THT Daily: A Slew of Injuries

Major League News for June 18

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
Phillies placed outfielder Raul Ibanez on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left groin.
Ibanez has apparently been bothered by his groin on and off since April. Of course, you wouldn’t know it by the way he’s hitting. He’ll undergo an MRI Thursday afternoon that should give us all a better picture of the injury’s severity. Ibanez, 37, is batting .312/.371/.656 this season with 22 home runs and 59 RBI in 250 at-bats.

Blue Jays placed LHP Scott Downs on the 15-Day disabled list, retroactive to June 17, with a sprain of the big toe on his left foot.
It doesn’t sound like the type of injury that will go away quickly, so we’re not holding out hope that he’ll return in 15 days. The Jays haven’t officially named his replacement, but we’re betting Jason Frasor and his 1.90 ERA (0.76 WHIP) get the first crack. Manager Cito Gaston has already proven that he isn’t intimidated by B.J. Ryan’s price tag.

Blue Jays placed Roy Halladay on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 13, with a mild groin strain.
Halladay seems confident he’ll return the day he’s eligible, June 28. He left his start last Friday in the fourth inning because of a groin injury and it hadn’t improved enough Wednesday in a bullpen session. The 32-year-old is 10-1 this season with a 2.53 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 88/12 K/BB ratio.

Zach Greinke dropped to 8-3 on the season, giving up six runs — four of them earned — over 6 2/3 innings in a 12-5 loss to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday.
The great Greinke winless streak now stands at four, dating back to May 26. Greinke has given up 15 earned runs over his last four starts (5.46 ERA) after allowing just seven runs over his first 10 starts combined. He gave up eight hits in this one, including a home run, while walking two and striking out nine. His ERA moved from 1.72 to 1.96 in the loss. He’ll try to rebound against the Astros next.

Ivan Rodriguez caught his 2,227th career game to break Carlton Fisk’s record on Wednesday night.
A bad night for Pudge to make two errors behind the dish — it was the first time he had done it since August 26, 2004 and only the sixth time overall. Both throwing errors lead to runs. Rodriguez was 1-for-5 to bring his batting average to .246.

Matt Wieters hit his first major league home run and plated his first two RBI in a win over the Mets on Wednesday night.
Get used to it. Wieters hit a towering shot to the opposite field in the fourth inning that just kept going and going and going, eventually over the outstretched glove of fellow phenom Fernando Martinez. The two-run shot gave the Orioles a 3-1 lead. The rookie catcher is batting .240/.283/.380 in his first 50 at-bats.

Mariners placed LHP Erik Bedard on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 8, with left shoulder inflammation.
Bedard has an appointment with Dr. James Andrews next week. That’s never good. He’s 5-2 this season with a 2.47 ERA, but has been hobbled by this shoulder injury for over a week. We’ll have an update as soon as Andrews makes public his diagnosis.

Manny Ramirez is expected to begin a rehab assignment with Single-A Inland Empire around June 25.
Ramirez has been out on a 50-game suspension since May 7. He’s eligible to return on July 3. Manny has been participating in private workouts for the past few weeks, so he’s probably still in baseball shape.

Pedro Martinez told a group of reporters in the Dominican Wednesday that he’s close to signing with a club.
“There’s a good chance I’ll be signing soon, but there still isn’t anything firm,” Martinez said. “Chicago (Cubs) and Tampa Bay are the two teams that have shown the most interest and we are negotiating with them, although I’ve told my agent not to call me until it’s a done deal.” The Cubs sent a scout to watch Pedro, but it’s doubtful they’d seriously pursue a contract. Tampa makes a tad more sense.

Yesterday’s Results

For the full scoop regarding yesterday’s games, read “And That Happened” at Shysterball.

American League
BAL     6  NYN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     6  FLA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
WAS     3  NYA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     9  CLE     8    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI    12  KC      5    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     8  MIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     5  HOU     4    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
TOR     7  PHI     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     4  CHN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     4  ATL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     4  DET     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     5  TB      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     5  LAN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     4  SD      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     4  SF      3    (Recap and Boxscore)

Check out Fangraphs’ scoreboard to see all the games in action.

