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THT Daily: Active Nationals

by THT Staff
July 23, 2008

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
Top Minor League Performances

You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/ and an archive at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/thtdaily_index/

Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
image
The Nationals played a game last night, too. Jason Bergmann calls for the ball while Bengie Molina circles the bases after hitting his second home run of the night. The Nats lost, 6-3. (Icon/SMI)

Diamondbacks acquired RHP Jon Rauch from the Nationals for 2B Emilio Bonifacio. An outstanding pickup for Arizona's pen at a small cost. Rauch probably won't close initially, but he can be a fallback if Brandon Lyon continues to struggle. He'll upgrade the eighth inning and push Tony Pena and Chad Qualls back to the sixth and seventh innings. Theoretically, it gives the Diamondbacks one of the best setup corps in baseball. Bonifacio wasn't going to be the answer at second base next year if Orlando Hudson leaves, so it's no problem giving him up in this one, particularly with Rauch under control through 2010 ($2 million in 2009, $2.9 million option in 2010).

A source told MLB.com that the Astros will acquire Randy Wolf from the Padres for a minor league pitcher. Fernando Nieve, Bud Norris and Brad James would seem to be possibilities. At least there's no pitcher in the Houston system the team can't afford to lose. Chris Young will be the eventual replacement for Wolf in San Diego's rotation, but the Padres may need someone else to make a spot start this week.

With two more scoreless innings on Tuesday, Brad Ziegler broke the AL record for consecutive scoreless innings to start a career. Ziegler is up to 23 2/3 innings. He passed Boo Farris, who established the AL record of 22 innings in 1945. George McCullen has the longest streak since 1900, throwing 25 scoreless innings in 1907.

The New York Journal News reports that an MRI exam on Billy Wagner's sore left shoulder Tuesday revealed merely a muscle spasm with zero structural damage. Wagner is now considered day-to-day. He struck out the side in an appearance Sunday that came after he had trouble warming up and could be available out of the Mets' bullpen Tuesday.

Nationals agreed to terms with shortstop Cristian Guzman on a two-year contract extension through 2010. Hooray? Guzman has been an above average regular this year, and though he's been around forever, he's still only 30 years old. On the other hand, his declining steal totals suggest that he's an old 30 and if he finishes this year with more than 120 games played and a 700 OPS, he'd be doing it for the first time in his career. It's just a two-year deal and it was going to be a barren shortstop market this winter, so it's probably not a bad move, pending the dollars. Still, he's not going to lead the team anywhere in 2009 or 2010.

Wily Mo Pena will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his torn rotator cuff. The surgery was successful, and the Nationals are saying he'll miss 4-to-6 months and be ready for spring training next season. He finished the season hitting .205 with two homers and 10 RBI in 195 at-bats, much of it likely the result of what the doctor referred to as the "signifcant" tear in his rotator cuff.

Yesterday’s Results
American League
TOR    10  BAL     8    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     8  MIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     8  TB      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA    10  TEX     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     7  KC      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     3  CLE     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     4  SEA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
FLA     4  ATL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     8  NYN     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     4  SD      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     8  HOU     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     4  STL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     9  CHN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL    10  LAN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      6  WAS     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.

First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

Today’s Games
National League
 ---------------
 San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds, 12:35 PM
  (R) Greg Maddux (3-8) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (8-7)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Houston Astros, 2:05 PM
  (R) Ian Snell (3-8) vs. (R) Brian Moehler (5-4)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM
  (R) Hiroki Kuroda (5-6) vs. (L) Glendon Rusch (3-3)
 Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (R) Brett Myers (3-9) vs. (R) John Maine (8-7)
 Atlanta Braves at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM
  (R) Tim Hudson (10-7) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (10-5)
 Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (L) CC Sabathia (3-0) vs. (R) Braden Looper (9-7)
 Chicago Cubs at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (L) Ted Lilly (9-6) vs. (L) Doug Davis (3-4)
 Washington Nationals at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM
  (R) Collin Balester (1-2) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (1-5)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Oakland Athletics at Tampa Bay Rays, 12:40 PM
  (L) Greg Smith (5-8) vs. (R) James Shields (8-6)
 Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (L) Glen Perkins (7-2) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (12-6)
 Texas Rangers at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (R) Kevin Millwood (6-6) vs. (L) Clayton Richard (0-0)
 Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM
  (R) Armando Galarraga (7-4) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (7-6)
 Cleveland Indians at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM
  (L) Aaron Laffey (5-6) vs. (R) John Lackey (7-2)
 Boston Red Sox at Seattle Mariners, 4:40 PM
  (R) Clay Buchholz (2-5) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (7-6)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) A.J. Burnett (10-9) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (6-7)

