THT Daily: No time
by Matthew CarruthJuly 07, 2007
Major League news for July 7
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
Stats
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Player News
Player news items are provided by RotoworldHanley Ramirez homered twice and had a go-ahead bunt single in the bottom of the 10th to lead the Marlins to a 6-5 win over the Dodgers on Friday.
The bunt came with two outs in the top of the 10th. Tony Abreu was positioned way too deep at third base, and Ramirez was smart enough to take advantage. The bunt ended up being extremely well placed, but even an average one likely would have gone for a hit with his speed. Ramirez is a little off last year's pace in doubles and triples, but he's up to 14 homers after hitting 17 as a rookie. He's one of the NL's best offensive players, and while his defense has been a problem, it's a crime that he's not going to the All-Star Game.
Brian Fuentes will skip the All-Star Game because of a pulled muscle in his left side.
Fuentes, who was named to the All-Star team despite blowing his last four save chances and getting pulled from the closer's role, pitched a scoreless inning Tuesday in his last appearance. Ideally, the NL will name a deserving starter to the All-Star Game instead of replacing him with yet another reliever. Still, if Tony La Russa had his way, Jason Isringhausen would likely get the nod.
Justin Morneau drilled three home runs and knocked in six runs as the Twins destroyed the White Sox 12-0 in the second game of Friday's doubleheader.
The Twins scored 32 runs in the two games and probably guaranteed that their division rivals will make some changes during the break. Morneau also had three hits and three RBI in the first game. He had a chance at a fourth homer in the nightcap, but he hit a routine fly to center off Matt Thornton in the eighth. Morneau joined Bob Allison, Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva as the only Twins to hit three homers in a game. He's also the fourth player this year to accomplish the feat. Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano and Brad Wilkerson were the others.
Alex Rodriguez hit the 493rd homer of his career on Friday when he took Angels reliever Chris Bootcheck deep for a two-run shot in the sixth inning of the Yankees' 14-9 win.
The blast tied A-Rod with Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff for 22nd on the all-time list. The two runs also gave the Yankees a 12-9 lead with the game very much in doubt, so it was a clutch line drive that got out of the park in a hurry. Rodriguez also doubled, singled and walked in the game to score three times.
Braves placed RHP John Smoltz on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to July 3, with an inflamed right shoulder.
An examination showed no structural damage, but the Braves still opted to place him on the DL, disrupting Smoltz's plans to pitch July 17. Now he won't be eligible to return until July 18 in the Braves' sixth game back from the break. Perhaps the Braves will go with Tim Hudson on three days' rest on July 17.
Alex Rodriguez was back at third base for Friday's game after resting his strained hamstring on Thursday.
His status for next week's All-Star Game remains up in the air, but it looks like he'll play this weekend.
Diamondbacks optioned outfielder Carlos Quentin to Triple-A Tucson.
This probably should have been done a couple of months ago. Quentin is going to be a fine long-term regular, but it wasn't happening now, perhaps because of the shoulder he injured in spring training. He was hitting just .210/.299/.350 with five homers and 28 RBI in 200 at-bats. The Diamondbacks will likely begin giving Scott Hairston most of the starts in left field, with Eric Byrnes shifting to right. They also have Jeff Salazar and Mark Reynolds to use in the outfield, and Jeff DaVanon could see considerable playing time after he comes off the DL next week.
