THT Daily: Brian Matusz
Major League News for August 2
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 Yankees are shuffling their rotation in advance of the upcoming Red Sox series.
Andy Pettitte takes the mound Tuesday against Toronto. Sergio Mitre moves up to Wednesday, thereby avoiding the Sox all together. Joba Chamberlain will open the series against the Sox on seven days rest as the Yankees are trying to control his innings from hereon out. He’s thrown 10 1/3 innings more this season than last season so far.
Scott Downs left Saturday’s game in the ninth inning with a left toe injury.
Downs was removed after allowing two batters to reach with the Jays up 6-4 in the ninth. Scott Frasor took over in the save opportunity and may be asked to close for the next few games.
Andrew McCutchen went 4-for-5 with three home runs and six RBI to lead the Pirates over the Nationals 11-6 on Saturday night.
Coming out party, anyone? McCutchen has hit .293 with six home runs and 31 RBI since his promotion in early June and has displayed a fine glove in center field. He also scored four runs on the night.
Matt Holliday finished 3-for-4 with two solo home runs Saturday to help the Cardinals defeat the Astros.
Holliday has become a super hero in St. Louis, batting a mind-blogging .603 in 33 at-bats since coming over from Oakland. He has three home runs since the trade and two curtain calls. While the fans at Busch Stadium are clearly falling in love, agent Scott Boras is typing away at his calculator. The outfielder is a free agent after this season. Keep in mind that he turned down a four-year, $72 million contract extension from the Rockies not too long ago.
Kevin Millwood (glute) has been scratched from Monday’s start.
It’s the third time Millwood has been scratched this week, as his glute strain continues to cause him problems. Dustin Nippert is expected to fill in on three days rest. It’s not clear when Millwood will be ready.
Hanley Ramirez left Saturday’s game against the Cubs after taking a wild pitch just above his left knee.
It was a Carlos Zambrano fastball, to be exact. He was able to jog to first base and eventually came around to score, but will probably have a sizable bruise on his thigh and might miss Sunday’s action.
Carlos Zambrano departed after three innings Saturday with a stiff back.
The Cubs were up four runs when he exited. It didn’t seem too serious, but back injuries can linger. We’ll keep you updated.
Brian Matusz was pulled from his Saturday start for Double-A Bowie after one inning, reports Roch Kubato of MASNSports.com
Kubato says he has been given a very strong indication that Matusz is coming up for a Tuesday debut against the Tigers. Counting Chris Tillman, that makes two major league debuts in the space of one week. Exciting times in Charm City.
The Orioles are reportedly considering 2008 first-round draft pick Brian Matusz to replace the injured Brad Bergesen in the rotation.
“I think we’re considering a lot of people, on the club and in the minor league system,” manager Dave Trembley said. “I don’t think Matusz is the only one being considered. I think a lot of people are being considered.” It seems awfully quick for Matusz to make his debut, but the 22-year-old southpaw is 7-0 with a 1.59 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 45/10 K/BB ratio in 45 1/3 innings with Double-A Bowie. The Orioles need a pitcher for Tuesday, so if Matusz starts for Bowie tonight, as scheduled, you’ll know he’s out as an option. Mark Hendrickson and Brian Bass could also be options.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday’s games, read “And That Happened” at Shysterball.
