THT Daily: A Romp in Baltimore

by Matthew Carruth
August 3, 2009

Major League News for August 3

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
Edinson Volquez underwent Tommy John surgery Monday morning, according to Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse.
Volquez is likely to miss most of the 2010 season. There’s a chance he could return by late August or September, if setbacks are avoided. It’s a major hit to the Reds’ immediate future. The 26-year-old right-hander was 4-2 this season with a 4.35 ERA and boasts a 24-19 career record.

Adrian Beltre is expected to return to the Mariners Tuesday.
Beltre has been sidelined since June 28 after undergoing shoulder surgery. “Everything looks good with Adrian, and it will be good to get him back,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. The third baseman should provide a decent offensive boost for the Mariners, who have struggled to score runs lately.

The Astros have scratched Roy Oswalt (back) from his Tuesday start.
Oswalt, who had already been scratched from a start this weekend, is now aiming to start on Saturday against the Brewers. He’ll try a bullpen session Monday, and another in the middle of the week. “Wednesday I’ll throw a pretty good one,” said the Houston ace, “and if I feel great I may try to throw an inning out of the pen and make sure I’m ready for game action on Saturday.”

The Dodgers are calling Chad Billingsley’s injury a right hamstring cramp.
Billingsley came out of Sunday’s game against the Braves after throwing five scoreless innings. He’ll likely be ready to make his next start as scheduled.

Rangers placed second baseman Ian Kinsler on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to July 29, with a strained left hamstring.
Kinsler’s loss is big, but Rangers fans have to be excited to see Neftali Feliz up with another one of the team’s roster moves today. Omar Vizquel has done a nice job so far, so he’ll keep starting at second base for the next couple of weeks. Joaquin Arias will serve as the backup.

Casey Blake is out of Sunday’s lineup with a left hand injury that’s getting him sent for X-rays.
Blake was hurt Saturday, but neither he nor the Dodgers thought it was significant then. When he was still having problems swinging in batting practice today, he was sent for X-rays. Mark Loretta is starting at third.

Corey Hart had surgery Sunday to remove his appendix and will go on the disabled list.
The Brewers are bringing Bill Hall right back to the majors as a result. Frank Catalanotto may get the majority of the time in right field for the next three weeks. Jody Gerut is the better option, given his defense, but it’s pretty clear which of the two manager Ken Macha prefers.

Kendry Morales drove in six runs on a pair of homers in the Angels’ 13-4 win over the Twis on Sunday.
Both were three-run shots off left-handed pitchers, one being starter Glen Perkins and the other reliever Jose Mijares. Morales, who also added a single, is now up to a very impressive .299-23-69 mark on the season that includes 10 homers and 28 RBI since the start of July.

Victor Martinez collected five hits and drove in four runs in his first start at catcher since joining the Red Sox.
Welcome to the club, Victor. Martinez doubled and hit four singles while scoring once in Boston’s 18-10 win over the Orioles. V-Mart finished July with a 530 OPS, so both his owners and the Red Sox are quite happy to see the fast start with his new team.

Yesterday’s Results

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

American League
BOS    18  BAL    10    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      4  TB      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     8  CHA     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE    11  DET     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA    13  MIN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     7  OAK     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     4  SEA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
LAN     9  ATL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA     3  CHN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     5  NYN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     6  CIN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
WAS     5  PIT     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     2  STL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     6  SD      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      7  PHI     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

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

Today’s Games

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
NYA     63  42 .600    0.0   59     4    
BOS     62  42 .596    0.5   61     1    
TB      57  48 .543    6.0   60    -3    
TOR     51  54 .486   12.0   57    -6    
BAL     44  60 .423   18.5   45    -1    
American League Central     
DET     54  49 .524    0.0   54     0    
CHA     54  52 .509    1.5   54     0    
MIN     52  53 .495    3.0   52     0    
CLE     44  61 .419   11.0   50    -6    
KC      41  63 .394   13.5   40     1    
American League West        
LAA     63  40 .612    0.0   59     4    
TEX     59  44 .573    4.0   56     3    
SEA     54  51 .514   10.0   47     7    
OAK     44  60 .423   19.5   47    -3    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     59  44 .573    0.0   58     1    
FLA     55  50 .524    5.0   52     3    
ATL     53  52 .505    7.0   54    -1    
NYN     50  54 .481    9.5   49     1    
WAS     33  72 .314   27.0   42    -9    
National League Central     
STL     58  50 .537    0.0   58     0    
CHN     55  48 .534    0.5   55     0    
HOU     52  53 .495    4.5   47     5    
MIL     52  53 .495    4.5   50     2    
CIN     45  59 .433   11.0   43     2    
PIT     45  59 .433   11.0   50    -5    
National League West        
LAN     65  40 .619    0.0   64     1    
COL     58  47 .552    7.0   58     0    
SF      58  47 .552    7.0   56     2    
ARI     46  59 .438   19.0   49    -3    
SD      43  63 .406   22.5   39     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
TEX AA  M. Moreland....... 5  4  1  0  1  0  0  
NYM A+  David Havens...... 6  4  1  0  1  0  1  4 RBI
PIT AAA Neil Walker....... 4  3  2  0  0  0  0  
COL AA  Darin Holcomb..... 6  3  2  0  0  1  1  
SD  A+  James Darnell..... 4  3  2  0  0  1  0  
TOR A   T. Pastornicky.... 3  3  1  1  0  1  0  
ARI AAA Brandon Allen..... 5  2  1  0  1  0  0  
OAK AA  Shane Peterson.... 4  2  2  0  0  1  0  
DET AA  Garth Iorg........ 4  2  0  1  1  0  1  
SF  AA  Brandon Crawford.. 4  2  1  0  1  0  0  
PHI A-  Zachary Collier... 4  3  0  0  1  1  1  4 R
TOR AAA Travis Snider..... 3  1  0  0  1  2  1  3 R

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
TEX A   Martin Perez...... 5  4  1  1  9  2  0  
CLE AA  Jeanmar Gomez..... 6  4  0  0  8  2  0  
NYY A-  Arodys Vizcaino... 5  2  0  0  6  2  0  
SD  A   Simon Castro...... 5  4  1  1  6  1  0  
STL AA  Lance Lynn........ 6  6  1  1  5  0  0  
CLE AAA Hector Rondon..... 6  4  2  2  7  2  1  
HOU A+  C. Hicks.......... 6  5  2  2  5  2  0  
MIN AA  Carlos Gutierrez.. 3  1  0  0  5  1  0  
CLE AAA Jesse Todd........ 2  0  0  0  4  0  0  
TB  A   Joseph Cruz....... 5  4  3  2  4  1  0  10 GB
BOS AAA Junichi Tazawa.... 5  4  2  2  3  1  0  
TOR A+  Tim Collins....... 2  0  0  0  3  0  0

First Inning’s Major and Minor League Daily Reports: