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THT Daily: Young pitching

by Dave Studeman
May 27, 2009

Major League News for May 27

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
Zach Greinke moved to 8-1 with a complete game win over the Tigers on Tuesday night.
Greinke threw a season-high 116 pitches for his major-league leading fifth complete game of the season. He scattered eight hits in the win, fanning six while not walking a batter. The Royals won the game 6-1. The only run scored in the first inning on a Magglio Ordonez RBI single. Yielding the one run, his ERA actually went up, from 0.82 to 0.84.

Hanley Ramirez said he wouldn't know until tomorrow whether he'll be ready to play in Wednesday's game.
Ramirez left Tuesday because of right groin tightness. With Alfredo Amezaga currently on the shelf, Emilio Bonifacio is the backup shortstop at the moment. However, it looks like the Marlins will send down Chris Leroux and call up another infielder Wednesday.

Melky Cabrera left Tuesday's game in the first inning with a sore right shoulder.
Cabrera was tracking Ian Kinsler's fly ball on a sloppy warning track after a lengthy rain delay when he struck the outfield wall with his shoulder. Brett Gardner has come on to replace him. Consider Cabrera day-to-day until we hear otherwise.

Coco Crisp left Tuesday's game after four innings with a sore right shoulder.
Crisp was pulled after reportedly having problems swinging the bat in the third inning. He was replaced by Mitch Maier, and the Royals are listing his availability as day-to-day.

Ryan Braun left Tuesday's game in the fifth inning after taking an Adam Wainwright pitch off his right wrist.
Braun was said to be in obvious pain after the fastball plunked him in the bottom of the third inning. He did return to the field for top of the fourth, but Frank Catalanotto replaced him in left field for the top of the fifth. Consider him day-to-day for now.

The White Sox have sent Carlos Quentin back to Chicago to have his foot examined by team doctors.
The initial diagnosis on Quentin's left foot is plantar fasciitis, which forced him from Monday's game. He won't rejoin the Sox until after the weekend series at Kansas City, and manager Ozzie Guillen suggested the disabled list could be an option if it will help keep Quentin healthy for the remainder of the season.

Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail announced that catching prospect Matt Wieters will be recalled to make his major league debut Friday against the Tigers.
"It's time," MacPhail said. "He's ready." The switch-hitting Wieters, who turns 23 next week, profiles as a middle of the order hitter and will take over as the regular catcher immediately. Ranked by many as the best prospect in baseball heading into the season, Wieters is currently hitting .285/.367/.482 at Triple-A Norfolk. He should be picked up in all fantasy leagues in which he remains available.

The MRI on Carlos Guillen's right shoulder revealed no structural damage.
There's still no timetable for Guillen's return, so he'll continue to work with the medical staff to get the pain out of his shoulder. Once he's pain free, Guillen will begin playing catch. For now, he can do conditioning work but no baseball activities.

Rays placed infielder Jason Bartlett on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained ankle.
Bartlett was hitting an incredible .373/.418/.596 with 14 stolen bases in 161 at-bats before the injury. Reid Brignac will fill in over the next couple of weeks until Bartlett returns. Though Brignac posted an .817 OPS in 36 games at Durham this season, he won't offer much from a fantasy perspective.

Yesterday’s Results

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

American League
BAL     7  TOR     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     5  TB      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      6  DET     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     5  BOS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     4  LAA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     4  SEA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     7  NYA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
NYN     6  WAS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     5  FLA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     6  PIT     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     6  HOU     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     8  MIL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     6  SD      5    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     7  COL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      4  ATL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

