THT Daily: Last to First
by Dave StudemanJune 10, 2009
Major League News for June 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 RotoworldPirates recalled RHP Charlie Morton from Triple-A Indianapolis.
Morton, acquired in the Nate McLouth trade, will start on Wednesday against the Braves. He should be around for the long haul. The Pirates pushed Jeff Karstens into a long relief role to accommodate Morton's inclusion in the rotation. Morton was 7-2 with a 2.26 ERA and 62 Ks in 71 2/3 innings over 11 starts at Triple-A this season. He's worth a flier in NL-only leagues.
Denard Span will fly to Minneapolis on Wednesday to meet with doctors after experiencing further dizziness during Twins' games.
Span suffered the same symptoms last month, but the condition subsided. The side effects reemerged in recent days. Span was pulled in the third inning of Tuesday's game against the A's after he "didn't even see the ball" in a second-inning strikeout. "I've never felt this way playing baseball," Span said. "It's kind of scary."
Angels optioned RHP Jose Arredondo to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Arredondo was 10-2 with a 1.62 ERA in 52 appearances as a rookie. He regressed to 1-3 with a 5.55 ERA in 25 appearances this year. "Jose needs to work some things out," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We saw what his upside was last year, how important he was, and how we were relying on his continued progression this year. He's obviously taken a small step backwards right here in the first two months. It doesn't seem like he's moving in the right direction with his stuff and his command. He needs to work it out."
Pablo Sandoval was 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBI in a win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.
The Giants cranked out 17 hits for the 9-4 victory. Sandoval was a big part of it, with an RBI single in the third inning and a two-run homer off Billy Buckner in the fifth. It was his second four-hit game against Arizona this season -- he went 4-for-4 against them on April 26. After a slow start out of the fantasy-gates, Sandoval has matched the preseason hype with a .318/.356/.497 line to go along with five homers and 26 RBI.
Ted Lilly blanked the Astros over 6 2/3 innings, allowing just three hits on the way to his seventh win on Tuesday night.
Lilly faced just two batters over the minimum over the first five innings. He ended up walking two and fanning four to improve to 7-4. Lilly has allowed just two runs over his last three starts combined to bring his ERA down to 3.00. With a 63/20 K/BB ratio and 1.05 WHIP over 78 innings this season, Lilly has been the Cubs' best starter.
Josh Willingham is expected to return to the starting lineup and move to right field Wednesday against the Reds.
Willingham had been playing in left field, but the Nationals want to keep Adam Dunn there. Instead, Willingham and Austin Kearns will split time in right field until one of them gets hot and runs away with the job. Kearns is hitting just .193 with one extra-base hit and no RBI since returning from a hand injury 21 games ago.
Jered Weaver improved to 6-2 on the season, allowing two runs over six innings in a 4-3 win over the Rays on Tuesday night.
He continues to shine this season, allowing two runs or less for the sixth time in his last seven starts. Tonight he limited the Rays to just five hits, walking four and striking out six. Weaver has an excellent 2.31 ERA and 1.04 WHIP through 12 starts this season. With the other Angels' starters sidelined, Weaver has emerged as a fantasy stud.
Jesse Litsch is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow on Friday.
