THT Daily: Almost Over
by Matthew CarruthJune 20, 2007
Major League News for June 20
Today’s LinksPlayer 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/
THT Links
Granting Access - Tim Marchman of the NY Sun writes about teams that should grant press passes to the established internet writers out there. It's utterly true and a shame that no team has stood up yet and taken the initiative.
What To Do With Ichiro - Dave Cameron addresses the issue of what the Mariners should do with Ichiro Suzuki now that their playoff hopes are rather dim. Dave offers a good look at the results from the past in trading stars versus keeping them and walking away with the draft picks.
Giving Back - In another one of those traditions of the game that at least I was unaware of, rehabbing major league players buy dinner for the entire minor league team while they are down on the farm. Nice gesture.
The Pain of Salty - Jarrod Saltalamacchia apparently has no friends. Maybe this is why.
Kennedy Benched - A struggling Adam Kennedy has had his playing reduced dramatically in favor of Aaron Miles and Scott Spiezio.
THT Links represents the best efforts of our editors in scouring the various tubes of the interweb for both relevant and irrelevant news items. If you have happened upon a story that we have overlooked or wish to give feedback of any sort, please notify us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldJohan Santana shut down the Mets on Tuesday, hurling a complete game four-hitter to back Minnesota's 9-0 whitewashing in Shea Stadium. Surpringly, Santana recorded just one out via the strikeout, getting nine groundball outs and 17 flyball outs. He didn't walk a single batter and lowered his ERA to a sparkling 2.91 with this gem. This was Santana's first complete game of the season, coming in very easy fashion as, without going deep into counts to strike batters out, he needed a mere 92 pitches to polish this one off.
Rangers announced that general manager Jon Daniels has signed a one-year contract extension that runs through the 2009 season. Daniels will be busy over the next month or so, with plenty of veteran parts to sell off before the trading deadline. His sticking around is good news for manager Ron Washington, who's already received a ton of criticism since being hired during the offseason.
Jason Schmidt will have shoulder surgery on Wednesday, the Dodgers announced. The Dodgers didn't provide any details, suggesting that they won't know what's wrong until he's cut. Even if no major problems are found, Schmidt would have a very difficult time making it back this year. Odds are that he has some signficant rotator cuff or labrum damage anyway.
Royals placed designated hitter Mike Sweeney on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 18, with a sore right knee. Billy Butler is replacing him on the roster and figures to see time at first base and DH. Unfortunately, Sweeney can't even stay in the lineup as a designated hitter these days. He's hitting just .245/.307/.407 this season, so he's pretty worthless to the Royals even without factoring in his $11 million salary.
Dontrelle Willis hopes to make his next start after leaving Tuesday's game with left forearm tightness. Willis wanted to stay in tonight's game after giving up four runs in the first to the White Sox. "This is pretty much what happens when you throw a lot of innings," he said. "I didn't feel good, the tightness, but I felt I could get guys out. As far as that, my mental aspect was good. ...They made the decision and you have to look at it in the long run. Obviously I wasn't happy, but they're looking out for me." A DL stint is a possibility here, but the Marlins will probably wait two or three days before making a decision.
The Astros are planning on place Brad Lidge on the 15-day disabled list with a strained oblique. "I've been trying to throw through it for about a week," Lidge said. "It's one of those things where it's difficult, because it's hard not to reaggravate it when you're pitching. Right now, with where I'm at, I don't want to stop playing. But at the same time, I have to be smart. If I get it to the point where it's going to be really bad, then I'm going to put myself out for a while." Dan Wheeler will resume closing while Lidge is out. There's little chance that the Astros will trade a reliever for SP or offensive help until Lidge returns.
Curt Schilling will have an MRI on his shoulder after returning to Boston for an examination. "It makes sense to do this," manager Terry Francona said. "The ball didn’t come out of his hand too well … He was having trouble getting loose. With all this humidity, you’d think it would be easy to get loose." Schilling didn't admit to any soreness after his start Monday. The Red Sox aren't ruling him out for his start Sunday against the Padres, though it seems likely that they'll need to call on Jon Lester
David Dellucci is expected to go on the disabled list after injuring his left hamstring on Tuesday. The Indians have a couple of ways they can play this. They could call up Ben Francisco and go with Jason Michaels and Franklin Gutierrez in left field. The alternative would be to bring up Andy Marte to play third base, with Casey Blake moving out to left field. We're guessing they'll choose the former, but Marte has been pretty good at Buffalo lately.