American League BOS 4 BAL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 7 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 14 NYA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 4 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 11 MIN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 6 OAK 5 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 7 TEX 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 4 LAN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 9 FLA 8 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 9 ARI 6 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 6 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 11 WAS 6 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 3 HOU 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 4 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 2 PHI 0 (Recap and Boxscore)
Check out Fangraphs’ scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Mets, 1:10 PM (R) Jon Garland (5-10) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (8-6) Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds, 1:10 PM (R) Jason Marquis (12-7) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (10-10) Washington Nationals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 1:35 PM (R) Collin Balester (1-1) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (6-5) Houston Astros at St. Louis Cardinals, 2:15 PM (R) Bud Norris (0-0) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (12-6) Milwaukee Brewers at San Diego Padres, 4:05 PM (R) Carlos Villanueva (2-8) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (7-8) Philadelphia Phillies at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM (L) Cole Hamels (7-5) vs. (L) Barry Zito (6-10) Chicago Cubs at Florida Marlins, 5:05 PM (R) Ryan Dempster (5-5) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (7-7) Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta Braves, 8:00 PM (R) Chad Billingsley (10-6) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (9-7) American League --------------- Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians, 1:05 PM (R) Armando Galarraga (5-9) vs. (R) Carl Pavano (8-8) Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM (R) Clay Buchholz (1-1) vs. (R) Jason Berken (1-8) Kansas City Royals at Tampa Bay Rays, 1:38 PM (R) Brian Bannister (6-7) vs. (R) James Shields (6-7) New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM (L) CC Sabathia (10-7) vs. (L) Mark Buehrle (11-4) LA Angels of Anaheim at Minnesota Twins, 2:10 PM (R) Jered Weaver (10-3) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (6-6) Toronto Blue Jays at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM (L) Ricky Romero (9-4) vs. (R) Vin Mazzaro (2-7) Seattle Mariners at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Ian Snell (0-0) vs. (R) Scott Feldman (9-4)
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 NYA 62 42 .596 0.0 58 4BOS 61 42 .592 0.5 60 1
TB 57 47 .548 5.0 60 -3
TOR 50 54 .481 12.0 56 -6
BAL 44 59 .427 17.5 45 -1
American League Central DET 54 48 .529 0.0 54 0
CHA 54 51 .514 1.5 54 0
MIN 52 52 .500 3.0 53 -1
CLE 43 61 .413 12.0 49 -6
KC 40 63 .388 14.5 39 1
American League West LAA 62 40 .608 0.0 57 5
TEX 58 44 .569 4.0 55 3
SEA 54 50 .519 9.0 47 7
OAK 44 59 .427 18.5 47 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 59 43 .578 0.0 58 1
FLA 54 50 .519 6.0 51 3
ATL 53 51 .510 7.0 55 -2
NYN 50 53 .485 9.5 49 1
WAS 32 72 .308 28.0 41 -9
National League Central STL 58 49 .542 0.0 58 0
CHN 55 47 .539 0.5 55 0
HOU 51 53 .490 5.5 47 4
MIL 51 53 .490 5.5 49 2
CIN 45 58 .437 11.0 42 3
PIT 45 58 .437 11.0 49 -4
National League West LAN 64 40 .615 0.0 62 2
COL 57 47 .548 7.0 57 0
SF 57 47 .548 7.0 56 1
ARI 45 59 .433 19.0 49 -4
SD 43 62 .410 21.5 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 DET AAA Scott Sizemore.... 5 3 0 0 2 0 0 TOR AAA Travis Snider..... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 CHC AA Tyler Colvin...... 3 3 1 0 1 0 0 PIT AA Pedro Alvarez..... 1 1 0 0 1 4 0 OAK AA Chris Carter...... 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 3 R KC AAA Jordan Parraz..... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 HOU A+ Jack Shuck........ 5 3 1 1 0 0 0 CHC AAA Darwin Barney..... 6 2 2 0 0 0 2 DET AAA Wilkin Ramirez.... 5 2 1 0 0 1 2 DET AA Casper Wells...... 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 CLE AA Beau Mills........ 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 TOR AA Bradley Emaus..... 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes PHI A Trevor May........ 7 5 3 3 9 2 0 TEX A Wilmer Font....... 5 2 2 2 8 2 0 ATL A Randall Delgado... 6 6 3 2 7 0 0 TOR A H. Alvarez........ 5 8 1 1 7 0 0 MIL AAA Christopher Cody.. 7 5 2 2 6 1 1 LAA A Tyler Chatwood.... 5 2 0 0 5 2 0 PIT A Brett Lorin....... 6 4 1 1 3 1 0 ATL A+ Richard Sullivan.. 6 9 5 3 6 2 0 12 GB PIT AA Tim Alderson...... 6 7 2 1 4 1 0 11 GB HOU A Brad Dydalewicz... 6 4 1 0 3 2 0 13 GB BOS A Stolmy Pimentel... 5 5 2 2 3 1 0 CIN AAA Matthew Maloney... 8 7 3 3 5 1 2
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Kevin Millwood = bad ass (?)