THT Daily: Stupid calf injuries

by Dave Studeman
April 29, 2009

Major League News for April 29

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
2006 fourth-round pick Evan Anundsen pitched a no-hitter and struck out 10 for Single-A Brevard County on Tuesday.
A strong groundball rate and above average command hasn't gotten Anundsen much attention as a prospect. The no-hitter, though, will draw notice. The 20-year-old Anundsen is 2-2 with a 1.44 ERA for Brevard County. He's a high-80s guy and he doesn't have a strikeout breaking ball, so his margin for error seems pretty slim. However, his ability to generate grounders does give him a chance of making it.

Mark Ellis will go on the disabled list because of the left calf strain he suffered in Tuesday's game.
The A's will also place Nomar Garciaparra on the DL and call up Eric Patterson and a reliever. Patterson will probably get a chance to start at second base. He's a big downgrade from Ellis defensively, but he has been hot in Triple-A and he could spark the offense.

Gil Meche left Tuesday's start against the Blue Jays with lower back tightness.
Meche was pulled in the fourth inning after the Jays had scored four runs to take a 5-0 lead. It was his worst outing of the season as he had gone at least six innings in his previous four starts. He's set to be re-evaluated Wednesday, and the Royals are calling him day-to-day.

Astros placed RHP Jose Valverde on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 27, with a strained calf.
He obviously wasn't progressing as well as the Astros had hoped. Manager Cecil Cooper originally expected Valverde to be fine after a few days off, so he's not likely to need more than the 15 days. He's eligible to return May 12. Jeff Fulchino was called up to take his roster spot, and LaTroy Hawkins will assume closer duties for the next two weeks.

Cole Hamels left his start Tuesday in the fifth inning with an ankle injury sustained fielding a bunt.
The goods news is that he had thrown 4 1/3 scoreless innings before departing. Hopefully, this is just another minor injury. He was starting tonight after leaving his outing last week with a bruised left shoulder.

Reds placed third baseman Edwin Encarnacion on the 15-day disabled list with a crip fracture in his wrist.
Jerry Hairston Jr. is playing third base tonight, but the Reds should use this excuse to give Adam Rosales a look at the position. Encarnacion hasn't hit at all this season and he's a liability on defense, so the injury will help the Reds for the short-term. They will need Encarnacion's bat for the long haul, though.

Josh Hamilton (ribs) is not in the starting lineup again on Tuesday and appears to be headed for the disabled list.
Hamilton says he's in "extreme pain" and needs to get the problem fully healed. If he does require a DL stint, Andruw Jones will likely get a chance to play every day while he remains sidelined.

Alex Rodriguez (hip) is now hoping to return to action during the first week of May.
Reports last week indicated that A-Rod could return to action on May 8 as opposed to his original target date of May 15, but now it appears that he has a strong chance to beat the May 8 estimate as well.

Joel Hanrahan has been removed as the Nationals' closer.
The team is expected to go to a closer-by-committee for now, led by Julian Tavarez and Kip Wells. However, odds are that Joe Beimel will take over the job when he returns from the DL next week. Mixed leaguers should consider adding Beimel, who has the best chance at holding onto the job once healthy.

Yesterday’s Results

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

American League
LAA     7  BAL     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     9  CHA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     2  SEA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     9  BOS     8    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA    11  DET     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     8  KC      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     4  TB      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     5  OAK     4    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     2  STL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA     7  NYN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     7  WAS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     8  CIN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     6  PIT     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN    11  ARI     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      4  COL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     5  SF      3    (Recap and Boxscore)

