THT Daily: They’re baaack
by Dave StudemanJune 06, 2009
Major League News for June 6
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 RotoworldCarlos Zambrano said Friday that he expects to retire in five years.
The topic came up when a reporter mentioned Randy Johnson's 300th win. "For 300? Me? No, I'll be out of here in five years," said Zambrano. After his response drew laughter, he added, "No, believe me. After this contract I'm done. I'm serious. Because I don't want to play anymore." Of course, Big Z is notorious for changing his mind and randomly spouting off. At age 28, he's 100-63 with a 3.50 career ERA.
Jake Peavy will take the mound Monday against the Diamondbacks.
Peavy, who has been dealing with an upper respiratory infection, was expected to start Sunday. The Padres are playing it safe. "Jake's still not 100 percent," Padres manager Bud Black said Friday. "Giving him an extra day makes sense."
Carl Pavano tossed his fifth career shutout Friday as the Indians blanked the White Sox 6-0.
The Indians blasted three home runs, but Pavano didn't need it. He was lights out, striking out six batters and surrendering only three hits. It was the fifth shutout of his career, but his first since May 17, 2005. He is 6-1 with a 3.00 ERA after going 0-3 with a 9.50 ERA in April and warrants in add in all leagues.
Carlos Zambrano pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings Friday in his first start since returning from the disabled list.
It was Big Z's 100th career victory, and the valiant performance helped the Cubs escape Cincinnati with a 2-1 victory. He walked five batters, but was able to perform damage control, and made out with seven tough strikeouts. He'll take a 3.72 ERA and 1.40 WHIP into next week's start against the Astros.
Jose Reyes is experimenting with a treatment called platelet rich plasma therapy in an attempt to heal his tear in a right hamstring tendon.
The treatment involves removing some blood from Reyes' hamstring, spinning it in a machine designed to remove bad components, then injecting the "good blood" back into the damaged area. GM Omar Minaya said that Reyes could miss 4-6 weeks, but are hopeful he can return in 2-3 weeks. Reyes already underwent the first treatment and will have more in the near future.
Jose Valverde (calf) tossed 25 pitches during a simulated game Friday, reporting afterwards that he was pain-free.
On the disabled list since April 27, Valverde will throw again Sunday and then begin a rehab assignment in the minors, where he will pitch three times before being activated. Valverde led the NL in saves in 2007 and 2008, but has managed just two saves in four chances this season.
Ryan Sweeney's MRI revealed a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL).
Sweeney doesn't expect to go on the disabled list and could return to action as soon as this weekend. The gritty outfielder played hurt most of last year, so this is not anything new.
Travis Hafner is in the lineup Friday, but is not expected to start on a regular basis moving forward.
Manager Eric Wedge said that if Hafner played more than two days in a row, the pain in his surgically-repaired right shoulder would be too great. "If we can stay of his shoulder physically, we'll see if we can ramp him up later in the season," said Wedge. Hafner got off to a nice start prior to the injury but simply can't be relied upon so far. Monitor the situation; if his shoulder gets better he may be worth a pickup in mixed leagues.
Jeremy Bonderman will make his 2009 debut Monday during the second half of a doubleheader against the White Sox.
