THT Daily: More on Manny
Major League News for May 8
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
Brian McCann (eye) is on track to return to the Braves Friday night.
McCann is enjoying success with his new prescription eye glasses. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be in the starting lineup, ready to go,” said the Braves catcher, who is eligible to come off the 15-day disabled list before the game. “I’m excited to get back and join the team. I think everything is going to go great.”
Kevin Youkilis is expected to miss Friday’s game with lingering pain in his back and oblique region.
Youkilis has been sidelined since Monday, when he first felt the pain during an at-bat. Jeff Bailey will get the nod at first base yet again.
The Diamondbacks have pegged Director of Player Development A.J. Hinch to replace Bob Melvin as manager.
Melvin was given the boot Thursday night. Hinch is an odd hire with no managerial or coaching experience, but he’s a former catcher and has the youth to relate to the Diamondbacks’ young squad. He will be officially announced as the new skipper at a press conference Friday afternoon.
During Thursday’s post-game show on the YES Network, Yankees manager Joe Girardi revealed that Mariano Rivera’s surgically repaired shoulder has been bothering him.
The news came minutes after Rivera suffered his first loss of the season, allowing two home runs to the Rays after entering a tie game in the ninth inning. His velocity has taken a noticeable dip and he may need a few days off. Rivera still has a 3.97 ERA and a 17/0 K/BB ratio over 11 1/3 innings this season.
Jered Weaver finally notched his first complete game Thursday in a 6-1 victory over the Blue Jays.
There was certainly no reason to take Weaver out tonight. He struck out eight, walked none and finished the night at just 103 pitches. The CG comes in his 83rd career start. He’s 3-1 with a 2.66 ERA this season.
A source told Yahoo! Sports that the illegal substance for which Manny Ramirez tested positive is supposed to boost sexual drive.
Cue up the performance enhancing jokes. It’s possible, if rumors of the source of the positive drug test are true, that the sexual enhancer could have been used to boost testosterone for those coming off a steroids cycle.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday’s games, read “And That Happened” at Shysterball.
American League BAL 5 MIN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 13 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 8 NYA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 6 DET 0 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 3 SEA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 9 TEX 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 4 FLA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 7 PHI 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 6 MIL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 8 HOU 5 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 5 PIT 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 8 COL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 11 LAN 9 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 4 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore)
Check out Fangraphs’ scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (0-1) vs. (L) Cole Hamels (0-2) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Joel Pineiro (4-1) vs. (R) Johnny Cueto (2-1) Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Jeff Karstens (1-1) vs. (L) Jonathon Niese (0-0) San Diego Padres at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Chad Gaudin (0-1) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (2-2) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Randy Wells (0-0) vs. (R) Dave Bush (1-0) Florida Marlins at Colorado Rockies, 9:10 PM (R) Ricky Nolasco (1-3) vs. (R) Jason Hammel (0-0) Washington Nationals at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Shairon Martis (3-0) vs. (R) Yusmeiro Petit (0-2) San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Barry Zito (0-2) vs. (R) Chad Billingsley (5-0) American League --------------- New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (L) CC Sabathia (1-3) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (2-2) Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Justin Verlander (2-2) vs. (L) Cliff Lee (1-4) Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) James Shields (3-2) vs. (R) Brad Penny (2-1) Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) Chris Jakubauskas (1-3) vs. (R) Scott Baker (0-4) Texas Rangers at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (L) Matt Harrison (2-2) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (0-4) Kansas City Royals at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Gil Meche (2-2) vs. (R) Matt Palmer (2-0) Toronto Blue Jays at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Scott Richmond (4-0) vs. (L) Josh Outman (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 TOR 20 11 .645 0.0 20 0BOS 18 11 .621 1.0 17 1
TB 14 16 .467 5.5 16 -2
NYA 13 15 .464 5.5 12 1
BAL 12 17 .414 7.0 12 0
American League Central KC 18 11 .621 0.0 18 0
DET 14 13 .519 3.0 14 0
CHA 13 14 .481 4.0 13 0
MIN 13 16 .448 5.0 11 2
CLE 11 18 .379 7.0 13 -2
American League West TEX 15 13 .536 0.0 14 1
SEA 15 14 .517 0.5 14 1
LAA 13 14 .481 1.5 13 0
OAK 10 16 .385 4.0 12 -2
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 14 12 .538 0.0 14 0
NYN 14 13 .519 0.5 14 0
FLA 15 14 .517 0.5 13 2
ATL 13 15 .464 2.0 13 0
WAS 8 18 .308 6.0 11 -3
National League Central STL 19 10 .655 0.0 18 1
CHN 16 12 .571 2.5 15 1
MIL 16 13 .552 3.0 16 0
CIN 15 13 .536 3.5 13 2
PIT 12 16 .429 6.5 15 -3
HOU 11 17 .393 7.5 12 -1
National League West LAN 21 9 .700 0.0 20 1
SF 14 13 .519 5.5 13 1
SD 13 16 .448 7.5 12 1
ARI 12 17 .414 8.5 12 0
COL 11 16 .407 8.5 14 -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 OAK AA Corey Brown....... 5 3 1 0 2 0 2 4 RBI DET AA Ryan Strieby...... 3 3 0 0 2 1 0 3 R CHC AA Tony Thomas....... 5 3 2 1 0 1 1 SEA A+ Alex Liddi........ 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 CHW AA Brandon Allen..... 4 3 1 0 1 1 1 CIN AA Chris Heisey...... 5 4 1 0 1 0 0 CLE A+ Matthew McBride... 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 4 LD DET AA Garth Iorg........ 3 2 0 0 2 0 0 TEX A+ M. Moreland....... 4 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 R CLE A+ L. Chisenhall..... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 BAL A+ Billy Rowell...... 3 2 0 0 1 0 0 PIT AAA Steven Pearce..... 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes KC AAA Luke Hochevar..... 8 5 0 0 9 0 0 17 GB CHC AA Jay Jackson....... 7 5 0 0 10 1 0 BOS A Bryan Price....... 6 2 1 0 8 0 0 LAA AA Trevor Reckling... 7 2 0 0 7 1 0 CHC A+ Dan McDaniel...... 6 2 0 0 9 2 0 CIN A+ Zachary Stewart... 9 5 1 1 6 1 0 BAL AA Troy Patton....... 6 2 0 0 6 1 0 HOU A Jordan Lyles...... 7 7 1 1 8 0 1 ATL A Brett DeVall...... 5 2 0 0 6 1 0 SD A Matthew Latos..... 6 2 0 0 6 2 0 DET A Casey Crosby...... 5 1 0 0 7 3 0 ARI AA Jarrod Parker..... 6 8 2 2 6 0 0 13 GB
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