Yesterday’s Results
American League NYA 14 LAA 9 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 8 CLE 6 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 20 CHA 14 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 12 CHA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 9 BOS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 6 KC 5 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 7 OAK 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 4 BAL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League MIL 6 WAS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 8 ARI 1 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 4 NYN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 8 CHN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 4 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 7 PHI 6 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 6 LAN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 7 SD 4 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Atlanta Braves at San Diego Padres, 3:55 PM (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (0-0) vs. (L) David Wells (4-5) Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (L) Ted Lilly (7-4) vs. (R) John VanBenschoten (0-2) New York Mets at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM (L) Tom Glavine (7-6) vs. (R) Woody Williams (4-10) Milwaukee Brewers at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (8-7) vs. (R) Jason Simontacchi (5-6) Arizona Diamondbacks at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Brandon Webb (8-6) vs. (R) Homer Bailey (2-2) San Francisco Giants at St. Louis Cardinals, 7:15 PM (R) Tim Lincecum (3-2) vs. (R) Braden Looper (6-6) Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies, 8:05 PM (L) Jamie Moyer (7-6) vs. (R) Rodrigo Lopez (4-2) Florida Marlins at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Sergio Mitre (2-4) vs. (R) Derek Lowe (8-7) American League --------------- Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (R) Fausto Carmona (9-4) vs. (R) Shaun Marcum (4-2) Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox, 3:55 PM (R) Boof Bonser (5-5) vs. (L) Mark Buehrle (5-4) LA Angels of Anaheim at New York Yankees, 3:55 PM (R) John Lackey (11-5) vs. (R) Roger Clemens (2-3) Seattle Mariners at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (4-4) vs. (R) Rich Harden (1-1) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (L) Kason Gabbard (2-0) vs. (R) Jeremy Bonderman (9-1) Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Kansas City Royals, 7:10 PM (R) Andrew Sonnanstine (1-3) vs. (R) Gil Meche (5-6) Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers, 8:35 PM (L) Erik Bedard (6-4) vs. (R) Brandon McCarthy (4-5)
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 50 31 .617 0.0 52 -2TOR 40 42 .488 10.5 44 -4
NYA 38 41 .481 11.0 48 -10
BAL 36 45 .444 14.0 42 -6
TB 33 48 .407 17.0 33 0
American League Central CLE 50 32 .610 0.0 49 1
DET 47 33 .588 2.0 50 -3
MIN 42 39 .519 7.5 48 -6
CHA 35 44 .443 13.5 37 -2
KC 35 48 .422 15.5 38 -3
American League West LAA 51 31 .622 0.0 50 1
SEA 45 34 .570 4.5 42 3
OAK 42 40 .512 9.0 46 -4
TEX 34 48 .415 17.0 39 -5
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 46 35 .568 0.0 47 -1
ATL 43 40 .518 4.0 44 -1
PHI 42 41 .506 5.0 42 0
FLA 38 45 .458 9.0 40 -2
WAS 33 49 .402 13.5 31 2
National League Central MIL 48 34 .585 0.0 48 0
CHN 41 40 .506 6.5 45 -4
STL 37 42 .468 9.5 34 3
HOU 36 47 .434 12.5 39 -3
PIT 35 47 .427 13.0 36 -1
CIN 31 51 .378 17.0 39 -8
National League West SD 47 34 .580 0.0 51 -4
LAN 47 36 .566 1.0 48 -1
ARI 46 38 .548 2.5 41 5
COL 40 43 .482 8.0 42 -2
SF 35 45 .438 11.5 43 -8
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 STL AA Colby Rasmus...... 5 4 1 0 1 0 0 5 RBI ! BOS AAA Jacoby Ellsbury... 3 2 1 0 0 1 0 2 SB TB AA Reid Brignac...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 SF A+ Adam Witter....... 5 4 1 0 2 0 0 6 RBI ! OAK AAA Daric Barton...... 4 2 1 1 0 0 0 ARI AAA Chris Carter...... 5 3 1 0 1 0 1 LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 LD TB AA Evan Longoria..... 3 1 0 0 1 1 1 TOR A Travis Snider..... 5 2 0 0 1 0 1 BOS AAA Jacoby Ellsbury... 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 LA AA Chin Lung Hu...... 6 3 1 0 1 0 0 6 RBI ! SD A Cedric Hunter..... 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes HOU AAA Troy Patton....... 7 4 1 1 2 0 0 FLA A+ C. Volstad........ 7 5 3 3 8 3 0 15 GB CIN AA Johnny Cueto...... 6 3 0 0 8 1 0 OAK A+ Andrew Bailey..... 6 5 2 2 10 2 0 SF AA Nick Pereira...... 6 4 0 0 9 3 0 TB A+ M. Wlodarczyk..... 7 5 0 0 5 0 0 12 GB CLE A+ Ryan Edell........ 7 5 2 2 6 1 0 STL AA Mitchell Boggs.... 6 2 1 0 6 2 0 SEA AA Andrew Baldwin.... 6 5 1 0 6 1 0 NYY AA Alan Horne........ 6 7 2 1 7 1 0 MIL A Jeremy Jeffress... 6 3 1 1 6 2 0 STL A+ Adam Ottavino..... 7 4 1 1 5 1 1
THT Stats
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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