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

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Milwaukee Brewers, 1:05 PM
  (R) Ian Snell (1-2) vs. (R) Yovani Gallardo (2-1)
 Florida Marlins at New York Mets, 1:10 PM
  (R) Josh Johnson (2-0) vs. (L) Johan Santana (3-1)
 San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies, 3:10 PM
  (R) Kevin Correia (0-1) vs. (R) Aaron Cook (0-1)
 Chicago Cubs at Arizona Diamondbacks, 3:40 PM
  (R) Ryan Dempster (1-0) vs. (L) Doug Davis (1-3)
 Washington Nationals at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM
  (L) Scott Olsen (0-3) vs. (R) Brett Myers (1-1)
 Houston Astros at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (R) Felipe Paulino (0-1) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (2-2)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM
  (R) Adam Wainwright (2-0) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (2-1)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM
  (L) Eric Stults (2-0) vs. (R) Tim Lincecum (1-1)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Baltimore Orioles, 12:35 PM
  (R) Shane Loux (0-2) vs. (R) Koji Uehara (2-1)
 Seattle Mariners at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (L) Erik Bedard (2-1) vs. (R) Gavin Floyd (2-2)
 Boston Red Sox at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM
  (L) Jon Lester (1-2) vs. (R) Fausto Carmona (1-3)
 New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM
  (R) Joba Chamberlain (0-0) vs. (R) Rick Porcello (1-2)
 Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (L) Josh Outman (0-0) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (1-1)
 Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM
  (L) Scott Kazmir (3-1) vs. (R) Nick Blackburn (1-1)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (L) Brian Tallet (1-0) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (4-0)

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     15   7 .682    0.0   15     0    
BOS     13   7 .650    1.0   13     0    
NYA     10  10 .500    4.0    9     1    
BAL      9  12 .429    5.5    8     1    
TB       8  13 .381    6.5   10    -2    
American League Central     
DET     11   9 .550    0.0   11     0    
CHA     10  10 .500    1.0   10     0    
KC      10  10 .500    1.0   11    -1    
MIN     10  11 .476    1.5    8     2    
CLE      8  13 .381    3.5   10    -2    
American League West        
SEA     13   8 .619    0.0   12     1    
TEX     10  10 .500    2.5   10     0    
LAA      8  11 .421    4.0    9    -1    
OAK      7  11 .389    4.5    8    -1    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
FLA     12   8 .600    0.0   10     2    
PHI     11   8 .579    0.5   10     1    
ATL     10  10 .500    2.0   10     0    
NYN      9  11 .450    3.0   10    -1    
WAS      4  15 .211    7.5    7    -3    
National League Central     
STL     14   7 .667    0.0   13     1    
PIT     11   9 .550    2.5   13    -2    
CHN     10   9 .526    3.0   10     0    
CIN     10  10 .500    3.5    8     2    
MIL     10  10 .500    3.5   10     0    
HOU      9  12 .429    5.0    9     0    
National League West        
LAN     14   7 .667    0.0   14     0    
SD      11   9 .550    2.5    9     2    
SF       9  10 .474    4.0    9     0    
ARI      8  12 .400    5.5    7     1    
COL      7  12 .368    6.0    9    -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
SF  A+  Conor Gillaspie... 5  4  2  0  0  1  1  3 R
NYY A+  Jesus Montero..... 4  2  0  0  2  0  0  
CIN AA  Juan Francisco.... 4  3  0  1  1  0  0  
SEA AA  Gregory Halman.... 5  2  0  0  2  0  0  6 RBI !
DET AAA Wilkin Ramirez.... 5  4  2  0  0  0  0  4 LD
TEX A+  M. Moreland....... 5  3  0  0  1  1  1  
SD  A+  Logan Forsythe.... 3  2  0  0  1  2  0  
CHC AAA Jake Fox.......... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  
SF  AAA Jesus Guzman...... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  4 RBI
MIN A+  Ben Revere........ 4  3  0  0  0  2  0  
PHI A+  Dominic Brown..... 4  3  0  1  0  1  0  
NYM A+  Isaac Davis....... 2  1  0  0  1  2  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
SEA A   Brett Lorin....... 7  4  0  0  5  0  0  
SD  A   Simon Castro...... 5  3  1  1  7  1  0  9 OF
CLE AA  Hector Rondon..... 7  6  1  1  9  1  1  
LA  A   Ethan Martin...... 5  3  2  2  7  1  0  
TOR AAA Brett Cecil....... 6  4  3  3  5  1  0  
ATL A   J.J. Hoover....... 4  2  1  1  7  0  1  
ARI A   Trevor Harden..... 7  3  0  0  3  1  0  
BAL AA  Troy Patton....... 6  6  2  2  5  1  0  
BOS A   Casey Kelly....... 5  9  3  2  7  1  0  12 OF
LA  A+  C. Withrow........ 5  6  3  3  7  3  0  
HOU A   Ross Seaton....... 7  4  0  0  3  2  0  
TEX A   Martin Perez...... 4  4  0  0  4  1  0  7 GB

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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