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
TB      58  41 .586    0.0   54     4    sparkline graph
BOS     59  43 .578    0.5   61    -2    sparkline graph
NYA     55  45 .550    3.5   55     0    sparkline graph
TOR     49  51 .490    9.5   52    -3    sparkline graph
BAL     48  51 .485   10.0   49    -1    sparkline graph
American League Central     
CHA     56  43 .566    0.0   58    -2    sparkline graph
MIN     55  45 .550    1.5   52     3    sparkline graph
DET     51  49 .510    5.5   53    -2    sparkline graph
KC      45  56 .446   12.0   43     2    sparkline graph
CLE     44  55 .444   12.0   51    -7    sparkline graph
American League West        
LAA     61  39 .610    0.0   53     8    sparkline graph
OAK     52  48 .520    9.0   57    -5    sparkline graph
TEX     52  49 .515    9.5   47     5    sparkline graph
SEA     38  62 .380   23.0   42    -4    sparkline graph


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     54  46 .540    0.0   58    -4    sparkline graph
FLA     53  47 .530    1.0   48     5    sparkline graph
NYN     53  47 .530    1.0   53     0    sparkline graph
ATL     47  53 .470    7.0   53    -6    sparkline graph
WAS     38  62 .380   16.0   39    -1    sparkline graph
National League Central     
CHN     58  42 .580    0.0   60    -2    sparkline graph
MIL     57  43 .570    1.0   53     4    sparkline graph
STL     57  45 .559    2.0   54     3    sparkline graph
CIN     49  53 .480   10.0   46     3    sparkline graph
HOU     46  54 .460   12.0   44     2    sparkline graph
PIT     46  54 .460   12.0   43     3    sparkline graph
National League West        
ARI     50  50 .500    0.0   51    -1    sparkline graph
LAN     49  51 .490    1.0   51    -2    sparkline graph
COL     44  58 .431    7.0   45    -1    sparkline graph
SF      41  58 .414    8.5   42    -1    sparkline graph
SD      38  63 .376   12.5   40    -2    sparkline graph

Game of the Day
Phillies 8, Mets 6 - FINAL

PHILADELPHIA           ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
J Rollins ss            5  1  1  2   0  0   2  .270
C Utley 2b              5  0  0  0   0  0   0  .292
P Burrell lf            4  1  2  0   1  1   0  .283
 E Bruntlett 3b         0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .231
R Howard 1b             5  0  1  1   0  0   1  .236
J Werth rf              4  1  2  1   1  0   0  .272
P Feliz 3b              3  0  0  0   0  2   2  .260
 vb-G Dobbs ph          2  1  1  0   0  0   2  .317
 B Lidge p              0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
S Victorino cf          4  2  2  1   0  0   0  .279
C Ruiz c                4  1  2  1   0  0   0  .210
J Blanton p             1  0  1  0   0  0   0 1.000
 va-C Coste ph          1  0  0  0   0  1   1  .275
 R Seanez p             0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 J Romero p             0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 C Durbin p             0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .167
 vc-G Jenkins ph        0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .238
 vd-S Taguchi ph-lf     1  1  1  2   0  0   0  .221

Totals                 39  8 13  8   2  4   8   ###

NY METS                ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
J Reyes ss              4  1  0  0   1  0   2  .297
E Chavez rf             4  1  3  0   1  0   0  .264
D Wright 3b             5  1  2  1   0  1   2  .287
C Beltran cf            4  0  0  1   1  0   1  .268
C Delgado 1b            5  1  1  2   0  0   2  .260
D Easley 2b             2  0  0  0   0  0   0  .274
M Anderson lf           2  1  1  0   1  0   1  .211
 ha-F Tatis ph-lf       1  0  0  0   0  0   3  .293
R Castro c              4  1  2  2   0  0   1  .299
J Santana p             2  0  1  0   1  1   2  .146
 hb-A Reyes ph          1  0  0  0   0  0   0  .296
 D Sanchez p            0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 J Smith p              0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 P Feliciano p          0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 A Heilman p            0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000

Totals                 34  6 10  6   5  2  14   ###

----------------------------------------------------
    PHILADELPHIA    - 100 000 106   --   8 13 0
    NY METS         - 003 002 001   --   6 10 0
----------------------------------------------------

va-struck out looking for J Blanton in the 7th;  ha-lined out to second for M 
Anderson in the 7th;  hb-grounded to first for J Santana in the 8th;  
vb-singled to center for P Feliz in the 9th;  vc-hit for J Blanton in the 9th;  
vd-doubled to deep right for G Jenkins in the 9th.

BATTING: 2B - P Burrell (24, J Santana); S Taguchi (5, P Feliciano); J Rollins 
(22, P Feliciano); D Wright (26, J Blanton); E Chavez (8, R Seanez). HR - C 
Delgado (19, 3rd inning off J Blanton 1 on, 2 Out), R Castro (5, 6th inning off 
J Blanton 1 on, 2 Out), S Victorino (6, 7th inning off J Santana 0 on, 2 Out). 
S - J Blanton. RBI - J Werth (37), S Victorino (30), C Ruiz (21), S Taguchi 2 
(6), J Rollins 2 (34), R Howard (88), D Wright (77), C Delgado 2 (59), R Castro 
2 (18), C Beltran (69). 2-out RBI - J Werth, S Victorino, C Delgado 2, R Castro 
2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - P Feliz 1, J Rollins 1, R Howard 
1, G Dobbs 1, F Tatis 2, J Santana 1. GIDP - J Rollins, R Castro. Team LOB - 
PHILADELPHIA 7, NY METS 8. FIELDING: Outfield assists - P Burrell (E Chavez at 
Home), J Werth (E Chavez at Home). DP:  (C Utley-J Rollins-R Howard, D Wright-D 
Easley-C Delgado). 

