THT Daily: Putz Looks Hurt

Major League News for June 5

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
Ryan Sweeney (knee) was held out of the lineup again on Thursday and is scheduled for an MRI Friday morning.
If the MRI is clean, he could jump back into the starting lineup immediately. “He’s better today,” Oakland manager Bob Geren said Thursday morning. “The soreness has decreased, and that’s always good news. He’s still possible for [Friday] if he feels better, but we’ll see what the MRI says. Hopefully it’s just a bruise.”

Rockies purchased the contract of outfielder Carlos Gonzalez from Triple-A Colorado Springs.
Rockies manager Jim Tracy said Thursday that he’ll try to find Gonzalez five starts a week. If that’s the case, he’s worth adding in NL-only leagues and even some deep mixed leagues. The 23-year-old was batting .339 with 10 home runs, 12 doubles, seven triples and 59 RBI in 47 games at the Triple-A level. He’s also a threat to steal a couple of bases.

Fausto Carmona could be facing demotion to Triple-A, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Indians manager Eric Wedge danced around the subject late Thursday night, after Carmona had allowed seven runs in two innings. “I haven’t talked to anybody yet [about sending Carmona down],” said Wedge. “Rest assured we’re going to have to evaluate everything that’s gone on to this point with him. We’ll do the best thing for the ballclub and the best thing for Fausto to get him back on track.”

Milton Bradley (calf) will avoid the disabled list.
Bradley will be available to pinch-hit this weekend as the Cubs take on the Reds and may return to the starting lineup early next week against Houston. ‘First of all, he’s feeling better, which is a good sign in itself,” manager Lou Piniella said of the decision. ”Second of all, we really don’t have many options. And third of all, we need him on the roster playing.”

The Cardinals will place Kyle Lohse on the 15-day disabled list this weekend, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Lohse re-injured his forearm during a start on Wednesday night. It’ll be his first career stint on the disabled list. Brad Thompson will inherit his spot in the starting rotation, but isn’t a strong fantasy play in most leagues.

According to the New York Daily News, J.J. Putz “appears headed for surgery” to remove a bone spur from his right elbow.
Putz is keeping mum on the situation. “I don’t want to say anything until the doctor gives me what his direction would be,” he said Thursday. He’s traveling to New York Friday afternoon, so we should know more sometime this weekend.

Cole Hamels needed 97 pitches to complete a shutout of the Dodgers on Thursday night.
Hamels struck out five, walked none and fanned five in his third career shutout. It’s the first time this season that he’s pitched more than seven innings, but with such a low pitch count, there was never a thought of taking him out of tonight’s game. Hamels is 4-0 with a 3.15 ERA and a 40/6 K/BB ratio in six starts since the beginning of May.

The Mets confirmed that Jose Reyes has a tear in a right hamstring tendon.
Reyes’ injury has been described as a calf problem all along, and this is believed to be something new. Team doctor Struan Coleman advised Reyes to rest for two days, then resume treatment. There’s no way of telling when Reyes might be activated without knowing when he suffered the tear. We wouldn’t rule out a mid-June return just yet, but it’s also possible that he’ll miss the entire month.

Travis Hafner (shoulder) rejoined the Indians Thursday and hopes to play Friday.
Hafner has yet to meet with manager, but that will likely occur some time Thursday night. The veteran just returned from a rehab stint in Columbus where he struggled to play more than three or four consecutive games. When he does return, he may become more of a play three games, sit one, kind of player. A decision on his status should be known by Friday morning.

Yesterday’s Results

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

American League
NYA     8  TEX     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      3  KC      2    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     6  TOR     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     7  CHA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     6  DET     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN    11  CLE     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
FLA     4  MIL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      5  WAS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      4  WAS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL    10  HOU     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT    11  NYN     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     3  CIN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     3  LAN     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

