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THT Daily: Crazy 8’sby Matthew CarruthMay 21, 2007 Major League News for May 21Today’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 LinksThe Yanks Need Fixing - The Yankees are teetering on the edge of falling irreparably behind Boston. What can they do to right the ship? No Repeat For You - St. Louis is right along with New York in falling out of their division race. And given their completely punch-less offense, prospects look grim. Mariners Face Crunchtime - The Mariners are not in as bad a shape games back wise as the Cards or Yanks, but what they lack in distance from the division leader, they more than make up for in crummy talent. This is not a team that can mount a considerable comeback, they need to right the ship now. Well, at Least it's Fashionable - What kind of tank are the Rockies? Apparently not the one they were hoping for. Worst Bullpens To Date - Say hello to the bottom ten bullpens in baseball so far in 2007, as measured by WXRL. Elephant in the Room - The Athletics are staying in the race due to incredible starting pitching, and pretty much that alone as their offense does little and their bullpen, especially sans Huston Street, is also mediocre. How much of the starting pitching's success comes from offensive black hole Jason Kendall? Scott Baker, Overlooked Commodity? - Aaron Gleeman continues to believe in Scott Baker as a quality major league pitcher, while also acknowledging his flaws. Perhaps the best solution for the Twins though is to give Baker a few starts, hope he performs as he did yesterday then flip him for a RH power hitting OF and call up Kevin Slowey or Matt Garza. 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 . Player NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldRamon Vazquez enjoyed a perfect day at the plate Sunday as Texas played long ball to roll over the Astros 14-1. Vazquez was 3-for-3 with two walks, smacking his first double of the year and his second homer in three games since being recalled to help fill in for the injured Hank Blalock. The way Vazquez is crushing the ball -- .750 BA with five RBI already -- he's making his claim on the bulk of the action at third, certainly whenever a righty is on the mound for the opposition. The Rangers went homer happy today, with a half dozen in total, including a pair each from Mark Teixeira and Victor Diaz and one from Kenny Lofton. Jason Giambi's admission to USA Today that he once used steroids could lead to the Yankees taking another shot at voiding his contract. Probably not, but it makes for a good story anyway. The commissioner's office is investigating Giambi's comments and will summon him to a meeting to discuss them. He was quoted as saying that he "was wrong for doing that stuff," in reference to having used steroids, and said that "what we should have done a long time ago was stand up - players, owners, everybody - and said: 'We made a mistake.'" Yesterday’s ResultsInter-League BOS 6 ATL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Youkilis: 3-3, HR; Diaz: 4-5 FLA 4 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Shields: 7 IP, 1 R; FLA: 3 R in 8th CLE 5 CIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Byrd: 7 IP, 3 R; Peralta: 2-4, HR DET 6 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Verlander: 8 IP, 2 R LAA 4 LAN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Escobar: 8 IP, 0 R SF 4 OAK 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Winn: 3-5, HR; Morris: 9 IP, 1 R SD 2 SEA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Gonzalez: 2 2B; Germano: 6 IP, 1 R NYA 6 NYN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Clippard: 6 IP, 1 R; Jeter: 2-4, HR PHI 5 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Eaton: 6 IP, 0 R WAS 4 BAL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Bedard: 7 IP, 1 R, 12 K, 3 BB; WAS: 3 R in 8th CHA 10 CHN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) Pierzynski: GS HR; Masset: 5.2 IP, 2 R TEX 14 HOU 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Teixeira, Diaz: 4 H, 2 H; McCarthy: 6 IP, 1 R MIL 6 MIN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) Jenkins: 3-4, HR, 5 RBI; MIL