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THT Daily: 11 straightby Dave StudemanMay 30, 2008 Major League News for May 30Player NewsYesterday’s Results Today’s Games Standings Yesterday’s Home Runs Top Minor League Performances You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/ Player NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
Royals optioned first baseman-designated hitter Billy Butler to Triple-A Omaha. Butler can point out that Alex Gordon was hitting .185 at this time a year ago and got to keep his job. At .263/.330/.339, Butler wasn't nearly that bad. However, the 22-year-old was doing almost all of his damage against lefties. Versus righties, he's a .263/.313/.355 hitter in 372 at-bats. Butler still has a fantastic long-term outlook, and the odds are good that he'll have considerable value in AL-only leagues after the All-Star break. However, sending him down isn't a bad move. The Royals will give Mark Teahen more time at first and find additional at-bats for Joey Gathright and Ross Gload. Rays placed RHP Troy Percival on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain. It's not supposed to be a major injury, but shutting him down for a couple of weeks was still the smart play. Dan Wheeler will be the favorite for saves over Al Reyes until Percival returns. Athletics placed designated hitter Frank Thomas on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 28, with a strained quad tendon. The A's will go with Mike Sweeney, Eric Chavez and Jack Cust at DH for the next two weeks. It's a big loss for Oakland, as Thomas was hitting .319/.417/.516 in 91 at-bats since being picked up. Yesterday’s ResultsAmerican League CHA 5 TB 1 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 5 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 12 OAK 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League NYN 8 LAN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 8 COL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 7 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 8 MIL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 3 HOU 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 4 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 5 WAS 2 (Recap and Boxscore)You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Colorado Rockies at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Aaron Cook (7-3) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (5-4) Florida Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (L) Mark Hendrickson (7-2) vs. (R) Brett Myers (2-6) Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (L) Clayton Kershaw (0-0) vs. (R) John Maine (5-4) Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Tom Glavine (2-2) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (7-2) Houston Astros at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Brandon Backe (4-5) vs. (L) Manny Parra (2-2) Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (L) Zach Duke (2-3) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (5-1) Washington Nationals at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Tim Redding (6-3) vs. (R) Micah Owings (6-2) San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Greg Maddux (3-4) vs. (R) Matt Cain (2-3) American League --------------- Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Josh Beckett (5-4) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (5-1) Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Jose Contreras (5-3) vs. (R) James Shields (4-3) Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Justin Duchscherer (4-3) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (2-3) New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) Mike Mussina (7-4) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (2-1) Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (L) Cliff Lee (7-1) vs. (R) Gil Meche (3-7) Toronto Blue Jays at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Dustin McGowan (3-4) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (4-5) Detroit Tigers at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Nate Robertson (2-5) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (3-4) StandingsThe 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 TB 32 22 .593 0.0 30 2 Yesterday’s Home RunsThe following stats are provided by Hit Tracker, which logs the projected “true” distance of each home run (if it were to land uninterrupted at field level) and its "standard" distance, which is corrected for weather conditions. Each homer is also categorized into one of three types: Just Enough (JE) for homers that cleared the fence by ten feet or less, Plenty (PL) for those that were sure home runs but not “blasts,” and No Doubt (ND) for true “blasts”—homers that cleared the fence by at least 20 feet and landed at least 50 feet beyond the fence.Hitter Team Pitcher Team True Stnd. # Type Jason Bay PIT Aaron Harang CIN 405 398 13 PL Lance Berkman HOU Ryan Franklin STL 435 430 17 PL Russell Branyan MIL Jorge Campillo ATL 435 437 1 ND Joe Crede CWS Edwin Jackson TB 403 402 9 PL Blake DeWitt LAD Jason Vargas NYM 367 333 5 PL/L Jody Gerut SD Charlie Manning WAS 379 374 2 ND Jeff Kent LAD Jason Vargas NYM 413 411 5 ND Paul Konerko CWS Jason Hammel TB 407 406 6 ND Carlos Lee HOU Kyle Lohse STL 427 422 12 PL Derrek Lee CHC Jeff Francis COL 397 399 13 PL Xavier Nady PIT Jeremy Affeldt CIN 356 351 9 JE Albert Pujols STL Roy Oswalt HOU 381 376 13 PL Shannon Stewart TOR Lenny DiNardo OAK 390 392 1 PL Mark Teixeira ATL Seth McClung MIL 351 353 6 JE Justin Upton ARI Barry Zito SF 435 419 7 PL Randy Winn SF Randy Johnson ARI 384 371 4 JE Randy Winn SF Chad Qualls ARI 374 364 3 JE/L David Wright NYM Brad Penny LAD 425 406 11 PL David Wright NYM Brad Penny LAD 384 358 10 JE/L Top Minor League GamesThe 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 MIL A Jonathan Lucroy... 3 3 1 0 1 1 0 PHI AA Jason Donald...... 4 3 2 0 0 1 0 SD A+ Kellen Kulbacki... 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI ATL A F. Freeman........ 3 2 2 0 0 2 0 FLA AA Gaby Sanchez...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 SD AAA Nick Hundley...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 LAA A+ Peter Bourjos..... 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 3 R SD A+ Cedric Hunter..... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 SF A C. Culberson...... 5 2 1 1 0 1 0 CIN A Brandon Waring.... 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 PHI A Michael Taylor.... 5 2 0 0 1 1 0 OAK AAA Kevin Melillo..... 4 1 0 0 1 2 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes MIN AAA Kevin Mulvey...... 7 5 3 3 9 0 1 COL AA Brandon Hynick.... 7 4 3 3 7 1 0 CHC AAA Kevin Hart........ 6 4 2 2 9 3 0 ATL AAA Charlie Morton.... 7 4 0 0 7 2 0 12 GB TB A+ Lewis Rollins..... 7 3 1 0 4 0 0 ATL AA Thomas Hanson..... 6 3 1 1 6 1 0 NYY AA George Kontos..... 7 4 2 2 6 2 0 MIN AA Anthony Swarzak... 6 7 3 2 10 2 1 BOS AA Michael Bowden.... 7 3 0 0 5 2 0 WAN AAA Collin Balester... 6 4 2 2 5 1 0 ATL A Jeffrey Locke..... 7 9 3 3 6 1 0 SEA A Phillippe Aumont.. 5 3 0 0 6 2 0 Access THT’s stats here…
Dave is the manager of the Baseball Graphs website.. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail. Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer. Next Article: This annotated week in baseball history: May 25-May 31, 1945>> <<Previous Article: Early-season surprises | |||||||
BOS 32 24 .571 1.0 31 1 
TOR 30 26 .536 3.0 31 -1 
BAL 26 26 .500 5.0 25 1 
NYA 26 27 .491 5.5 26 0 
American League Central
CHA 30 23 .566 0.0 31 -1 
MIN 28 25 .528 2.0 25 3 
CLE 24 29 .453 6.0 28 -4 
DET 22 31 .415 8.0 25 -3 
KC 21 33 .389 9.5 21 0 
American League West
LAA 32 23 .582 0.0 28 4 
OAK 29 25 .537 2.5 31 -2 
TEX 27 28 .491 5.0 26 1 
SEA 20 34 .370 11.5 21 -1 
National League East Pwins Diff
FLA 30 22 .577 0.0 27 3 
PHI 31 24 .564 0.5 33 -2 
ATL 29 25 .537 2.0 33 -4 
NYN 26 26 .500 4.0 27 -1 
WAS 23 32 .418 8.5 22 1 
National League Central
CHN 33 21 .611 0.0 35 -2 
STL 32 23 .582 1.5 31 1 
HOU 30 25 .545 3.5 28 2 
MIL 26 28 .481 7.0 24 2 
PIT 25 28 .472 7.5 23 2 
CIN 25 29 .463 8.0 25 0 
National League West
ARI 30 24 .556 0.0 32 -2 
LAN 26 27 .491 3.5 27 -1 
SF 23 31 .426 7.0 22 1 
SD 21 34 .382 9.5 20 1 
COL 20 34 .370 10.0 20 0 