caleb Gindl....... 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 3 R SF A+ Roger Kieschnick.. 4 3 2 0 0 0 1 TEX AA M. Moreland....... 6 4 0 0 1 0 1 COL AAA Eric Young........ 3 1 1 0 0 2 0 2 SB TOR A Yohermyn Chavez... 4 2 0 0 1 1 2 4 RBI SF A+ Buster Posey...... 2 2 1 0 0 2 0 LA AA Andrew Lambo...... 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 OAK A+ Jemile Weeks...... 4 3 1 0 0 0 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SD AA Matthew Latos..... 5 5 3 2 12 0 0 CHW A+ Daniel Hudson..... 7 5 2 2 8 1 0 HOU AAA Bud Norris........ 8 2 0 0 6 2 0 CLE A Alexander Perez... 6 4 1 1 8 1 0 11 GB LAA A William Smith..... 8 5 1 1 7 2 0 BOS A+ Casey Kelly....... 6 4 1 1 5 0 0 11 GB FLA AAA Rick Vanden Hurk.. 7 3 1 1 4 1 0 TOR AAA Brett Cecil....... 8 8 5 5 7 1 1 16 GB MIL A+ Evan Anundsen..... 8 7 1 1 5 2 0 14 GB SD A Nick Schmidt...... 6 1 1 1 5 3 0 PHI AAA Carlos Carrasco... 6 6 4 4 5 1 0 11 GB CHC A C. Carpenter...... 7 3 0 0 1 0 0 12 GB
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