THT Daily: Angels pulling away?
by Dave StudemanJuly 20, 2009
Major League News for July 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 RotoworldIan Kinsler had a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first and a walkoff blast in the 12th as the Rangers beat the Twins 5-3 on Sunday night.
The slumping Kinsler fanned in three of his four at-bats in between, but the Rangers can live with that. He took an otherwise effective Francisco Liriano deep to start it off and homered off knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to finish it. He's up to 22 bombs for the year.
Jason Marquis held the Padres to one run over eight innings to record his Major League-leading 12th win of the season.
Marquis struck out three, walked none, and gave up five hits. The right-hander has turned himself into a fine innings eater despite poor K/BB ratios over the years, but that he's allowed just nine homers in 131 1/3 innings, roughly half of which at Coors Field, is rather surprising. An ERA in the mid-4.00s in the second half is attainable, but Marquis is still an obvious sell-high candidate.
Brewers acquired second baseman Felipe Lopez from the Diamondbacks for outfielder Cole Gillespie and RHP Roque Mercedes.
Lopez was hitting .305/.368/.416 with six homers and six steals for the Diamondbacks. The Brewers figure to install him as their primary second baseman and leadoff hitter, leaving his fantasy value largely unchanged. This figures to end Mat Gamel's stint in Milwaukee, as Craig Counsell can now share time at third with Casey McGehee. The Diamondbacks could call up Rusty Ryal for a trial at second base. He shouldn't be a long-term option, but when the alternatives are Augie Ojeda and Ryan Roberts, he's worth a shot.
Fernando Nieve left Sunday's game in the second inning with an apparent right quad injury.
Nieve collapsed to the ground after trying and failing to leg out an infield single, and he had to be carted off, suggesting that he's done for a while. Tim Redding, who appeared to be on the way off the Mets roster, took over for him. Jon Niese, though, would be the logical candidate to step into the rotation this week.
The Reds announced that Ramon Hernandez will have knee surgery and miss 4-6 weeks.
So much for any chance of him being traded. The Reds are likely at least as well off with Ryan Hanigan getting another chance to be their starting catcher. Craig Tatum will be recalled to act as the backup.
Twins signed second baseman Mark Grudzielanek to a minor league contract.
Very interesting. It appeared that the 39-year-old Grudzielanek was done when he didn't find a fit in the offseason. Even if he's still in fine shape, it's not going to be easy for him to reemerge as a contributor after practically 12 months off (he missed the last two months of 2008 with an ankle injury). Perhaps he'll get a shot if Alexi Casilla struggles into mid-August.
Tigers trainer Kevin Rand said Joel Zumaya has "reaggravated the stress fracture of the right coracoid" in his right shoulder that occurred last season.
Surgery is a possibility. It's better news than a torn labrum or rotator cuff would have been, but it's still not good. While Zumaya's arm remains capable of producing 95-100 mph fastballs, it seems his shoulder can only take so much before giving out.
The Washington Nationals have decided to place LHP Scott Olsen (sore shoulder) on the 15-day disabled list.
Olsen is scheduled to visit Dr. James Andrews Monday. In his place, the Nationals plan to have J.D. Martin make his major league debut, bypassing Ross Detwiler. Martin is not on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will have to be made.
Clayton Kershaw struck out five while holding the Astros scoreless over seven innings during a 5-2 victory on Saturday night.