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

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 New York Mets at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM
  (R) Tim Redding (0-2) vs. (R) Shairon Martis (5-1)
 San Francisco Giants at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM
  (L) Barry Zito (1-6) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (4-4)
 Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (R) Carlos Zambrano (3-2) vs. (R) Micah Owings (3-6)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM
  (R) Yovani Gallardo (5-2) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (5-2)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Jeff Karstens (2-2) vs. (L) Mike Hampton (3-4)
 Colorado Rockies at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (L) Jorge De La Rosa (0-6) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (5-3)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM
  (L) Doug Davis (2-6) vs. (R) Chad Gaudin (2-3)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (L) Jamie Moyer (4-5) vs. (L) Eric Milton (2-0)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (L) David Price (1-0) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (5-3)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM
  (R) Ervin Santana (0-2) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (6-2)
 Kansas City Royals at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM
  (R) Zack Greinke (8-1) vs. (L) Ricky Romero (2-2)
 Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM
  (R) Kevin Millwood (4-4) vs. (R) Brad Penny (5-1)
 Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM
  (R) Carl Pavano (5-4) vs. (L) John Danks (4-3)
 Baltimore Orioles at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM
  (R) Jeremy Guthrie (4-4) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (4-5)
 Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM
  (L) Francisco Liriano (2-7) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (5-3)

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     32  22 .593    0.0   31     1    
NYA     32  22 .593    0.0   30     2    
TOR     30  26 .536    3.0   30     0    
TB      28  28 .500    5.0   33    -5    
BAL     24  30 .444    8.0   23     1    
American League Central     
DET     28  24 .538    0.0   29    -1    
MIN     27  28 .491    2.5   28    -1    
CHA     25  28 .472    3.5   24     1    
KC      23  30 .434    5.5   23     0    
CLE     23  33 .411    7.0   26    -3    
American League West        
TEX     31  22 .585    0.0   29     2    
LAA     27  25 .519    3.5   26     1    
SEA     26  28 .481    5.5   24     2    
OAK     22  30 .423    8.5   23    -1    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     32  20 .615    0.0   29     3    
NYN     28  24 .538    4.0   28     0    
ATL     26  26 .500    6.0   26     0    
FLA     26  29 .473    7.5   25     1    
WAS     14  38 .269   18.0   20    -6    
National League Central     
STL     31  23 .574    0.0   30     1    
MIL     31  23 .574    0.0   29     2    
CIN     28  25 .528    2.5   27     1    
CHN     26  25 .510    3.5   26     0    
PIT     25  28 .472    5.5   27    -2    
HOU     23  29 .442    7.0   23     0    
National League West        
LAN     37  19 .661    0.0   37     0    
SF      27  25 .519    8.0   26     1    
SD      25  28 .472   10.5   22     3    
ARI     23  31 .426   13.0   23     0    
COL     21  32 .396   14.5   25    -4    

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 Daric Barton...... 4  3  2  0  1  1  0  4 R
SEA A+  Joseph Dunigan.... 5  3  2  0  0  1  1  
LA  A   Kyle Russell...... 4  2  0  1  1  1  1  
ATL AAA Jordan Schafer.... 4  3  0  0  1  1  0  4 R
NYM A+  Isaac Davis....... 4  2  0  1  1  0  0  
TB  AA  Desmond Jennings.. 3  2  1  1  0  1  1  
NYY AAA Austin Jackson.... 4  2  0  1  1  0  1  
OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 6  3  1  0  0  0  1  2 SB
LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 4  3  0  0  1  1  0  4 RBI
TOR A+  Justin Jackson.... 4  3  1  0  0  0  0  
CIN AA  Todd Frazier...... 3  2  1  0  0  2  0  
OAK AA  Adrian Cardenas... 3  3  1  0  0  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
FLA AAA Rick Vanden Hurk.. 6  3  1  1  7  0  0  
SD  AA  Matthew Latos..... 7  5  0  0  8  1  0  
PIT AAA Charlie Morton.... 7  4  0  0  7  1  0  
LA  AA  Scott Elbert...... 6  3  2  2 10  4  0  
LAA AA  Jordan Walden..... 5  3  1  1  9  2  0  
NYY A   Hector Noesi...... 6  8  4  4  8  0  0  
NYY AA  Christian Garcia.. 7  4  0  0  6  2  0  12 GB
ATL AA  Edgar Osuna....... 7  1  0  0  4  2  0  
COL A+  C. Friedrich...... 6  6  2  2  7  2  0  
SEA A   Brett Lorin....... 5  3  4  3  9  3  1  
PHI A   Jason Knapp....... 5  3  1  1  6  2  0  
BAL AA  Troy Patton....... 7  7  4  2  7  1  1

First Inning’s Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

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