The Hardball Times

THT Daily: What can they do?

by Dave Studeman
May 20, 2009

Major League News for May 20


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
The Nationals will place Elijah Dukes on the 15-day disabled list because of the strained hamstring he aggravated Sunday.
Justin Maxwell is being called up, but the Nats will probably use Willie Harris in center field most days. That will give him some value in NL-only leagues.

The MRI on Carlos Silva's right shoulder revealed an internal impingement and fraying of the labrum and rotator cuff.
Silva will be sent out for a second opinion, with a more in-depth analysis coming later in the week. Considering the MRI results, he could be done for the season. Silva has two years remaining on a four-year, $48 million contract.

Todd Helton earned his 2,000 career hit in a loss to the Braves on Tuesday night.
He did so with a third inning single. Helton is the 255th player to reach the plateau. He's the fourth active player to reach the mark with the same team, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones and Garrett Anderson being the others.

Dontrelle Willis dominated the Rangers on Tuesday, allowing just one hit over 6 1/3 shutout innings for his first win since September 25, 2007.
An impressive performance against a good lineup. He looked like the same old animated, charismatic pitcher, at least for tonight. After a Michael Young double and a walk to Andruw Jones with two out in the first, Willis retired the next 16 batters he faced. He left after 101 pitches and his second walk of the night. Wills struck out six in the win. He still has a long way back, but one has to feel good for the guy.

David Ortiz was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in a win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
It was his first game since last Thursday against the Angels and the rest didn't seem to help. He's now hitless in his last 13 at-bats and the drought deepens -- he's 133 at-bats without a homer this season.

Kevin Youkilis went 0-for-2 with a walk Monday in his first rehab game with Triple-A Pawtucket.
Youk has been sidelined since May 5 and is expected to make one more appearance at Pawtucket before being activated. He'll return to a .393 batting average, 11 doubles, six homers and 12 RBI.

Noah Lowry is scheduled to undergo surgery this week to have a rib removed from his left side.
Lowry is not expected to pitch again this season. He struggled mightily while trying to rehab a shoulder injury and eventually incurred the rib issue. Lowry has a $6.25 million option for 2010 that probably won't get picked up.

Eric Chavez has a herniated disc that could easily end his career.
Any wrong movement could cause his back to give out for the last time. "Pretty much game, set and match," the A's third baseman told The San Francisco Chronicle. He's hoping to return to the baseball diamond in a few weeks, but the A's are aware of the severity of the injury. "This last (diagnosis) is a little bit of a punch in the gut for everyone," A's general manager Billy Beane said, "Especially for Eric, because he's worked so hard and dealt with so many issues."


Yesterday’s Results

For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.
American League
BOS     2  TOR     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     9  BAL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     4  TB      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     6  MIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     4  TEX     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      6  CLE     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     6  SEA     5    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     8  COL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     5  FLA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     8  WAS     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     4  CIN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     4  HOU     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     3  CHN     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     5  NYN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      2  SF      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.



Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Florida Marlins, 5:10 PM
  (L) Doug Davis (2-5) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (2-3)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM
  (L) Paul Maholm (3-1) vs. (L) John Lannan (2-3)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (L) Jamie Moyer (3-3) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (3-4)
 Colorado Rockies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM
  (L) Jorge De La Rosa (0-3) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (3-3)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Yovani Gallardo (4-1) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (4-2)
 Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (R) Ryan Dempster (3-2) vs. (R) Chris Carpenter (1-0)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Florida Marlins, 8:40 PM
  (R) Bryan Augenstein (0-1) vs. (R) Hayden Penn (1-0)
 San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM
  (L) Jonathan Sanchez (1-3) vs. (R) Chad Gaudin (0-3)
 New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (R) Livan Hernandez (3-1) vs. (R) Jeff Weaver (2-1)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Texas Rangers at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM
  (L) Matt Harrison (4-2) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (3-2)
 Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (R) Jeremy Guthrie (3-3) vs. (R) Phil Hughes (1-2)
 Oakland Athletics at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM
  (L) Brett Anderson (0-4) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (4-3)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM
  (L) Brett Cecil (2-0) vs. (R) Brad Penny (3-1)
 Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (R) Fausto Carmona (2-4) vs. (R) Gil Meche (2-4)
 Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM
  (L) Francisco Liriano (2-4) vs. (L) John Danks (2-3)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM
  (R) Ervin Santana (0-0) vs. (R) Chris Jakubauskas (2-4)