pen: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R KC 10 COL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) See below National League ARI 5 PIT 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Johnson: 5.2 IP, 2 R, 10 K, 0 BB Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Washington Nationals at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Levale Speigner (1-0) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (2-4) Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Aaron Cook (3-1) vs. (R) Brandon Webb (3-3) Milwaukee Brewers at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (5-4) vs. (R) Brett Tomko (1-4) Houston Astros at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Chris Sampson (4-3) vs. (L) Noah Lowry (4-4) American League --------------- Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Tim Wakefield (4-4) vs. (R) Chien-Ming Wang (2-3) Seattle Mariners at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Cha Seung Baek (1-1) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (6-1) Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Carlos Silva (2-4) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (1-6) Oakland Athletics at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Joe Blanton (4-1) vs. (L) John Danks (2-4) 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 BOS 30 13 .698 0.0 29 1 Game of the DayIt was crazy in Colorado, where the Royals scored five runs in the 12th to pull away from the Rockies, 10-5. The Royals were winning, 4-3 with no one on and two out in the bottom of the 9th when closer Joakim Soria allowed a single, HBP and Matt Holliday single to let the Rockies tie the game. Both teams scored a run in the 11th (on a David Dejesus triple and another Holliday single, abetted by an error) to keep the fans in suspense. In the 12th, the Royals racked up five runs against Ramon Ramirez to take the game. The key hit was a Ryan Shealy single.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 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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 2 2 1 0 0 2 0 CIN A+ Jay Bruce......... 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 CIN AAA Joey Votto........ 5 3 1 0 1 0 1 BAL A Brandon Snyder.... 5 3 1 0 1 1 2 5 RBI ! WAN A Justin Maxwell.... 5 3 2 0 1 0 0 KC AAA Billy Butler...... 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 CHC AAA Felix Pie......... 5 3 0 1 0 0 1 SD A+ Kyle Blanks....... 6 3 1 0 1 0 1 OAK A+ Justin Sellers.... 5 3 1 0 1 1 0 PIT AA Neil Walker....... 5 3 0 0 1 0 0 TB AA John Jaso......... 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 TB AAA Joel Guzman....... 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes TEX AA Edinson Volquez... 7 4 0 0 5 1 0 14 GB TB A+ Jacob McGee....... 6 3 2 2 8 3 0 NYY A+ Ian Kennedy....... 7 5 0 0 9 2 0 PHI AAA J.D. Durbin....... 8 5 1 1 6 1 0 CLE AAA Sean Smith........ 5 6 1 1 7 1 0 DET AA E. De La Cruz..... 8 5 1 1 6 1 0 15 GB MIN A+ Oswaldo Sosa...... 6 1 0 0 9 3 0 FLA A+ Aaron Thompson.... 7 8 2 1 7 2 0 18 GB MIN AAA Kevin Slowey...... 7 9 3 3 6 2 1 PHI AA Matthew Maloney... 6 7 5 5 7 2 0 MIL A+ William Inman..... 5 7 1 1 7 3 0 STL AA Jaime Garcia...... 7 2 1 1 4 3 1 Access 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: Hit Tracker Interview (Part 1)>> <<Previous Article: THT Daily: Interleague Day Two | |||
BAL 20 24 .455 10.5 21 -1 
NYA 19 23 .452 10.5 24 -5 
TOR 19 24 .442 11.0 21 -2 
TB 18 25 .419 12.0 16 2 
American League Central
CLE 26 15 .634 0.0 24 2 
DET 27 16 .628 0.0 25 2 
CHA 21 19 .525 4.5 18 3 
MIN 20 23 .465 7.0 22 -2 
KC 17 28 .378 11.0 18 -1 
American League West
LAA 27 18 .600 0.0 27 0 
OAK 22 21 .512 4.0 26 -4 
SEA 19 20 .487 5.0 17 2 
TEX 17 27 .386 9.5 19 -2 
National League East Pwins Diff
NYN 28 15 .651 0.0 27 1 
ATL 26 18 .591 2.5 24 2 
PHI 22 22 .500 6.5 23 -1 
FLA 21 23 .477 7.5 21 0 
WAS 16 28 .364 12.5 15 1 
National League Central
MIL 27 17 .614 0.0 24 3 
HOU 21 22 .488 5.5 21 0 
CHN 20 22 .476 6.0 24 -4 
PIT 19 24 .442 7.5 18 1 
STL 16 25 .390 9.5 14 2 
CIN 17 27 .386 10.0 21 -4 
National League West
LAN 25 19 .568 0.0 24 1 
SD 24 20 .545 1.0 26 -2 
ARI 24 21 .533 1.5 21 3 
SF 21 22 .488 3.5 22 -1 
COL 18 26 .409 7.0 16 2 