THT Daily: Sizzling Lee
Major League News for April 25
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
Athletics signed designated hitter Frank Thomas for the remainder of the season. Thomas should step right in as the team’s starting designated hitter, providing a significant upgrade over Mike Sweeney, who ended a 39-game homerless streak last night. This is Thomas’ second stint with the Athletics: he hit .270 with 39 home runs and 114 RBI for Oakland in 2006. Jack Cust will head out to left field, with Emil Brown getting the majority of the starts against left-handed pitchers.
John Lackey (triceps) allowed one run in two innings and struck out five in his rehab start for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday. Just as if it were the start of the spring, Lackey was only scheduled for two innings in his first appearance. He’ll start in the California League again on Tuesday.
Cliff Lee hurled a three-hit shutout and struck out nine as the Indians beat the Royals 2-0 in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader. Lee has won all four of his starts, allowing two runs — one earned — in the process. Even when he was at his best in 2005, Lee posted a 3.79 ERA. In his other full years as a starter, he finished at 5.43 and 4.40. Last year, he was at 6.29 in 16 starts and four relief appearances. The turnaround certainly seems to be for real, but it’s hard to imagine him really being one of the AL’s five-best starters.
Even though he’s 0-for-9 while playing for Single-A Dunedin, Scott Rolen (finger) is expected to be in Toronto’s lineup on Friday. The Blue Jays are already looking pretty desperate. “I’m ready to play,” Rolen said Thursday. “I still have a pretty significant bone bruise. I can feel it when I throw, feel it when I hit. I think my options are, take a month and do nothing and wait for it to heal or play. It’s time to play.” Joe Inglett could be sent down to make room. Rolen shouldn’t be played in mixed leagues until he starts hitting. He might not be of any use in shallow formats this year.
Brian Schneider has been sent to New York with an infected left thumb that may force him to the disabled list. If Schneider avoids the DL, the Mets could cut Brady Clark, with the idea of going to with Gustavo Molina as a backup catcher until Moises Alou is activated. Molina is likely to be added either way. Raul Casanova could have some short-term value in NL-only leagues.
Gary Sheffield got a second cortisone shot in his right shoulder on Wednesday night. That’s the shoulder he had surgery on, and Sheffield has now gotten two cortisone shots in it this week. Manager Jim Leyland said he hoped to have Sheffield back in the lineup on Friday, but that seems unlikely.
Rockies manager Clint Hurdle named Brian Fuentes the team’s new closer. He will take over for Manny Corpas, who has blown three consecutive saves. Fuentes was a three-time All Star closer before losing his job to Corpas last June, and while his skills have declined somewhat, he should be effective in the ninth inning. He’s allowed three runs 11 innings this season, and makes a solid addition in leagues of all sizes.
Yesterday’s Results
American League LAA 7 BOS 5 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 5 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 7 NYA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 8 TEX 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 2 KC 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 9 KC 6 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 11 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) BAL 8 SEA 7 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 7 FLA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 10 NYN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 5 CIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 3 MIL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 6 PIT 2 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 4 CHN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 6 LAN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 1 SD 0 (Recap and Boxscore)
You can download a compact version of yesterday’s boxscores from Heater Magazine.
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- Philadelphia Phillies at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Adam Eaton (0-0) vs. (L) Zach Duke (0-1) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Jair Jurrjens (2-2) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (2-0) Chicago Cubs at Washington Nationals, 7:35 PM (R) Ryan Dempster (3-0) vs. (L) Odalis Perez (0-3) Florida Marlins at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (L) Scott Olsen (3-0) vs. (R) Yovani Gallardo (0-0) Houston Astros at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Shawn Chacon (0-0) vs. (R) Braden Looper (3-1) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Randy Johnson (0-1) vs. (L) Randy Wolf (2-0) Cincinnati Reds at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Aaron Harang (1-2) vs. (L) Jonathan Sanchez (1-1) Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:40 PM (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2) vs. (R) Hiroki Kuroda (1-2) American League --------------- New York Yankees at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (L) Andy Pettitte (3-1) vs. (R) Paul Byrd (0-2) LA Angels of Anaheim at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Ervin Santana (3-0) vs. (L) Nate Robertson (0-2) Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Tim Wakefield (2-0) vs. (R) Matt Garza (0-0) Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (1-1) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (1-2) Toronto Blue Jays at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) AJ Burnett (2-1) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (3-0) Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (L) Brian Burres (2-1) vs. (L) Mark Buehrle (1-2) Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Dana Eveland (2-1) vs. (R) Miguel Batista (2-2)
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 15 9 .625 0.0 13 2BAL 13 9 .591 1.0 11 2
NYA 12 11 .522 2.5 11 1
TB 11 11 .500 3.0 12 -1
TOR 10 13 .435 4.5 12 -2
American League Central CHA 12 9 .571 0.0 13 -1
CLE 10 12 .455 2.5 12 -2
MIN 10 12 .455 2.5 9 1
DET 10 13 .435 3.0 11 -1
KC 9 13 .409 3.5 7 2
American League West LAA 14 9 .609 0.0 13 1
OAK 14 9 .609 0.0 14 0
SEA 11 12 .478 3.0 12 -1
TEX 7 16 .304 7.0 7 0
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 13 9 .591 0.0 10 3
NYN 11 10 .524 1.5 12 -1
PHI 12 11 .522 1.5 12 0
ATL 11 11 .500 2.0 14 -3
WAS 7 16 .304 6.5 8 -1
National League Central CHN 15 7 .682 0.0 14 1
STL 14 9 .609 1.5 14 0
MIL 13 9 .591 2.0 12 1
HOU 11 12 .478 4.5 12 -1
PIT 9 13 .409 6.0 7 2
CIN 9 14 .391 6.5 10 -1
National League West ARI 16 6 .727 0.0 16 0
COL 10 12 .455 6.0 9 1
SF 10 13 .435 6.5 8 2
LAN 9 13 .409 7.0 12 -3
SD 9 14 .391 7.5 8 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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.
ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 3 R CIN A+ Drew Stubbs....... 5 3 2 0 0 0 2 2 SB BAL AA Nolan Reimold..... 4 4 0 0 1 1 0 LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 5 1 1 0 0 0 1 NYM AA F. Martinez....... 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 COL AAA Ian Stewart....... 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 KC AAA Chris Lubanski.... 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 HOU AA Eli Iorg.......... 6 3 1 0 1 0 3 3 R OAK AAA Jeffrey Baisley... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 R OAK AAA Gregorio Petit.... 4 2 1 0 0 2 1 DET AAA Brent Clevlen..... 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 TEX AA John Mayberry..... 5 3 0 0 1 0 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes BAL AAA Radhames Liz...... 7 3 1 1 10 2 0 FLA AA C. Volstad........ 7 2 1 1 6 1 0 12 GB NYY A Dellin Betances... 6 2 2 1 7 3 0 ATL AAA Jo-Jo Reyes....... 7 5 1 1 6 1 0 ATL A+ Thomas Hanson..... 7 4 1 1 6 2 0 MIN AA Yohan Pino........ 7 4 2 2 4 0 1 TB AA Jacob McGee....... 6 4 3 3 5 2 1 STL AAA Trey Hearne....... 6 5 3 3 7 4 0 SD AAA Cesar Ramos....... 5 5 2 2 6 4 0 TB A+ Matthew Walker.... 4 6 3 3 5 2 0 10 GB BAL A Anthony Butler.... 6 8 4 4 3 0 0 STL AAA Mike Parisi....... 6 4 2 2 4 4 0 11 GB
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