Yesterday’s Results
Inter-League LAN 10 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 7 CHA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 9 CLE 6 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 9 LAA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 5 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 5 SEA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 5 TEX 4 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 4 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 9 NYN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 15 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 5 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 10 TB 8 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 3 NYA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 12 BAL 6 (Recap and Boxscore) National League MIL 6 SF 2 (Recap and Boxscore)
| First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports: |
Today’s Games
National League --------------- San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers, 2:05 PM (L) Barry Zito (6-7) vs. (R) Claudio Vargas (5-1) Inter-League ------------ Florida Marlins at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM (R) Sergio Mitre (2-3) vs. (R) Jon Garland (4-4) Cincinnati Reds at Oakland Athletics, 3:35 PM (R) Matt Belisle (5-5) vs. (R) Danny Haren (8-2) Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Arizona Diamondbacks, 3:40 PM (R) James Shields (6-1) vs. (R) Micah Owings (4-1) Philadelphia Phillies at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Jon Lieber (3-5) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (9-2) Detroit Tigers at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Jeremy Bonderman (7-0) vs. (L) Mike Bacsik (1-4) Los Angeles Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (L) Hong-Chih Kuo (1-1) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (7-2) Minnesota Twins at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Scott Baker (1-2) vs. (L) Oliver Perez (7-5) Boston Red Sox at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (R) Julian Tavarez (4-4) vs. (R) Buddy Carlyle (1-1) Kansas City Royals at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:10 PM (R) Gil Meche (4-6) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (2-0) Chicago Cubs at Texas Rangers, 8:35 PM (R) Jason Marquis (5-3) vs. (R) Kameron Loe (2-6) New York Yankees at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM (L) Andy Pettitte (4-4) vs. (L) Jeff Francis (6-5) Pittsburgh Pirates at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (L) Paul Maholm (3-9) vs. (R) Jeff Weaver (0-6) Baltimore Orioles at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Jeremy Guthrie (3-1) vs. (R) Justin Germano (5-0) Houston Astros at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (L) Wandy Rodriguez (4-6) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (5-7)
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 45 25 .643 0.0 43 2NYA 35 33 .515 9.0 41 -6
TOR 33 36 .478 11.5 34 -1
TB 31 38 .449 13.5 27 4
BAL 29 41 .414 16.0 33 -4
American League Central CLE 41 29 .586 0.0 40 1
DET 41 29 .586 0.0 43 -2
MIN 35 34 .507 5.5 35 0
CHA 29 38 .433 10.5 27 2
KC 29 43 .403 13.0 30 -1
American League West LAA 45 27 .625 0.0 42 3
OAK 38 32 .543 6.0 40 -2
SEA 35 32 .522 7.5 33 2
TEX 26 44 .371 18.0 30 -4
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 38 31 .551 0.0 37 1
ATL 38 34 .528 1.5 35 3
PHI 37 34 .521 2.0 35 2
FLA 34 38 .472 5.5 35 -1
WAS 30 41 .423 9.0 27 3
National League Central MIL 40 31 .563 0.0 37 3
CHN 32 37 .464 7.0 37 -5
STL 31 37 .456 7.5 27 4
PIT 31 39 .443 8.5 30 1
HOU 31 40 .437 9.0 33 -2
CIN 28 44 .389 12.5 32 -4
National League West SD 41 28 .594 0.0 44 -3
LAN 40 30 .571 1.5 38 2
ARI 41 31 .569 1.5 36 5
COL 36 34 .514 5.5 34 2
SF 30 40 .429 11.5 35 -5
Game of the Day
Trailing 7-1 in the fourth and 8-2 in the sixth, the Diamondbacks matched the biggest comeback in their history by beating the Devil Rays, 10-8 in ten innings. The key blows were Tony Clark’s pinch-hit two-run home run in the ninth, and Chris Young’s game-winning home run in the tenth.TAMPA BAY (8) VS ARIZONA (10) - FINAL IN 10 INNINGS
TAMPA BAY ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
A Iwamura 3b 5 3 3 2 0 1 3 .317
B Harris ss 5 0 1 0 0 3 3 .318
C Crawford lf 4 1 1 2 0 0 0 .294
T Wigginton 2b 5 1 1 2 0 1 2 .283
C Pena 1b 3 1 0 0 2 0 2 .309
D Young cf 4 1 1 1 1 0 3 .266
J Gomes rf 5 0 2 1 0 1 0 .288
Al Reyes p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
D Navarro c 4 0 0 0 1 0 2 .170
J Howell p 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 .333
C Fossum p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
S Camp p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
a-J Cantu ph 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .273
J Witasick p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
G Glover p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
E Dukes rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .190
Totals 39 8 10 8 4 7 18
a-hit by pitch for S Camp in the 7th.
BATTING: 2B - A Iwamura (6, D Davis). HR - A Iwamura (2, 1st inning off D Davis
0 on, 0 Out), T Wigginton (12, 4th inning off D Davis 1 on, 2 Out). SF - A
Iwamura. RBI - A Iwamura 2 (10), D Young (39), J Gomes (14), C Crawford 2 (43),
T Wigginton 2 (35). 2-out RBI - D Young, J Gomes, T Wigginton 2. Runners left
in scoring position, 2 out - B Harris 1, D Navarro 1, D Young 2. Team LOB - 8.
FIELDING: DP: 1 (A Iwamura-T Wigginton-C Pena).
