THT Daily: Bay Extremes
by Matthew CarruthMay 17, 2008
Major League News for May 17
Player 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 News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldJosh Hamilton went 5-for-5 with five RBI Friday as the Rangers torched the Astros 16-8.
Hamilton homered twice, singled twice, and hit a triple. Michael Young and David Murphy added three RBI a piece as the Rangers capitalized on bad pitching and bad defense by the Astros. The homers bring Hamilton up to 10. His league-leading RBI total is now at 49.
Jayson Werth racked up eight RBI on three homers Friday night as the Phillies destroyed the Blue Jays 10-3.
Werth got going early with a three-run shot in the second. He tacked on a grand slam in the third, and finished up a 3-for-4 night with a solo dinger in the fifth. Shane Victorino added a run-scoring double in the sixth, but it was Werth's night. His RBI total shoots up to 26 and he's now sitting at nine homers for the year.
Agent John Boggs said Friday that Mark Prior was found to have a tear in the capsule of his right shoulder.
Prior won't undergo another surgery following his latest setback, but he will take a couple of weeks off from throwing. "It's a setback, but in terms of how big of a setback, we won't know until you know how [Prior] is feeling," Boggs said. "We just hope it's not a major setback." Even if everything goes perfectly, Prior probably won't be an option until after the All-Star break. It's looking less likely than ever that he'll contribute this season.
Red Sox prospect Anthony Rizzo was diagnosed with Limited Stage Classical Hodgkin's Lymphoma and is expected to undergo treatment over the next 5-8 months.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Anthony and his family at this very difficult time," said GM Theo Epstein. "We are optimistic about his recovery and look forward to the day he can return to the playing field." Rizzo, a 2007 sixth-round pick, was hitting .373/.402/.446 in 83 at-bats as an 18-year-old in the Sally League. He's one of Boston's most talented position prospects.
The AP has confirmed that Peter Magowan is stepping down as the Giants' managing partner.
Magowan, 66, will retire at the end of the season. There's already been speculation that he's essentially being punished by the league for turning a blind eye to the suspected steroid use from Barry Bonds and many other Giants under BALCO's shadow. That's definitely going to part of Magowan's legacy. However, he's hardly more guilty than many of the game's other owners. Magowan deserves a great deal of credit for privately financing one of baseball's best ballparks, whatever it's name is now. It hasn't yet been decided who will replace him as the team's overseer.
Cardinals placed RHP Jason Isringhausen on the 15-day disabled list with a right hand laceration.
The team could have used his hip as an excuse, but instead decided to use a cut Isringhausen suffered while angrily slapping a television set in the St. Louis clubhouse last Friday. Isringhausen has pitched three times since the incident. The Cards hope that a bit of rest and some time in the minors will cure what ails him, but Ryan Franklin is now the Cardinals closer.
Lance Berkman homered off Vinnie Chulk in the top of the ninth to lift the Astros to an 8-7 win over the Giants on Thursday.
Berkman previously had a two-run single and a walk in the contest. The Astros came back from four runs down on homers from Carlos Lee and Darin Erstad in the eighth before Berkman gave the team its first lead in the ninth. Berkman has hit seven of his major league-leading 15 homers in May. He currently ranks second in the majors with a .391 average (Chipper Jones, .418) and with 43 RBI (Josh Hamilton, 44).
Ryan Dempster pitched into the ninth and fanned a career-high 12 batters as the Cubs shut out the Padres on Thursday.
Kerry Wood preserved the shutout after entering with runners on first and third and one out in the ninth, earning him a save. Dempster bested his previous season high in strikeouts by five. His previous career high was an 11-K game against the Rays in 2000. In improving to 5-1, he lasted at least six innings for the eighth time in nine starts this season. That he's been effective as a starter is a modest surprise. That he's actually been able to work this deep into games after spending his entire career as such an inefficient pitcher is the shocker.
Chipper Jones was scratched from Thursday night's game after tweaking his groin on Wednesday.