Litsch had been rehabbing in Florida since mid April after two previous MRI exams revealed no ligament damage. He was never able to get over the hump, however, and was continuing to suffer from intermittent soreness. Dr. James Andrews, who twice ruled out surgery while recommending rest, will perform the operation.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BAL 3 SEA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 7 NYA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 4 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 8 KC 4 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 10 OAK 5 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 9 TEX 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 4 PIT 3 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 4 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 6 PHI 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 3 WAS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 7 HOU 1 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 3 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 9 ARI 4 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 6 SD 4 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Cincinnati Reds at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Aaron Harang (5-6) vs. (R) Shairon Martis (5-1) St. Louis Cardinals at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Adam Wainwright (5-4) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (4-5) Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (L) Cole Hamels (4-2) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (4-2) Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (R) Charlie Morton (0-0) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (5-3) Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Carlos Zambrano (4-2) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (5-5) Colorado Rockies at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (L) Jorge De La Rosa (1-6) vs. (R) Dave Bush (3-2) San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (L) Barry Zito (2-6) vs. (L) Doug Davis (3-6) San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Kevin Correia (2-4) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (3-4) American League --------------- Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Gil Meche (2-5) vs. (R) Carl Pavano (6-4) Seattle Mariners at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (5-3) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (4-5) LA Angels of Anaheim at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM (R) John Lackey (1-1) vs. (R) Jeff Niemann (5-4) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) Chien-Ming Wang (0-3) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (7-3) Toronto Blue Jays at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (L) Ricky Romero (3-2) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (5-4) Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Justin Verlander (6-2) vs. (L) John Danks (4-4) Minnesota Twins at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (L) Francisco Liriano (2-7) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (5-5)
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 34 24 .586 0.0 34 0NYA 34 24 .586 0.0 31 3
TOR 34 27 .557 1.5 35 -1
TB 29 31 .483 6.0 34 -5
BAL 25 33 .431 9.0 23 2
American League Central DET 31 26 .544 0.0 32 -1
MIN 29 31 .483 3.5 31 -2
CHA 27 31 .466 4.5 27 0
CLE 26 34 .433 6.5 30 -4
KC 24 33 .421 7.0 24 0
American League West TEX 33 25 .569 0.0 31 2
LAA 29 27 .518 3.0 27 2
SEA 28 30 .483 5.0 26 2
OAK 26 31 .456 6.5 26 0
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 33 23 .589 0.0 32 1
NYN 31 25 .554 2.0 30 1
ATL 29 28 .509 4.5 28 1
FLA 29 31 .483 6.0 28 1
WAS 15 41 .268 18.0 22 -7
National League Central MIL 33 25 .569 0.0 31 2
CHN 29 26 .527 2.5 29 0
CIN 30 27 .526 2.5 29 1
STL 31 28 .525 2.5 30 1
PIT 26 32 .448 7.0 29 -3
HOU 25 31 .446 7.0 25 0
National League West LAN 40 20 .667 0.0 39 1
SF 30 27 .526 8.5 29 1
SD 27 31 .466 12.0 24 3
COL 26 32 .448 13.0 30 -4
ARI 25 34 .424 14.5 26 -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 PIT AAA Steven Pearce..... 5 3 1 0 2 0 0 4 RBI BOS A Tim Federowicz.... 5 3 1 0 1 1 0 3 R BOS A Anthony Rizzo..... 5 3 0 0 1 1 1 DET AAA Wilkin Ramirez.... 3 1 0 0 1 3 1 TOR A T. Pastornicky.... 3 2 0 1 0 1 0 CIN AA Juan Francisco.... 6 4 1 0 0 0 0 DET AA Scott Sizemore.... 5 2 1 1 0 0 1 TOR A Yohermyn Chavez... 4 2 1 0 0 1 0 MIN A+ Ben Revere........ 3 1 1 0 0 1 0 CIN A+ Devin Mesoraco.... 3 1 0 0 1 1 1 CLE A+ Tim Fedroff....... 4 1 0 0 1 1 1 MIL AA Jonathan Lucroy... 3 2 1 0 0 1 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes MIL A+ Jeremy Jeffress... 7 2 3 0 8 3 0 DET AA Alfredo Figaro.... 7 5 2 2 8 0 1 LA AA Scott Elbert...... 7 11 3 3 9 0 0 NYY A Hector Noesi...... 8 6 2 2 7 2 0 LAA A+ Alexander Torres.. 7 4 1 1 5 1 0 12 GB MIL A+ Evan Anundsen..... 7 4 2 2 6 3 0 MIL A Wily Peralta...... 3 4 0 0 6 0 0 CHC AAA Jeff Samardzija... 6 5 2 1 3 0 0 6 infield flies CLE A Alexander Perez... 6 2 3 2 3 2 0 NYY AAA Mark Melancon..... 3 3 2 2 4 0 0 SD A Simon Castro...... 6 3 3 2 3 0 1 LA A Nathan Eovaldi.... 5 3 0 0 3 1 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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