THT Daily: Deja Vu

by Matthew Carruth
May 15, 2009

Major League News for May 15

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
C.J. Wilson is likely to stand in as the Rangers’ closer this weekend.
Frank Francisco hasn’t pitched since April 29 because of biceps tendinitis and may not be available until Sunday, at the earliest. Wilson hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last six appearances and is a good bet to pick up a save if the opportunity presents itself.

According to the L.A. Times, no trace of HCG was found in Manny Ramirez’s urine, but a prescription for the drug is what led to his suspension.
HCG is typically taken by steroid users at the end of a cycle. As the Times reports, “MLB officials had begun the process of disciplining Ramirez for a positive drug test when they obtained his medical records that contained a prescription for HCG. At that point he was suspended for ‘just cause’ based on ‘non-analytical evidence’ and for which a ‘therapeutic use’ exemption was available but never requested.”

David Wright went 3-for-3 with two RBI and four stolen bases as the Mets defeated the Giants 7-4 on Thursday night.
Just after the Giants had scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at four, Wright delivered an RBI single to break the tie in the top of the ninth, then stole second and scored on a Ramon Castro single. Wright’s 4-for-4 night on steals was stunning, considering he was just 5-for-11 on previous attempts this year and stole only 15 bases all of last year.

The Marlins are now saying that Josh Johnson had some weakness in his right shoulder before coming out of Thursday’s game.
The official word during the game was that there was no injury, but the Marlins said afterwards that there was an area of some concern. “It just doesn’t feel great,” Johnson said. “I wanted to go back out there. It’s not tight. Almost weak. But then I came in here and did all the strength stuff, and they told me it’s not weak. I’ve heard stories of people leaving Colorado and feeling absolutely awful their next start.” Johnson threw eight innings at high-altitude Coors Field five days ago.

Matt Harrison notched a second straight complete-game victory after limiting the Mariners to two runs on Thursday.
It was going to be a tough-luck loss until Hank Blalock and Chris Davis homered to give the Rangers three runs and the victory in the bottom of the ninth. Harrison, who shut out the White Sox last week, allowed five hits, walked none and struck out seven today. His streak of 22 straight scoreless innings was snapped in the fourth, but he was outstanding otherwise. We’re still not optimistic about him from a fantasy standpoint.

Yesterday’s Results

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

American League
CLE    11  TB      7    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     3  TOR     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BAL     9  KC      5    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     6  DET     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     5  BOS     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     3  SEA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
LAN     5  PHI     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN    11  SD      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     5  FLA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     5  PIT     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     5  COL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     7  SF      4    (Recap and Boxscore)

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

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (R) Brian Moehler (0-2) vs. (R) Randy Wells (0-0)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM
  (R) Joe Blanton (1-3) vs. (L) John Lannan (2-3)
 Colorado Rockies at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM
  (L) Jorge De La Rosa (0-3) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (3-1)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM
  (L) Eric Stults (4-1) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (2-2)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM
  (L) Doug Davis (2-5) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (3-3)
 Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (R) Yovani Gallardo (4-1) vs. (R) Kyle Lohse (3-2)
 Cincinnati Reds at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM
  (R) Aaron Harang (3-3) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (0-2)
 New York Mets at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM
  (R) Livan Hernandez (3-1) vs. (R) Tim Lincecum (3-1)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (L) Francisco Liriano (2-4) vs. (R) Phil Hughes (1-2)
 Oakland Athletics at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM
  (L) Brett Anderson (0-3) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (2-2)
 Chicago White Sox at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM
  (L) John Danks (2-2) vs. (L) Brett Cecil (1-0)
 Cleveland Indians at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:38 PM
  (R) Anthony Reyes (1-1) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (4-3)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (L) Joe Saunders (5-1) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (3-3)
 Baltimore Orioles at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (R) Adam Eaton (2-3) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (6-1)
 Boston Red Sox at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM
  (L) Jon Lester (2-3) vs. (R) Chris Jakubauskas (1-4)

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     23  14 .622    0.0   23     0    
BOS     21  14 .600    1.0   19     2    
NYA     17  17 .500    4.5   15     2    
TB      16  20 .444    6.5   19    -3    
BAL     15  20 .429    7.0   15     0    
American League Central     
DET     17  16 .515    0.0   17     0    
KC      18  17 .514    0.0   18     0    
MIN     18  17 .514    0.0   16     2    
CHA     15  18 .455    2.0   14     1    
CLE     14  22 .389    4.5   16    -2    
American League West        
TEX     20  14 .588    0.0   19     1    
LAA     18  15 .545    1.5   17     1    
SEA     16  19 .457    4.5   15     1    
OAK     13  18 .419    5.5   16    -3    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     19  15 .559    0.0   19     0    
ATL     17  17 .500    2.0   17     0    
PHI     16  16 .500    2.0   16     0    
FLA     17  18 .486    2.5   16     1    
WAS     11  21 .344    7.0   14    -3    
National League Central     
STL     21  14 .600    0.0   20     1    
MIL     21  14 .600    0.0   20     1    
CHN     20  14 .588    0.5   18     2    
CIN     20  14 .588    0.5   18     2    
HOU     16  18 .471    4.5   16     0    
PIT     14  20 .412    6.5   17    -3    
National League West        
LAN     24  12 .667    0.0   24     0    
SF      18  16 .529    5.0   16     2    
COL     13  20 .394    9.5   17    -4    
ARI     13  22 .371   10.5   13     0    
SD      13  22 .371   10.5   12     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.

A Hardball Times Update

by RJ McDaniel

Goodbye for now.

ORG LVL PLAYER            AB  H 2B 3B HR BB SO  Notes
BOS A   Anthony Rizzo..... 4  2  0  0  2  1  0  4 R
CHC AAA Jake Fox.......... 6  4  1  0  1  0  0  3 R
ATL A+  Jason Heyward..... 2  1  0  0  1  3  1  
SF  A+  Roger Kieschnick.. 5  3  1  0  1  0  0  
BAL AAA Matt Wieters...... 5  2  0  0  2  0  1  3 R
PHI AAA John Mayberry..... 2  2  0  1  1  1  0  
WAN A+  C. Marrero........ 5  2  0  1  1  0  1  
NYM AA  Joshua Thole...... 5  5  1  0  0  0  0  3 LD
LA  AA  Joshua Bell....... 4  3  0  0  1  1  0  4 RBI
LAA A+  Matthew Sweeney... 3  1  0  0  1  2  1  
CHC AA  Tony Thomas....... 5  3  0  0  1  0  1  
PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 5  4  1  0  0  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
PHI A   Jason Knapp....... 5  3  1  1  9  1  0  
ATL AA  Scott Diamond..... 7  6  1  1  6  0  0  13 GB
MIL A   Wily Peralta...... 6  3  2  2  6  1  0  
SD  A   Simon Castro...... 5  4  3  2  7  1  0  
TEX AAA Neftali Feliz..... 5  1  1  1  7  1  1  
BOS A   Casey Kelly....... 6  2  0  0  3  0  0  11 GB
ATL A   Ezekiel Spruill... 8  7  2  2  5  0  1  18 GB
LAA A   William Smith..... 6  6  2  2  7  1  1  
HOU AAA Bud Norris........ 6  8  4  4  8  3  0  
TEX AA  Kasey Kiker....... 6  4  2  2  8  2  2  
TEX A   Wilmer Font....... 5  4  0  0  6  3  0  
CHC A   C. Carpenter...... 6  4  1  1  4  2  0  13 GB

First Inning’s Major and Minor League Daily Reports: