THT Daily: Sonnanstine pitches, hits

by Dave Studeman
May 18, 2009

Major League News for May 18

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
The Rays will put Pat Burrell (neck) on the disabled list and activate Jason Isringhausen.
Willy Aybar and Ben Zobrist will keep getting extra at-bats in place of Burrell, who will be eligible to return on May 25 and should be ready for then.

Rickie Weeks will see a specialist after injuring his left wrist during Sunday's game.
Weeks has had right wrist problems in the past, and he'll see the same doctor that operated on him at the end of 2006. If he lands on the DL, the Brewers figure to go to Craig Counsell as their primary second baseman and call up Hernan Iribarren as a backup. Mat Gamel to third and Bill Hall to second would be too much of a downgrade defensively, and Alcides Escobar isn't doing much offensively in Triple-A.

The Rays listed two third basemen on their lineup card on Sunday, causing them to lose their designated hitter.
The plan was for Evan Longoria to DH and bat third on Sunday, but he was listed at third, along with Ben Zobrist. Since he didn't take a position in the top of the first, the Rays have now had to go to starting pitcher Andy Sonnanstine as their No. 3 hitter.

The Cardinals will activate Chris Carpenter (oblique) to start Wednesday's game against the Cubs.
He'll follow Kyle Lohse and Braden Looper in the rotation. Mitchell Boggs has already been sent down to clear a spot for him. Mixed leaguers may want to hold him out for his first week back, but NL-only leaguers will likely want him active.

Carlos Quentin will fly to Chicago Sunday night to undergo shockwave treatment on his sore heel.
The club doesn't seem to anticipate Quentin's injury keeping him out for an extended period. He's out of the lineup again Sunday and the White Sox might be better off putting him on the disabled list and letting him fully heal. Obviously, the injury is bothering him more than the White Sox want to let on.

After having his start rained out after two innings Friday, Kyle Lohse will start Monday.
Lohse will be starting the makeup of that rainout against the Brewers. He'll go against former teammate Braden Looper.

The Pirates will recall Tom Gorzelanny from the minors to replace Tyler Yates.
Gorzelanny had a 3.98 ERA in seven Triple-A starts. The team will see if he can get back to his 2007 levels by trying him out of the bullpen. He's likely to head back to Triple-A once Yates returns.

Yesterday’s Results

For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.

American League
NYA     3  MIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      7  CLE     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     8  CHA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET    11  OAK     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      7  BAL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     3  BOS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     3  LAA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
LAN    12  FLA     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     8  WAS     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     6  CHN     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT    11  COL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     8  STL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      3  CIN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      2  NYN     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM
  (R) Ross Ohlendorf (4-3) vs. (L) Ross Detwiler (0-0)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM
  (R) Dan Haren (3-4) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (2-4)
 Colorado Rockies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM
  (R) Jason Marquis (4-3) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (3-2)
 Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (R) Braden Looper (3-2) vs. (R) Kyle Lohse (3-2)
 New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (R) Tim Redding (0-0) vs. (L) Randy Wolf (2-1)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Chicago White Sox at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (L) Clayton Richard (0-0) vs. (R) Scott Richmond (4-2)
 Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (L) Glen Perkins (1-2) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (3-1)
 Oakland Athletics at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM
  (R) Sean Gallagher (1-1) vs. (R) Jeff Niemann (3-3)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM
  (R) John Lackey (0-0) vs. (L) Jarrod Washburn (3-2)

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
TOR     26  14 .650    0.0   26     0    
BOS     22  16 .579    3.0   21     1    
NYA     20  17 .541    4.5   17     3    
TB      19  20 .487    6.5   21    -2    
BAL     16  22 .421    9.0   16     0    
American League Central     
DET     20  16 .556    0.0   21    -1    
KC      20  18 .526    1.0   21    -1    
MIN     18  20 .474    3.0   17     1    
CHA     15  21 .417    5.0   14     1    
CLE     14  25 .359    7.5   18    -4    
American League West        
TEX     23  14 .622    0.0   21     2    
LAA     18  18 .500    4.5   18     0    
SEA     18  20 .474    5.5   16     2    
OAK     13  21 .382    8.5   15    -2    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     21  16 .568    0.0   21     0    
PHI     20  16 .556    0.5   19     1    
ATL     18  18 .500    2.5   17     1    
FLA     18  20 .474    3.5   17     1    
WAS     11  25 .306    9.5   15    -4    
National League Central     
MIL     23  14 .622    0.0   22     1    
CHN     21  15 .583    1.5   19     2    
STL     21  16 .568    2.0   20     1    
CIN     20  17 .541    3.0   19     1    
HOU     17  19 .472    5.5   17     0    
PIT     16  21 .432    7.0   19    -3    
National League West        
LAN     26  13 .667    0.0   26     0    
SF      19  18 .514    6.0   17     2    
SD      16  22 .421    9.5   14     2    
COL     14  22 .389   10.5   18    -4    
ARI     14  23 .378   11.0   15    -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
CHC A   Josh Vitters...... 5  3  2  0  1  0  1  
PHI A+  Dominic Brown..... 5  3  2  0  0  0  1  
DET AAA Wilkin Ramirez.... 3  3  0  0  1  1  0  
KC  AAA Kila Kaaihue...... 5  3  1  0  1  0  1  
MIN A   Angel Morales..... 5  3  0  0  1  0  0  
FLA AAA John Raynor....... 3  2  2  0  0  1  0  3 LD
OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 2  1  0  0  0  4  1  2 SB
SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 5  3  2  0  0  0  0  3 LD
CIN A+  Devin Mesoraco.... 4  2  2  0  0  0  1  
DET AA  Garth Iorg........ 2  2  1  0  0  2  0  
SEA AA  Gregory Halman.... 4  2  0  0  1  0  1  
LA  A   D. Strange-Gordo.. 5  2  0  1  0  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
SD  AA  William Inman..... 7  2  0  0  7  1  0  
TB  AAA David Price....... 5  0  0  0  9  2  0  
SF  AA  M. Bumgarner...... 6  1  0  0  9  3  0  
BOS AAA Michael Bowden.... 8  3  0  0  7  4  0  
LAA A   Tyler Chatwood.... 6  1  0  0  6  2  0  
TOR AAA Bradley Mills..... 6  5  2  2  7  2  0  
SD  A   Anthony Bass...... 6  2  0  0  4  1  0  
SEA A+  Juan Ramirez...... 5  9  3  3  7  0  0  
BOS AA  Junichi Tazawa.... 5  7  3  3  7  1  0  
PHI AAA Carlos Carrasco... 6  5  3  3  7  3  0  
CIN A+  Zachary Stewart... 7  3  2  1  3  1  0  18 GB
NYY A+  Jeremy Bleich..... 7  6  1  1  5  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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