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THT Daily: Another Lockupby Matthew CarruthMay 18, 2008 Major League News for May 18Player 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 NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldThe Rangers announced Sunday that Hank Blalock (hamstring) will play first base after he comes off the disabled list. This isn't good for the organization or the player. Third base is just as much of a problem spot as first base for the Rangers, and at least they have a top prospect at first in Chris Davis. Blalock has only occasionally hit like a legitimate first baseman in his career, and he could cost himself quite a bit of money going forward unless he returns to third later this year. That's probably what will happen. The switch might help Blalock stay healthy and work out in the short-term, but Blalock shouldn't be the Rangers' first baseman in 2009. Ramon Vazquez and German Duran will keep playing third for now. Chris Shelton figures to lose his spot once Blalock is activated. Bartolo Colon will make his Red Sox debut Wednesday at home against the Royals. Colon tossed six scoreless innings for Triple-A Pawtucket on Thursday, but was limited to 64 pitches. He probably won't go very deep into Wednesday's game, maybe 80 pitches. He's a risky fantasy play at this point. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Rick Ankiel could land on the disabled list after injuring his shoulder on a hard swing in Friday's game. The newspaper says the Cardinals have privately prepared to promote outfielder Joe Mather from Triple-A Memphis to replace Ankiel. Mather, 25, is hitting .308 with seven homers and a .637 slugging percentage. Roy Oswalt suffered a strained right groin in the seventh inning Saturday and left the game against the Rangers. Oswalt gave up six runs in six-plus innings before exiting in the middle of an at-bat by Brandon Boggs. Tim Byrdak replaced him. If Oswalt needs to miss some time, the Astros will probably call up Jack Cassel to start in his place. Josh Hamilton left Saturday's game in the fifth inning due to exhaustion. Frankly, he's been forced to run the bases far too often. He should try simply striking out every once in a while. Much easier on the body. Hamilton was aching before the game and might have already been in line for a day off on Sunday. He's day-to-day. Shawn Hill could miss his next start with a sore right elbow. Hill had a cortisone shot and fluid taken out Saturday. He claims the elbow soreness is not serious, but could keep him out of his scheduled start next week against the Phillies. Royals signed RHP Joakim Soria to a three-year contract with options for 2012, '13 and '14. It's rather odd that Soria would give the Royals all of the option years like that, but they'll probably be under pretty favorable terms. Unfortunately, Soria has been so good this year that it appears unlikely that we'll ever see what he could do as a starter. He certainly has the varied arsenal to get through lineups three times per night. Soria, who turns 24 on Saturday, just gave up his first two runs on Thursday, but he recorded the save anyway, making him 11-for-11 on the season. If the Royals keep him in the closer's role, he'll probably be an elite reliever for a long time. Daisuke Matsuzaka improved to 7-0 by allowing only two runs over six-plus against the Brewers in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. Matsuzaka let up seven hits, but struck out six. His only bad blemish was a Mike Cameron homer in the seventh, but a Kevin Youkilis error on the play before meant the runs weren't charged to Dice-K. His seven wins are tied with the Angels' Joe Saunders for best in the AL and he's got a good chance of picking up win number eight against the Royals next week. Marlins signed shortstop Hanley Ramirez to a six-year, $70 million contract. MLB.com reported that Ramirez will get $23.5 million in his arbitration years (2009-11), $15 million in 2012, $15.5 million in 2013 and $16 million in 2014. Surprisingly, there isn't a no-trade clause of any sort included. The Marlins surely didn't lock him up to trade him, but there's always the chance he'll go, especially if they have a setback with their new ballpark. "Hanley can do it all on the field and he's always trying to improve himself and our team," said Marlins owner Jeffery Loria. "We are looking forward to Hanley remaining an integral part of our team for many years." Yesterday’s ResultsAmerican League BAL 6 WAS 5 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 5 MIL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 7 MIL 6 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 7 NYA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 6 LAA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 4 SD 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 