February 9, 2010

Fangraphs Player Search:

Order Now


Get "The world champ of baseball annuals." The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 features articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright and contains much, much more. Please support THT and use this link to purchase the Annual.


Get the fantasy book that everyone's raving about! Edited by THT Fantasy's Rob McQuown and Michael Street, and featuring our own Matt Hagen on prospects. Shipping now from ACTA!


And here's the full roster.



Or you can search by:

Sports Tickets

Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets.
Find premium Chicago Cubs tickets and other Chicago tickets at JustGreatTickets.com.
Chicago Cubs Tickets
Chicago Tickets
Championship Tickets



Creative Commons License
All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

THT Daily: Braves lose another close one

by Dave Studeman
May 01, 2008

Major League News for May 1
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 Rotoworld

The Denver Post reports that Troy Tulowitzki (leg) is "all but certain to land on the 15-day disabled list." Tulowitzki underwent an MRI exam Wednesday and the Rockies are awaiting the results before making a decision on his status. "We need Troy to be healthy," Matt Holliday said. "If it takes 14 more days to get him right, and get him refreshed, that would be best." With Tulowitzki out, Clint Barmes figures to see most of the action at shortstop.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Nick Adenhart will be called up from Triple-A to make his major league debut Thursday night against the A's. A 21-year-old former first-round pick who is 4-0 with a 0.87 ERA at Triple-A, Adenhart will be working on just three days rest after tossing 98 pitches over eight innings of one-run ball Sunday. Manager Mike Scioscia said Wednesday that Adenhart will likely make three starts, filling a rotation spot until John Lackey returns from the disabled list. He's one of the better right-handed pitching prospects around and is worth grabbing in AL-only leagues.

Josh Hamilton hit his first career grand slam off the Royals' Brian Bannister as the Rangers beat the Royals 11-9 on Wednesday. Milton Bradley, Brandon Boggs, David Murphy and Gerald Laird also homered for the Rangers. Hamilton's homer was his only knock of the game, but he has an extra-base hit and an RBI in five straight. Also impressive is that he hasn't struck out in any of the five games. He fanned 65 times in 90 games last year, but he's at just 13 through 28 games this season.

Phil Hughes is going on the disabled list with a strained oblique muscle, according to Newsday. It sounded like he was going to remain in the rotation and make his next start, but this will probably cost him May between the time he'll miss and the need for rehab starts. Darrell Rasner is the obvious choice to take the open rotation spot.

John Smoltz (shoulder) said Wednesday afternoon that he's definitely coming back as a reliever, at least initially. "I'm coming back as a reliever first and then we'll see what happens," Smoltz said. "I'm content with this." The Braves commented before Wednesday's game that it'd be a few days before anything is decided, but Smoltz's mind is made up. He plans to take a week off from throwing, make two or three appearances in the minors and then rejoin the Braves as a bullpen guy. He'd probably get a chance to close, at least occasionally. The Braves wouldn't want to use him on back-to-back days, so there could still be some save chances there for Rafael Soriano if he's healthy

The Mariners are calling up Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien and designating Brad Wilkerson for assignment. It's just another example of how poorly the Mariners are being run. Clement and Balentien only needed to stay in the minors for another week to guarantee that they wouldn't be eligible for free agency until after 2013. Wilkerson gets the heave ho despite going 3-for-3 with a walk last night. Obviously, the team made the decision before then, as both Clement and Balentien were held out of Tacoma's lineup last night. While Wilkerson is disappearing, Jose Vidro figures to stick as a backup. Still, his fantasy value disappaears. Vidro to Clement at DH appears to be a clear upgrade. The streaky Balentien isn't as much of a lock to be an asset as the right fielder.

Max Scherzer will start over Edgar Gonzalez for the Diamondbacks on Monday. Scherzer will take the mound against the Phillies after striking out seven in 4 1/3 innings of relief on Tuesday night. He should be owned in all NL-only leagues and mixed leaguers should strongly consider taking a flier on him.

The Washington Post reports that Chad Cordero will miss 4-to-6 weeks with an acute tear of his latissimus dorsi muscle. It's the same area that's been bothering Cordero all season, but he's not expected to need surgery. Manager Manny Acta expects him to be out for two months. Jon Rauch will maintain closer duties in Cordero's absence, with Luis Ayala working as the primary setup man.