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     27  15 .643    0.0   27     0    sparkline graph
BOS     23  16 .590    2.5   21     2    sparkline graph
NYA     22  17 .564    3.5   19     3    sparkline graph
TB      20  21 .488    6.5   23    -3    sparkline graph
BAL     16  23 .410    9.5   16     0    sparkline graph
American League Central     
DET     21  16 .568    0.0   22    -1    sparkline graph
KC      21  18 .538    1.0   22    -1    sparkline graph
MIN     18  22 .450    4.5   18     0    sparkline graph
CHA     16  22 .421    5.5   16     0    sparkline graph
CLE     14  26 .350    8.5   18    -4    sparkline graph
American League West        
TEX     23  15 .605    0.0   21     2    sparkline graph
LAA     20  18 .526    3.0   19     1    sparkline graph
SEA     18  22 .450    6.0   17     1    sparkline graph
OAK     14  22 .389    8.0   15    -1    sparkline graph


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     21  16 .568    0.0   20     1    sparkline graph
NYN     21  18 .538    1.0   22    -1    sparkline graph
ATL     19  19 .500    2.5   18     1    sparkline graph
FLA     18  21 .462    4.0   17     1    sparkline graph
WAS     11  27 .289   10.5   15    -4    sparkline graph
National League Central     
MIL     25  14 .641    0.0   23     2    sparkline graph
CHN     21  16 .568    3.0   20     1    sparkline graph
STL     22  17 .564    3.0   21     1    sparkline graph
CIN     20  18 .526    4.5   20     0    sparkline graph
PIT     18  21 .462    7.0   21    -3    sparkline graph
HOU     17  20 .459    7.0   17     0    sparkline graph
National League West        
LAN     28  13 .683    0.0   28     0    sparkline graph
SF      19  19 .500    7.5   17     2    sparkline graph
SD      17  22 .436   10.0   15     2    sparkline graph
ARI     15  23 .395   11.5   16    -1    sparkline graph
COL     15  23 .395   11.5   19    -4    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
SEA A+  Alex Liddi........ 4  3  0  0  1  1  0  5 R
NYM AAA F. Martinez....... 4  2  0  0  2  0  0  
SF  AAA Jesus Guzman...... 5  2  2  0  0  2  0  
CHC A   Josh Vitters...... 5  3  0  0  1  0  0  
CHC A   Ryan Flaherty..... 5  2  1  0  1  0  1  
WAN A+  C. Marrero........ 4  3  0  0  1  0  1  4 RBI
MIN AA  Daniel Valencia... 6  2  1  0  1  0  1  4 RBI
SF  A+  Buster Posey...... 3  2  2  0  0  0  0  
LAA A+  Matthew Sweeney... 4  3  1  0  0  1  0  
TB  AAA Matthew Joyce..... 4  3  1  0  0  1  0  
LA  A   D. Strange-Gordo.. 4  2  1  0  0  0  1  
ATL A+  Cody Johnson...... 4  2  0  0  1  0  2  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
SEA A   Brett Lorin....... 7  4  2  2  8  1  0  
CHC AA  Jay Jackson....... 6  7  0  0  8  2  0  
SD  A   Simon Castro...... 5  1  0  0  4  0  0  
OAK AAA Chad Reineke...... 5  3  0  0  5  0  0  
BAL AA  Troy Patton....... 5  5  0  0  5  0  0  
CHC AAA Jeff Samardzija... 5  4  1  1  6  2  0  
MIL A   Wily Peralta...... 3  2  0  0  7  2  0  
TOR A+  Tim Collins....... 2  1  0  0  6  1  0  
CLE A+  Eric Berger....... 6  3  0  0  5  3  0  
OAK A   Brett Hunter...... 5  6  2  2  6  2  0  
HOU AAA Bud Norris........ 5  5  2  2  5  2  0  
TEX A   Wilmer Font....... 5  5  1  1  6  3  0


First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:


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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