The Hardball Times

THT Daily: Blanking the Nats

by Matthew Carruth
August 10, 2008

Major League News for August 10

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
Orlando Hudson could miss the rest of the year with a dislocated left wrist suffered Saturday against the Braves.
It'd be a major blow to Arizona's hopes. "(It's) not great, dislocation, fracture of a bone in his wrist, and we're not 100 percent sure whether he has to have surgery," manager Bob Melvin said. "Probably a pretty good chance, but we will know in the morning. If he has the surgery, he's out for the rest of the year, and if he doesn't, there's still a chance he could be out for the rest of the year." The Diamondbacks figure to make Augie Ojeda their primary second baseman, with Chris Burke backing him up. They could also attempt to trade for someone who has cleared waivers. Brian Roberts and Mark Ellis probably wouldn't, but lesser options like Tadahito Iguchi, Ronnie Belliard and Mark Loretta could be available.

Carlos Lee was diagnosed with a broken left pinkie finger after being hit by a pitch on Saturday.
He's expected to undergo surgery and miss 6-8 weeks. Unless the Astros somehow manage to come back in the NL Central without him, it seems unlikely that he'll play again in September. The Astros will probably make Darin Erstad their primary left fielder, with Michael Bourn playing regularly in center. Their entire offense takes quite a hit with the news, with Lance Berkman and Miguel Tejada likely to lose value. Hunter Pence may fare better since he'll get to move up in the order.

Ben Sheets tossed a five-hitter for his third career shutout Saturday against the Nationals.
Sheets walked none and struck out six in his fourth complete game of the year. He's up to 11 victories, leaving him just one shy of his career high, and he's moved back into the top 10 in the NL with a 2.95 ERA.

Jose Conteras suffered a ruptured Achilles' tendon during Saturday's game and will miss the rest of the season.
We were worried about that. Contreras could miss the start of next season with what is typically a 9-12 month injury. The White Sox figure to begin looking for a veteran starter to replace Contreras. Clayton Richard was a bust, and neither Jack Egbert nor Lance Broadway have pitched very well in Triple-A.

A "close friend" of Manny Ramirez's told the New York Post that the free agent to be "wants to play for the Yankees so he can get at the Red Sox."
It'd make for a fun story, but we doubt the Red Sox would have a big problem with the Yankees giving a big three- or four-year deal to a one-dimensional slugger going into his age-37 season. If Brian Cashman is still calling the shots, there's a good chance the Bombers will pass anyway.



Yesterday’s Results
American League
BAL     9  TEX     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     4  TOR     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     6  CHA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET    10  OAK     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     7  KC      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA    11  NYA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      8  SEA     7    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
NYN     8  FLA     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     4  PIT     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL    12  CHN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     3  CIN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     6  WAS     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
ATL    11  ARI     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      8  COL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      3  LAN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)


Today’s Games
National League
 ---------------
 Florida Marlins at New York Mets, 1:10 PM
  (R) Josh Johnson (2-0) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (10-7)
 Houston Astros at Cincinnati Reds, 1:15 PM
  (L) Wandy Rodriguez (6-4) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (3-11)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Philadelphia Phillies, 1:35 PM
  (R) Jason Davis (1-1) vs. (L) Jamie Moyer (10-7)
 Washington Nationals at Milwaukee Brewers, 2:05 PM
  (L) John Lannan (6-11) vs. (L) Manny Parra (9-5)
 San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM
  (R) Chris Young (4-4) vs. (R) Livan Hernandez (0-0)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM
  (R) Chad Billingsley (11-9) vs. (R) Matt Cain (7-9)
 Atlanta Braves at Arizona Diamondbacks, 4:10 PM
  (L) Mike Hampton (1-0) vs. (R) Brandon Webb (16-4)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM
  (R) Chris Carpenter (0-0) vs. (R) Ryan Dempster (12-5)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Oakland Athletics at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM
  (L) Greg Smith (5-10) vs. (L) Nate Robertson (6-8)
 Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (L) Cliff Lee (15-2) vs. (R) Scott Richmond (0-1)
 Texas Rangers at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM
  (L) Matt Harrison (3-2) vs. (L) Chris Waters (1-0)
 Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (R) Clay Buchholz (2-7) vs. (R) Gavin Floyd (11-6)
 Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM
  (R) Scott Baker (7-3) vs. (R) Gil Meche (10-9)
 New York Yankees at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM
  (L) Andy Pettitte (12-9) vs. (L) Joe Saunders (14-5)
 Tampa Bay Rays at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM
  (R) Edwin Jackson (8-7) vs. (R) R.A. Dickey (3-6)