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds, 12:35 PM
  (R) Tommy Hanson (1-0) vs. (L) Matt Maloney (0-1)
 
 Inter-League
 ------------
 Washington Nationals at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (R) Craig Stammen (0-2) vs. (R) Joba Chamberlain (3-1)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Philadelphia Phillies, 1:05 PM
  (L) Brad Mills (0-0) vs. (R) Joe Blanton (4-3)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Minnesota Twins, 1:10 PM
  (L) Zach Duke (7-4) vs. (R) Nick Blackburn (5-2)
 Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (R) Gavin Floyd (4-5) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (4-2)
 Tampa Bay Rays at Colorado Rockies, 3:10 PM
  (R) Matt Garza (4-4) vs. (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (5-6)
 Seattle Mariners at San Diego Padres, 3:35 PM
  (R) Brandon Morrow (0-3) vs. (R) Josh Geer (1-2)
 New York Mets at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Livan Hernandez (5-1) vs. (R) Jason Berken (1-3)
 Florida Marlins at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM
  (R) Ricky Nolasco (2-6) vs. (L) Jon Lester (5-5)
 Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (R) Brandon Backe (0-0) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (5-3)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (R) Dan Haren (5-4) vs. (R) Luke Hochevar (2-2)
 Detroit Tigers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (R) Rick Porcello (7-4) vs. (R) Joel Pineiro (5-7)
 Oakland Athletics at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (R) Vin Mazzaro (2-1) vs. (L) Randy Wolf (3-2)

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     40  25 .615    0.0   39     1    
NYA     37  28 .569    3.0   36     1    
TOR     36  31 .537    5.0   37    -1    
TB      35  32 .522    6.0   40    -5    
BAL     28  37 .431   12.0   27     1    
American League Central     
DET     34  31 .523    0.0   34     0    
MIN     33  34 .493    2.0   35    -2    
CHA     31  34 .477    3.0   30     1    
KC      29  35 .453    4.5   29     0    
CLE     29  39 .426    6.5   33    -4    
American League West        
TEX     37  27 .578    0.0   34     3    
LAA     35  29 .547    2.0   33     2    
SEA     32  33 .492    5.5   30     2    
OAK     28  36 .438    9.0   28     0    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     36  27 .571    0.0   34     2    
NYN     33  30 .524    3.0   32     1    
FLA     32  35 .478    6.0   30     2    
ATL     30  34 .469    6.5   29     1    
WAS     17  46 .270   19.0   24    -7    
National League Central     
MIL     37  29 .561    0.0   35     2    
STL     36  30 .545    1.0   35     1    
CIN     33  31 .516    3.0   32     1    
CHN     30  31 .492    4.5   31    -1    
PIT     31  34 .477    5.5   33    -2    
HOU     29  34 .460    6.5   28     1    
National League West        
LAN     43  23 .652    0.0   41     2    
SF      34  31 .523    8.5   33     1    
COL     32  33 .492   10.5   34    -2    
SD      28  36 .438   14.0   24     4    
ARI     28  38 .424   15.0   29    -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
OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 6  5  0  0  2  0  0  3 R
OAK AAA Aaron Cunningham.. 5  3  0  0  2  1  1  3 R
MIN AAA Alexi Casilla..... 5  3  0  0  1  1  1  3 R
SD  A   Blake Tekotte..... 4  3  0  0  1  1  1  
CHC A   Junior Lake....... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  
CHW AA  Tyler Flowers..... 5  2  0  1  1  0  1  5 RBI !
DET AA  Ryan Strieby...... 4  2  2  0  0  1  1  
TB  AA  Desmond Jennings.. 4  2  1  0  0  1  0  2 SB
LAA AA  Hank Conger....... 5  2  1  0  1  0  0  
SD  A   Allan Dykstra..... 5  3  0  0  1  0  1  3 R
TOR A   Yohermyn Chavez... 4  2  0  0  1  1  2  6 RBI !
LA  A+  Pedro Baez........ 4  2  2  0  0  0  2  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
TB  A   Matthew Moore..... 7  1  1  1 10  2  0  
BAL AA  Brian Matusz...... 6  3  1  0 10  1  0  
ATL A   Randall Delgado... 6  3  2  0  7  0  0  
CIN AAA Homer Bailey...... 8  7  0  0  7  1  0  
CLE A   T.J. House........ 7  2  0  0  6  2  0  
ATL A+  Richard Sullivan.. 6  8  4  4 10  3  0  
SF  A+  Scott Barnes...... 6  2  1  1  9  3  1  
BOS A   Stolmy Pimentel... 5  3  1  1  6  2  0  
NYM AA  Jenrry Mejia...... 5  8  3  2  8  2  0  
SF  A   Eric Surkamp...... 6  4  2  2  5  2  0  
BAL AAA Jake Arrieta...... 5  7  5  5  7  2  0  9 GB
KC  A+  Daniel Duffy...... 6  9  5  3  6  0  1

First Inning’s Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

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