ARIZONA ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
E Byrnes lf 6 1 3 1 0 0 3 .310
S Drew ss 4 1 1 0 2 2 3 .238
O Hudson 2b 5 0 2 1 1 3 7 .305
C Jackson 1b 5 1 1 0 1 1 2 .267
M Reynolds 3b 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 .284
J Cruz p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
b-C Tracy ph-3b 2 1 0 0 1 0 1 .287
C Young cf 6 2 3 2 0 1 4 .252
C Snyder c 4 0 1 0 0 2 5 .213
c-M Montero ph-c 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .202
C Quentin rf 4 3 2 3 1 0 1 .212
D Davis p 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .048
a-S Hairston ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .234
J Peguero p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
A Ojeda 3b 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 .333
T Pena p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333
d-T Clark ph 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 .236
B Lyon p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 43 10 16 10 8 9 26
a-singled to center for D Davis in the 4th; b-walked for J Cruz in the 7th;
c-flied out to center for C Snyder in the 9th; d-homered to right for T Pena
in the 9th.
BATTING: 2B - S Drew (12, J Howell). HR - C Quentin (5, 6th inning off J Howell
0 on, 0 Out), T Clark (8, 9th inning off Al Reyes 1 on, 1 Out), C Young (10,
10th inning off Al Reyes 1 on, 1 Out). RBI - M Reynolds (16), C Quentin 3 (26),
O Hudson (39), E Byrnes (36), T Clark 2 (24), C Young 2 (27). 2-out RBI - O
Hudson, C Quentin, E Byrnes. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - O Hudson
4, C Snyder 2, C Jackson 1. GIDP - C Jackson. Team LOB - 13.
BASERUNNING: SB - E Byrnes (14, 2nd base off C Fossum/D Navarro).
FIELDING: E - E Byrnes (3, bobble). PB - C Snyder.
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TAMPA BAY - 320 210 000 0 -- 8
ARIZONA - 100 102 202 2 -- 10
One out when winning run scored.
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TAMPA BAY ip h r er bb so hr era
J Howell 5 1/3 9 4 4 4 4 1 4.26
C Fossum 1/3 1 0 0 0 1 0 7.53
S Camp 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.84
J Witasick 2/3 2 2 2 3 1 0 4.82
G Glover (H, 4) 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 2 0 4.54
Al Reyes (L, 1-1; B, 1) 1 1/3 4 4 4 1 1 2 3.26
ARIZONA ip h r er bb so hr era
D Davis 4 9 7 7 1 3 2 4.26
J Peguero 1 1 1 1 2 2 0 3.37
J Cruz 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 4.01
T Pena 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.35
B Lyon (W, 5-2) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.43
WP - J Witasick. HBP - C Crawford (by D Davis); J Cantu (by J Cruz).
Pitches-strikes: J Howell 107-65; C Fossum 6-4; S Camp 5-4; J Witasick 32-16; G
Glover 16-9; Al Reyes 44-28; D Davis 81-50; J Peguero 25-13; J Cruz 20-11; T
Pena 20-16; B Lyon 13-10. Ground balls-fly balls: J Howell 7-5; C Fossum 0-0; S
Camp 1-0; J Witasick 0-1; G Glover 1-1; Al Reyes 0-3; D Davis 4-5; J Peguero
0-1; J Cruz 1-5; T Pena 1-4; B Lyon 2-0. Batters faced: J Howell 28; C Fossum
2; S Camp 1; J Witasick 7; G Glover 4; Al Reyes 9; D Davis 23; J Peguero 6; J
Cruz 8; T Pena 6; B Lyon 3.
UMPIRES: HP--Tim Mcclelland. 1B--Marty Foster. 2B--Paul Schrieber.
3B--Fieldin Culbreth.
T--4:05. Att--19,761.
Weather: 101 degrees, clear. Wind: 6 mph, swirling.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.
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 CIN A+ Jay Bruce......... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 5 2 0 0 1 0 0 SEA AAA Adam Jones........ 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 BOS AAA George Kottaras... 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 TB AA Evan Longoria..... 3 3 1 0 0 1 0 3 LD COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 4 3 1 0 0 1 0 3 LD ARI AA Carlos Gonzalez... 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 OAK AA Landon Powell..... 4 3 0 0 2 1 0 5 RBI ! PHI A+ Welinson Baez..... 4 2 1 1 0 1 1 TB AA Evan Longoria..... 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 COL AAA Jayson Nix........ 6 4 2 0 0 0 0 3 R SEA AAA W. Balentien...... 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes KC AA Luke Hochevar..... 7 5 1 0 5 0 0 MIN A+ Yohan Pino........ 8 5 0 0 7 0 0 SEA AA Andrew Baldwin.... 7 1 0 0 5 1 0 6 infield flies BOS AA Charlie Zink...... 9 6 1 1 8 2 0 ATL AA Matt Harrison..... 6 4 0 0 5 2 0 KC AA Jarod Plummer..... 3 1 0 0 5 0 0 PHI AAA J.A. Happ......... 4 3 1 1 6 2 0 BAL AAA Garrett Olson..... 7 1 1 1 4 2 1 FLA AA G. Hernandez...... 4 0 0 0 2 1 0 7 OF MIN AAA Jason Miller...... 4 3 1 0 5 2 0 COL AA Gregory Reynolds.. 5 2 0 0 1 1 0 TB AAA Jeff Niemann...... 6 8 4 4 3 2 0
Access THT’s stats here…
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.