THT Daily: June 26, 2009

Posted by Matthew Carruth

Major League News for June 26

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
Xavier Nady (shoulder) removed himself from a rehab appearance Thursday after making an awkward throw from right field.
"We don't know what he did yet but it could be the worst-case scenario," general manager Brian Cashman said. "He felt something and that is what we were concerned about." Nady will undergo a variety of tests Friday. "I want to talk to X and see how he feels," Cashman continued. "But it didn't sound good." The outfielder may have to fold and finally undergo Tommy John surgery.

Eric Byrnes suffered a fractured left hand when he was hit by a Scott Feldman pitch on Thursday and is expected to miss 4-8 weeks.
The Diamondbacks might benefit from A.J. Hinch being unable to force Byrnes into the lineup, at least once Chris Young returns to full strength. They're without a legitimate fourth outfielder now, but Ryan Roberts will likely fill the role. Young and Gerardo Parra should benefit in terms of playing time.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has benched Jimmy Rollins for two games.
Rollins has a measly .211/.254/.328 line this year and is just 7-for-56 since being dropped to sixth in the batting order 13 games ago. He will sit Thursday and Friday and Manuel said he didn't even want Rollins to take batting practice. He wants his shortstop to get away from the game. Who knows if the mental break will work, but it's worth a shot.

Armando Galarraga allowed four runs over six innings on Thursday to receive his first win since April in the Tigers' 6-5 victory over the Cubs.
Galarraga is back in the win column! He previously hadn't won since April 26. At that time, he was 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA. Seems like years ago, right? Galarraga gave up six hits and one walk while striking out five against the Cubs. He takes a 5.65 ERA into next week's date against the A's in Oakland.

Frank Thomas said he is "close" to announcing his retirement.
"I'm getting close to announcing my retirement because I just turned 41," Thomas said on ESPN 1000. "I just want to make sure that it's the move I really want to make. I don't want to be one of those guys that keeps coming back and keeps saying, 'I'm unretiring, I'm coming back.' I want to make sure it's out of my system." Thomas may not completely have it out of his system, however, as he added: "I'm still in shape, ready to go, if anything happens." Thomas finished last season with the A's.

Pirates optioned RHP Ian Snell to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Snell was 2-8 with a 5.36 ERA while battling control problems. GM Neal Huntington said on Wednesday that Snell would remain in the rotation for at least one more start. Not so. A corresponding roster move will be announced on Friday.

Geovany Soto tested positive for marijuana while playing for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in March, announced the International Baseball Federation.
This revelation doesn't impact Soto's major league status, although he will be be banned from international play for two years. "While I full acknowledge my inappropriate behavior, I want to assure my fans and my family that this was an isolated incident," Soto said in a statement, while adding that he was "embarrassed by my lapse in judgment." The Cubs said that Soto is drug tested regularly and this was his only positive test.

Erik Bedard (shoulder) will throw side sessions on Thursday and Saturday with an eye on a July 4 return in Boston.
Bedard will also throw a side session or simulated game next week in New York. He was 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA prior to hitting the DL.

Kenji Johjima (broken toe) will be activated from the disabled list on Friday and will start that day's game against the Dodgers.
Johjima was placed on the DL on May 26. He made a quick recovery after the club initially expected him to be sidelined for 6-8 weeks. Johjima batted .250/.275/.386 with three home runs and 10 RBI before being shelved.

Yesterday’s Results

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

American League
TB     10  PHI     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     7  TOR     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     6  LAN     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     6  CHN     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     9  SD      3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
NYA    11  ATL     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA    11  BAL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     3  STL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
WAS     9  BOS     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     5  KC      4    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     6  MIL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     3  CLE     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     9  ARI     8    (Recap and Boxscore)

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

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM
  (R) Matt Cain (9-1) vs. (R) Yovani Gallardo (7-4)
 
