THT Daily: Atlanta
by Matthew CarruthApril 16, 2008
Major League News for April 16
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 RotoworldNate Robertson said the soreness he experienced Tuesday was actually below his shoulder in his left lat muscle.
He said he first felt it pull on a pitch in the sixth and it tightened up in the seventh. He doesn't currently think he'll miss a start.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella said the team expects Alfonso Soriano will be out "a while" with his calf injury.
Soriano underwent an MRI, and the results will be available tomorrow. It's tough to know exactly what Piniella means by "a while," but it seems like a trip to the disabled list is possible, with Matt Murton likely to be called up to start in left field.
Indians manager Eric Wedge confirmed that Rafael Betancourt would close with Joe Borowski out, though he said the reliever was unavailable for Tuesday's game.
Either Jensen Lewis or Rafael Perez would be the choice to close tonight should an opportunity arise. Betancourt, though, is the one to pick up in mixed leagues.
Brewers signed RHP Jeff Weaver to a minor league contract.
Terms weren't released, but Weaver is expected to have a chance to earn $4 million-$5 million if everything goes perfectly. The belief is that Weaver will be ready to begin pitching in minor league games in one to two weeks. He'll be able to make himself a free agent if he's not in the majors come June.
Mariners placed LHP Erik Bedard on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 9, with inflammation in his left hip.
The Mariners made the move now even though they're not going to call up someone to replace him until Wednesday. Bedard will be eligible to return next Thursday and could be put on a schedule to pitch then. However, the hip is an obvious concern with the Mariners putting out so little information about the injury. R.A. Dickey will start in his place Friday.
Braves placed RHP Peter Moylan on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 12, with a sore right elbow.
The Braves are being awfully secretive this year, so there's no telling how long Moylan will out. It's a good bet that Rafael Soriano will beat him back from the disabled list. In the meantime, Manny Acosta becomes the favorite for saves in the Atlanta pen. He isn't pitching any better than Blaine Boyer, but he was getting more work in key games.
Indians placed RHP Joe Borowski on the 15-day disabled list with a strained triceps.
No comment from manager Eric Wedge yet today, but Rafael Betancourt should be the new favorite for saves in Cleveland. Wedge likes Borowski enough that the 36-year-old will probably get a chance to win back his job when he returns. However, there won't be any point to carrying him at all unless he gets some velocity back. Perhaps the rest will do him some good.
Mets GM Omar Minaya said that Pedro Martinez will be out until at least the middle of May, and possibly until June.
Pedro was originally expected to miss 4-6 weeks, which would have put him at an early May return, but Minaya says that time frame has been ruled out by team doctors. "We're definitely going to be more conservative with him... With hamstrings, you just never know. We've got to be careful," Minaya said.
Randy Johnson yielded three unearned runs in five innings Monday against the Giants in his 2008 debut.
Johnson struck out seven and yielded just three hits, but he was wild, walking four and throwing only 49 of his 90 pitches for strikes. The important thing was that he appeared to have good break on his slider. As long as he's tough to hit, he can get away with some walks.
Yesterday’s Results
American League TOR 11 BAL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 5 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 4 OAK 1 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 5 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 6 MIN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 11 KC 6 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 7 TEX 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 4 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 6 WAS 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 4 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 9 CIN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 6 MIL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 11 PIT 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 6 COL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 8 SF 2 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants, 3:45 PM (R) Brandon Webb (3-0) vs. (L) Barry Zito (0-3) Houston Astros at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Roy Oswalt (0-3) vs. (R) Kyle Kendrick (1-1) Washington Nationals at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (L) Matt Chico (0-2) vs. (R) John Maine (0-1) Atlanta Braves at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Tim Hudson (2-0) vs. (L) Mark Hendrickson (2-1) Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (R) Josh Fogg (1-1) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (1-1) Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Carlos Villanueva (1-1) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (1-1) Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Mark Redman (1-1) vs. (R) Justin Germano (0-0) Pittsburgh Pirates at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Paul Maholm (0-1) vs. (R) Brad Penny (1-2) American League --------------- Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Clay Buchholz (0-1) vs. (R) Chien-Ming Wang (3-0) Chicago White Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Jose Contreras (0-1) vs. (L) Adam Loewen (0-0) Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Armando Galarraga (0-0) vs. (L) C.C. Sabathia (0-2) Texas Rangers at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (L) Kason Gabbard (1-0) vs. (R) Jesse Litsch (2-0) Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) James Shields (1-1) vs. (R) Livan Hernandez (3-0) Kansas City Royals at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Gil Meche (0-2) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (1-2) Seattle Mariners at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (1-0) vs. (R) Joe Blanton (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 9 6 .600 0.0 8 1BAL 8 6 .571 0.5 6 2
TOR 8 6 .571 0.5 9 -1
NYA 8 7 .533 1.0 7 1
TB 6 8 .429 2.5 8 -2
American League Central CHA 8 5 .615 0.0 9 -1
KC 8 6 .571 0.5 8 0
MIN 6 8 .429 2.5 7 -1
CLE 5 9 .357 3.5 6 -1
DET 4 10 .286 4.5 3 1
American League West LAA 9 6 .600 0.0 8 1
OAK 9 6 .600 0.0 8 1
SEA 7 8 .467 2.0 8 -1
TEX 5 9 .357 3.5 6 -1
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 8 5 .615 0.0 6 2
NYN 6 6 .500 1.5 8 -2
PHI 7 7 .500 1.5 7 0
ATL 5 8 .385 3.0 8 -3
WAS 4 10 .286 4.5 4 0
National League Central STL 10 4 .714 0.0 9 1
CHN 8 5 .615 1.5 7 1
MIL 8 5 .615 1.5 7 1
PIT 7 7 .500 3.0 6 1
CIN 6 8 .429 4.0 7 -1
HOU 5 9 .357 5.0 7 -2
National League West ARI 10 4 .714 0.0 10 0
SD 8 6 .571 2.0 7 1
LAN 6 8 .429 4.0 8 -2
SF 6 9 .400 4.5 4 2
COL 5 8 .385 4.5 4 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.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes TOR AAA Adam Lind......... 5 3 0 0 1 0 1 SEA AAA W. Balentien...... 4 2 1 0 1 2 1 CLE AA Ryan Goleski...... 4 2 1 0 0 1 1 SEA AAA Bryan LaHair...... 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 3 R COL AA Dexter Fowler..... 2 1 1 0 0 3 0 3 R PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 TOR A+ Travis Snider..... 5 1 0 0 1 0 3 MIN A C. Parmelee....... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 7 RBI ! CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 5 2 0 0 1 0 0 TEX AAA Ryan Roberts...... 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes TB A+ J. Hellickson..... 7 3 0 0 13 0 0 KC AAA Luke Hochevar..... 6 4 0 0 5 2 0 13 GB STL AA Jaime Garcia...... 6 3 1 1 8 1 0 12 GB LA AA Clayton Kershaw... 6 4 1 1 6 2 0 FLA AA Ryan Tucker....... 6 3 0 0 5 2 0 ARI AAA Juan Gutierrez.... 6 4 1 1 5 2 0 PHI AA Joshua Outman..... 6 4 0 0 6 2 0 CHW AA Kyle McCulloch.... 6 2 0 0 6 4 0 WAN A+ Jhonny Nunez...... 5 4 1 1 5 1 0 4 infield flies ARI AA Anthony Barnette.. 6 3 1 1 4 1 0 PIT A Michael Felix..... 3 3 3 1 7 0 1 TB AA Wade Davis........ 5 5 2 1 3 1 0 9 GB
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.