THT Daily: Kinsler goes ballistic
by Dave StudemanApril 16, 2009
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 RotoworldJed Lowrie will not require surgery on his ailing left wrist.
Lowrie got the OK from Dr. Thomas Graham on Wednesday in Baltimore. He received a cortisone injection and headed back to Boston. "It confirmed the original diagnosis, which is good, so they injected the area at both locations of the discomfort," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "He's going to be placed in a splint for about five days before he begins his strengthening."
According to the New York Daily News, Xavier Nady told several teammates that he is likely headed for Tommy John surgery.
Nady will visit a team physician Thursday before anything is made official. "I've been down this road before and I was hoping not to do it again," Nady said. "We'll see what he thinks tomorrow. Surgery wasn't fun years ago. I would prefer not to go down that road again, so hopefully tomorrow will be some decent news.
Chipper Jones is expected to miss two games with a thumb injury.
Jones was scratched from the Braves' starting lineup on Wednesday night and will probably have to sit out Thursday as well. Omar Infante will start in his place.
Tim Wakefield took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and stayed in to record his 31st career complete game as the Red Sox beat the A's 9-2 on Wednesday.
Boston badly needed this after the bullpen threw 11 innings last night. It was a 2-0 game until the eighth, when the Red Sox broke through for six runs against Jerry Blevins and Sean Gallagher. Unfortunately, Wakefield seemed to lose his best knuckler during the long wait. He gave up his first walk of the game to start the eighth (Mike Lowell had previously committed an error, so there was no perfect game) and then his first hit to Kurt Suzuki with one out. The A's scored once that inning and once more in the ninth. Wakefield ended up throwing 111 pitches in his first nine-inning complete game in exactly three years. He had a complete game last year, but it was a 1-0 loss on the road. In fact, each of his last three complete games had resulted in losses.
Red Sox placed RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka on the 15-day disabled list due to arm fatigue.
The Providence Journal reports that Matsuzaka will be examined on Friday in Boston, and hopefully two weeks off will help him recover from what appears to be fallout from his participation in the World Baseball Classic. Clay Buchholz is the top candidate to come up and replace him, though Hunter Jones will fill the roster spot for the next few days.
Joe Mauer (back) is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment next week.
Mauer was able to run without issue on Monday and Tuesday. He'll continue that running and all other baseball activities over the next few days before he begins playing Gulf Coast League games. His goal of returning to Minnesota by the end of April seems easily attainable at this point.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said Tuesday night that it looks like Chris Carpenter is "going to be out for a while" with a left rib cage strain.
Carpenter will head to St. Louis Thursday for further assessment by team doctors. It appears he's headed for the disabled list. The Cardinals may call up Mitchell Boggs or try to stretch out reliever Kyle McClellan to fill Carpenter's spot in the rotation. The club could also decide to call up P.J. Walters. Either way, this is a big blow to the Redbirds and fantasy teams alike.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League NYA 4 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 9 CHA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 5 KC 4 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 12 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 8 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 11 LAA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 19 BAL 6 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 10 ATL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 7 SD 2 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 5 CHN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 9 CIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 4 PIT 1 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 12 ARI 7 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 5 SF 4 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Florida Marlins at Atlanta Braves, 12:00 PM (R) Anibal Sanchez (0-0) vs. (R) Kenshin Kawakami (1-0) Houston Astros at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM (R) Russ Ortiz (0-0) vs. (R) Jeff Karstens (0-0) St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Adam Wainwright (1-0) vs. (L) Sean Marshall (0-0) Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Joe Blanton (0-0) vs. (R) Shairon Martis (0-0) San Diego Padres at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Jake Peavy (1-1) vs. (R) John Maine (0-0) San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Barry Zito (0-1) vs. (L) Eric Stults (1-0) American League --------------- Cleveland Indians at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (L) Cliff Lee (0-2) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (1-1) Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM (L) John Danks (0-0) vs. (R) Jeff Niemann (0-1) Toronto Blue Jays at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) Roy Halladay (2-0) vs. (L) Francisco Liriano (0-2) LA Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Joe Saunders (1-1) vs. (R) Chris Jakubauskas (1-0)
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 TOR 7 3 .700 0.0 7 0BAL 6 3 .667 0.5 4 2
NYA 5 4 .556 1.5 5 0
TB 4 5 .444 2.5 5 -1
BOS 3 6 .333 3.5 4 -1
American League Central DET 5 4 .556 0.0 6 -1
KC 5 4 .556 0.0 5 0
CHA 4 4 .500 0.5 4 0
MIN 4 6 .400 1.5 3 1
CLE 2 7 .222 3.0 3 -1
American League West SEA 7 2 .778 0.0 7 0
OAK 4 5 .444 3.0 4 0
TEX 4 5 .444 3.0 5 -1
LAA 3 5 .375 3.5 3 0
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 7 1 .875 0.0 6 1
ATL 5 3 .625 2.0 4 1
PHI 4 3 .571 2.5 3 1
NYN 4 4 .500 3.0 5 -1
WAS 0 7 .000 6.5 2 -2
National League Central STL 7 3 .700 0.0 7 0
CHN 5 3 .625 1.0 5 0
CIN 4 4 .500 2.0 3 1
PIT 4 4 .500 2.0 5 -1
MIL 3 6 .333 3.5 3 0
HOU 2 6 .250 4.0 2 0
National League West LAN 6 3 .667 0.0 7 -1
SD 6 3 .667 0.0 5 1
COL 4 4 .500 1.5 5 -1
ARI 3 6 .333 3.0 3 0
SF 2 6 .250 3.5 3 -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 SF A+ Buster Posey...... 3 3 1 0 1 2 0 3 R PHI AAA Jason Donald...... 3 2 1 1 0 2 0 3 R TB AA Desmond Jennings.. 2 1 0 1 0 2 0 3 SB KC AAA Kila Kaaihue...... 3 2 1 0 0 3 0 ATL AA Gorkys Hernandez.. 4 2 1 0 0 1 1 CHW AA Gordon Beckham.... 3 1 1 0 0 2 0 SD AAA Kyle Blanks....... 3 2 0 0 0 3 0 ATL AA Kala Kaaihue...... 4 1 0 0 1 1 0 NYM A+ Isaac Davis....... 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 SF A+ Brandon Crawford.. 3 1 0 0 0 2 1 2 SB CLE AA Carlos Santana.... 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 4 RBI CLE AA Beau Mills........ 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes PHI A+ Kyle Drabek....... 7 4 0 0 9 0 0 FLA AA Sean West......... 6 2 0 0 9 2 0 NYM A+ Bradley Holt...... 6 4 0 0 7 1 0 ATL AAA K. Medlen......... 5 1 0 0 6 1 0 TB A Matthew Moore..... 5 1 0 0 6 2 0 KC A+ Daniel Duffy...... 5 3 0 0 6 1 0 PHI A Jason Knapp....... 6 5 4 2 6 1 0 HOU A Jordan Lyles...... 4 3 1 1 8 2 0 CLE AA Hector Rondon..... 6 4 1 1 5 1 0 TEX A Wilfredo Boscan... 6 2 0 0 4 2 0 LA AA Scott Elbert...... 4 1 2 1 6 3 0 NYY AAA Ian Kennedy....... 6 5 1 1 5 2 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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