THT Daily: Holliday On the Move
Major League News for July 24
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
ESPN.com is reporting that the Cardinals have acquired outfielder Matt Holliday for top prospect Brett Wallace and two other minor leaguers.
24-year-old right-hander Clayton Mortensen and outfielder Shane Peterson, a second-rounder in 2008, are the “other minor leaguers.” The A’s will throw in $1.5 million to help cover the $6 million remaining on Holliday’s current deal, but they’re clearly the big winners in this trade. Protection for Albert Pujols is nice, and is important, but at what cost? Wallace boasts a major-league ready bat and the other two appear destined for nice big league careers.
John Maine (shoulder) will soon visit with Dr. James Andrews and is in danger of missing the rest of this season.
Maine looked fine during a 65-pitch simulated game Tuesday, but had trouble getting through a throwing session Thursday. “[Tuesday] it felt all right,” he said, “but the days in between, it’s hard. It aches a little bit, but what are you going to do?” Dr. Andrews should provide a useful diagnosis.
Royals placed outfielder Jose Guillen on the 15-day disabled list with a Grade 2 tear of the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee.
Guillen suffered the injury while putting on his batting shinguard Wednesday night and had to be taken to the hospital. It’s not clear how long he’ll be out, but Mitch Maier has been recalled in a corresponding move. Guillen will leave behind a .245 batting average, nine homers and 40 RBI.
A follow-up X-ray on Ryan Dempster’s broken right toe Thursday showed “excellent healing,” according to MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat.
Dempster told reporters he is hoping to return this weekend, but the Cubs may play this one safe. “I’m not as optimistic,” manager Lou Piniella said Wednesday. “I think on the next turn in the rotation, we can put him in Wednesday or Thursday [against the Astros].” The right-hander has been out since July 3. He will return to a 5-5 record and a 4.09 ERA.
Chien-Ming Wang is still dealing with discomfort in his right shoulder and may not return this season.
Wang suffered a setback Monday while playing a short game of catch. He was scheduled to throw again Friday, but that won’t happen until team physicians give him clearance. “I don’t know,” the right-hander said Thursday evening. “The shoulder, the day I played catch, it still feels the same.”
According to Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse, the Angels have some level of interest in Tampa Bay left-hander Scott Kazmir.
SI.com’s Jon Heyman has confirmed the rumor, via Twitter, and adds that the Rays are currently scouting the Angels’ farm system. Shipping Kazmir to Los Angeles would help Tampa Bay free up some cash for a bat (like Victor Martinez) or a top starter (Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee). Stay tuned.
According to MLB.com’s Corey Brock, the Padres plan to extend manager Bud Black’s contract through 2010.
Black is just 189-231 with the Padres since 2007, but has really done a decent job considering the talent around him. His current contract was set to expire at the end of 2009. An official announcement should come shortly.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday’s games, read “And That Happened” at Shysterball.