Bonderman had surgery to correct a circulation problem June 2008 and hasn't pitched in a major league game since. Manager Jim Leyland said that his performance Monday will dictate whether or not he becomes a part of the starting rotation. Armando Galarraga is struggling to hold onto his rotation spot, so Bonderman could take his place. The roster move for Bonderman will not occur until after the first game Monday, and there is no indication who will be demoted, nevermind if it will be a pitcher or player.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League NYA 8 TEX 6 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 3 KC 2 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 TOR 5 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 7 CHA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 6 DET 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 11 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 4 MIL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 5 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 4 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 10 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 11 NYN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 3 CIN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 3 LAN 0 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Philadelphia Phillies at Los Angeles Dodgers, 4:10 PM (R) Joe Blanton (4-3) vs. (R) Hiroki Kuroda (1-1) San Francisco Giants at Florida Marlins, 6:10 PM (L) Jonathan Sanchez (2-4) vs. (L) Andrew Miller (1-2) Pittsburgh Pirates at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM (L) Paul Maholm (3-2) vs. (R) Roy Oswalt (2-2) New York Mets at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) John Maine (5-3) vs. (L) John Lannan (2-5) Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Ryan Dempster (4-3) vs. (L) Matt Maloney (0-0) Milwaukee Brewers at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (3-4) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (4-4) Colorado Rockies at St. Louis Cardinals, 7:15 PM (R) Aaron Cook (3-3) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (5-5) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Max Scherzer (2-4) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (1-4) American League --------------- Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (L) David Price (1-0) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (5-3) Kansas City Royals at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (R) Luke Hochevar (0-2) vs. (R) Scott Richmond (4-2) Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox, 4:05 PM (L) Jeremy Sowers (1-2) vs. (R) Gavin Floyd (3-5) Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (5-2) vs. (L) Jarrod Washburn (3-4) LA Angels of Anaheim at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Kelvim Escobar (0-0) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (5-3) Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (L) Derek Holland (1-2) vs. (L) Jon Lester (4-5) Baltimore Orioles at Oakland Athletics, 9:05 PM (R) Jason Berken (1-1) vs. (R) Trevor Cahill (2-5)
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 32 22 .593 0.0 31 1NYA 32 22 .593 0.0 30 2
TOR 30 26 .536 3.0 30 0
TB 28 28 .500 5.0 33 -5
BAL 24 30 .444 8.0 23 1
American League Central DET 28 24 .538 0.0 29 -1
MIN 27 28 .491 2.5 28 -1
CHA 25 28 .472 3.5 24 1
KC 23 30 .434 5.5 23 0
CLE 23 33 .411 7.0 26 -3
American League West TEX 31 22 .585 0.0 29 2
LAA 27 25 .519 3.5 26 1
SEA 26 28 .481 5.5 24 2
OAK 22 30 .423 8.5 23 -1
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 32 20 .615 0.0 29 3
NYN 28 24 .538 4.0 28 0
ATL 26 26 .500 6.0 26 0
FLA 26 29 .473 7.5 25 1
WAS 14 38 .269 18.0 20 -6
National League Central STL 31 23 .574 0.0 30 1
MIL 31 23 .574 0.0 29 2
CIN 28 25 .528 2.5 27 1
CHN 26 25 .510 3.5 26 0
PIT 25 28 .472 5.5 27 -2
HOU 23 29 .442 7.0 23 0
National League West LAN 37 19 .661 0.0 37 0
SF 27 25 .519 8.0 26 1
SD 25 28 .472 10.5 22 3
ARI 23 31 .426 13.0 23 0
COL 21 32 .396 14.5 25 -4
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 SD AAA Kyle Blanks....... 3 2 0 0 2 2 1 4 RBI OAK AA Chris Carter...... 3 2 0 0 1 2 0 HOU A+ Jason Castro...... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 COL AA Darin Holcomb..... 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 SEA AAA Mike Carp......... 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 TEX A Michael Bianucci.. 5 3 0 0 1 0 0 CHW AA Dayan Viciedo..... 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 SF A+ Buster Posey...... 5 2 0 0 1 1 1 HOU AAA Brian Bogusevic... 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 SD A James Darnell..... 3 2 1 0 0 1 0 CLE AA Beau Mills........ 4 1 0 0 1 1 0 BOS A+ Luis Exposito..... 5 2 1 0 0 0 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes HOU A Jordan Lyles...... 6 3 1 1 11 0 1 CHW A+ Daniel Hudson..... 7 2 1 1 8 1 0 BOS A Stephen Fife...... 5 0 0 0 7 0 0 BOS A+ Casey Kelly....... 6 0 0 0 6 0 0 ATL A Brett DeVall...... 7 2 0 0 5 0 0 NYY AA Z. McAllister..... 8 7 0 0 6 0 0 CHW A Nick Barnese...... 5 4 1 1 7 0 0 LAA AAA Sean O'Sullivan... 6 5 1 1 5 0 0 TEX AAA Neftali Feliz..... 6 2 0 0 3 0 0 BAL A+ Brian Matusz...... 6 5 0 0 5 1 0 COL AA Jhoulys Chacin.... 6 4 1 1 7 2 1 12 GB CLE AA Jeanmar Gomez..... 6 7 5 4 5 1 0 12 GB
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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.