THT Daily: Zito to the pen
by Dave StudemanApril 29, 2008
Major League News for April 29
Player NewsYesterday’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 Giants said Monday that they're sending Barry Zito to the bullpen for the time being. They already needed Pat Misch in the rotation to replace Kevin Correia, so who replaces Zito? Keiichi Yabu? Brad Hennessey? Victor Santos from Triple-A? It's going to take some sort of mechanics change to make Zito a quality pitcher again, and maybe he'll be allowed to experiment more as a reliever. Otherwise, this switch won't do any good at all.
Hank Blalock is expected to miss 3-4 weeks after being diagnosed with a partially torn hamstring. Really bad news for a team that's already struggling mightily. The Rangers have little depth at third base, so they'll have to go with Ramon Vazquez and German Duran until Blalock gets back. They have nothing to lose by giving Duran a long look, but odds are that Vazquez will start against most righties for now. He's probably the better bet of the two in AL-only leagues.
John Smoltz will return to Atlanta on Monday night and be evaluated by the Braves' team doctors on Tuesday. He's unlikely to make his next start. Smoltz complained of increased shoulder soreness following his start Sunday. Since Chuck James will be ineligible to be recalled unless Smoltz goes on the DL, it's possible Jo-Jo Reyes could be called up to make a spot start in his place this week.
Alex Rodriguez said he expected to miss a couple of games after aggravating his quad Monday against the Indians. Morgan Ensberg apparently will start at third base on at least Tuesday and Wednesday. Rodriguez originally missed three games last week after straining his quad.
The New York Daily News reports that Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready. If only he'd officially retire, we wouldn't have to bother with stuff like this. The Daily News says the romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old father of two. His attorney denied that the two had a sexual relationship. "He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her," Rusty Hardin said. "He's considered her a close family friend. ... He has never had a sexual relationship with her."
Yesterday’s Results
American League NYA 5 CLE 2 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 14 LAA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League CIN 4 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 5 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 4 COL 0 (Recap and Boxscore)You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- San Diego Padres at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Greg Maddux (2-1) vs. (L) Cole Hamels (2-3) Los Angeles Dodgers at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Derek Lowe (2-1) vs. (L) Andrew Miller (1-2) Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals, 7:10 PM (L) Tom Glavine (0-1) vs. (R) Tim Redding (3-2) Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Ian Snell (2-1) vs. (L) Johan Santana (3-2) Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (R) Ben Sheets (3-0) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (1-0) Cincinnati Reds at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Johnny Cueto (1-2) vs. (R) Joel Pineiro (1-2) Houston Astros at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Jack Cassel (1-0) vs. (R) Edgar Gonzalez (1-1) Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Aaron Cook (3-1) vs. (R) Tim Lincecum (4-0) American League --------------- Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (L) Kenny Rogers (1-3) vs. (R) Phil Hughes (0-3) Seattle Mariners at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Carlos Silva (3-0) vs. (R) Fausto Carmona (3-1) Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Roy Halladay (2-3) vs. (L) Jon Lester (1-2) Tampa Bay Rays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Jason Hammel (2-1) vs. (L) Garrett Olson (0-0) Kansas City Royals at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Brett Tomko (1-3) vs. (R) Jason Jennings (0-4) Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (2-0) vs. (R) Boof Bonser (1-4) Oakland Athletics at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (L) Greg Smith (2-0) vs. (L) Joe Saunders (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 BAL 14 11 .560 0.0 13 1TB 14 11 .560 0.0 14 0
BOS 15 12 .556 0.0 14 1
NYA 14 13 .519 1.0 13 1
TOR 11 15 .423 3.5 14 -3
American League Central CHA 14 10 .583 0.0 15 -1
CLE 12 14 .462 3.0 14 -2
KC 11 14 .440 3.5 9 2
MIN 11 14 .440 3.5 10 1
DET 11 15 .423 4.0 12 -1
American League West OAK 17 10 .630 0.0 18 -1
LAA 16 11 .593 1.0 14 2
SEA 12 14 .462 4.5 14 -2
TEX 9 17 .346 7.5 9 0
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 15 10 .600 0.0 12 3
NYN 13 11 .542 1.5 13 0
PHI 14 12 .538 1.5 14 0
ATL 12 13 .480 3.0 15 -3
WAS 9 17 .346 6.5 9 0
National League Central CHN 16 9 .640 0.0 16 0
STL 16 11 .593 1.0 16 0
MIL 14 11 .560 2.0 13 1
CIN 12 15 .444 5.0 13 -1
HOU 12 15 .444 5.0 13 -1
PIT 10 15 .400 6.0 9 1
National League West ARI 19 7 .731 0.0 18 1
LAN 12 13 .480 6.5 14 -2
SF 12 15 .444 7.5 9 3
COL 10 16 .385 9.0 10 0
SD 10 16 .385 9.0 9 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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes SEA AAA W. Balentien...... 6 3 0 0 3 0 1 5 RBI ! STL AAA Colby Rasmus...... 4 2 0 0 2 1 0 CIN A+ Chris Valaika..... 5 5 0 0 1 0 0 3 R OAK A+ Matthew Sulentic.. 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 BOS A Michael Jones..... 4 3 3 0 0 1 1 SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 5 3 1 0 0 1 0 KC AAA Ryan Shealy....... 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 SD A+ Cedric Hunter..... 3 2 1 0 0 2 0 CIN A+ Drew Stubbs....... 5 3 0 0 1 0 1 OAK AAA Kevin Melillo..... 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 SEA AAA Bryan LaHair...... 3 1 0 0 1 3 0 TEX AA M. Ramirez........ 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CLE AAA Adam Miller....... 4 4 0 0 4 2 0 7 GB WAN AAA Tyler Clippard.... 6 2 1 0 4 4 0 CIN A+ Travis Wood....... 6 5 2 2 5 3 0 CHC AAA Sean Gallagher.... 6 5 5 5 5 4 0 COL A+ Shane Lindsay..... 4 6 4 4 7 3 0 TEX A+ Kasey Kiker....... 7 5 3 3 4 2 1 12 GB CIN AAA Adam Pettyjohn.... 7 4 2 2 3 2 0 DET AAA F. Cruceta........ 2 1 0 0 5 1 0 HOU AAA Fernando Nieve.... 5 5 4 3 2 1 0 KC AA Jarod Plummer..... 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 GB NYY A+ Mark Melancon..... 2 2 0 0 2 1 0 DET AAA Chris Lambert..... 5 8 4 4 3 2 0 9 OF
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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.