6 HOU 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League OAK 5 ATL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 7 KC 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 6 PHI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 7 CHN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 4 CLE 2 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 9 TB 8 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 3 ARI 2 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 3 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 3 SF 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (L) Phil Dumatrait (1-1) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (1-3) Inter-League ------------ Kansas City Royals at Florida Marlins, 1:10 PM (R) Zack Greinke (4-1) vs. (R) Burke Badenhop (1-2) Cleveland Indians at Cincinnati Reds, 1:15 PM (L) Cliff Lee (6-0) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (6-1) Milwaukee Brewers at Boston Red Sox, 1:35 PM (R) Carlos Villanueva (2-4) vs. (R) Josh Beckett (4-3) Toronto Blue Jays at Philadelphia Phillies, 1:35 PM (R) Shaun Marcum (4-2) vs. (R) Kyle Kendrick (3-2) Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM (L) John Lannan (3-4) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (2-3) Oakland Athletics at Atlanta Braves, 1:35 PM (R) Justin Duchscherer (3-2) vs. (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (1-1) Tampa Bay Rays at St. Louis Cardinals, 2:15 PM (R) Edwin Jackson (2-3) vs. (R) Kyle Lohse (3-2) Minnesota Twins at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM (R) Kevin Slowey (0-3) vs. (L) Jeff Francis (0-4) Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, 3:05 PM (R) Brandon Backe (2-5) vs. (L) Kason Gabbard (1-0) Los Angeles Dodgers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM (R) Derek Lowe (2-3) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (2-5) Chicago White Sox at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM (L) John Danks (3-3) vs. (R) Matt Cain (2-3) Detroit Tigers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 4:10 PM (L) Nate Robertson (1-4) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (3-1) San Diego Padres at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM (L) Shawn Estes (1-0) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (2-4) New York Mets at New York Yankees, 8:05 PM (L) Oliver Perez (3-3) vs. (R) Chien-Ming Wang (6-1) 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 25 18 .581 0.0 24 1 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.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes LA A P. Mattingly...... 5 4 1 0 1 0 0 3 R DET AAA Jeff Larish....... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 TB AAA Fernando Perez.... 5 3 0 1 1 0 1 MIL AA Alcides Escobar... 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 3 R OAK AAA Carlos Gonzalez... 4 3 1 1 0 0 1 CLE AAA Josh Barfield..... 4 2 2 0 0 0 1 DET AA Daniel Worth...... 4 2 0 1 1 0 0 BOS AA Zachary Daeges.... 3 2 1 0 1 0 0 BOS A+ Jason Place....... 6 3 2 0 0 0 1 SEA AAA Tim Hulett........ 4 2 1 1 0 0 1 CHC AAA Eric Patterson.... 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 ATL AAA Brandon Jones..... 4 2 2 0 0 0 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes KC A+ Blake Wood........ 6 1 0 0 10 2 0 ARI AAA Yusmeiro Petit.... 6 5 3 2 10 0 0 MIN A+ Jeffrey Manship... 7 3 0 0 6 1 0 BAL A+ Brandon Erbe...... 5 5 3 1 6 0 0 TEX A Kennil Gomez...... 5 3 3 2 6 2 0 ATL AA Todd Redmond...... 7 4 2 1 4 2 0 STL AAA Blake Hawksworth.. 6 4 2 2 6 3 0 NYY A+ Christian Garcia.. 5 6 2 1 6 1 0 MIN AA Ryan Mullins...... 6 4 4 1 5 1 1 MIL A Robert Bryson..... 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 NYY AA George Kontos..... 5 3 2 2 7 3 1 CHW A+ Aaron Poreda...... 7 4 3 1 2 2 0 Access all of THT’s stats here…
Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email. 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: THT Dartboard: May 18, 2008>> <<Previous Article: THT Daily: Bay Extremes | |||
BOS 26 19 .578 0.0 25 1 
BAL 23 19 .548 1.5 21 2 
TOR 22 23 .489 4.0 22 0 
NYA 20 23 .465 5.0 21 -1 
American League Central
CHA 22 20 .524 0.0 24 -2 
CLE 22 21 .512 0.5 25 -3 
MIN 21 21 .500 1.0 21 0 
KC 20 22 .476 2.0 18 2 
DET 17 26 .395 5.5 18 -1 
American League West
LAA 25 20 .556 0.0 22 3 
OAK 24 20 .545 0.5 26 -2 
TEX 22 22 .500 2.5 20 2 
SEA 17 27 .386 7.5 19 -2 
National League East Pwins Diff
FLA 24 18 .571 0.0 22 2 
PHI 24 20 .545 1.0 24 0 
NYN 21 19 .525 2.0 21 0 
ATL 21 21 .500 3.0 25 -4 
WAS 18 26 .409 7.0 18 0 
National League Central
CHN 26 17 .605 0.0 28 -2 
STL 25 20 .556 2.0 24 1 
HOU 24 20 .545 2.5 23 1 
PIT 21 22 .488 5.0 20 1 
CIN 20 23 .465 6.0 19 1 
MIL 20 23 .465 6.0 19 1 
National League West
ARI 27 16 .628 0.0 27 0 
LAN 22 20 .524 4.5 23 -1 
SF 17 27 .386 10.5 16 1 
COL 16 27 .372 11.0 17 -1 
SD 16 28 .364 11.5 15 1 