THT Daily: All Comes Down to This

by Matthew Carruth
September 30, 2007

Major League News for September 30

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Stats

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

Player News

Player news items are provided by Rotoworld
Tom Glavine was lit up for seven runs in one-third of an inning by the Marlins in Sunday's finale.
A disaster. Glavine allowed five hits, walked two and hit Dontrelle Willis with a pitch before Jorge Sosa replaced him. The outing took his ERA up to 4.45, but that's probably of no importance to Glavine right now. If this is it for the Mets, it's hard to imagine Glavine would want to go out like this.

The Mets will start Tom Glavine on Sunday against Dontrelle Willis in what could be the final start of his Hall of Fame career.
Asked to rank this start in importance in his Mets career, Glavine said: "It's certainly one of, if not the most important one, I've had, obviously. It's hard to say it's any more important than a playoff game that I pitched last year." He's currently 13-7 with a 4.14 ERA.

On Saturday, Craig Biggio started at catcher for the first time since Oct. 5, 1991. He'll start the final game of his career on Sunday.
"I enjoyed it," Biggio, 41, said. "I forgot what that side of the game was like, when you're just calling pitches and figuring out how to set hitters up." Biggio went 2-for-4 with a single, hit career double No. 667 and scored a run.

Jack Wilson was taken off the field on a motorized cart during the sixth inning Saturday with an apparent head injury.
Wilson collided headfirst with second baseman Matt Kata just beyond the infield dirt as the two were going after a ground ball hit up the middle and immediately appeared to lose consciousness. Cesar Izturis took over at shortstop.

John Maine lost his no-hitter with two outs in the eighth Saturday in the Mets' 13-0 win over the Marlins.
Maine was pulled immediately after Paul Hoover's infield single. He struck out 14, so he was up to 115 pitches on the afternoon. It was the most Ks for a Mets pitcher since Al Leiter fanned 15 on Aug. 1, 1999. The Mets will likely need to win again Sunday when they send Tom Glavine to the mound against Dontrelle Willis.

White Sox signed catcher A.J. Pierzynski to a two-year, $12.5-million contract extension through 2010.
The White Sox shouldn't have felt it was necessary to lock up a soon-to-be 31-year-old catcher already signed for 2008, but it's the way GM Ken Williams does things. Pierzynski is hitting .263/.309/.403 in what's going to go down as the worst offensive season of his career. There's nothing to suggest it's a real decline, but he could be a below average regular before his new contract expires after 2010.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
NYA    11  BAL    10    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     6  MIN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     5  TB      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     3  DET     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      4  CLE     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     3  OAK     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     5  TEX     1    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
NYN    13  FLA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
WAS     4  PHI     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     4  CIN     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     3  ATL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     4  SD      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     7  PIT     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL    11  ARI     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     6  SF      5    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Florida Marlins at New York Mets, 1:10 PM
  (L) Dontrelle Willis (10-15) vs. (L) Tom Glavine (13-7)
 Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds, 1:15 PM
  (L) Ted Lilly (15-8) vs. (R) Homer Bailey (3-2)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 1:35 PM
  (R) Troy Percival (3-0) vs. (R) Bryan Bullington (0-2)
 Washington Nationals at Philadelphia Phillies, 1:35 PM
  (R) Jason Bergmann (6-5) vs. (L) Jamie Moyer (13-12)
 Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros, 2:05 PM
  (R) Buddy Carlyle (8-6) vs. (R) Felipe Paulino (1-1)
 San Diego Padres at Milwaukee Brewers, 2:05 PM
  (R) Brett Tomko (4-11) vs. (R) Jeff Suppan (11-12)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM
  (R) Yusmeiro Petit (3-4) vs. (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (4-4)
 San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 4:10 PM
  (L) Barry Zito (10-13) vs. (L) Eric Stults (1-3)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (R) Jason Hammel (2-5) vs. (R) AJ Burnett (10-7)
 New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM
  (L) Sean Henn (2-2) vs. (L) Brian Burres (6-7)
 Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (L) Nate Robertson (8-13) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (10-16)
 Minnesota Twins at Boston Red Sox, 2:05 PM
  (R) Matt Garza (4-7) vs. (R) Julian Tavarez (7-10)
 Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM
  (L) Aaron Laffey (3-2) vs. (R) Luke Hochevar (0-0)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM
  (R) Jered Weaver (13-7) vs. (R) Chad Gaudin (11-13)
 Texas Rangers at Seattle Mariners, 4:05 PM
  (L) A.J. Murray (1-1) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (13-7)

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
BOS     96  65 .596    0.0  101    -5    
NYA     93  68 .578    3.0   97    -4    
TOR     83  78 .516   13.0   86    -3    
BAL     69  92 .429   27.0   70    -1    
TB      65  96 .404   31.0   65     0    
American League Central     
CLE     95  66 .590    0.0   91     4    
DET     87  74 .540    8.0   88    -1    
MIN     78  83 .484   17.0   80    -2    
CHA     72  89 .447   23.0   67     5    
KC      69  92 .429   26.0   73    -4    
American League West        
LAA     94  67 .584    0.0   90     4    
SEA     87  74 .540    7.0   78     9    
OAK     75  86 .466   19.0   79    -4    
TEX     75  86 .466   19.0   78    -3    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     88  73 .547    0.0   87     1    
PHI     88  73 .547    0.0   87     1    
ATL     84  77 .522    4.0   88    -4    
WAS     73  88 .453   15.0   70     3    
FLA     70  91 .435   18.0   70     0    
National League Central     
CHN     85  76 .528    0.0   87    -2    
MIL     82  79 .509    3.0   82     0    
STL     77  84 .478    8.0   70     7    
HOU     72  89 .447   13.0   71     1    
CIN     71  90 .441   14.0   73    -2    
PIT     68  93 .422   17.0   69    -1    
National League West        
ARI     90  71 .559    0.0   79    11    
SD      89  72 .553    1.0   89     0    
COL     88  73 .547    2.0   90    -2    
LAN     82  79 .509    8.0   82     0    
SF      70  91 .435   20.0   76    -6    


Wildcard Standings
American League             
NYA     93  68 .578    0.0
SEA     87  74 .540    6.0
DET     87  74 .540    6.0
TOR     83  78 .516   10.0
MIN     78  83 .484   15.0
National League             
SD      89  72 .553    0.0
COL     88  73 .547    1.0
ATL     84  77 .522    5.0
LAN     82  79 .509    7.0
MIL     82  79 .509    7.0