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

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, 1:05 PM
  (R) Todd Wellemeyer (4-4) vs. (L) Manny Parra (3-5)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (L) Zach Duke (5-4) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (3-2)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Colorado Rockies, 3:10 PM
  (L) Clayton Kershaw (2-3) vs. (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (3-5)
 Florida Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM
  (R) Burke Badenhop (2-2) vs. (R) Brett Myers (4-2)
 Houston Astros at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (R) Felipe Paulino (1-3) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (6-3)
 Washington Nationals at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (R) Jordan Zimmermann (2-1) vs. (L) Johan Santana (6-2)
 San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (R) Jake Peavy (4-5) vs. (R) Billy Buckner (1-0)
 Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM
  (R) Kenshin Kawakami (3-5) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (3-4)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM
  (R) Roy Halladay (8-1) vs. (L) Rich Hill (1-0)
 Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM
  (R) Rick Porcello (5-3) vs. (R) Kyle Davies (2-3)
 Seattle Mariners at Oakland Athletics, 3:35 PM
  (L) Erik Bedard (2-2) vs. (R) Trevor Cahill (2-4)
 Tampa Bay Rays at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM
  (R) Andy Sonnanstine (3-4) vs. (L) Zach Jackson (0-0)
 New York Yankees at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (R) A.J. Burnett (2-2) vs. (L) Derek Holland (1-1)
 Boston Red Sox at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM
  (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-2) vs. (R) Kevin Slowey (6-1)
 Chicago White Sox at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM
  (R) Gavin Floyd (3-4) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (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
BOS     27  19 .587    0.0   26     1    
NYA     26  20 .565    1.0   24     2    
TOR     27  22 .551    1.5   28    -1    
TB      23  25 .479    5.0   27    -4    
BAL     20  26 .435    7.0   19     1    
American League Central     
DET     25  19 .568    0.0   26    -1    
KC      23  23 .500    3.0   23     0    
MIN     23  24 .489    3.5   25    -2    
CHA     21  24 .467    4.5   20     1    
CLE     19  28 .404    7.5   22    -3    
American League West        
TEX     27  18 .600    0.0   25     2    
LAA     23  22 .511    4.0   22     1    
SEA     21  26 .447    7.0   19     2    
OAK     18  25 .419    8.0   20    -2    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     25  19 .568    0.0   24     1    
NYN     25  20 .556    0.5   25     0    
ATL     23  22 .511    2.5   22     1    
FLA     21  26 .447    5.5   20     1    
WAS     13  32 .289   12.5   18    -5    
National League Central     
STL     27  19 .587    0.0   26     1    
MIL     27  19 .587    0.0   25     2    
CIN     25  20 .556    1.5   23     2    
CHN     22  22 .500    4.0   22     0    
PIT     21  25 .457    6.0   23    -2    
HOU     18  26 .409    8.0   19    -1    
National League West        
LAN     32  15 .681    0.0   32     0    
SD      23  23 .500    8.5   20     3    
SF      22  23 .489    9.0   22     0    
ARI     20  26 .435   11.5   20     0    
COL     18  27 .400   13.0   21    -3

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
NYY A   David Adams....... 3  2  1  0  0  2  0  2 SB
CHW AA  Jordan Danks...... 4  3  0  0  1  1  0  
BAL AAA Matt Wieters...... 4  4  1  0  0  1  0  4 RBI
CHC A   Josh Vitters...... 4  2  0  0  1  1  0  
DET AA  Scott Sizemore.... 6  2  2  0  0  0  0  
PIT AAA Neil Walker....... 4  2  2  0  0  0  1  
MIL AAA Alcides Escobar... 4  2  1  0  0  1  0  
FLA AAA Cameron Maybin.... 5  2  2  0  0  0  0  
COL A   Delta Cleary...... 4  2  1  0  0  0  1  
HOU A   Jay Austin........ 5  2  1  0  0  0  0  3 R
KC  A   Eric Hosmer....... 4  2  1  0  0  1  2  
ATL A+  Jason Heyward..... 4  3  1  0  0  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
ATL AAA Thomas Hanson..... 7  5  1  1  9  2  0  
ARI A   Wade Miley........ 6  5  1  1  7  1  0  11 GB
BAL A   Richard Zagone.... 7  4  0  0  6  2  0  14 GB
DET A   Mauricio Robles... 7  6  3  3  7  2  0  
CHC A+  Andrew Cashner.... 5  3  1  1  5  0  0  10 GB
BAL A+  Brian Matusz...... 7  4  0  0  5  2  0  
NYY AA  Z. McAllister..... 7  4  0  0  5  2  0  
KC  A+  Daniel Duffy...... 6  5  0  0  5  1  0  
PHI AA  Vance Worley...... 7  3  0  0  2  1  0  
LA  A   Nathan Eovaldi.... 5  3  0  0  4  1  0  
SF  A   Aaron King........ 4  4  0  0  4  1  0  
HOU A   Ross Seaton....... 5  7  1  1  3  0  0  5 infield flies

First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

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