PHILADELPHIA                 ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
J Blanton                     6       8   5   5   3   1   2   7.50
R Seanez                        1/3   2   0   0   1   0   0   2.87
J Romero                        2/3   0   0   0   0   0   0   2.09
C Durbin (W, 3-2)             1       0   0   0   0   0   0   1.78
B Lidge (S, 22)               1       0   1   1   1   1   0   1.29

NY METS                      ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
J Santana                     8       8   2   2   0   4   1   3.05
D Sanchez                     0       3   3   3   0   0   0   3.95
J Smith (L, 1-2)              0       0   1   1   0   0   0   3.12
P Feliciano (B, 2)              2/3   2   2   2   1   0   0   4.21
A Heilman                       1/3   0   0   0   1   0   0   4.78

D Sanchez pitched to 3 batters in the 9th.
J Smith pitched to 1 batter in the 9th.

WP - B Lidge. IBB - P Burrell (by P Feliciano), C Beltran (by R Seanez). HBP 
- D Easley 2 (by J Blanton, J Romero). Pitches-strikes: J Blanton 109-67; R 
Seanez 11-4; J Romero 10-5; C Durbin 16-10; B Lidge 21-10; J Santana 105-75; D 
Sanchez 15-10; J Smith 5-2; P Feliciano 17-11; A Heilman 7-3. Ground balls-fly 
balls: J Blanton 7-9; R Seanez 0-0; J Romero 0-2; C Durbin 2-1; B Lidge 2-0; J 
Santana 13-7; D Sanchez 0-0; J Smith 1-0; P Feliciano 2-0; A Heilman 0-1. 
Batters faced: J Blanton 28; R Seanez 3; J Romero 3; C Durbin 3; B Lidge 4; J 
Santana 31; D Sanchez 3; J Smith 1; P Feliciano 5; A Heilman 2. IRS - P 
Feliciano 3, J Smith. UMPIRES: HP--Derryl Cousins. 1B--Angel Hernandez. 
2B--Eric Cooper. 3B--Marty Foster. EJECTIONS:  PHILADELPHIA's Manuel by Foster 
(4th).   T--3:13. Att--55,081. Weather: 81 degrees, cloudy. Wind: 9 mph, in 
from center.

The following graph tracks the game's Win Probability, courtesy of Fan Graphs. You can also view live WPA graphs at Fangraphs during any ballgame all season long.

image

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
PIT A+  Jamie Romak....... 5  4  3  0  0  0  0  
MIL A+  Brent Brewer...... 4  4  2  0  0  1  0  5 RBI !
COL AAA Jayson Nix........ 4  3  1  0  1  1  1  3 R
PIT A+  James Negrych..... 5  3  3  0  0  0  1  
NYY A   Brandon Laird..... 5  4  1  0  1  0  0  3 LD
SF  AA  Pablo Sandoval.... 7  3  1  0  1  0  0  6 RBI !
SEA AAA W. Balentien...... 4  2  2  0  0  1  0  
MIN AAA Trevor Plouffe.... 4  3  2  0  0  0  0  
TOR AAA Kevin Melillo..... 3  3  0  0  1  1  0  
TOR AA  Scott Campbell.... 2  2  1  0  0  3  0  
SEA A+  Carlos Triunfel... 5  3  1  0  0  0  0  2 SB
ATL A+  Eric Campbell..... 3  1  0  0  1  3  1  3 R

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
MIN AAA F. Liriano........ 7  2  0  0 10  2  0  
WAN AAA Shairon Martis.... 6  5  1  1 12  2  0  
LAA A+  Sean O'Sullivan... 7  3  0  0  8  1  0  
PHI A+  Drew Naylor....... 7  2  2  1  7  3  0  
TEX A+  Zachary Phillips.. 6  2  1  1  8  3  0  
SD  AAA Wade Leblanc...... 6  3  1  1  7  2  0  
PHI AAA J.A. Happ......... 6  4  3  3  8  1  1  
SF  A   M. Bumgarner...... 7  5  3  2  6  2  0  
COL A+  Jhoulys Chacin.... 5  1  0  0  4  0  0  
ATL AAA James Parr........ 6  1  1  1  4  2  0  
BAL A   Zachary Britton... 6  3  1  1  5  2  0  
CHW AAA Jack Egbert....... 6  7  5  2  5  0  0  

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