American League NYA 6 OAK 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 5 TOR 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 5 TB 0 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 2 DET 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 MIN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) National League SF 5 ATL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 9 SD 4 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 4 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 11 PIT 4 (Recap and Boxscore)
Check out Fangraphs’ scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Aaron Harang (5-10) vs. (R) Randy Wells (5-4) St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Joel Pineiro (8-9) vs. (L) J.A. Happ (7-0) San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Mat Latos (0-1) vs. (R) Garrett Mock (0-3) New York Mets at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (L) Johan Santana (11-7) vs. (L) Mike Hampton (5-7) Atlanta Braves at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Javier Vazquez (7-7) vs. (L) Manny Parra (4-8) San Francisco Giants at Colorado Rockies, 9:10 PM (R) Matt Cain (11-2) vs. (R) Jason Hammel (5-4) Pittsburgh Pirates at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (L) Zach Duke (8-9) vs. (R) Yusmeiro Petit (0-4) Florida Marlins at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Josh Johnson (8-2) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (8-5) American League --------------- Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM (R) Jose Contreras (4-8) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (10-5) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Bartolo Colon (3-6) vs. (R) Eddie Bonine (0-0) Oakland Athletics at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (L) Brett Anderson (5-7) vs. (R) Joba Chamberlain (5-2) Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Matt Garza (6-7) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (11-3) Baltimore Orioles at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) Brad Bergesen (6-4) vs. (R) Brad Penny (6-4) Texas Rangers at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Scott Feldman (8-3) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (10-5) Minnesota Twins at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (L) Francisco Liriano (4-9) vs. (R) John Lackey (5-4) Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Aaron Laffey (3-2) vs. (L) Ryan Rowland-Smith (0-0)
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 58 37 .611 0.0 54 4BOS 55 39 .585 2.5 55 0
TB 52 44 .542 6.5 55 -3
TOR 47 49 .490 11.5 52 -5
BAL 41 53 .436 16.5 41 0
American League Central DET 49 44 .527 0.0 49 0
CHA 50 45 .526 0.0 48 2
MIN 48 48 .500 2.5 50 -2
CLE 38 58 .396 12.5 43 -5
KC 37 57 .394 12.5 37 0
American League West LAA 56 38 .596 0.0 52 4
TEX 52 41 .559 3.5 50 2
SEA 51 44 .537 5.5 46 5
OAK 40 54 .426 16.0 44 -4
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 54 39 .581 0.0 53 1
ATL 49 47 .510 6.5 50 -1
FLA 49 47 .510 6.5 46 3
NYN 44 50 .468 10.5 42 2
WAS 28 67 .295 27.0 36 -8
National League Central STL 52 46 .531 0.0 52 0
CHN 48 45 .516 1.5 48 0
HOU 49 46 .516 1.5 46 3
MIL 48 47 .505 2.5 47 1
CIN 44 50 .468 6.0 40 4
PIT 42 53 .442 8.5 46 -4
National League West LAN 61 34 .642 0.0 59 2
COL 52 43 .547 9.0 53 -1
SF 51 44 .537 10.0 51 0
ARI 41 55 .427 20.5 44 -3
SD 37 59 .385 24.5 34 3
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 CLE AAA Andy Marte........ 4 4 0 0 2 0 0 4 RBI LAA A Alexia Amarista... 5 3 2 1 0 0 1 4 LD SF A+ Thomas Neal....... 5 4 2 0 0 0 1 SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 4 2 1 0 1 1 0 SEA A+ Joseph Dunigan.... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI SEA A+ Joseph Dunigan.... 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 CHW A+ Brent Morel....... 3 2 0 0 1 2 1 LA AA Joshua Bell....... 3 3 0 0 1 1 0 TEX AA M. Moreland....... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 4 RBI DET AAA Scott Sizemore.... 6 3 2 0 0 0 0 3 LD PHI AAA Michael Taylor.... 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 BOS A- R. Westmoreland... 5 2 0 0 1 0 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes MIN AA Deolis Guerra..... 7 4 0 0 12 1 0 SD A Simon Castro...... 5 1 0 0 8 0 0 ATL A+ Cole Rohrbough.... 6 4 2 2 7 1 0 LAA A+ Alexander Torres.. 7 2 0 0 6 2 0 BOS A+ Stephen Fife...... 6 6 2 1 7 0 0 12 GB TEX AA Kasey Kiker....... 5 1 1 1 8 3 0 KC A Timothy Melville.. 5 1 0 0 7 2 0 LAA AAA Trevor Bell....... 7 5 3 3 6 1 0 PIT AAA Brad Lincoln...... 6 7 2 2 6 0 0 BOS AA Junichi Tazawa.... 6 3 0 0 5 1 0 CLE AAA Hector Rondon..... 6 9 2 2 7 0 0 KC A+ Daniel Duffy...... 7 5 2 1 5 1 0 13 GB
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