THT Daily: What can they do?
by Dave StudemanMay 20, 2009
Major League News for May 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 RotoworldThe Nationals will place Elijah Dukes on the 15-day disabled list because of the strained hamstring he aggravated Sunday.
Justin Maxwell is being called up, but the Nats will probably use Willie Harris in center field most days. That will give him some value in NL-only leagues.
The MRI on Carlos Silva's right shoulder revealed an internal impingement and fraying of the labrum and rotator cuff.
Silva will be sent out for a second opinion, with a more in-depth analysis coming later in the week. Considering the MRI results, he could be done for the season. Silva has two years remaining on a four-year, $48 million contract.
Todd Helton earned his 2,000 career hit in a loss to the Braves on Tuesday night.
He did so with a third inning single. Helton is the 255th player to reach the plateau. He's the fourth active player to reach the mark with the same team, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones and Garrett Anderson being the others.
Dontrelle Willis dominated the Rangers on Tuesday, allowing just one hit over 6 1/3 shutout innings for his first win since September 25, 2007.
An impressive performance against a good lineup. He looked like the same old animated, charismatic pitcher, at least for tonight. After a Michael Young double and a walk to Andruw Jones with two out in the first, Willis retired the next 16 batters he faced. He left after 101 pitches and his second walk of the night. Wills struck out six in the win. He still has a long way back, but one has to feel good for the guy.
David Ortiz was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in a win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
It was his first game since last Thursday against the Angels and the rest didn't seem to help. He's now hitless in his last 13 at-bats and the drought deepens -- he's 133 at-bats without a homer this season.
Kevin Youkilis went 0-for-2 with a walk Monday in his first rehab game with Triple-A Pawtucket.
Youk has been sidelined since May 5 and is expected to make one more appearance at Pawtucket before being activated. He'll return to a .393 batting average, 11 doubles, six homers and 12 RBI.
Noah Lowry is scheduled to undergo surgery this week to have a rib removed from his left side.
Lowry is not expected to pitch again this season. He struggled mightily while trying to rehab a shoulder injury and eventually incurred the rib issue. Lowry has a $6.25 million option for 2010 that probably won't get picked up.
Eric Chavez has a herniated disc that could easily end his career.
Any wrong movement could cause his back to give out for the last time. "Pretty much game, set and match," the A's third baseman told The San Francisco Chronicle. He's hoping to return to the baseball diamond in a few weeks, but the A's are aware of the severity of the injury. "This last (diagnosis) is a little bit of a punch in the gut for everyone," A's general manager Billy Beane said, "Especially for Eric, because he's worked so hard and dealt with so many issues."
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BOS 2 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 9 BAL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 4 TB 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 6 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 4 TEX 0 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 6 CLE 5 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 SEA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 8 COL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 5 FLA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 8 WAS 5 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 4 CIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 4 HOU 2 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 3 CHN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 5 NYN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 2 SF 1 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Arizona Diamondbacks at Florida Marlins, 5:10 PM (L) Doug Davis (2-5) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (2-3) Pittsburgh Pirates at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (L) Paul Maholm (3-1) vs. (L) John Lannan (2-3) Philadelphia Phillies at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Jamie Moyer (3-3) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (3-4) Colorado Rockies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (L) Jorge De La Rosa (0-3) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (3-3) Milwaukee Brewers at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Yovani Gallardo (4-1) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (4-2) Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Ryan Dempster (3-2) vs. (R) Chris Carpenter (1-0) Arizona Diamondbacks at Florida Marlins, 8:40 PM (R) Bryan Augenstein (0-1) vs. (R) Hayden Penn (1-0) San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Jonathan Sanchez (1-3) vs. (R) Chad Gaudin (0-3) New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Livan Hernandez (3-1) vs. (R) Jeff Weaver (2-1) American League --------------- Texas Rangers at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (L) Matt Harrison (4-2) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (3-2) Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Jeremy Guthrie (3-3) vs. (R) Phil Hughes (1-2) Oakland Athletics at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM (L) Brett Anderson (0-4) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (4-3) Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (L) Brett Cecil (2-0) vs. (R) Brad Penny (3-1) Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Fausto Carmona (2-4) vs. (R) Gil Meche (2-4) Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (L) Francisco Liriano (2-4) vs. (L) John Danks (2-3) LA Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (R) Ervin Santana (0-0) vs. (R) Chris Jakubauskas (2-4)
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 27 15 .643 0.0 27 0BOS 23 16 .590 2.5 21 2
NYA 22 17 .564 3.5 19 3
TB 20 21 .488 6.5 23 -3
BAL 16 23 .410 9.5 16 0
American League Central DET 21 16 .568 0.0 22 -1
KC 21 18 .538 1.0 22 -1
MIN 18 22 .450 4.5 18 0
CHA 16 22 .421 5.5 16 0
CLE 14 26 .350 8.5 18 -4
American League West TEX 23 15 .605 0.0 21 2
LAA 20 18 .526 3.0 19 1
SEA 18 22 .450 6.0 17 1
OAK 14 22 .389 8.0 15 -1
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 21 16 .568 0.0 20 1
NYN 21 18 .538 1.0 22 -1
ATL 19 19 .500 2.5 18 1
FLA 18 21 .462 4.0 17 1
WAS 11 27 .289 10.5 15 -4
National League Central MIL 25 14 .641 0.0 23 2
CHN 21 16 .568 3.0 20 1
STL 22 17 .564 3.0 21 1
CIN 20 18 .526 4.5 20 0
PIT 18 21 .462 7.0 21 -3
HOU 17 20 .459 7.0 17 0
National League West LAN 28 13 .683 0.0 28 0
SF 19 19 .500 7.5 17 2
SD 17 22 .436 10.0 15 2
ARI 15 23 .395 11.5 16 -1
COL 15 23 .395 11.5 19 -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 SEA A+ Alex Liddi........ 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 5 R NYM AAA F. Martinez....... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 SF AAA Jesus Guzman...... 5 2 2 0 0 2 0 CHC A Josh Vitters...... 5 3 0 0 1 0 0 CHC A Ryan Flaherty..... 5 2 1 0 1 0 1 WAN A+ C. Marrero........ 4 3 0 0 1 0 1 4 RBI MIN AA Daniel Valencia... 6 2 1 0 1 0 1 4 RBI SF A+ Buster Posey...... 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 LAA A+ Matthew Sweeney... 4 3 1 0 0 1 0 TB AAA Matthew Joyce..... 4 3 1 0 0 1 0 LA A D. Strange-Gordo.. 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 ATL A+ Cody Johnson...... 4 2 0 0 1 0 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SEA A Brett Lorin....... 7 4 2 2 8 1 0 CHC AA Jay Jackson....... 6 7 0 0 8 2 0 SD A Simon Castro...... 5 1 0 0 4 0 0 OAK AAA Chad Reineke...... 5 3 0 0 5 0 0 BAL AA Troy Patton....... 5 5 0 0 5 0 0 CHC AAA Jeff Samardzija... 5 4 1 1 6 2 0 MIL A Wily Peralta...... 3 2 0 0 7 2 0 TOR A+ Tim Collins....... 2 1 0 0 6 1 0 CLE A+ Eric Berger....... 6 3 0 0 5 3 0 OAK A Brett Hunter...... 5 6 2 2 6 2 0 HOU AAA Bud Norris........ 5 5 2 2 5 2 0 TEX A Wilmer Font....... 5 5 1 1 6 3 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.