Kershaw improved his ERA to 2.95 and his WHIP to 1.22. He's 5-0 in his last six starts and has become one of the more valuable pitchers in the National League at the humble age of 21. He may hit a few rough patches, but can probably be counted on for a solid second half.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League NYA 2 DET 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 3 BOS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) BAL 10 CHA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 5 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 4 KC 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 1 OAK 0 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 5 MIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 7 NYN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 5 FLA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 11 WAS 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 5 MIL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 4 PIT 3 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 2 ARI 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 4 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 6 SD 1 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Milwaukee Brewers at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Mike Burns (2-2) vs. (R) Ross Ohlendorf (7-7) New York Mets at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Livan Hernandez (5-5) vs. (R) J.D. Martin (0-0) Chicago Cubs at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (L) Ted Lilly (9-6) vs. (R) Rodrigo Lopez (1-0) San Francisco Giants at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (L) Jonathan Sanchez (3-8) vs. (R) Tommy Hanson (4-0) St. Louis Cardinals at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Kyle Lohse (4-5) vs. (R) Brian Moehler (6-5) Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies, 8:40 PM (L) Doug Davis (4-9) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (6-7) Florida Marlins at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Rick VandenHurk (0-0) vs. (R) Tim Stauffer (0-1) Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Micah Owings (6-9) vs. (R) Jason Schmidt (0-0) American League --------------- Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) David Hernandez (2-2) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (8-5) Boston Red Sox at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) John Smoltz (1-2) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (8-7) LA Angels of Anaheim at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Sean OSullivan (2-0) vs. (R) Sidney Ponson (1-5) Tampa Bay Rays at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (L) David Price (3-3) vs. (R) Gavin Floyd (7-6) Minnesota Twins at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (8-4) vs. (L) Gio Gonzalez (1-2)
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 55 36 .604 0.0 54 1NYA 54 37 .593 1.0 51 3
TB 51 41 .554 4.5 54 -3
TOR 46 47 .495 10.0 50 -4
BAL 41 50 .451 14.0 40 1
American League Central DET 48 42 .533 0.0 48 0
CHA 47 44 .516 1.5 45 2
MIN 47 45 .511 2.0 49 -2
KC 37 54 .407 11.5 37 0
CLE 36 57 .387 13.5 42 -6
American League West LAA 52 38 .578 0.0 49 3
TEX 49 41 .544 3.0 48 1
SEA 49 43 .533 4.0 45 4
OAK 38 52 .422 14.0 40 -2
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 51 38 .573 0.0 50 1
ATL 46 46 .500 6.5 47 -1
FLA 46 47 .495 7.0 44 2
NYN 43 48 .473 9.0 41 2
WAS 26 65 .286 26.0 34 -8
National League Central STL 51 43 .543 0.0 50 1
CHN 47 43 .522 2.0 47 0
MIL 47 45 .511 3.0 46 1
HOU 46 46 .500 4.0 43 3
CIN 44 47 .484 5.5 40 4
PIT 40 51 .440 9.5 45 -5
National League West LAN 58 34 .630 0.0 56 2
SF 50 41 .549 7.5 50 0
COL 50 42 .543 8.0 51 -1
ARI 39 53 .424 19.0 42 -3
SD 37 55 .402 21.0 33 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 SD A+ James Darnell..... 5 3 0 0 2 0 0 CLE AA Matthew McBride... 3 2 1 0 1 2 0 FLA AAA Cameron Maybin.... 4 4 2 0 0 1 0 TEX AA M. Moreland....... 4 2 1 0 1 1 0 5 RBI ! OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 3 R NYM A Wilmer Flores..... 4 4 1 0 0 1 0 TEX A+ Michael Bianucci.. 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 SF A+ Roger Kieschnick.. 5 4 0 0 1 0 0 3 R OAK A+ Jemile Weeks...... 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 OAK A Dustin Coleman.... 4 3 1 0 0 1 1 ATL A+ Cody Johnson...... 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 SF A+ Thomas Neal....... 6 2 2 0 0 0 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CIN AA Travis Wood....... 7 4 0 0 8 0 0 MIL A+ Evan Anundsen..... 6 5 2 2 9 1 0 ARI A+ Trevor Harden..... 5 4 2 2 6 1 0 TB A Matthew Moore..... 6 4 1 1 7 3 0 COL A+ C. Friedrich...... 6 2 0 0 6 3 0 CIN A Matthew Fairel.... 6 5 1 1 7 1 1 ARI AA Barry Enright..... 7 6 1 0 3 0 0 BOS AAA Michael Bowden.... 5 0 0 0 5 4 0 CHC AAA Mitch Atkins...... 6 5 3 3 5 1 1 SF A Aaron King........ 6 5 2 2 7 5 0 ATL A J.J. Hoover....... 6 6 4 4 4 0 1 CLE A+ Eric Berger....... 5 4 5 2 6 4 0
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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.
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