THT Daily: Konerkos wild
by Dave StudemanJuly 08, 2009
Major League News for July 8
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldRaul Ibanez (groin) finished 1-for-2 with a walk in his first rehab game with Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Tuesday evening.
Ibanez is now 1-for-4 with two walks on his rehab assignment and has played 12 innings in the outfield. He'll take the day off Wednesday, play another game with Lehigh Valley on Thursday and return to the Phillies Friday. At least, that's the plan.
White Sox acquired RHP Tony Pena from the Diamondbacks for first baseman Brandon Allen.
Pena, 27, had a 4.24 ERA, a 1.53 WHIP and a 26/11 K/BB ratio in 34 innings out of Arizona's bullpen. He'll fit in well with the White Sox, but they paid a pretty hefty price to nab him. Brandon Allen, a born slugger, could have eventually taken over at first base for Paul Konerko.
Vladimir Guerrero is day-to-day with a strained muscle behind his left knee.
Guerrero may need a day or two off, and he'll probably go back to DHing for a while after he returns. Gary Matthews Jr. could start in his place on Wednesday.
Luke Scott homered and drove in a career-high seven runs in a win over the Mariners on Tuesday night.
Scott was 3-for-5 in the game. He plated two with an RBI single in the first, two more with an RBI triple in the sixth and then added a three-run homer in the seventh. The last Oriole to drive in seven runs in a game was Ramon Hernandez in 2006. Scott is batting .305/.386/.595 with 17 homers and 50 RBI in just 220 at-bats this season. For those with a calculator handy, that projects to 38 homers and 112 RBI in 492 at-bats.
Josh Johnson fell to 7-2 on the year, allowing three runs over seven innings in a 3-0 loss to the Giants on Tuesday night.
The loss was Johnson's first since May 19. On the bright side, he pitched better than his last start -- a 3 1/3 inning dud against the Nationals -- scattering five hits against five strikeouts and one walk. Johnson looks to have hit a minor bump in the road, winless over his last three starts, but his ERA is still a sparkling 2.82, good enough for fourth-best in the National League.
Paul Konerko connected for a career-high three home runs and seven RBI in a win over the Indians on Tuesday night.
Konerko's sixth-inning grand slam gave the White Sox a 5-3 lead. He became the 12th player in White Sox history to hit three home runs in a game. The last to do it was Jose Valentin in 2003. After a down 2008, Konerko is batting .301/.354/.527 with 16 homers and 57 RBI this season.
Grady Sizemore hit a pair of home runs in a loss to the White Sox on Tuesday night.
Sizemore has three homers and 15 RBI since returning from the disabled list on June 23. He is off to a nice start in July, with three multi-hit games in his last four. He is batting .235/.323/.462 with 13 bombs and 47 RBI in 251 at-bats this season.
Shaun Marcum is hoping to return to the Blue Jays by early August.
Marcum has made a remarkable comeback from September Tommy John surgery. He allowed just two hits in three innings Monday in a 37-pitch rehab outing for Single-A Dunedin. "He looked very sharp," said assistant GM Alex Anthopoulos. "All the reports are that he looked good and felt good. His next outing, he's scheduled to go four innings. He's excited. Tentatively, we have him scheduled to be back up in Toronto the first week of August."
Bartolo Colon, slated to start Thursday at Charlotte, is not with the Triple-A club and hasn't contacted the White Sox to inform them of his whereabouts.
In other words, the big man is missing. "Efforts to contact his agent have been successful," said GM Kenny Williams. "Their efforts to contact their client have not been so successful. ... If he doesn't show up Thursday in Charlotte, somebody will take the mound. This train is going to keep rolling." Colon has been on the disabled list since early June with swelling in his left knee and will obviously need to show up for his rehab assignment if he hopes to make his way back to Chicago.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BOS 5 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 3 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 10 CLE 6 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 8 KC 5 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 10 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 8 LAA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) BAL 12 SEA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League LAN 8 NYN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 4 PHI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 2 CHN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 6 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 5 MIL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 4 SD 3 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 5 WAS 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 3 FLA 0 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Houston Astros, 2:05 PM (R) Charlie Morton (1-1) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (7-6) Atlanta Braves at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Kenshin Kawakami (4-6) vs. (R) Kevin Hart (0-0) Washington Nationals at Colorado Rockies, 3:10 PM (L) Ross Detwiler (0-4) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (5-7) San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks, 3:40 PM (R) Chad Gaudin (4-7) vs. (R) Max Scherzer (5-6) Florida Marlins at San Francisco Giants, 3:45 PM (R) Chris Volstad (5-8) vs. (R) Ryan Sadowski (2-0) Cincinnati Reds at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Homer Bailey (1-0) vs. (R) Rodrigo Lopez (1-0) Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Hiroki Kuroda (3-4) vs. (L) Oliver Perez (1-2) St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Todd Wellemeyer (7-7) vs. (R) Jeff Suppan (5-6) American League --------------- Baltimore Orioles at Seattle Mariners, 4:40 PM (R) David Hernandez (2-2) vs. (L) Jason Vargas (3-3) Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Zack Greinke (10-4) vs. (L) Lucas French (0-0) Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM (L) Brian Tallet (5-6) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (4-5) Oakland Athletics at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) Trevor Cahill (5-7) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (10-3) New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) A.J. Burnett (7-4) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (4-4) Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (L) Aaron Laffey (3-1) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (3-7) Texas Rangers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Vicente Padilla (6-4) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (1-4)
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 BOS 50 33 .602 0.0 49 1NYA 49 34 .590 1.0 48 1
TB 45 39 .536 5.5 49 -4
TOR 43 42 .506 8.0 46 -3
BAL 37 47 .440 13.5 36 1
American League Central DET 45 38 .542 0.0 43 2
CHA 43 40 .518 2.0 42 1
MIN 43 41 .512 2.5 45 -2
KC 36 47 .434 9.0 35 1
CLE 33 51 .393 12.5 39 -6
American League West LAA 46 36 .561 0.0 44 2
TEX 46 36 .561 0.0 44 2
SEA 43 40 .518 3.5 39 4
OAK 35 47 .427 11.0 37 -2
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 43 38 .531 0.0 44 -1
FLA 43 42 .506 2.0 40 3
ATL 40 43 .482 4.0 40 0
NYN 39 43 .476 4.5 38 1
WAS 24 57 .296 19.0 31 -7
National League Central STL 46 39 .541 0.0 45 1
MIL 43 40 .518 2.0 42 1
CHN 41 40 .506 3.0 41 0
CIN 41 41 .500 3.5 37 4
HOU 40 42 .488 4.5 38 2
PIT 38 46 .452 7.5 42 -4
National League West LAN 53 30 .639 0.0 51 2
SF 46 37 .554 7.0 46 0
COL 44 39 .530 9.0 45 -1
SD 35 48 .422 18.0 31 4
ARI 35 49 .417 18.5 38 -3
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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.
Hey Dave,
I miss the list of the best minor league performances. It’s probably a lot of work for you to comb through all those box scores and pick out the gems, but (for me) they’re fun to read.
Best regards,
Greg Foley