Jones missed a couple of games with back spasms in April, and he's likely day-to-day with this groin injury. He's leading the majors with a .418 batting average and is fourth in the league with 11 home runs, but don't count on this being the last time he's slowed by injury this season.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BAL 5 WAS 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 4 LAN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 6 SEA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 16 HOU 8 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 3 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 7 FLA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 10 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 7 PIT 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 4 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 3 STL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 4 DET 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 4 COL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 2 SF 0 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs, 1:05 PM (L) Zach Duke (2-2) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (6-1) Inter-League ------------ New York Mets at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (L) Johan Santana (4-2) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (3-4) Tampa Bay Rays at St. Louis Cardinals, 1:10 PM (R) Matt Garza (2-1) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (3-2) Milwaukee Brewers at Boston Red Sox, 3:55 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (2-2) vs. (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (6-0) Los Angeles Dodgers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:55 PM (R) Chan Ho Park (1-0) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (6-0) Cleveland Indians at Cincinnati Reds, 3:55 PM (R) Fausto Carmona (4-1) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (2-5) Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, 7:05 PM (R) Roy Oswalt (4-3) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (5-2) Toronto Blue Jays at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) A.J. Burnett (3-4) vs. (R) Adam Eaton (0-1) Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (L) Odalis Perez (1-3) vs. (L) Brian Burres (3-4) Kansas City Royals at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Brian Bannister (4-4) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (4-1) Oakland Athletics at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (R) Rich Harden (1-0) vs. (R) Tim Hudson (6-2) Minnesota Twins at Colorado Rockies, 8:05 PM (R) Livan Hernandez (6-1) vs. (R) Greg Reynolds (0-1) Detroit Tigers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 8:10 PM (R) Armando Galarraga (2-1) vs. (R) Max Scherzer (0-1) Milwaukee Brewers at Boston Red Sox, 8:35 PM (R) Dave Bush (1-4) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (3-2) Chicago White Sox at San Francisco Giants, 9:05 PM (L) Mark Buehrle (1-5) vs. (L) Barry Zito (0-7) San Diego Padres at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Randy Wolf (2-3) vs. (L) Erik Bedard (2-2)
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 25 17 .595 0.0 24 1BOS 24 19 .558 1.5 24 0
BAL 22 19 .537 2.5 20 2
TOR 21 23 .477 5.0 21 0
NYA 20 22 .476 5.0 20 0
American League Central CLE 22 20 .524 0.0 24 -2
CHA 21 20 .512 0.5 24 -3
MIN 21 20 .512 0.5 20 1
KC 20 21 .488 1.5 18 2
DET 16 26 .381 6.0 17 -1
American League West LAA 25 19 .568 0.0 22 3
OAK 23 20 .535 1.5 25 -2
TEX 21 22 .488 3.5 20 1
SEA 16 27 .372 8.5 19 -3
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 23 18 .561 0.0 21 2
PHI 24 19 .558 0.0 24 0
NYN 20 19 .513 2.0 20 0
ATL 21 20 .512 2.0 25 -4
WAS 18 25 .419 6.0 17 1
National League Central CHN 26 16 .619 0.0 28 -2
HOU 24 19 .558 2.5 23 1
STL 24 20 .545 3.0 23 1
MIL 20 21 .488 5.5 18 2
PIT 20 22 .476 6.0 19 1
CIN 19 23 .452 7.0 19 0
National League West ARI 27 15 .643 0.0 26 1
LAN 21 20 .512 5.5 23 -2
SF 17 26 .395 10.5 16 1
SD 16 27 .372 11.5 15 1
COL 15 27 .357 12.0 17 -2
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.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes COL AAA Jayson Nix........ 5 3 1 1 0 1 2 SEA A+ Gregory Halman.... 4 2 0 1 1 1 0 CIN A+ Todd Frazier...... 4 2 0 0 2 1 1 3 R ATL AAA Scott Thorman..... 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 NYY AA Austin Jackson.... 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI LA A+ Carlos Santana.... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 CIN A+ Daniel Dorn....... 5 3 1 0 1 0 1 STL AA Tyler Greene...... 5 2 0 1 1 0 3 SEA A+ Carlos Peguero.... 5 3 2 0 0 0 1 CLE A+ Beau Mills........ 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 MIN A Joe Benson........ 4 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 LD CHW A Jose Martinez..... 3 2 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes NYY A Dellin Betances... 6 0 1 0 8 3 0 COL A Jhoulys Chacin.... 8 5 1 1 6 1 0 COL A+ Aneury Rodriguez.. 7 7 1 1 7 1 0 FLA AAA E. De La Cruz..... 6 4 4 3 5 0 0 ARI AA Brooks Brown...... 7 5 0 0 5 2 0 DET A+ Rick Porcello..... 6 5 1 1 5 1 0 11 GB NYY AAA Kei Igawa......... 6 5 4 2 5 1 1 WAN A Colton Willems.... 7 4 5 5 3 1 1 STL A Nicholas Additon.. 5 4 0 0 3 1 0 NYY A+ Kevin Whelan...... 2 1 0 0 3 0 0 TB AA Wade Davis........ 6 2 0 0 4 5 0 STL AAA Jason Motte....... 1 0 0 0 3 0 0
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.