Yesterday’s Results
American League
TB      8  BAL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     2  TOR     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     6  NYA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     8  SEA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     4  CHA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     6  OAK     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX    11  KC      9    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
LAN    13  FLA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT    13  NYN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      4  PHI     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
WAS     3  ATL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN    19  MIL     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     5  CIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     8  HOU     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      3  COL     2    (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
 ---------------
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Florida Marlins, 12:10 PM
  (R) Hiroki Kuroda (1-2) vs. (R) Burke Badenhop (0-2)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (R) Yovani Gallardo (0-0) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (4-1)
 San Diego Padres at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM
  (L) Randy Wolf (2-1) vs. (R) Adam Eaton (0-0)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Washington Nationals, 7:10 PM
  (L) Zach Duke (0-2) vs. (L) Odalis Perez (0-3)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Tampa Bay Rays at Baltimore Orioles, 12:35 PM
  (R) Matt Garza (0-0) vs. (L) Brian Burres (3-1)
 Kansas City Royals at Texas Rangers, 2:05 PM
  (R) Zack Greinke (3-0) vs. (R) Sidney Ponson (0-0)
 Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (L) Nate Robertson (0-3) vs. (R) Ian Kennedy (0-2)
 Seattle Mariners at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM
  (R) Miguel Batista (2-3) vs. (R) Paul Byrd (1-2)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM
  (R) AJ Burnett (2-2) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (2-0)
 Oakland Athletics at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM
  (R) Justin Duchscherer (1-1) vs. (R) Nick Adenhart (0-0)

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     17  12 .586    0.0   15     2    sparkline graph
BAL     15  12 .556    1.0   13     2    sparkline graph
TB      15  12 .556    1.0   16    -1    sparkline graph
NYA     14  15 .483    3.0   14     0    sparkline graph
TOR     11  17 .393    5.5   14    -3    sparkline graph
American League Central     
CHA     14  12 .538    0.0   16    -2    sparkline graph
MIN     13  14 .481    1.5   11     2    sparkline graph
CLE     13  15 .464    2.0   15    -2    sparkline graph
DET     13  15 .464    2.0   13     0    sparkline graph
KC      12  15 .444    2.5   10     2    sparkline graph
American League West        
LAA     18  11 .621    0.0   16     2    sparkline graph
OAK     17  12 .586    1.0   18    -1    sparkline graph
SEA     13  15 .464    4.5   15    -2    sparkline graph
TEX     10  18 .357    7.5   10     0    sparkline graph


National League East        Pwins  Diff
FLA     15  12 .556    0.0   12     3    sparkline graph
NYN     14  12 .538    0.5   13     1    sparkline graph
PHI     15  13 .536    0.5   15     0    sparkline graph
ATL     12  15 .444    3.0   16    -4    sparkline graph
WAS     11  17 .393    4.5   11     0    sparkline graph
National League Central     
CHN     17  10 .630    0.0   18    -1    sparkline graph
STL     18  11 .621    0.0   18     0    sparkline graph
MIL     15  12 .556    2.0   13     2    sparkline graph
HOU     13  16 .448    5.0   14    -1    sparkline graph
CIN     12  17 .414    6.0   13    -1    sparkline graph
PIT     11  16 .407    6.0   11     0    sparkline graph
National League West        
ARI     20   8 .714    0.0   19     1    sparkline graph
LAN     14  13 .519    5.5   17    -3    sparkline graph
SF      13  16 .448    7.5   10     3    sparkline graph
COL     11  17 .393    9.0   11     0    sparkline graph
SD      11  17 .393    9.0   10     1    sparkline graph

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
LA  AAA Andy LaRoche...... 4  1  0  0  1  1  0  
CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 4  2  0  1  0  0  1  
MIL AA  Mat Gamel......... 5  3  0  1  2  1  1  4 R
OAK AA  Cliff Pennington.. 3  2  0  0  0  2  0  2 SB
LAA AAA Terry Evans....... 3  1  0  0  1  2  1  
CLE AA  Ryan Goleski...... 2  1  0  0  1  2  1  
SD  AAA Chase Headley..... 5  3  2  0  0  0  0  
ARI A+  Pedro Ciriaco..... 6  5  0  0  0  0  0  2 SB
SEA A+  Gregory Halman.... 5  3  1  0  1  0  0  
DET AA  Wilkin Ramirez.... 5  3  1  1  0  0  2  
ATL AAA Brandon Jones..... 3  1  1  0  0  1  1  
SEA AAA Bryan LaHair...... 2  1  0  0  1  2  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
CIN AAA Homer Bailey...... 7  5  3  3 10  2  1  
TB  AAA Mitch Talbot...... 8  5  0  0  6  1  0  
SD  AA  William Inman..... 7  3  4  4  5  1  0  
KC  AA  Carlos Rosa....... 6  4  0  0  7  0  0  
ARI AA  Brooks Brown...... 5  4  2  2  6  0  0  
BAL A   Anthony Butler.... 6  5  0  0  9  2  0  
NYY A   Dellin Betances... 5  3  2  2  6  3  0  
SEA AAA Ryan Feierabend... 6  7  1  1  6  1  0  
PHI AA  Carlos Carrasco... 6  5  3  3  5  3  0  
ARI AAA Juan Gutierrez.... 7  4  3  1  1  2  0  
OAK A+  Jared Lansford.... 3  2  0  0  3  1  0  
MIN AA  Yohan Pino........ 5  7  2  2  4  1  0  

Access THT’s stats here…
Player Search:


Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.




Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

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.



The best online source for major league baseball tickets is Ticket City.

     Next Article:  BOB: Tiger Stadium and MLB Network>> <<Previous Article:  Say hello to Nationals Park