THT Daily: A Romp in Baltimore
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 4BOS 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
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