 Inter-League
 ------------
 Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox, 4:05 PM
  (R) Randy Wells (1-3) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (2-6)
 Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (L) Ross Detwiler (0-3) vs. (R) Brad Bergesen (4-2)
 Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM
  (R) Gil Meche (4-6) vs. (R) Virgil Vasquez (0-0)
 Cincinnati Reds at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM
  (R) Aaron Harang (5-7) vs. (L) Jeremy Sowers (1-5)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM
  (L) Cole Hamels (4-3) vs. (L) Ricky Romero (4-3)
 New York Yankees at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (L) CC Sabathia (6-4) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (5-2)
 Boston Red Sox at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM
  (R) Josh Beckett (8-3) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (5-5)
 Florida Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:38 PM
  (R) Josh Johnson (7-1) vs. (R) James Shields (6-5)
 Detroit Tigers at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Justin Verlander (8-3) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (6-6)
 San Diego Padres at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (R) Walter Silva (0-0) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (7-5)
 Minnesota Twins at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (L) Glen Perkins (2-4) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (8-4)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (R) Jered Weaver (7-3) vs. (R) Billy Buckner (2-4)
 Colorado Rockies at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM
  (R) Jason Hammel (4-3) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (5-6)
 Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (L) Jason Vargas (3-2) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (4-5)

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     44  28 .611    0.0   43     1    
NYA     40  32 .556    4.0   40     0    
TOR     40  34 .541    5.0   42    -2    
TB      39  35 .527    6.0   44    -5    
BAL     32  40 .444   12.0   30     2    
American League Central     
DET     41  31 .569    0.0   39     2    
MIN     37  37 .500    5.0   39    -2    
CHA     35  37 .486    6.0   34     1    
KC      31  40 .437    9.5   30     1    
CLE     30  44 .405   12.0   35    -5    
American League West        
TEX     39  32 .549    0.0   37     2    
LAA     38  32 .543    0.5   35     3    
SEA     37  35 .514    2.5   34     3    
OAK     31  40 .437    8.0   32    -1    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     37  33 .529    0.0   37     0    
NYN     37  34 .521    0.5   37     0    
FLA     38  36 .514    1.0   35     3    
ATL     34  38 .472    4.0   34     0    
WAS     21  49 .300   16.0   27    -6    
National League Central     
STL     40  34 .541    0.0   40     0    
MIL     38  34 .528    1.0   37     1    
CIN     35  36 .493    3.5   34     1    
CHN     34  35 .493    3.5   35    -1    
HOU     33  37 .471    5.0   32     1    
PIT     33  39 .458    6.0   36    -3    
National League West        
LAN     47  26 .644    0.0   45     2    
SF      39  32 .549    7.0   37     2    
COL     37  35 .514    9.5   38    -1    
SD      31  40 .437   15.0   27     4    
ARI     30  43 .411   17.0   33    -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
HOU A+  Jonathan Gaston... 6  3  2  0  1  0  1  3 R
CLE AA  Nicholas Weglarz.. 1  1  0  0  1  4  0  
BAL A+  Pedro Florimon.... 3  2  0  0  0  2  1  3 SB
ATL A+  F. Freeman........ 5  3  2  0  0  0  0  
SEA A+  Alex Liddi........ 4  2  1  0  1  0  2  
PIT AA  Pedro Alvarez..... 4  2  1  0  1  0  0  
MIL AA  Jonathan Lucroy... 5  2  1  0  1  0  1  4 RBI
TEX AAA M. Ramirez........ 3  2  2  0  0  1  0  
BOS A-  R. Westmoreland... 4  2  1  0  0  1  0  
BOS A   Oscar Tejeda...... 3  2  1  0  0  1  0  
SD  A   Blake Tekotte..... 3  2  0  0  1  1  0  3 R
CHC A+  Brandon Guyer..... 3  2  1  0  0  1  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
PHI AA  Kyle Drabek....... 7  6  3  3  9  1  0  
CLE A   Fausto Carmona.... 6  1  0  0  7  1  0  
LA  AAA Scott Elbert...... 6  1  0  0  7  1  0  
SF  AA  M. Bumgarner...... 8  4  1  1  5  2  0  
CHC AAA Mitch Atkins...... 7  3  3  3  4  1  0  13 OF
NYY A+  Jeremy Bleich..... 6  6  2  1  6  1  0  12 GB
PHI A   Jason Knapp....... 5  3  3  2  8  4  0  
NYY A-  Arodys Vizcaino... 4  3  3  0  7  2  0  
NYM AAA Jonathon Niese.... 6  6  1  1  6  2  0  
TEX A   Carlos Pimentel... 4  2  1  0  5  1  0  
OAK A+  Tyson Ross........ 6  3  2  2  5  2  1  
SD  AA  Matthew Latos..... 5  1  0  0  1  0  0

First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.

Order Now

Most Recent Comments

Search THT:

Friday, June 26, 2009