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
TB      70  46 .603    0.0   64     6    sparkline graph
BOS     67  50 .573    3.5   70    -3    sparkline graph
NYA     63  54 .538    7.5   63     0    sparkline graph
TOR     59  58 .504   11.5   62    -3    sparkline graph
BAL     56  59 .487   13.5   58    -2    sparkline graph
American League Central     
MIN     65  51 .560    0.0   62     3    sparkline graph
CHA     64  51 .557    0.5   64     0    sparkline graph
DET     57  59 .491    8.0   60    -3    sparkline graph
KC      53  64 .453   12.5   50     3    sparkline graph
CLE     51  64 .443   13.5   58    -7    sparkline graph
American League West        
LAA     73  43 .629    0.0   64     9    sparkline graph
TEX     60  58 .508   14.0   55     5    sparkline graph
OAK     54  62 .466   19.0   59    -5    sparkline graph
SEA     45  72 .385   28.5   51    -6    sparkline graph


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     63  53 .543    0.0   65    -2    sparkline graph
NYN     62  54 .534    1.0   62     0    sparkline graph
FLA     61  56 .521    2.5   56     5    sparkline graph
ATL     55  62 .470    8.5   62    -7    sparkline graph
WAS     44  73 .376   19.5   45    -1    sparkline graph
National League Central     
CHN     70  47 .598    0.0   72    -2    sparkline graph
MIL     66  51 .564    4.0   62     4    sparkline graph
STL     65  54 .546    6.0   63     2    sparkline graph
HOU     57  59 .491   12.5   53     4    sparkline graph
PIT     53  63 .457   16.5   51     2    sparkline graph
CIN     52  66 .441   18.5   50     2    sparkline graph
National League West        
ARI     59  58 .504    0.0   60    -1    sparkline graph
LAN     58  58 .500    0.5   61    -3    sparkline graph
COL     53  66 .445    7.0   53     0    sparkline graph
SF      49  66 .426    9.0   47     2    sparkline graph
SD      45  72 .385   14.0   47    -2    sparkline graph


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
CHC AAA Micah Hoffpauir... 5  4  0  0  4  0  0  4 R
SF  AAA Travis Ishikawa... 6  5  2  0  2  0  0  5 RBI !
FLA AA  C. Coghlan........ 3  3  0  1  1  1  0  
STL A+  Tyler Henley...... 4  3  1  0  1  1  0  
ATL A+  Tyler Flowers..... 4  3  2  0  1  0  0  
MIL AA  Lorenzo Cain...... 3  3  0  0  1  1  0  2 SB
PIT AA  Shelby Ford....... 5  3  0  1  1  0  1  
CHC AAA Felix Pie......... 6  4  0  0  1  0  0  3 LD
LAA AA  Mark Trumbo....... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  
BOS AA  Lars Anderson..... 3  2  2  0  0  1  1  4 RBI
KC  A   Mike Moustakas.... 5  3  2  0  0  0  1  
PHI A   Dominic Brown..... 4  3  0  0  1  1  1  3 R

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
CLE AAA Aaron Laffey...... 8  4  0  0  9  1  0  14 GB
SF  A   M. Bumgarner...... 8  6  0  0  8  0  0  
COL A   Bruce Billings.... 6  6  1  1 11  2  0  
CLE AA  Scott Lewis....... 8  4  1  0  5  0  0  
SD  AA  Steve Garrison.... 7  2  1  1  5  1  0  
SEA A   Michael Pineda.... 6  2  0  0  5  0  0  
BAL AA  C. Tillman........ 6  5  3  3 10  2  1  
TEX A+  Omar Poveda....... 6  2  1  0  6  2  0  
FLA AAA E. De La Cruz..... 7  6  2  1  6  1  0  
ATL A+  Ryne Reynoso ..... 5  2  3  2  6  2  0  
NYM AAA Jonathon Niese.... 6  5  2  2  5  1  0  
NYY A   Lance Pendleton... 5  6  2  2  8  1  1


Access all of THT’s stats here…
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.

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